Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping Services in Dubai
We record every sale, purchase and bank line each month, reconcile it, and send you books you can file VAT and Corporate Tax from.
- Every bank and card account reconciled to the statement, every month
- Ledgers coded so the VAT return comes straight out of them
- A short close pack you can read in ten minutes
What you get every month
Who this is for
- You file VAT from a spreadsheetAnd each quarter the totals take a week to agree.
- Receipts live in a shoebox or a WhatsApp chatNobody has matched them to the bank since spring.
- You have outgrown doing it yourselfTwo bank accounts, a card terminal and a supplier on credit is where it breaks.
- Your accountant only appears at year-endThen asks for twelve months of paperwork in a fortnight.
What is included
- Sales, purchase and expense entries posted from your invoices and receipts
- Bank, card terminal and petty cash reconciled to the statement balance
- Supplier and customer balances you can chase from
- VAT coding checked line by line: standard, zero-rated, exempt or out of scope
- Tax invoices filed against each entry, so an FTA request takes minutes
- A monthly close pack: trial balance, profit and loss, and a note on what moved
- Records kept for the periods the law sets, and handed over in full if you leave
What each kind of help actually covers
| You need | Usually enough | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Clean monthly records and VAT-ready ledgers | Outsourced bookkeeping | Management reporting, budgets and year-end statements |
| Monthly reports you make decisions from | Outsourced accounting | Day-to-day data entry inside your office |
| Someone at a desk handling cash and paperwork daily | In-house bookkeeper | Review: one person checking their own work |
What bookkeeping costs in Dubai
Exiloz quotes each business after a free review, because two companies with the same turnover can need very different amounts of work. To help you judge any quote, ours included, this is what the market charges.
| Business profile | Typical monthly volume | Market range per month |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer or micro company, no VAT | Up to about 50 transactions | AED 500 to AED 1,500 |
| Small business, VAT-registered | About 50 to 150 transactions | AED 1,000 to AED 2,500 |
| Growing SME with payroll or stock | About 150 to 300 transactions | AED 2,500 to AED 4,500 |
| Several entities, currencies or locations | 300 transactions and up | AED 4,500 and up |
Ranges compiled from packages and price guides published by Dubai accounting firms, October 2026. Excludes 5% VAT.
Volume is only one driver. These move a quote more than turnover does:
- The number of bank accounts, cards and currencies to reconcile
- Stock, because inventory needs counts, costing and valuation
- Payroll, especially with WPS files and end-of-service accruals
- Whether VAT returns are filed by the same team or by someone else
- How far behind the books are when we start
A cheap quote is often cheap because something is missing. Ask whether it includes bank reconciliations every month, VAT return preparation, and a review by someone other than the person who did the entries. If it does not say, assume it does not.
Outsource, hire, use a freelancer or do it yourself?
| Option | Monthly cost | What you also carry | Fits best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | Your own hours | Every error, and the FTA's questions | Under about 30 transactions a month and not VAT-registered |
| Freelance bookkeeper | Varies widely | No second reviewer; cover when they are away | Simple books and a tight budget |
| In-house bookkeeper | AED 3,000 to AED 8,000 salary in Dubai job ads | Visa, medical insurance, leave cover, end-of-service gratuity | Daily paperwork or cash handling on site |
| Outsourced firm | Roughly AED 1,000 to AED 4,500 for most SMEs | Sending documents on time | You want reviewed books without a hire |
Salary range from bookkeeper job advertisements in Dubai, October 2026.
The salary is not the cost of an employee. UAE labour law adds end-of-service gratuity of 21 days' basic salary for each of the first five years, plus a visa, medical insurance and someone to cover leave. And one person checking their own entries is not a review.
Hiring makes sense when someone needs to be physically present every day. For most Dubai SMEs it does not, and outsourcing buys a reviewer as well as a pair of hands.
What we do daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly
- As documents arrive: invoices, bills and receipts are posted and matched to the bank feed.
- Every month: all bank, card and cash accounts are reconciled, supplier and customer balances agreed, and the close pack sent.
- Every VAT quarter: the return is prepared from the reconciled ledger, with a check of every zero-rated and exempt line.
- Every year: year-end adjustments, fixed asset and depreciation schedules, and a file ready for your auditor and your Corporate Tax return.
What Dubai bookkeeping has to cover in 2026
Bookkeeping used to be about knowing your bank balance. In the UAE it is now the evidence behind two tax returns.
VAT records generally have to be kept for five years, and records relating to real estate for fifteen. Article 56 of the Corporate Tax Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, adds its own rule: records that support a Corporate Tax return must be kept for seven years after the end of the tax period they relate to. So a ledger you close this month has to survive until well into the 2030s.
The penalty for not having them is fixed. Under Cabinet Decision No. 40 of 2017, as amended by Cabinet Decision No. 129 of 2025, failing to keep the required records costs AED 10,000 per violation, and AED 20,000 for a repeat within 24 months. Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2023 sets the same two amounts for Corporate Tax.
