Bookkeeping and Accounting Are Not the Same Service
Most firms sell these as one package, which makes it hard to tell what you are paying for. They are two different jobs.
Bookkeeping is the recording. Every sale, purchase, payment and receipt goes into the ledger, coded correctly and matched against your bank. It happens continuously, and the output is a clean, complete set of records.
Accounting is what happens to those records afterwards. It covers adjustments, depreciation, accruals, closing the period and producing financial statements that mean something. It happens monthly, quarterly or annually.
The practical difference matters when you ask for a quote. A business that only needs its transactions recorded pays less than one that needs monthly reporting and year-end accounts. We confirm which of the two you need before quoting.
What Our Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Cover
Transaction recording and the general ledger
We record your sales, purchases, expenses, receipts and payments into a structured general ledger. Each transaction is coded to the right account so the ledger supports your return filing later. Where you already use a system, we work inside it rather than starting again.
Bank and cash reconciliation
We match your ledger against your bank statements for every period and investigate what does not agree. Unreconciled accounts are the most common reason books fail under scrutiny. Cash balances are reconciled on the same cycle where your business handles physical cash.
Accounts receivable and accounts payable
We track what customers owe you and what you owe suppliers, with ageing so overdue items are visible. This gives you a working view of your cash position rather than a figure that only appears at year end.
Payroll records
We maintain payroll registers covering salaries, deductions and tax withheld from employees. These records support your salary withholding position and your annual statements. Payroll scope is agreed case by case, since it depends on headcount and how you pay staff.
Monthly management accounts
We produce a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet and a short summary each month. The purpose is to let you see margin, cost movement and cash position while you can still act on them.
Year-end financial statements
We prepare annual financial statements from your completed books, ready for filing or for an auditor. Where your company requires a statutory audit, we prepare the accounts and supporting schedules the auditor will work from. We prepare financial statements; we do not audit the accounts we prepare.
Catch-up and clean-up work
If your books are months or years behind, we reconstruct them from bank statements, invoices and whatever records exist. We tell you at the outset what can be rebuilt reliably and what cannot. This is quoted separately from ongoing work because the effort depends entirely on what survives.
Chart of accounts setup and system migration
For new businesses we build a chart of accounts suited to how you actually trade. For established ones we clean up account structures that have grown unusable, and move records between systems where needed.
What Pakistani Law Requires You to Keep
Record keeping in Pakistan is a legal obligation, not an administrative preference. Three separate laws apply, and the one with the longest retention period governs in practice.
| Law | What it requires | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, section 174 | Every taxpayer maintains prescribed accounts, documents and records in Pakistan | Six years after the end of the tax year they relate to |
| Sales Tax Act, 1990, sections 22 and 24 | A registered person keeps records of supplies made, goods purchased, goods imported, and zero-rated and exempt supplies, at the business premises or registered office, in English or Urdu | Six years after the end of the tax period they relate to |
| Companies Act, 2017 | A company keeps proper books of account at its registered office, or another place notified to the registrar | Not less than ten years |
Both tax retention periods extend where proceedings are pending. Under section 174(3), a taxpayer must hold records until any proceeding before an authority or court is finally decided, even past the six years.
The Income Tax Rules, 2002 set out the minimum books. Rule 30 prescribes what a non-company taxpayer with business income must issue and maintain, and rule 31 covers taxpayers with income from salary, property, capital gains or other sources. What applies to you depends on your taxpayer category and the nature of your income.
Failing to maintain records carries a penalty under the Sales Tax Act, and failure to produce them can lead to a best judgement assessment under section 121 of the Income Tax Ordinance. In that situation the Commissioner assesses your income on the information available rather than on your figures.
Why Clean Books Matter More Than They Used To
FBR has moved sales tax reporting to real time, and that changes what bookkeeping has to deliver.
SRO 69(I)/2025, issued on 29 January 2025, rewrote Chapter XIV of the Sales Tax Rules, 2006. It created the framework for licensed integrators, electronic sales tax invoices and integration of registered persons with FBR's computerised system. SRO 709(I)/2025 then extended the obligation to notified corporate and non-corporate registered persons.
Integration ran in phases through 2025 under later notifications, with categories going live by business size. Registered persons integrate through a licensed integrator, and PRAL provides that service free of charge. There is no fee payable to FBR itself.
The practical effect is that invoice data now has to be correct when it is created, not corrected at return time. A business with disorganised records cannot reconcile what FBR already holds against what it reports. Bookkeeping has become the control that keeps those two figures in agreement.
Who We Work With
What your books need depends on your structure and your filing obligations.
