Books kept in Singapore, read from head office.
Monthly bookkeeping, a close that lands on time, GST returns, and payroll with CPF done to Singapore's deadlines, for foreign-owned subsidiaries whose numbers also have to consolidate eight time zones away.
Two readers, one ledger.
A foreign-owned Singapore entity has two audiences for the same numbers. Singapore needs the statutory view: records kept to the Companies Act, GST accounted for on local transactions, and payroll run to the CPF calendar. The group needs its own chart of accounts, its own currency presentation, and figures delivered in time for consolidation. Keeping both readings from one ledger, rather than a Singapore set and a group set that drift apart, is the specific job of this practice.
The service is built for the subsidiary tier: Singapore teams of two to twenty people, regional holding vehicles with modest but real activity, and branch operations of established groups. Structuring, tax planning, and specialist advice sit with the firm's tax advisory practice and with the group's appointed advisers; the accounting brief is books clean enough that those advisers work faster.
Where Medora is also the entity's auditor, independence rules decide what the firm can and cannot do for it, and the practice says so at the outset rather than after the engagement letter.
Bookkeeping, close, and reporting to HQ.
The setup month
New engagements begin with a setup month that decides how easy every later month is. The chart of accounts is agreed with head office so the group mapping exists before the first close. Opening balances are tied to evidence. Bank feeds, expense capture, and approval routes are set up once, with the people at HQ who will read the output in the room.
Month after month
Transactions are captured and coded, bank and balance-sheet accounts are reconciled, and the month closes to an agreed date. Management accounts go to HQ in the group's format and currency presentation, with the Singapore statutory view held in the same ledger. Intercompany balances are agreed with the parent each month, so the year-end confirmation is a formality rather than a reconciliation project.
Taking over existing books
Many engagements start mid-life: a year of transactions in a spreadsheet, a bookkeeper who resigned, or a ledger nobody at HQ can read. A takeover starts with reconciliation of what exists, bank first, then a catch-up close to the last complete period, before the monthly rhythm begins.
Year end
The year-end close feeds the statutory financial statements, the annual return, the XBRL filing where one is required, and the audit where the entity or its group is above the exemption thresholds. Because the books were kept to the statutory view all year, the audit file starts from reconciled balances rather than from a rebuild.
The threshold that arrives sooner than expected.
GST registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million, and IRAS applies that threshold under two tests. The retrospective test looks at the past calendar year. The forward test asks whether turnover can reasonably be expected to exceed S$1 million in the next twelve months, and a signed contract can create that expectation on its own, which is how growing foreign-owned entities get caught. Part of the monthly work is watching the number, so registration happens because the business planned it.
Below the threshold, voluntary registration is a judgement: input tax recovery on one side, compliance workload and pricing effects on the other. Once registered, cross-border sales and purchases change what a correct return looks like, and foreign-owned entities tend to have more of those edge cases, because the customer and the supplier are so often overseas. GST applies at 9 per cent. Figures per IRAS, verified July 2026.
Payroll with CPF, on deadlines that do not move.
Singapore payroll is demanding in one specific way: the CPF calendar. Contributions are payable for employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents earning more than S$50 a month, and are due on the last day of the month with a 14-day grace period, after which enforcement and late payment interest at 1.5 per cent a month follow. Foreign employees on work passes have been exempt from CPF since 2003; their pay is reported through the annual employment income return instead.
The service runs the full cycle: gross-to-net calculation, itemised payslips, CPF submissions for eligible employees, annual employment income reporting, and the treatment of the mixed local-and-expatriate teams that foreign-owned subsidiaries usually run. The first payroll run is where setup quality shows: employment terms drafted at HQ are checked against Singapore's statutory baseline before anyone is paid, and each hire's CPF position is settled from the start. Expatriate pay adds its own layer, since allowances and benefits that HQ treats as routine can carry different treatment in Singapore, and pay split across two countries needs both sides to know which elements they are reporting.
What foreign-owned employers ask us.
Can our HQ keep the Singapore books from overseas?
Partly, and many groups do. What tends to break is the local layer: GST treatment on Singapore transactions, payroll with CPF for eligible employees, and records kept in the form Singapore's regulators expect. The workable split is usually that HQ owns the group ledger and reporting, and the Singapore books are kept locally to Singapore rules, mapped to the group's chart of accounts so consolidation is a transfer rather than a translation.
When must a Singapore company register for GST?
Registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million, and IRAS applies that threshold under two tests: retrospectively, where taxable turnover for the past calendar year exceeded S$1 million, and prospectively, where it can reasonably be expected to exceed S$1 million in the next twelve months. GST applies at 9 per cent. Figures per IRAS, verified July 2026.
Do we pay CPF for foreign employees?
No. CPF contributions are payable for employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents earning total wages of more than S$50 a month. Foreign employees on work passes have been exempt from CPF since 1 January 2003, and their pay is reported through the annual employment income return instead. Figures per CPF Board, verified July 2026.
When are CPF contributions due?
On the last day of the calendar month, with a grace period of 14 days after the month ends. Payments outstanding past the grace period attract enforcement, and late payment interest accrues at 1.5 per cent per month from the due date. Figures per CPF Board, verified July 2026.
What does the monthly service include?
Transaction capture and bookkeeping, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, a month-end close to an agreed timetable, management accounts in the format your HQ consolidates from, GST return preparation where the company is registered, and payroll with CPF submissions and payslips. The year-end close feeds the statutory financial statements and, where one is required, the audit.