Accounting Operations for UAE Businesses
We run accounting as five processes, each one documented, owned, and scheduled to a published close calendar. Your VAT return, Corporate Tax filing, and e-invoicing readiness all come off the same ledger, so they reconcile by construction. End to end, or alongside your team.
In Partnership With
Qashio is a Central Bank of UAE-licensed spend management platform that issues smart prepaid Visa cards with granular spend controls, real-time approval workflows, and automated receipt capture. As a Qashio implementation partner, Finline manages the full setup and onboarding for your business: configuring spend categories, mapping card transactions to your chart of accounts, and integrating expense data directly into your accounting records. Real-time visibility across every team. Nothing to reconcile manually.
Meydan Free Zone is a Dubai-based free zone offering fast, flexible business setup and licensing for companies of all sizes. As a Meydan FZ partner, Finline handles the full incorporation process, from license selection and document preparation to ongoing compliance and accounting, so your business is operational and fully compliant from day one.
Shufti Pro is an AI-powered KYC, KYB, and AML verification platform operating in 230+ countries, supporting 10,000+ ID document types across 150 languages with sub-60-second turnaround. As a Shufti Pro partner, Finline integrates identity verification directly into your onboarding workflow, ensuring your business meets UAE regulatory requirements from day one, without friction.
Moore JFC is a UAE tax and advisory firm and a member of the Moore Global network, listed on the Ministry of Finance's pre-approved register of e-invoicing service providers. Its JFC Fatoora platform is a certified Peppol Access Point: it validates invoices against MoF rules, converts them to PINT AE, and archives them in UAE cloud storage under ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 controls. Finline is not an ASP. We work with accredited partners and assess against the full accredited list, so the platform recommendation follows your invoicing profile, not our revenue. Where JFC Fatoora is the right fit, Finline runs the data mapping, the ERP integration, and the ledger behind it.
Comarch is a global software house with over 25 years in e-invoicing and electronic data interchange, exchanging more than 300 million documents a year for clients in 80+ countries, and an Accredited Service Provider (ASP) designated by the UAE Federal Tax Authority for the country's e-invoicing mandate. As a Comarch partner, Finline connects your business to accredited e-invoicing infrastructure and handles everything around it: mapping your invoice data to the required format, integrating it with your accounting system, and keeping submissions clean as the mandate phases in. One partner for the compliance and the books behind it.
Zoho is a business software suite spanning finance, CRM, HR, and operations, used by more than 100 million users worldwide, with FTA-approved accounting and direct EmaraTax VAT filing for the UAE. As a Zoho Finance, Technology and Integration partner, Finline implements and operates the stack end to end: Zoho Books configured with a chart of accounts and VAT rules built for your sector, connected to the rest of your Zoho applications, with monthly close run on top of it. We're also developing value-added features on top of Zoho that extend what it does natively for Finline clients.
Accounting operations, run as five processes
Record to Report (R2R)
- Ledger, Reconciliations & Accruals
- Payroll & End-of-Service Provision
- Inventory, Cost of Sales & Fixed Assets
- Five-Day Close & IFRS Statements
Order to Cash (O2C)
- Invoicing & Billing Accuracy
- AR Ageing & Credit Control
- Collections on a Schedule
- Cash Application & DSO Reporting
Procure to Pay (P2P)
- Approval Matrix & Authority Limits
- Three-Way Match & Duplicate Controls
- Payment Runs & Supplier Statements
- Card Spend, Limits & Coding
Treasury, Cash & Weekly Reporting
- Weekly Cash Position
- Cheque Runs & PDC Schedule
- Bank & Facility Reconciliation
- Weekly AR & AP Ageing Pack
Master Data Management
- Customer, Supplier & Item Masters
- Chart of Accounts Design
- TRN & Counterparty Data
- E-Invoicing Data Readiness
Accounting operations with a named reviewer
Your processes are designed and reviewed by a finance director with 30 years running finance functions and shared service operations, including a group of more than 350 entities. Every engagement has a named reviewer and a named backup, disclosed at onboarding, so your close never depends on one person.
The reporting basis is a decision, and we make it with you. Ministerial Decision 114 of 2023 makes IFRS the default, with IFRS for SMEs available at or below AED 50 million. Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025 sets who needs an audit: every Qualifying Free Zone Person, anyone above AED 50 million, and special purpose statements for tax groups.
An optional pre-configured cloud ERP, document capture on incoming invoices, and corporate cards for spend control, all configured and run by us so you are not managing a software project alongside your business. The licences, chart of accounts, documentation and data stay in your name. Change provider or take the function in-house and it all goes with you.
When volume spikes, a backlog needs clearing, or a system migration lands, we add people to your existing process rather than changing it. They work to the same written procedures under the same reviewer, so the close calendar holds. Your team keeps the process.
CFO-Led, Not Bookkeeper-Led
Your processes are designed and reviewed by a finance director with 30 years running finance functions and shared service operations, including a group of more than 350 entities. Every engagement has a named reviewer and a named backup, disclosed at onboarding, so your close never depends on one person.
Your Reporting Basis Is a Decision
The reporting basis is a decision, and we make it with you. Ministerial Decision 114 of 2023 makes IFRS the default, with IFRS for SMEs available at or below AED 50 million. Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025 sets who needs an audit: every Qualifying Free Zone Person, anyone above AED 50 million, and special purpose statements for tax groups.