Sole proprietors and small businesses
Records are often informal, built from bank statements and loose invoices. We put a basic ledger in place and tell you what to start capturing so next year is easier than this one.
Partnerships and associations of persons
Partner capital accounts, drawings and profit allocation have to follow the deed. We read the deed rather than assume an equal split, because the allocation affects each partner's own position.
Private limited companies
Companies carry the heaviest record-keeping obligations. We maintain books suitable for SECP filing requirements and for the auditor where a statutory audit applies.
Freelancers and IT exporters
Foreign receipts need tracking against bank credits and the currency they arrived in. Records routed through personal accounts rather than a declared business account complicate the position, so tell us early if that applies.
Retailers and e-commerce sellers
High transaction volume and platform settlement reports make reconciliation the main work. Gross sales, platform fees and net payouts have to be separated rather than recorded as one figure.
What We Need From You
You will not need everything listed here. After a short first call we send a list specific to your business.
| For | What to send |
|---|---|
| Setting up | Business type and registration documents, NTN, STRN if registered, details of any existing accounting system |
| Monthly bookkeeping | Bank statements for all business accounts, sales invoices, purchase invoices and bills, expense receipts, petty cash records |
| Payroll | Salary sheets, employee details, records of tax deducted from staff |
| Year-end accounts | Opening balances, asset purchases and disposals, loan and financing documents, closing stock figures, outstanding receivables and payables |
| Catch-up work | Whatever records exist for the period, however incomplete, and access to bank statements covering it |
If something on this list does not exist in your case, say so. A missing document is usually workable; an invented one is not.
Where Bookkeeping Ends and Other Work Begins
Bookkeeping produces the records. Several related obligations sit outside it, and we handle those as separate services so you are not charged for work you do not need.
| You need | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| Monthly sales tax returns and STRN registration | Sales tax services |
| NTN registration, annual return filing, wealth statements, ATL status | Income tax services |
| Statutory audit of your financial statements | Audit and assurance services |
| Withholding deductions and quarterly statements | Withholding tax services |
| Registering a new company, partnership or sole proprietorship | Company registration services |
| Tax planning and advisory across both direct and indirect taxes | Taxation services |
Books feed every one of these. Accurate records make the filings routine, and weak records make them slow and expensive.
How We Work
- Scope and fee are agreed before we start. You know what is included and what costs extra before any work begins.
- One person handles your file. The same person takes your first call, does the work and answers your questions afterwards.
- You get your records, not just reports. The ledger belongs to you and is handed over in a usable form at any point.
- We tell you what we cannot verify. Where a transaction cannot be supported, we flag it rather than coding it to a convenient account.
- Your information stays with us. Records are handled by the person assigned to your file and are not shared outside the firm.
We do not promise a particular tax outcome, and we do not promise that FBR will not query your filings. We keep your records accurately and defensibly, and we stand behind them if questions follow.
Common Questions
If you earn business income, section 174 of the Income Tax Ordinance requires you to maintain prescribed records, and rule 30 of the Income Tax Rules sets out the minimum for non-company taxpayers. Whether you need a service for it depends on your transaction volume. Many small proprietors manage with a simple system we set up once.
Six years after the end of the tax year for income tax, and six years after the end of the tax period for sales tax. A company keeps its books of account for at least ten years under the Companies Act, 2017. Where proceedings are pending, keep the records until the matter is decided.
Usually, yes. We rebuild from bank statements, invoices and whatever else survives, and tell you upfront what can be reconstructed reliably. Catch-up work is quoted separately because the effort depends on the state of the records.
We prepare financial statements. A statutory audit is a separate engagement carried out by an auditor, and we do not audit accounts we have prepared ourselves. Where your company needs an audit, we prepare the accounts and schedules the auditor works from.
Return filing is handled as a separate service, and many clients take both. Keeping the books and filing the returns together removes the handover gap where errors usually appear.
Tell us what you use when you first contact us and we will confirm whether we can work in it directly. Where we cannot, we explain the alternative before you commit to anything.
No. Documents move over email or WhatsApp and the work runs remotely. We are based in Islamabad and work with businesses throughout Pakistan.
The fee depends on transaction volume, how many bank accounts you run, whether payroll is included and whether you need monthly reporting. We quote a firm figure after a short call, before you commit.
Yes. Your records are seen only by the person handling your file, and we will sign a confidentiality agreement for company engagements if you want one.
Get Started
Tell us about your business and we will come back the same working day.
Share your business type, roughly how many transactions you handle each month, and what records you keep now.
Tell us what you need, whether that is ongoing bookkeeping, catching up, or year-end accounts.
We review your position and confirm the scope.
We confirm the fee.
The agreed work begins.
Contact Information
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