Outsourced Accounting and Bookkeeping Services in India for Foreign Subsidiaries — End-to-End Finance Function Management
Running a compliant, accurate, and audit-ready accounting function for an Indian subsidiary is significantly more complex than most foreign parent companies anticipate before they incorporate. India's accounting and compliance environment combines Ind AS financial reporting, monthly GST return obligations, TDS deductions and quarterly returns, provident fund and ESI statutory filings, ROC annual compliance, transfer pricing documentation, and FEMA reporting — all running simultaneously, all with hard deadlines, and all carrying penalties for late or incorrect filing.
Foreign subsidiaries in early and growth stages rarely have the internal bandwidth to manage this complexity with a lean India finance team. Senior finance hires in India are expensive, difficult to retain, and often overqualified for the day-to-day bookkeeping and compliance work that nevertheless must be done correctly every month. The alternative — outsourcing the accounting function to a specialist firm with deep India regulatory knowledge — delivers accuracy, compliance, and cost efficiency while freeing the India leadership team to focus on business operations rather than finance administration.
At A2 Consultants, we provide fully outsourced accounting and bookkeeping services for foreign subsidiaries in India — acting as the complete finance function or supplementing an existing India finance team — covering day-to-day transaction recording, monthly management accounts, statutory compliance, audit preparation, and group reporting.
What Outsourced Accounting Covers for Foreign Subsidiaries
Day-to-Day Bookkeeping and Transaction Recording
The foundation of every compliant India finance function is accurate, timely transaction recording. We record all financial transactions of the Indian subsidiary in the accounting software — purchases, sales, expenses, payroll, bank transactions, intercompany charges, and capital transactions — using the chart of accounts aligned to both Ind AS requirements and the parent company's group reporting structure.
Every transaction is coded correctly from the point of entry — GST treatment, TDS applicability, cost centre allocation, and intercompany versus third-party classification — eliminating the reclassification work that creates audit delays and reconciliation gaps when bookkeeping is done without regulatory awareness.
Accounts Payable and Receivable Management
We manage the complete accounts payable cycle for the Indian subsidiary — vendor invoice processing, payment scheduling, TDS deduction at source on applicable payments, TDS certificate issuance to vendors, and vendor reconciliation. On the receivable side we manage invoice generation, GST invoicing compliance including e-invoicing where applicable, foreign currency receipt recording, and FIRA — Foreign Inward Remittance Advice — documentation for export of services transactions.
Bank Reconciliation and Treasury Support
Monthly bank reconciliation across all Indian bank accounts — including current accounts, EEFC accounts for foreign currency holdings, and fixed deposit accounts — is performed and reviewed. We flag unreconciled items, unusual transactions, and foreign currency translation differences for management review. For subsidiaries with active treasury operations we coordinate with the foreign exchange advisory team to ensure FX transactions are recorded correctly and FEMA reporting obligations are identified.
Payroll Accounting and Statutory Integration
Payroll transactions — salary disbursements, PF employer contributions, ESI contributions, professional tax, and gratuity provisions — are recorded in the accounting system in coordination with the payroll processing team. We ensure the accounting entries correctly reflect the gross salary, statutory deductions, employer contributions, and net disbursement — with the liability accounts reconciling to the statutory returns filed with EPFO, ESIC, and state professional tax authorities.
Intercompany Transaction Accounting
Intercompany transactions between the Indian subsidiary and its foreign parent or group entities — management fees, technology fees, shared services charges, royalties, reimbursements, and intercompany loans — are among the most complex and audit-sensitive areas of foreign subsidiary accounting. We account for intercompany transactions in strict alignment with the underlying intercompany agreements and transfer pricing policy — ensuring the accounting treatment, GST reverse charge application, TDS withholding, and FEMA reporting are all addressed at the point of transaction recording rather than discovered as gaps during the annual audit.
Fixed Asset Register and Depreciation
We maintain the complete fixed asset register for the Indian subsidiary — recording asset additions, disposals, and transfers, computing depreciation under both Companies Act Schedule II rates and income tax rates, and reconciling the asset register to the financial statements. For subsidiaries with significant capital expenditure — office fitouts, IT infrastructure, and manufacturing equipment — the fixed asset register is a critical audit document and must be maintained with supporting invoices, capitalisation dates, and useful life assessments.
Month-End Close and Management Accounts
Every month we perform a structured month-end close process — accruals for expenses not yet invoiced, prepayment amortisation, depreciation computation, foreign currency revaluation under Ind AS 21, intercompany reconciliation, and provision reviews. The output is a complete set of monthly management accounts — profit and loss account, balance sheet, and cash flow statement — delivered within the agreed reporting deadline for upload into the parent company's consolidation system.
Accounting Software — What We Work With
We provide outsourced accounting services across the full range of accounting software used by foreign subsidiaries in India — including Tally Prime, Zoho Books, QuickBooks Online, . For subsidiaries without an existing accounting software selection we advise on the right platform based on transaction volume, GST complexity, group reporting requirements, and future scalability — and implement the software including chart of accounts setup, GST configuration, TDS setup, and opening balance migration.
Monthly Statutory Compliance Calendar
Outsourced accounting at A2 Consultants includes management of the complete monthly and quarterly statutory compliance calendar — so no deadline is missed and no penalty is incurred through oversight.
The compliance obligations we manage alongside the accounting function include GSTR-1 filing by the 11th of each month, GSTR-3B filing by the 20th, TDS payment by the 7th of the following month, TDS quarterly returns in Form 24Q and 26Q, PF and ESI monthly contributions, professional tax monthly or quarterly filings depending on state, advance tax quarterly instalments, and FEMA reporting where applicable. We maintain a compliance tracker for every client — updated in real time and shared with the India management team and global finance team — so that compliance status is visible at all times without requiring manual follow-up.
Audit Preparation and Auditor Support
The outsourced accounting function we maintain is designed from the ground up to be audit-ready at all times — not just at year end. Every transaction is supported by documentation, every liability is reconciled to the underlying return, and every intercompany balance is confirmed. When the statutory auditor commences fieldwork, we provide the complete audit file — trial balance, schedules, reconciliations, fixed asset register, bank reconciliations, statutory payment challans, and supporting documents — so that the audit proceeds efficiently without extended information requests that delay completion and increase audit fees.
Transition From In-House to Outsourced Accounting
For foreign subsidiaries transitioning from an in-house accounting function to outsourced accounting — whether following the departure of a finance team member, a cost optimisation initiative, or a decision to consolidate India finance under a single advisory partner — we manage the complete transition. This includes data migration from the existing accounting system, reconciliation of historical balances, identification and resolution of legacy accounting errors, and parallel running during the transition period to ensure continuity.
Who This Service Is For
This service is designed for foreign subsidiaries in four stages. Early-stage subsidiaries in the first one to three years of India operations that need a complete finance function from day one without the cost of a senior finance hire. Growth-stage subsidiaries with 20 to 150 employees that have outgrown their initial accounting arrangements but are not yet large enough to justify a full in-house finance team. Lean subsidiaries operating as GCCs or cost centres where the parent company has made a deliberate decision to outsource all India support functions. And transitioning subsidiaries that are moving from EOR to a direct employment model and need to establish a formal accounting function alongside the new entity.