🏝️
Free Zone SMEs
IFZA, DMCC, Meydan, SHAMS and others — monthly books kept in a CT and QFZP-aware way from day one.
Bookkeeping & Management Accounts
Clean Books. Monthly. On Time.
UAE bookkeeping and monthly management accounts in Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent or Zoho Books — delivered by our Dhaka team under UK Chartered Accountant supervision. CT, VAT and FTA records ready from day one.
🔄 Last updated: 24 October 2026
✓ Chartered Tax Adviser-led supervision
✓ Any major cloud platform
✓ Monthly management pack
✓ Flat monthly fee
⚡ QUICK ANSWER
Bookkeeping & Management Accounts at The Tax Lead. We provide UAE bookkeeping using Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books or FTA-approved accounting software; monthly or quarterly management accounts (profit and loss, balance sheet, cashflow); VAT control account reconciliation; CT provision calculation; and the trial balance package required for IFRS financial statements and the UAE CT return. From AED 2,500/month for standard SMEs, scoped by transaction volume.
The platforms we work with
Your Software. Not Ours.
We work on your preferred cloud accounting platform — or recommend one if you’re starting fresh. All platforms give you full real-time access; we don’t gate your own books.
Xero
QuickBooks Online
FreeAgent
Zoho Books
Sage
Odoo
+ your platform
Who we help
Who We Keep Books For (It’s Not Everyone).
We take on bookkeeping that goes with a tax, CT or VAT relationship — so the books stay FTA-ready and ready for CT return season without rework. We don’t do standalone data-entry bookkeeping without the professional wrapper.
🏢
Mainland SMEs & Trading
DED-licensed companies with 5% VAT and 9% CT exposure — monthly books plus VAT quarterly return built from them.
💾
Tech & SaaS Businesses
Deferred revenue, subscription accounting, multi-currency, IP ownership — areas where generic bookkeepers get it wrong.
🌍
UK/EU Groups with UAE Subsidiary
Parent-group consolidation-ready management accounts, inter-company flows mapped cleanly, FX translation to parent currency.
🏘️
Property-Holding SPVs
Multi-SPV property structures — monthly books per entity, consolidated reporting to the owner.
🏨
High-Volume Businesses
E-commerce, hospitality, F&B, retail — integration with your till, Shopify, Stripe, booking system, keeping books clean at volume.
👤
Owner-Managers & Consultants
Single-shareholder professional services — clean books, VAT handled, year-end free of surprises.
💰
Family Offices & Investment Vehicles
Investment accounting, financial-asset tracking, dividend income capture, foreign-source income reconciliation.
🔁
Books in Bad Shape
Catch-up and clean-up engagements — months behind, VAT returns wrong, previous accountant left mid-year. We fix and take forward.
What’s included
Bookkeeping, Yes. But Also Management Insight.
Monthly bookkeeping
- Transaction processingAll bank, card, cash, loan and intercompany transactions coded against the chart of accounts.
- Bank reconciliationEvery bank account reconciled monthly — closing balance ties to the statement, every month.
- Supplier & customer managementAP and AR ledgers maintained, supplier invoices processed, customer invoices raised where applicable.
- Payroll journal & expense claimsPayroll integrated into the books, team expense claims processed, out-of-pocket reimbursements tracked.
- Fixed asset & depreciationFixed asset register maintained, monthly depreciation posted, additions and disposals tracked.
- Multi-currency handlingWhere relevant — AED, USD, GBP, EUR — realised and unrealised FX properly accounted for.
Monthly management accounts
- P&L packMonthly P&L, YTD and prior-year comparatives, variance highlights.
- Balance sheet packBalance sheet with movement commentary, working-capital walk, debt and cash position.
- Cash flow summaryDirect-method cash flow summary, forward 90-day cash forecast where source data allows.
- KPI dashboardYour top 5–10 KPIs tracked monthly — gross margin, customer concentration, aged debt, cash runway.
- Commentary memoShort written commentary each month — what changed, what to watch, what the numbers mean.
- Board-pack-readyDeliverables formatted so you can hand them straight to a board, bank, investor or auditor without rework.
UAE tax readiness built in
- FTA-compliant record-keepingDocument retention, invoice numbering, VAT codes set up to meet FTA requirements by default.