E-invoicing raises the bar again. Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more were due to appoint an Accredited Service Provider by 30 October 2026 and go live on 1 January 2027. Everyone else appoints by 31 March 2027 and goes live on 1 July 2027. Clean customer and supplier records are the first thing an e-invoicing setup asks for.
A worked month: where the difference usually hides
Take a Dubai trading company with two bank accounts and around 140 transactions a month.
At month-end the bank statement closes at AED 84,300. The ledger says AED 86,050. That is AED 1,750 the books claim the business has and the bank says it does not.
- AED 1,450 of card terminal fees was deducted by the bank and never posted.
- One customer receipt of AED 300 was entered twice: once from the invoice, once from the bank feed.
AED 1,450 plus AED 300 is the AED 1,750. Both are routine. Left alone for a quarter, though, the first one costs money: card fees from a UAE bank usually carry VAT, about AED 69 on AED 1,450, and you can only recover it if the fee is posted and the bank's tax invoice is on file.
This is the whole job in miniature. Finding the AED 1,750 takes minutes in month one and days in month nine.
Switching from your current bookkeeper
Changing provider is where books most often break, because nobody owns the month in the middle. We run it in five steps.
- Access first. You keep ownership of the software; we are added as users, so nothing is locked to a person.
- Handover list. We ask the outgoing bookkeeper for the items on our handover documents list.
- Opening balances agreed. Bank, VAT, supplier and customer balances are tied to evidence before we post anything.
- A clean cut-over date. Everything before it is theirs, everything after is ours, in writing.
- First close reviewed with you. Anything inherited that does not reconcile is listed, not quietly absorbed.
Software, and what we need from you
We work in Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero and Tally. If you have nothing yet, we help you choose software by volume and by whether you hold stock, not by habit.
Each month we need:
- Bank and card statements, or a live bank feed
- Sales invoices and credit notes
- Supplier bills, with the tax invoice where VAT was charged
- Payroll and WPS files, if we are not running payroll for you
- A short note on anything unusual: a loan, an asset bought, a partner withdrawal
Bookkeeping by industry
The ledger is the same everywhere. What goes wrong in it is not.
The mistake we see most
Filing a VAT return from the sales report instead of from reconciled books.
The sales report knows what you invoiced. It does not know about the credit note issued in week three, the deposit received before the invoice, or the refund paid in cash. When those surface later, the return was wrong, and fixing a filed return is a voluntary disclosure rather than a journal entry. Since 14 April 2026 that carries a penalty of 1% a month on the tax difference, counted from the day after the return was due.
Reconcile first, then file. It is the cheapest rule in tax.
How it works
- Send us one monthBank statements, sales and purchase invoices, and access to whatever software you use.
- Free reviewWe tell you how clean the books are and how far behind they sit.
- Fixed monthly quoteBased on transactions and accounts, confirmed in writing.
- We close every monthYour close pack arrives on a date we commit to.
Bookkeeping Services in Dubai — questions we get asked
How much does bookkeeping cost in Dubai?
Published packages from Dubai firms run from about AED 500 a month for a micro company to AED 4,500 or more for a growing SME with payroll and stock. The real drivers are transaction volume, the number of accounts, stock and payroll. We quote a fixed monthly fee after the free review, in writing.
Is it cheaper to hire a bookkeeper or outsource?
For most SMEs, outsourcing. Dubai job ads put bookkeeper salaries at about AED 3,000 to AED 8,000 a month, before the visa, medical insurance, leave cover and end-of-service gratuity. An outsourced firm also gives you a second person reviewing the work.
What is the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?
Bookkeeping records and reconciles what happened. Accounting turns those records into reports, statements and tax positions. Most SMEs need both, and our accounting services start where this leaves off.
Which software do you use?
Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero and Tally. If you have nothing yet we recommend one based on volume and whether you hold stock.
What documents do you need each month?
Bank and card statements, sales invoices and credit notes, supplier bills with tax invoices, and payroll files if we do not run payroll. A live bank feed saves most of the chasing.
How quickly can you start?
The free review takes fifteen minutes. Once you accept the quote and give us access, the first month is worked straight away. If there is a backlog, we agree its date separately.
Who can see our financial data?
Your data stays in your own software subscription. We are added as users, and you can remove our access at any time. We do not move your books into a system you do not control.
How long must a UAE business keep its books?
VAT records generally for five years, real estate records for fifteen, and Corporate Tax records for seven years after the end of the tax period under Article 56 of Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022.
What happens if the FTA asks for records we do not have?
The fixed penalty for failing to keep required records is AED 10,000 per violation, or AED 20,000 for a repeat within 24 months, for both VAT and Corporate Tax.
Do you work with businesses outside Dubai?
Yes. Bookkeeping is done remotely, so a company in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi or a free zone is handled the same way. On-site visits are arranged case by case.
We are months behind. Can you still take us on?
Yes. We clear the backlog first, then move you onto the monthly cycle. See catch-up bookkeeping for how that works.
Book your free compliance review
Fifteen minutes, no charge, and you leave with a written summary of where you stand whether or not you engage us.
