Accounting for Consultants and Service Businesses in Delhi

Every month opens with the same handover: bank statements, the sales invoice file, purchase bills and a timesheet export. Back comes a coded ledger, an engagement-wise statement of the work still open, and a reconciliation of the tax your clients have deducted against your books. For a practice holding a Connaught Place lease the rent line returns split as well, licence fee apart from maintenance, because the two are not treated alike. A working guide for consultancies shows the exchange.

The work changes shape once subcontracted associates outnumber salaried staff, because each associate bill has to be accrued against the engagement it served and deducted on before payment, not at year end. Service sector accounting in Delhi absorbs that alongside the month-end close and ledger review, with returns lodged through the GST portal. Litigation support and valuation work stay separate.

From Nehru Place to Okhla and Netaji Subhash Place, agencies and consultancies invoice for advice and creative output, not goods on a shelf. Because the fee is earned before the bill is raised, service industry accounting in Delhi puts a value on that unbilled work before month close.

• Management consultancies near Connaught Place carrying advice already delivered but still waiting to be invoiced.
• Advertising and media shops in Okhla running client retainers beside one-off project fees on a single brand.
• Architecture and design practices billing in stages, valuing each drawing set before the fee note issues.
• PR and events agencies fronting venue and print costs that clients reimburse well after the event.
• Management and professional-services firms invoicing customers in other states, fixing place-of-supply on each contract.
• Legal and tax advisers testing the Section 194J TDS a client deducts against Form 26AS.
• Firms with salaried consultants where the Delhi Labour Welfare Fund applies in place of profession tax.

A Delhi practice pays no profession tax, so it contributes an establishment certificate, the welfare fund statement, and STPI papers where services are exported.

• Signed engagement letters, SOWs and retainer agreements with fee basis and milestone terms
• Timesheets / time-tracking export by client, project and person
• Unbilled revenue / work-in-progress schedule and the billing plan for open engagements
• Advance / retainer receipts register showing unadjusted client advances
• Reimbursable / pass-through expense records with client approval and supporting third-party bills
• Sales invoices raised, with credit notes and write-offs
• Bank statements for all accounts, and business credit card statements
• Registration certificate under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954
• Delhi Labour Welfare Fund Form A statement and half-yearly contribution challan (six months ending 30 June and 31 December)
• STPI registration/Letter of Permission with MPR, Annual Performance Report, and SOFTEX certifications (or the Export Declaration Form for periods from 1 October 2026), only where you are STPI-registered

Service firms and consultancies in Delhi are charged the same INR 2,499 Starter fee we quote nationally, because invoice volume and receivable tracking set the price, not your location. Rising invoice counts or a second entity lift the tier. Local statutory registrations, if any, are billed at actuals. Schedule a pricing consultation on +91 94594 56700.

Fees exclude GST and government charges. Final quote confirmed after a scoping review.

All fees and charges listed are indicative only and do not constitute a binding offer. Final amounts may vary depending on the volume of work and the complexity involved.

Professional accounting and compliance charges are scoped to your number of entities, funding stage and monthly transaction volume, and are separate from statutory and government charges. Contact us for a detailed, fixed quote.

Get a free Service Sector Accounting consultation - Call +91 945 945 6700 or WhatsApp us. No-obligation assessment.

A Delhi consultancy runs its professional payroll without profession tax, a saving unavailable to a Mumbai firm, and instead manages a central regime built on where a service is supplied. In a city on the NCR edge, that place-of-supply question is sharper than most.

With no state payroll tax to run, the compliance turns on the central place-of-supply and TDS rules. Income is booked as the service is rendered, professional fees are deducted at source, and a client over the NCR line reads as inter-state, so Unbilled Revenue (WIP Hours) is tracked carefully. Service industry accounting in Delhi answers to the provisions below.

• No profession tax in DelhiProfessional and support staff carry no profession-tax deduction, unlike their Maharashtra counterparts.
• Sections 12 and 13, IGST Act 2017The place-of-supply test decides intra-state versus inter-state treatment, which is unusually live for a client just across the NCR line.
• Section 194J, Income-tax Act 1961A 10% deduction applies to professional fees, or 2% where the service is technical, tracked against Form 26AS.
• Section 25(4), CGST Act 2017A Delhi office and an NCR branch are distinct persons, so inter-branch service supplies are invoiced and valued.
• AS 9 / Ind AS 115 with Rule 3(1), Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014Income is recognised as the service is rendered, with the audit trail running behind every entry. Full national detail sits on the parent service-sector page.

Official sources: Ministry of Corporate Affairs · Income Tax Department · GST Portal · Startup India (DPIIT)

TDS / TCS deposit (Challan ITNS-281) is due 7th of every month (30 April for March). GSTR-1 (outward supplies) is due 11th of every month for monthly filers. GSTR-3B (summary return and tax payment) is due 20th monthly for turnover above Rs 5 crore; 24th quarterly under QRMP for turnover up to Rs 5 crore (Category Y). Patron tracks each against your books so nothing is reconstructed after the fact. Call +91 94594 56700 to set up a filing-reminder schedule.

Bookkeeping left half done costs a consultancy its own chargeable hours. A director spends a Saturday coding bank lines; a manager reformats the same figures for a third audience inside one month. Neither of those hours is billable to anybody. Service industry accounting in Delhi turns that time back into fee earning work.

One figure earns its place in accounting for agencies in Delhi: what a chargeable day must recover before the practice covers itself. With salaries, associate cost and office charge sitting behind it, a rate quoted to a client can be tested against a number, and a discount stops being invisible.

Your monthly reporting pack is mapped before anything else. Who reads it, and whether partners settle profit between themselves on those numbers. How soon after the month end the figures have to exist sets the calendar that the recurring work runs to, matching how professional practices are handled.