Bookkeeping and Financial Accounting Services in Bangladesh
Bookkeeping and financial accounting is the monthly work of recording every transaction from its document, reconciling every bank account, keeping the VAT records and ledgers the law requires, and closing the month into statements your auditor and your parent company can rely on. PayrollBD keeps those books from Dhaka for companies in Bangladesh, inside your own software, with every record staying yours.
What does bookkeeping cover?
Five things, and each is a record you can open, not a service you have to take on trust. Bookkeeping is the part that happens every day and every month; financial accounting is the close that turns those records into statements. Annual accounts, income tax filing and CFO services sit on top of these books and are described on their own pages. The five below are what PayrollBD keeps, in your ledger, for every month of the engagement.
- TransactionsEvery sale, purchase, expense and payment posted from its own document, in the month it belongs to, so nothing is entered from memory or moved between months.
- Bank reconciliationEach bank and card account reconciled to its statement at the month end, with every unmatched item listed by date and amount rather than forced to balance.
- Ledgers and registersThe cash book, sales and purchase ledgers, fixed-asset register and the VAT sales and purchase records, kept inside the software and exportable at any time.
- Receivables and payablesWho owes you, whom you owe and by when, aged by month and reviewed with you, so collections and payments are decided on a list rather than a feeling.
- Payroll postingsSalaries, tax deducted at source and provident fund contributions posted from the payroll run into the accounts, so the wage bill and the ledger agree to the taka.
How does the monthly close run?
Six stages, in the same order every month, each ending in something you can see: the document list, the posted ledger, the reconciliation with its exceptions, the VAT file, the statements and the locked month. The calendar is set by the VAT return, which falls due within fifteen days of the month end, so the close is timed to land before it.
- 1Collect the month’s documents: bank statements, invoices, bills, payroll and petty cash.
- 2Post every transaction to the ledger in your accounting software, dated in its month.
- 3Reconcile every bank and card account to its statement and list the exceptions.
- 4Compile the VAT sales and purchase records and hand the return file to the VAT and tax desk.
- 5Close the month and issue the statements: balance sheet, profit and loss, cash flow, aged lists.
- 6Review the pack with you, post the corrections, and lock the month.
Why does the month have to close?
Because the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 runs on a monthly clock, and books that are not closed cannot produce the return that clock demands. The table names the four provisions that shape the bookkeeping calendar, with what each one means for the books, and the paragraph beneath it quotes the Act as published by the National Board of Revenue.
| Duty under the VAT Act | Section | What it means for the books |
|---|---|---|
| Tax period for VAT | Section 2(30) | One calendar month, so the books close monthly |
| Filing the VAT return | Section 64(1) | Within fifteen days after the month ends, from closed books |
| Tax invoice on every taxable supply | Section 51(1) | Serially numbered invoices issued and filed by month |
| Input tax credit on larger supplies | Section 46(2) | Paid through a banking channel, so the bank book is the proof |
The Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012, published by the National Board of Revenue as Act No. 47 of 2012, defines the tax period for VAT as one month of the Christian calendar in section 2(30). Section 64(1) requires every registered or enlisted person to file the return for each tax period within a period not exceeding fifteen days after that period expires. Section 51(1) requires every registered supplier to issue a serially numbered tax invoice at the date when VAT becomes payable on the taxable supply. Section 46(2) provides that no registered person may claim input tax credit where the value of a taxable supply exceeds the amount stated there and the consideration is paid in cash instead of through a banking channel. Those four provisions are why the books close every month, why invoices are filed by month, and why the bank book carries the proof of payment. Reviewed by Eicra Binte Islam
Four things buyers ask first
Four questions come up before the first document is handed over: whether the service fits the business, what the fee depends on, which records the company keeps, and how a switch from the current bookkeeper is made. Each is answered in its own panel below, and each answer names the document or the term in which the point is written down.
A subsidiary, branch or liaison office of a foreign company that must report to a parent on a fixed calendar; a local company whose books have outgrown a spreadsheet or a single accountant; and any business that files VAT returns every month and wants the books to be the source of that return rather than a separate exercise. It does not fit a business with a handful of transactions a year, which needs an annual write-up, not a monthly close.
The fee is agreed at the brief, in writing, against three things: how many transactions a month the books carry, how many bank and card accounts must be reconciled, and what the monthly pack must contain. A catch-up of past months is quoted separately. The written terms name what is included, what counts as a closed month and what happens when volume changes, before any document is handed over; no figure sits on this page because none would hold for every business.
