Tax & Compliance·8 min read
Accounting & Bookkeeping for Indian Startups: What Good Looks Like
Clean monthly books mean faster ITR, credible investor diligence, and GST ITC you can actually defend.
May 20, 2025
What you'll take away
- Separate company and founder transactions from day one.
- Monthly P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow—not just an annual scramble.
- Chart of accounts aligned to GST and TDS from the start.
- Pelago delivers monthly MIS founders can read.
Minimum viable finance stack
Current account only for business, accounting software (Zoho/Tally), invoice numbering, and expense policy for founders.
Reimbursement sheets beat personal card chaos at audit time.
Monthly deliverables
- Bank reconciliation.
- Accounts payable/receivable aging.
- GST-ready revenue and expense classification.
- Burn rate and runway dashboard.
Books messy after year one?
Catch-up bookkeeping + monthly accounting with GST/TDS sync.
Start bookkeepingWhen investors ask for data
Due diligence wants 24-month trends, related-party disclosures, and cap table tie to share capital in books.
Pelago keeps books audit-ready so statutory audit is a checkpoint—not a rebuild.
Founder tip: Tag every Razorpay/PG settlement to invoices—unexplained 'other income' scares CAs.
Catch-up vs ongoing
Missed a year? We reconstruct from bank/GST and normalize before ROC/ITR deadlines. Then move to monthly retainer.