SaaS · 🇸🇬 Singapore
First year end, three deadlines nobody had diarised
A Singapore startup reached its first year end unaware of ECI, the ACRA annual return, and the Form C-S deadline.
Singapore startup, first financial year end. Client identity withheld — we publish names only with written permission, so this engagement is described by its shape rather than by who it was.
3
Deadlines mapped
3 months
ECI window after year end
On time
First filing position
The situation
- The founders had incorporated in Singapore for its regional advantages and focused on product.
- Bookkeeping was being done in a spreadsheet, and the first year end arrived with no compliance calendar.
What we found
- ECI was due within three months of financial year end and had not been diarised.
- The ACRA annual return deadline (seven months from year end) was unknown to the founders.
- Spreadsheet records were not adequate for a corporate tax filing.
What we did
- Migrated to a proper ledger and rebuilt the first year from source documents.
- Built a compliance calendar covering ECI, Form C-S, the ACRA annual return and CPF.
- Filed ECI from actual figures rather than an estimate.
The outcome
- All first-year filings were made on time, and the company now has a compliance calendar it operates against rather than reacting to.
- Moving off spreadsheets before year two removed the annual reconstruction problem entirely.
Related
Where this applies
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