- VAT return source data readyQuarterly VAT return built from clean books with input/output VAT reconciled.
- CT return starting dataTrial balance signed off ready to feed the Corporate Tax return — no rework needed at year end.
- Related-party trackingIntra-group transactions flagged and recorded cleanly for the Related-Party Disclosure form.
- QFZP de minimis trackerWhere applicable — qualifying vs non-qualifying revenue tracked monthly, de minimis budget monitored.
- Economic Substance recordsWhere ESR applies — records kept to evidence substance against the ESR tests.
System & integration setup
- Chart of accounts designUAE-appropriate chart of accounts, mapped to CT, VAT and management reporting needs.
- Bank feed setupDirect bank feeds configured where available — faster, cleaner, fewer errors.
- Expense tool integrationDext, Hubdoc or equivalent set up — receipt capture, OCR, auto-coding.
- Payroll integrationWPS payroll system integration where applicable — monthly payroll journals land clean.
- E-commerce & till integrationShopify, Stripe, Square, Lightspeed — sales data flows automatically.
- Document storageSecure cloud document storage for VAT and CT evidence — 5+ years retention.
Our Dhaka delivery model
Boutique Quality. Delivery-Engineered Price.
The reason we can offer monthly bookkeeping from AED 950 isn’t a race to the bottom — it’s our Dhaka delivery office. ACCA Part-Qualified staff work in a modern office with full IT infrastructure, supervised directly by our UK Chartered Certified Accountants.
All client-facing work is reviewed and signed off from the UK before it reaches you. You get Big-firm quality control with SME-friendly pricing — which is exactly how large multinationals have run their shared service centres for decades.
100%
UK Chartered Accountant supervision
ACCA
Part-qualified Dhaka staff
30-50%
Lower cost vs UAE-only delivery
Secure
UK-standard data protection & cloud systems
How we start
Clean Books in Four Steps.
Week 1
Discovery & Scoping
Free Discovery Call to understand your business, current system (if any) and volumes. Fixed-fee quote within two business days, including any catch-up work needed.
Discovery CallFixed quoteWeeks 1–2
System Setup & Chart of Accounts
Platform configured (new setup) or taken over (existing). Chart of accounts designed for UAE CT, VAT and management reporting. Bank feeds and integrations established.
Platform setupCOA designBank feedsMonth 1
Catch-Up (If Needed) + First Month
Where books are behind, we catch up as a one-off fixed-fee project. Then first full month processed, reconciled, management pack issued.
Catch-upFirst closeFirst packMonthly
Rhythm & Reporting
Monthly close by day 10 of the following month. Management pack by day 15. Quarterly VAT return filed. Annual CT return. Everything in one hands-off cycle.
Monthly closeDay-15 packAll-inWhy choose The Tax Lead for bookkeeping
Books That Are Ready for Everything That Follows.
🎓 Chartered Supervision
Your bookkeeping isn’t done by juniors with no oversight. UK Chartered Certified Accountants review every month’s close before you see it — the same discipline you’d get from a mid-sized UK practice.
🏝️ UAE Tax Context Built In
FTA-compliant from day one. QFZP tracking, VAT codes, related-party flows, TP positions — all handled at the bookkeeping level, so year-end is a sign-off, not a rebuild.
💷 Flat Monthly Fee
No hourly rates, no “extra work” invoices on top. Fixed monthly fee based on transaction volume, agreed up front, with volume tiers so you know what growth will cost.
⚡ Day-15 Close
Monthly close completed and management pack delivered by day 15 of the following month. Not day 30. Not day 45. Day 15, every month — because that’s when numbers are still useful.
🌐 Multi-Entity & Multi-Currency
Groups with multiple UAE entities, UK or EU subsidiaries, multi-currency operations — handled with the same monthly discipline as a single-entity SME.
🔁 Bundles Cleanly With Tax Services
Bookkeeping + VAT returns + CT return + QFZP review all under one engagement, one point of contact, one monthly invoice. Nothing falls between advisers because there’s only one.
Fees
Three Tiers. Flat Monthly Fee.
Indicative monthly fees by transaction volume. Exact tier confirmed after the Discovery Call based on bank account count, invoice volume and integration complexity.
Lite
Low-volume single-entity (up to ~50 transactions/month). Bookkeeping only, no mgmt pack.
