Ask most foreign parents what they receive from India each month and the answer is a trial balance, sent when someone remembers. It technically satisfies the request. It answers almost nothing.
A foreign parent should receive a fixed monthly pack from its India entity by a committed date: financial statements in both Indian and group format, a cash position, a compliance status line for every statutory filing due that month, and a short commentary on what moved. The value is not in the numbers arriving. It is in them arriving in the same shape, on the same date, every month.
Not getting what you need from India each month? WhatsApp us and we will show you what a proper monthly pack contains.
Quick Summary — What Belongs in the Pack
| Section | What it contains | Why the parent needs it |
| Financials | P&L, balance sheet, cash flow | The base numbers, in both formats |
| Cash | Closing balance, reconciled, plus forecast | Tells you when the next funding is needed |
| Compliance status | Every filing due that month, marked filed or not | The parent cannot see Indian portals |
| Payroll summary | Headcount, cost, statutory deposits confirmed | Usually the largest cost line |
| Receivables and payables | Ageing, and anything overdue | Where cash is actually sitting |
| Commentary | Half a page on what moved and why | The part nobody sends and everybody wants |
The Compliance Line Is the One That Matters Most
A parent sitting outside India cannot log into the GST portal, the income tax portal, EPFO or the MCA site. It has no way of confirming that anything was filed. It finds out when a notice arrives, usually months later, usually in the middle of something else.
So the pack needs a compliance section that lists each obligation falling due that month and marks it filed or not filed, with the date and the acknowledgment reference. GST returns, TDS deposit and quarterly return, EPF and ESIC deposits with the challan, advance tax where an instalment fell due, and any ROC filing.
Two rules make this useful rather than decorative. Every line carries a reference number, not a tick. And an unfiled item stays visible in the following month’s pack until it is cleared, rather than quietly disappearing.
Financials in Two Formats
The India entity keeps its books under Indian accounting standards, in rupees. The parent consolidates under its own framework, in its own currency. Somebody has to bridge the two, and the honest question is who.
The workable arrangement is that the pack carries both. Statutory figures in the Indian format, and the same figures mapped to the group chart of accounts and translated. Agree the translation basis in advance — which rate applies to which line — so that the same month does not produce two different numbers depending on who prepared it.
Where the mapping is done once and reused, this costs almost nothing each month. Where it is redone from scratch every time, it becomes the reason the pack is always late.
Cash, Which Is Not the Same as Profit
A new India entity is usually funded by the parent and often loss-making by design. The question the parent is actually asking is when the next transfer is needed and how much.
That needs a reconciled closing balance, not a book figure, plus a short forward view of committed outflows — payroll, statutory deposits, rent, vendor payments. Three months ahead is enough. It turns funding from a monthly scramble into a scheduled decision, and it removes the transfers that get made in a hurry and characterised later.
Payroll, Because It Is Where the Money Goes
For most India subsidiaries payroll is the largest cost by a wide margin, and it is also where statutory exposure concentrates.
The summary needs headcount with joiners and leavers, total cost including employer contributions, and confirmation that the statutory deposits were actually made with challan references. That last point is the one that gets skipped. Payroll being processed and payroll deposits being made are two different events, and only one of them is visible in the payslips.
The Commentary
Half a page of plain English explaining what changed and why. Which costs moved and what drove them. Anything unusual in the month. Anything the parent needs to decide.
This is the part that separates a reporting pack from a data dump, and it is almost always missing. A parent reading numbers from a jurisdiction it does not know cannot tell whether a movement is routine or a problem. Someone who understands the operation has to say so.
A Date, and the Same Date Every Month
The single biggest improvement most groups can make is not adding a schedule. It is committing to a date.
Indian statutory deadlines cluster in the first three weeks of a month, which means a pack landing on the 25th is describing decisions that have already been taken. By the 15th is realistic for most entities and early enough to be useful. Whatever date is agreed, hold it — a pack that arrives when it is ready is one nobody plans around.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a trial balance enough?
It gives you the numbers and nothing else. No compliance visibility, no cash view, no explanation. It is a starting point, not a reporting pack.
Our entity is small. Is monthly reporting excessive?
The pack scales with the entity. A ten-person subsidiary needs two or three pages. What does not scale down is the compliance section, because a missed filing costs the same whatever the headcount.
Can our payroll platform produce this?
It produces the payroll section. Financials, cash, compliance status and commentary come from whoever maintains the books. Assign the assembly to one person rather than leaving the parent to collect pieces.
Who should prepare it?
Whoever maintains the books, since every section draws on them. A virtual CFO arrangement typically covers the commentary and the forward cash view on top of standard bookkeeping.
Does this replace the statutory audit?
No. Every Indian company is audited annually regardless of size, by an auditor independent of the firm keeping the books. Good monthly reporting makes the audit faster, but does not remove it.
What if the pack is always late?
Usually the monthly close is not actually being done — the books are being caught up when the pack is requested. Fix the close discipline and the reporting date follows.
References
- Companies Act, 2013 — books of account and annual audit requirements
- CGST Act, 2017 — return filing periodicity
- Income Tax Act, 1961 — TDS deposit and return timelines, advance tax instalments
- Employees’ Provident Funds Act, 1952 and Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 — monthly deposits
⚠️ Which filings fall due each month depends on your registrations, turnover and headcount. Build the compliance section from your own obligations rather than a generic list, and confirm it with your advisor.
Related Reading: India’s Financial Year Ends in March. Your Parent’s Doesn’t. · Who Actually Does What: A Vendor Map for Your India Subsidiary · What a Monthly MIS Report Should Contain
Call or WhatsApp: +91 7448200422 Email: info@taxkitab.com See our Virtual CFO service, or explore Global Desk if your parent sits outside India.
Related Reading
- Payroll in India for a Foreign Company: PF, ESIC, PT, TDS
- India’s Financial Year Ends in March. Your Parent’s Doesn’t.
- Outsourced Bookkeeping for US Small Businesses
Need help with this? TaxKitab handles Global Payroll for businesses across India and overseas. Talk to us.
