Bookkeeping services in Dubai and the UAE
Good bookkeeping follows the same routine every month: the bank reconciles to the ledger, the ledger to the reports, and the reports to what you file with the FTA. We provide that routine as a monthly subscription.
Monthly UAE bookkeeping means your bank statements are reconciled to the ledger and each month is closed by the 10th of the next. The close produces the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash position from which your VAT return and 9% corporate tax return are prepared. Our service starts from AED 750 a month, in cloud accounting software registered in your name, so your records stay under your control.
- Your books are the source for VAT, corporate tax and the audit. One reconciled ledger serves every filing, so nobody has to rebuild your year separately.
- Each month is closed by the 10th: profit and loss, balance sheet, cash position, receivables ageing and a short note on anything unusual.
- A free zone company keeps its 0% rate as a QFZP only with audited accounts; without them, its income is taxed under the standard rules.
- UAE law requires you to keep records for years after the period: seven years for corporate tax and five for VAT. Rebuilding them later costs far more than keeping them now.
- The books sit in your own Zoho, Xero or QuickBooks subscription. If you change accountant, you keep your full accounting history.
The monthly bookkeeping close, step by step
Documents come in throughout the month by email, WhatsApp export or a shared drive, whichever you will actually use. We post, categorise and reconcile them weekly rather than at year end. By the 10th of each month you receive the previous month fully closed: profit and loss, balance sheet, cash position, receivables ageing and a short plain-language note on anything unusual.
Each step checks the one before it. The bank statement reconciles to the ledger, the ledger to the reports, and the reports to what you later file with the FTA. If one link fails, the figures after it stop being reliable, and a company can reach its first corporate tax return with numbers nobody can support.
How bookkeeping feeds your VAT and corporate tax returns
In the UAE, the accounts are now the basis of several filings as well as management information. The 9% corporate tax computation starts from your IFRS accounting profit and adjusts it. The VAT return summarises the same ledger by tax code. A statutory audit, where your zone or tax status requires one, tests the same records. One consistent set of books serves each of these. Without it, separate advisers end up rebuilding your year, which costs more and gives them room to disagree.
This matters most for companies that expect to pay no tax. A free zone company claiming the 0% rate on qualifying income keeps it only as a Qualifying Free Zone Person. That status requires audited financial statements, transfer-pricing compliance and non-qualifying revenue within the de minimis limit (the lower of AED 5M or 5% of total revenue). Without the books and the audit, the 0% rate is not available. You can see how the figures work on our VAT service page and in the corporate tax calculator.
Monthly bookkeeping reports you receive
A closed month comes as a set of reports. This is what a standard subscription produces every month, on the same date:
| Deliverable | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Profit & loss | Revenue, costs and margin for the month, compared with earlier periods |
| Balance sheet | What the company owns and owes at month end |
| Cash position | Bank balances reconciled to the ledger, to the fils |
| Receivables ageing | Who owes you and how overdue each amount is, so you can chase it early |
| VAT working | Output and input tax accrued, ready for the quarterly return |
| Plain-language note | Anything unusual, explained in plain sentences |
Record-keeping requirements in the UAE
UAE law requires you to keep the underlying records long after each period closes. Corporate tax records must be kept for seven years after the end of the relevant tax period, and VAT records for five years (longer for real estate). E‑invoicing also becomes mandatory on 1 January 2027 for businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more and on 1 July 2027 for the rest, which raises the standard for invoice data. That is much cheaper to build into a live ledger than to retrofit against a deadline.
Bookkeeping software in your name
We work in Zoho Books, Xero and QuickBooks, and the subscription stays in your name with owner access held by you. If you move to another accountant, you keep every ledger, attachment and export. We do not move clients into a proprietary system they cannot leave.
Some firms keep client books inside their own software, which makes it hard to change provider. We do not, because books you cannot take with you are not fully under your control. Ownership matters most on the day a working relationship changes.
Catch-up bookkeeping, payroll and fees
We also take over backlogs. The first month includes a reconciliation of opening balances, and we list every assumption we had to make where records were missing, clearly labelled, because the FTA treats a reconciled figure differently from an estimate. We rebuild larger backlogs quarter by quarter at a price quoted in advance, and we tell you which periods can be reconstructed from records and which have to be disclosed as estimates.
Where you have staff, we run payroll through the WPS for AED 50 per employee a month and accrue end-of-service gratuity as it builds up, so it does not appear as a year-end surprise. By our estimate, a part-time in-house bookkeeper in Dubai costs roughly AED 4,000–8,000 a month and takes leave; our subscription starts from AED 750 a month and feeds one consistent set of records to every filing. Start from the main accounting service, or, if you are still choosing a structure, our company formation team can set up the books from the first day.
Published bookkeeping rates
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a transaction?
Can you work with our existing software?
Do you prepare audit files?
How long do we have to keep the records?
Do you handle payroll and WPS?
When exactly is the month closed?
This is general information on UAE rules. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice for your situation. Rules and government fees change; we confirm the position for your facts in writing before you act.