AED 950
per month, fixed
- Monthly bookkeeping (up to 50 txns)
- Bank reconciliation (1 account)
- Quarterly trial balance snapshot
- Year-end TB sign-off for CT
Core
Standard SME (up to ~250 txns/month). Full bookkeeping + monthly management accounts.
AED 2,500
from · per month, fixed
- Monthly bookkeeping (up to 250 txns)
- Up to 3 bank accounts reconciled
- Monthly management accounts pack
- KPI dashboard & commentary
- FTA records & VAT-ready at all times
Growth / Multi-Entity
High-volume, multi-entity or integration-heavy (e-commerce, multiple SPVs, UK + UAE).
From AED 5,500
per month, fixed
- Up to 1,000+ transactions/month
- Multi-entity consolidation
- Multi-currency handling
- E-commerce / till integration
- Full board-ready management pack
Catch-up work for behind-the-books engagements is quoted separately as a one-off fixed fee. VAT returns, CT return and QFZP review can be bundled on top at the standard service rates. All fees exclude VAT.
Common questions
Bookkeeping, Answered.
Which bookkeeping software do you recommend?
For most UAE SMEs, we recommend Xero — strong UAE support, excellent app ecosystem, FTA-approved. QuickBooks Online is a close second, particularly for US-connected businesses. FreeAgent works well for solo consultants. Zoho Books is strong where you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem. We’ll make a recommendation on the Discovery Call based on your situation — but we’re not religious about any one platform.
Can you take over from my current bookkeeper?
Yes — and we handle the handover entirely. Access, chart of accounts review, data integrity check, standing adjustments, open items reconciliation. Clean start, no gap in reporting. If the books are in bad shape (behind, VAT errors, misclassified items), we scope a one-off catch-up alongside the handover.
Do you keep my data in Dhaka? Is that secure?
Your data stays in your cloud accounting platform (Xero, QuickBooks etc.) — which lives on the platform’s servers, not ours. Our Dhaka team accesses your platform under secure, audited login, with UK Chartered Accountant review before anything is finalised. The data protection standards are UK-equivalent — same as if a UK bookkeeper was working on your file.
What’s the day-15 close?
By day 15 of each month, the prior month is fully closed — bank reconciled, all transactions coded, AP and AR up to date — and you have your management pack. We measure ourselves on this. If we miss day 15, we tell you why and when it will land. It almost never slips because the Dhaka team is sized to the volumes we take on.
Can you handle my VAT return as well?
Yes — VAT return preparation and filing is a natural add-on to the bookkeeping engagement (see our UAE VAT service page). Fees are AED 1,500/quarter under the bundled rate. CT return at year-end can be added similarly. One team, one engagement, one monthly invoice.
What’s in the monthly management pack?
P&L (month, YTD, prior-year comparative), balance sheet with movement commentary, cash flow summary, 5-10 KPI dashboard tailored to your business, and a short written commentary explaining what changed and what to watch. The pack is formatted to go straight to a board, bank or investor without reformatting.
Do you integrate with my till / Shopify / Stripe?
Yes — standard e-commerce and till integrations are supported. Shopify, Stripe, Square, Lightspeed, WooCommerce, PayTabs, Checkout.com. For businesses with these integrations, we recommend the Growth / Multi-Entity tier because the volume and reconciliation complexity justify it.
What if transaction volumes vary month to month?
Fee tiers are set on a reasonable average, with 25% headroom. If your volumes grow sustainably past the tier (3 consecutive months), we move you to the next tier with 30 days’ notice. If a one-off big month happens (year-end project, big campaign), we absorb it. No surprise invoices.
I’m behind on my books — can you catch up?
Yes. Catch-up engagements are quoted as a one-off fixed fee based on volume, months behind, and the state of records. We then move onto the standard monthly rhythm. Very common engagement — businesses that outgrew their first-stage bookkeeper and need to get FTA-ready.
What’s the notice period?
30 days, both sides. No annual tie-in. We hand your data over cleanly on exit — you own your platform access, and the handover note goes to whichever adviser you’re moving to. The relationship works because it adds value every month, not because you’re locked in.
Ready to get the books right?
Clean Books. On Time. Every Month.
Book a free 20-minute Discovery Call. We’ll scope your bookkeeping needs, agree the right tier, and send you a written fixed-fee quote within two business days.