All About Accounting Firms And Accounting Fees in Malaysia For Your Company

Accounting is a major responsibility for any business owner. It needs to be in tip-top condition to ensure all aspects of the business can run without any obstacles. Currently, many companies are opting to outsource accounting responsibilities to accounting firms to cut down costs and to increase work efficiency.

If you are a business owner looking to hire accounting firms in Malaysia, there is some crucial information that needs to be at your fingertips. You need to know about the roles of accounting firms, how to find the good ones, and most importantly, the accounting fees charged.

Often, confusion arises if accounting fees are calculated based on an hourly rate, what are the outsourcing fees, if the accounting fees packages cover referral fees and upfront fees, and the questions go on and on.

Here’s what you need to know about accounting firms and accounting fees in Malaysia.

First of all, what comes under accounting for your company?

As a company, you need to take care of financial accounting and managerial accounting. Financial accounting involves systematically tracking the company’s financial transactions which are meticulously recorded, summarised and presented in the Financial Statement of Accounts. The accounting financial statement includes income statements, balance sheets, and cash flows. Moreover, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll processing, management accounting and tax preparation also come under financial accounting.

On the other hand, managerial accounting keeps track of salary costs, goods production costs, profits targets, and more.

If you plan to outsource these responsibilities to accounting firms, the professional accountants in the firms will perform tax planning and preparation where the firm collaborates with licensed auditors to deal with the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM). The firm will also help you with valuation reports for funding, mergers, or acquisition. You can rest assured that the compliance and taxation matters of your company will be handled meticulously by these accountants. The accountants will also guide and advise you regarding your current financial standings and your future financial moves.

What are the services offered by accounting firms?

How will hiring an accounting firm help your business? What is the expertise of the accountants that your company can benefit from? Well, some of the accounting services often offered by accounting firms in Malaysia are:

1. Accounting – This includes budget creation, financial statements, preparing local, state and federal tax returns, working closely with auditors to perform audits and business valuations, as well as forensic accounting services for companies with fraud issues.
2. Bookkeeping- This includes managing accounts, billing, payroll, and keeping a track record of transactions in your business which will be required for decision-making later on.
3. Tax management – This includes preparing financial reports, determining the company’s tax liability, making sure all tax deadlines are met, completing and submitting your tax returns, as well as helping you to lower your tax exposure and dealing with old tax debts.
4. Consulting – This includes advising you on financial strategies, tax burdens, business updates, financial investments and future moves in terms of mergers and acquisitions, helping you to set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as well as helping to troubleshoot the problem, test solutions, and reset the KPI accordingly.
5. Automated accounting workflow – This includes providing you with the latest accounting software and cloud accounting that will enable you to have a clear-cut data inventory, automated workflows, and KPI tracking.
6. Staffing decisions – This includes helping you with the payroll and take care of the government paperwork, tax and insurance requirements, working out the cost of hiring, training, and paying an employee, especially if there are mergers or expansion.

How much is the accounting fees in Malaysia?

Knowing the accounting fees of these accounting firms will help you to make a decision based on your budget and their packages. Here’s what most accounting firms in Malaysia are charging for their accounting services.

Some firms charge based on bookkeeping frequency. Starting from RM900 for monthly bookkeeping for an active company, RM1,200 for quarterly bookkeeping for an active company, RM1,500 for yearly bookkeeping for an active company, and RM500 for yearly bookkeeping for a dormant company.

Meanwhile, some firms charge based on the types of services such as Incorporation which can cost up to RM2,800, accounting which can cost RM600 per month, tax filing which can cost RM600 per filing for Type C filing, audit which can cost RM4,500 per year, secretarial services which can cost RM600 per year, payroll services which can cost RM 100 per month, nominee director which can cost RM3,800 per year and consultation services which can cost RM250 per hour.

There are also firms that charge based on the size of the company. If it is a small company/startup/ dormant with less than RM300,000 yearly revenue, the accounting fee starts at RM150 per month. For medium-sized companies with yearly revenue of RM300,000 to RM500,000, the accounting fee is from RM400 per month and for large companies with yearly revenue of RM500,000, the accounting fee is from RM1,000 per month.

Lastly, some accounting firms charge accounting fees based on the number of transactions in a year. For 10-50 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM500, for 20-70 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM800, for 30-100 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM1,000, for 50-150 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM1,500, for 80-2,000 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM2,000, for 100-3000 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM3,000 and for 5000-6000 transactions per year, the accounting fee is RM4,000 – RM5,000.

However, different accounting firms offer different packages that come with different accounting fees. Hence, it is best to talk to them, explain about the services you require, get a brief about their packages and get quotes for the packages they offer. Some accounting firms also offer customised accounting packages that can cater specifically to your needs.

Get your quotes today!