Top 5 Accounting Services in Singapore for SME and Why You Should Outsource Your Accounts?

Is it necessary to use accounting services in Singapore? 

To fulfil Singapore’s legalities – yes, it is necessary to properly track and record our business’s financial activities. 

Small businesses? Well, we may be exempted from the compulsory cyclical audits, but to stay afloat in the rapids of our industry, it’s necessary and worthy of having regular financial housekeeping. 

Hence large or small, all businesses NEED accounting services in Singapore. Either hire an in-house expert or engage an external one.   

Okay, but what accounting services in Singapore do I need? 

Here is a list of the essentials – you may need more. I’m going to avoid the prestigious accounting terms – as much as possible – for the sake of our sanities.  

Bookkeeping

This is the recording of daily monetary transactions, either on hardcopy or via an accounting software. 

Tax accounting

This involves computing all the government taxes on our businesses – corporate taxes, income taxes and so on. 

Financial Controlling

This is for those of us who wanted a leaner staff and more efficient working processes, and strategic allocation of resources to enhance our money’s worth. You need tight monitoring and accurate directions – the expertise of accounting services providers.

Accounting Auditing

At the end of this is a detailed report of all financial matters relating to your business. All the information will be accurate, proven with sufficient and logical evidence.

Payroll processing

Distributing monthly salaries is not like giving out ang pows – there are taxes to work with. So this is tracking all the computations – from CPF deductions to bonuses – relevant to paying your staff.

Bank reconciliation

This is to iron out all the inevitable human errors in bookkeeping. It’s basically retracing your financial footsteps, and possibly along the way you reflect and revise your business’s spendings. 

Payable accounts 

Accounting services provider can help set up a more seamless paying system for our businesses, so it is easier and less time consuming for bookkeeping and the later accounting activities.  

Account receivable

They also help us to ‘chase’ and sort out pending payments… 

Forensic accounting

… and identify the missing links, sniff out the missing money.

What is accounting services outsourcing?

So you have an external expert cleaning your premises. Now you get another one to look after your financial accounts. That’s all. 

Some small businesses hire a freelance accountant who provide accounting services in Singapore; some engage a team from an accounting firm. It really depends on your needs and budget. 

What do accounting services providers in Singapore offer?

In addition to the essentials listed above, they also do ‘managing to account’, which is essentially analyzing your business via its financial patterns to manage its growth and development.

5 reasons why you should outsource your accounting

Save costs

Think a housekeeper who lives with you versus one who drops in when there’s work, zooms in on the work and gets paid for the work done – that’s the difference.   

So instead of having a full-time accountant who takes monthly salary, you have a similar accounting expert – or perhaps a master – coming in only when needed and is paid for the work done. Need I say more? 

Save time

Let’s be honest – unless you took accounting when you were a student, just one line of the ledger will knock you out for days. 

Yes, profit and loss, and money calculations are simple – even primary school kids can do. But when it comes to business, TIME IS MONEY. So instead of spending your precious limited cargo trying to figure out the math, why not leave it to the experts? And you – the boss – can focus on what you should be ACTUALLY doing – running your business, nurturing it and growing it.  

Zero waste

The second you make the first contact with the outside world, the exchanges begin. Payments. Revenues. You think you’re on top of it all, but money is going in and out even while you’re sleeping. So it’s tough to track down to the smallest decimal. 

ALSO, we don’t exactly know EVERYTHING behind the scenes in the accounting of the business world. (We may eventually – but it will take a long time, and money waits for no man.) 

Accounting service providers KNOW. Everything. Down to the nitty-gritty. So THEY know where and how to prevent double payments and avoid wastages. They can even go further to help you set up an internal system to prevent costly malpractices.  

Maximize profits

Ultimately, this is what we’re after. And what better way to do it than having a second opinion and a broader perspective based on the latest business trends? 