All of them. The ledger, its history and the login are in your company’s name; the original invoices, statements and vouchers stay in your office filed by month; and the monthly pack, the reconciliations and the exception lists are yours to keep. PayrollBD works as a named user inside your ledger and holds working copies only for the current month, so ending the service means removing a user, not recovering your books from someone else’s system.
The switch is made at a month end, never mid-month. The closing trial balance from your current bookkeeper or system is agreed with you, brought into the ledger as the opening position, and reconciled to the bank statements of that date before the first new month is posted. Where the old books do not reconcile, the differences are listed and resolved with you or written off on your written approval, so the new books start from a position both sides have signed.
What does PayrollBD commit to each month?
Four commitments, each one a boundary you can check in the ledger itself rather than a promise made in a proposal. They cover whose name the software and the records are in, what sets the calendar for every close, how a reconciliation that does not agree is treated, and who decides when a month is locked and when it is reopened.
Your ledger, your name
The software licence, the login and every record inside it are held in your company’s name, and PayrollBD works in the ledger as a named user with its own login. Ending the service means removing that user. Nothing has to be exported from a system you do not control, and no history is lost when the engagement ends.
Timed to the VAT return
Section 64(1) of the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 gives fifteen days after the month ends to file the return, so every close is worked to that date. The month’s documents are requested, posted and reconciled against it, and where a document is still missing when the return falls due, the exception list says so in writing.
Nothing forced to balance
Every bank and card account is reconciled to its own statement, and every item that does not match is listed by date, amount and counterparty. No balancing entry is ever posted to make a reconciliation agree, so a difference you see in the pack is a real difference, and it stays open until it has been explained.
Locked only after your review
A month is locked only after you have seen the pack and the corrections you raise are posted. Once locked, a month is reopened only on your written instruction; the change is logged against the entry and the statements are reissued, so the version your auditor holds is always the version the ledger holds.
What gets asked before handing over the books?
Four questions come up before nearly every engagement: whether the books can be kept remotely, which software is used, whether months that are behind can be caught up, and whether a foreign company can use the service at all. They are answered below in that order, and each answer names where the point is written down or which section of the Act it rests on.
Four questions, one answer each
Each answer opens with the position PayrollBD takes and then names its basis: the written terms, the ledger itself, or a section of the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012 read in full for this page. Where a question depends on your volume or your group’s calendar, the answer says so rather than offering a figure or a date that would not hold for every company.
Can the books be kept remotely?
Yes. The ledger runs in cloud software in your name, the month’s documents reach us by scan or upload, and the closed pack comes back to you the same way, so the books are kept from Dhaka without anyone sitting in your office. The original invoices, bank statements and vouchers stay with you, filed by month, because they are your records and the ones a VAT or tax officer will ask to see. Where a document is missing, the exception list names it and the month is not locked until it is found or written off with your approval.
Which accounting software is used?
The one you already run, if it keeps a proper ledger, because moving books between systems creates more errors than it removes. Where you have none, a mainstream cloud ledger is set up in your company’s name with your own login, your chart of accounts mapped to your parent company’s if there is one, and PayrollBD works inside it as a user you can remove at any time. The data, the licence and the history stay yours whether the engagement continues or ends.
Our books are behind; can they be caught up?
Yes, and the catch-up runs in the same order as a normal month, oldest month first. Every bank statement for the gap is obtained, every transaction is posted and reconciled month by month, and the VAT returns already filed for those months are compared with what the reconstructed books show, so any difference is known before an officer finds it. The catch-up is quoted separately from the running service, and the written terms name the months it covers and the documents you must supply.
Can a foreign company use the service?
Yes, and most of the books PayrollBD keeps are for a subsidiary, branch or liaison office of a foreign company. The ledger follows the group’s chart of accounts and reporting calendar, the statements are issued in English with figures in taka, and the local VAT records are kept alongside in the form the National Board of Revenue expects. What stays local is the compliance calendar: the VAT return for a month is due within fifteen days of its end, so the month is closed to that date whatever the group’s own timetable says.
Send last month’s bank statement
Send one month’s bank statements and the invoices behind them, or the export from the ledger you run now. We come back with the transaction count, the accounts to be reconciled, what the monthly pack would contain, the months that need a catch-up if any, and the written terms, before a single entry is posted.