The grammar of business.

The regulators and the profession

ACRA

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority — Singapore's regulator of companies, business names and public accountants. Your Annual Return goes here, and so do the penalties when it doesn't.

IRAS

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore — the tax authority. ECI, corporate tax returns and GST all flow to IRAS, on IRAS's schedule, not yours.

ISCA

The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, the national accountancy body. It confers the CA (Singapore) designation and accredits training organisations like ours.

CA (Singapore)

Chartered Accountant of Singapore — the professional designation that replaced CPA in 2013. Most people never noticed the change; the full story is in our acronyms piece.

PA (Public Accountant)

An accountant registered with ACRA to perform statutory audits — fewer than 3% of Chartered Accountants are one. Only PAs may sign audit reports in Singapore.

FCA (Singapore)

Fellow Chartered Accountant — ISCA's senior membership tier, held by experienced practitioners. It's the "F" in our founder's letters.

ACVA

Associate Chartered Valuer and Appraiser — a business-valuation credential under the Institute of Valuers and Appraisers, Singapore. It's what lets an accountant also put a defensible number on a whole business.

SCAQ

The Singapore CA Qualification — exams plus at least three years of practical experience with an Accredited Training Organisation. Echtual is an ATO, so that experience can be served here.

The compliance calendar

FYE (financial year end)

The last day of your company's accounting year. Nearly every deadline you'll ever miss counts forward from this date — calculate yours here.

AGM

The Annual General Meeting, generally due within 6 months of FYE for non-listed companies. Private companies can be exempted or dispense with it entirely — but the paperwork saying so still has to exist.

Annual Return

The yearly filing to ACRA confirming your company's particulars, due within 7 months of FYE. Late-lodgement penalties start at S$300 and the record follows the directors, not just the company.

ECI

Estimated Chargeable Income — a good-faith estimate of taxable profit filed with IRAS within 3 months of FYE. Yes, before the accounts are even done; that's why it says "estimated".

Form C-S / Form C

The corporate income tax return, due by 30 November of the Year of Assessment. C-S is the simplified version most SMEs qualify for; Form C is the full works.

YA (Year of Assessment)

The tax year in which income is assessed — profits of a financial year ending anywhere in 2026 are assessed in YA 2027. The one-year offset confuses everyone at least once.

GST

Goods and Services Tax, currently 9%. Registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million over 12 months — and voluntarily registering earlier sometimes pays.

XBRL

eXtensible Business Reporting Language — the machine-readable format in which most companies must file financial statements with ACRA (full set from S$500,000 revenue). Fiddly, mechanically judged, and exactly the kind of thing to outsource.

EPC (exempt private company)

A private company with at most 20 shareholders and none of them corporate. Solvent EPCs are generally exempt from filing financial statements with ACRA — a declaration of solvency does the job.

Small company (audit exemption)

A private company meeting two of three criteria — revenue ≤ S$10M, assets ≤ S$10M, 50 or fewer employees — for the past two consecutive financial years. Pass and no statutory audit is required; groups must pass the same test consolidated. Full guide and checker here.

UEN

Unique Entity Number — the identifier every Singapore-registered entity uses with government agencies. If a form asks for one number, it's this one.

The accounts themselves

SFRS

Singapore Financial Reporting Standards — the grammar of the language. They're what makes one company's story comparable with another's.

FRS 118

The incoming presentation standard, effective for annual periods beginning 1 January 2027, that restructures the income statement into operating, investing and financing categories. Charts of accounts set up for it now avoid a painful re-mapping later — we do that.

Management accounts

The internal set — trial balance, balance sheet and profit and loss — produced for running the business, not for statutory filing. They're also the first thing we ask for when quoting an audit.

Trial balance

The list of every ledger account with its debit or credit balance. If it doesn't balance, nothing built on top of it can be trusted — hence the name.

Consolidation

Combining a parent and its subsidiaries into one set of group financial statements, as if they were a single company. Intercompany balances cancel out; surprises usually don't.

Assurance and valuation

Statutory audit

The independent examination of financial statements required by the Companies Act, ending in an opinion on whether they show a true and fair view. Done properly, it also tells you something useful about your own business — how ours run.

Limited review

A lighter assurance engagement than an audit: inquiry and analytical procedures rather than full verification. For when a lender or investor wants comfort but nobody needs the full works.

Due diligence

The investigation of a business's numbers before a transaction — quality of earnings, working capital, and the liabilities nobody mentioned. Cheaper than finding out after completion.

IVS

International Valuation Standards — the global framework professional valuations align with. No two valuers land on the same number, but standards keep the range honest.

DCF

Discounted cash flow — valuing a business off its projected future cash flows, discounted back to today. The forecast is the single most important input, which is why we keep asking for it.

Missing a term you've been nodding along to in meetings? Tell us — if you're wondering, others are too.