Technology We Operate, and You Own
An optional pre-configured cloud ERP, document capture on incoming invoices, and corporate cards for spend control, all configured and run by us so you are not managing a software project alongside your business. The licences, chart of accounts, documentation and data stay in your name. Change provider or take the function in-house and it all goes with you.
When Volume Spikes, the Process Holds
When volume spikes, a backlog needs clearing, or a system migration lands, we add people to your existing process rather than changing it. They work to the same written procedures under the same reviewer, so the close calendar holds. Your team keeps the process.
Start with one close, run by us
We take your trial balance and open items, document the five processes as they stand, and run one full close to a published calendar. Fixed fee, one month, no commitment beyond it. The working papers, the close calendar, and the written procedures are yours whether you continue with us or not.
Tax, e-invoicing, and CFO reporting on the same ledger
CFO Services & Advisory
CFO-level advisory led by a finance director with 30 years running finance functions, with MIS and dashboards as the instrumentation beneath it. Decisions on capital, cash, controls and board reporting, drawn from one reconciled ledger.
Tax & Compliance
A named senior specialist takes every VAT and Corporate Tax position, records the basis in writing, and defends it if the FTA asks. Both run off one ledger, so they reconcile.
E-Invoicing
We map your invoices to the 51 mandatory PINT-AE fields, match the platform to how you actually bill, and wire transmission into the same ledger your VAT return comes from. Compliance and the close, run as one project.
Outsourced accounting in the UAE: common questions
Common questions on outsourced accounting operations, month-end close and reporting standards in the UAE.
Most UAE mainland LLCs are required to have an annual audit under the Commercial Companies Law (Federal Decree-Law 32 of 2021). Beyond that baseline, audit requirements depend on your entity type, jurisdiction, and revenue.
Free zone entities: requirements vary by free zone authority. DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, RAKEZ, and DSO all require annual audited financial statements as a condition of licence renewal. Check your free zone's specific rules.
Corporate tax trigger: under Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025, which applies to tax periods starting on or after 1 January 2025, audited financial statements are required where revenue exceeds AED 50 million for a Taxable Person that is not part of a tax group, for every tax group in the form of audited special purpose financial statements, and for every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue.
Branches of foreign companies: typically required to file audited financial statements with their licensing authority.
See also: What accounting standards apply to UAE businesses?
A bookkeeper maintains ground-level financial integrity. Every transaction is recorded accurately and on time, including the 14-day rule for issuing tax invoices and credit notes, with mandatory documentation kept in Arabic to avoid administrative penalties.
An accountant converts those records into regulatory output. They produce IFRS-compliant financial statements, manage tax filings under the penalty framework introduced by Cabinet Decision 129/2025, and handle technical constraints such as the five-year cap on carrying forward excess recoverable input tax.
A CFO provides strategic oversight across all three. They connect your financial data to business decisions, ensure exposures such as the 15% Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax are properly provisioned for qualifying multinational groups, and move the organisation from reactive compliance to a control-based model where e-invoicing and data quality issues are caught before they reach an auditor.
The difference is scope. A bookkeeper records. An accountant reports. A CFO decides what the numbers mean for the business.
UAE businesses prepare financial statements under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or IFRS for SMEs. Under Ministerial Decision 114 of 2023, IFRS is the accepted standard for UAE Corporate Tax purposes, and your financial statements are the starting point for calculating taxable income, so the standard you apply affects your tax position directly.
The test is revenue, not complexity. A Taxable Person with revenue above AED 50 million must apply full IFRS. At or below AED 50 million you may apply IFRS for SMEs. Cash-basis accounting is only available where revenue does not exceed AED 3 million, or by application to the FTA in exceptional circumstances. Islamic financial institutions follow AAOIFI standards alongside IFRS.
The connection between your accounting standard and your tax return is direct. Your financial statements feed the taxable income calculation, with specific adjustments for non-deductible expenses, exempt income and timing differences. If your statements are not prepared under an accepted standard, the tax return has a problem at the foundation.
Transition normally runs over one close cycle. We take the trial balance and open items, agree the reporting basis and the dates we need information from you, document the processes as they currently stand, then run the first close alongside your existing arrangement.
Where the books are behind, backlog clearance is scoped and priced separately so it does not hold up the first clean close.
No. We work on the system you already run. If you do want to move, we offer a pre-configured cloud ERP set up for UAE compliance and for your sector, but it is optional and priced separately.
The licences stay in your name either way, so the system remains yours whether we set it up or inherit it.
Every engagement has a named reviewer accountable for what comes off your ledger, plus a named backup, both disclosed at onboarding. Transaction processing is handled by a dedicated team working to written procedures, and the reviewer signs off the close.
The point of naming both is continuity. Your close should not depend on one person being available in a given week.
You take it with you. The ERP licences, the chart of accounts, the process documentation and the data are all in your name. We hand over the close calendar and the written procedures so your team can run them.
There is no clause that holds your data and no proprietary format you cannot leave.
Talk to a senior finance specialist
Tell us how your month-end runs today. We will tell you what to fix first and what it is worth. Pricing follows scope: you will know which plan fits and what it covers, before you commit to anything.