Having handled the accounting of your business, the accounting service providers also possess the latest intimate information to help streamline processes, allocate resources with precision and eradicate wastes, which all lead to maximizing your profits. 

Being freed from the cuffs of accounting, you – the boss – are also in a better state of mind for decision-making. You can now use the most updated and accurate knowledge of your business. Expansion is now only an idea away. 

Increase security

Having a non-employee or a team of them who free from the company’s politics to look after your accounts has its benefits. 

Firstly, there will be a heightened alertness for accuracy. Quality bookkeeping and accounting will be assured. Next, opinions will be neutral, based on hard facts. Professionalism will be exercised when it comes to sensitive information. Lastly, opportunities for illegal accounting activities will be significantly reduced.  

Difference between Accounting and Bookkeeping

In simple terms, bookkeeping is recording daily monetary transactions to track the traffic of money – like data entry; accounting is analyzing the records of monetary transactions to identify trends and patterns. 

Bookkeeping works towards accurate tracking of monetary activities of a business while accounting helps identify the current financial status of the company and convey the information accurately to the stakeholders. Hence the end product of bookkeeping is the accounts ledger, and for accounting it’s the financial statements and reports that are according to the acceptable accounting standards. 

You can’t make business decisions with bookkeeping information, but you can do so with accounting information. 

Though both require people with financial knowledge, bookkeeping needs someone who is organized, meticulous and good with numbers while accounting requires the person to be analytical and efficient and effective in communication. 

Accountants can do the bookkeeper’s job, but the bookkeeper can’t do the accountant’s job. So nowadays, solely bookkeeping jobs are starting to phase out as more business owners are hiring accounting service providers to take over the bookkeeping as well. 

What is the cost of outsourcing accounting service? 

For basic accounting services in Singapore, which include bookkeeping, tax accounting, management accounting and consultation, the price range is $88 to $900 per month. 

Should you need additional services or the ‘full service’ package, the prices can easily stretch from $1000 to about $11,499. 

Some accounting service providers priced their services by package or as individual sales items so that you can definitely find the best combination for your business needs.   

Here is a list of accounting service providers for your reference. 

They all have the appropriate certifications, and their accounting team are members of prestigious accounting associations, holding qualifications to practice the latest accepted standards of accounting. (The actual prices depend on the exact service package so I will only give a brief overview when it’s possible.)  

Top 5 Account Services in Singapore

WLP Group 

For 7 years, operating in accounting services in Singapore and Malaysia, they have been providing the needed bookkeeping and accounting services as well as expertise in immigration and IT solutions – true to their promise of being a ‘one-stop business solution partner’. Their clientele includes small businesses in Singapore across sectors, from education to healthcare to government to F&B, in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. 

They seem to focus more on services for business expansion – one of their highlights is the WLP Global Accounting Network. At a fee, you have access to networking opportunities in Singapore and across Indonesia and Malaysia. The aim is to encourage the broadening of perspectives and to deepen experiences for more ambitious visions. To enhance the benefits of this platform, there is a routined quality check on all applicants and an expectation of regular participation from members. 

They also seem to believe in customizing their services to potential customers. So you might get a quotation only over a meet-up, which is actually more cost-saving because every business has its distinctive needs. 

You can’t really get a clear overview of their business from their website – the overflowing array of specialities, though evidential of their usefulness, does seem confusing. It seems plausible to miss a tiny detail. So best is still to contact them directly. 

3E Accounting Pte Ltd

Their distinction – they value collaboration as much as trust. In today’s world, a knitted working relationship with people is the key to success – there is strength in every idea, big or small. This provider hence comes across as a humble expert who values the customer’s thoughts as much as theirs. Their clients are mainly the small-to-medium businesses.  

They too provide all the needed bookkeeping and accounting services, and expertise in immigration and IT solutions. But their customer-oriented organization helps me identify and relate to their skills and knowledge in one glance. With their meticulous solutions, attending to even the nitty-gritty like stamp seals and name cards, I can be sure I have everything covered.

The prices of their standard services on the website fulfils my habitual need of doing prior calculations before committing to anything – again, another thoughtful gesture from them. 

Another of their highlights – trust services, such as will writing and setting up trusts for wealth protection. Honestly, it’s already a major headache setting up a business and running, and I would easily forget my needs in this area. This is truly a useful and inspirational reminder.

I would trust these people as my solution partners for the long term – just as they had promised to be a ‘one-stop solution’ for my business for the long term. 

J Accounting Pte Ltd

This is a fast-food provider of accounting services. They are fast and accurate in every aspect of the process, and their customer service is business-oriented. Such agility would be better appreciated by experienced business owners or those who are well-versed in accounting.

They are very focused. Just accounting services. They don’t do favours for immigration or bookkeeping. The latter can still be done upon request but at a separate price. 

Next – they deliver entirely through an accounting software. There are pros and cons as such tech-savviness may not be appreciated by all. 

Their highlight – the service packages with monthly and yearly payments, which allow crystal clear monetary transactions. Experienced business owners, very clear about their needs and strategies, will only need to pick a package and pay.  

For less experienced, the packages may be confusing. They revolve around the software, so it’s hard to tell if everything needed is included. But they can still work something out with you at a customized pricing. 

Are they then cheaper? Well, I find them a tad more expensive, considering that I need to pay extra to learn how to use the software, LEARN how to use the software and DO all the tedious data entry and bank reconciliation so they can come in and complete the accounting work. Since time is money, I feel like I’m paying more than what I actually receive.  

Of course, I can pay another $100 per 25 bank transactions for them to do the bookkeeping – but by then I’d be too frustrated to think about it. 

SOAS Pte Ltd

Their name speaks of their brand of service: Singapore Online Accounting Services. Being 13 years in the business, they are expertise accounting services providers in Singapore, KL, Labuan and Hong Kong. They are even expanding to Vietnam and the Middle East.

Knowing the business, they offer all possible needed services, including offshore trading and product digitization. They even have ‘premium value-added services’ like procurement and completing statistical survey questionnaires. 

They are goal-focused – their services are listed according to their deliverables, which display their attention for detail. Their services are customized mainly for small to medium businesses and startups. 

Their distinction – clarity in every aspect of the process. Whatever they do or going to do, they will tell you exactly in detail. Even the pricing is logically presented – one payment for one significant stage or service – so they will only receive queries relating to specific or additional needs. They will then attend to them accordingly. 

Another highlight – their reasonable use of technology. Their ‘online digital data storage and management system’ makes information easily accessible to their clients via remote devices under tight security and close management. They also have an ‘online incorporation platform’ that supports a smooth and swift process at reasonable prices (S$444.60 for startups with 1 local shareholder). 

With an encouraging expert giving you the necessary advice on using their simple and efficient online platforms, providing services that attend to all my business needs, I feel I have the ‘freedom to achieve’. 

Accounting Consultancy Pte Ltd

The oldest accounting service provider in this list, with more than 20 years of field experience in the US, they now have 9 years of clients in Singapore across sectors, such as construction, manufacturing/engineering, logistics, retail, medical and insurance/property. 

They provide all the essential accounting services, and they are confident about their experience with banks and their usefulness to all businesses, including startups. 

Their first distinction – waived charges for the accounting software, through which they perform all the accounting tasks. Their prices start from $300, which is relatively cheaper than others. The pricing scheme goes by the level of complexity and scale of your business – the more involved they need to be, the higher the price. Since the software is free, this sounds like a pretty fair deal.  

Another highlight – their ‘personal approach’. They believe that every business has its own needs and they work towards customizing the best package of accounting services for their customers. So they are willing to do just one standalone service as long as it’s what your business needs. 

Don’t be fooled by their weaker online presence – their work quality has been praised by many of their clients.