Bookkeeping for an Offshore Company: Tools and Routine

Good bookkeeping for an offshore company is mostly about habit. The law asks an Authorised Company to be able to show what it earned, what it spent and who stands behind it. Whether you record transactions yourself or hand the task to a professional, the quality of the underlying records decides how painful every later step will be: the annual filing, a bank review, a question from a client or a tax authority in your home country.

This page is about the day-to-day side: who keeps the books, which tools suit a small structure, what rhythm works and which documents to retain. How the year-end statements themselves are built is covered in accounting records for an Authorised Company.

Why records matter even for a small, quiet company

An Authorised Company is a company authorised under section 71A of the Financial Services Act 2007 (FSA). It is treated as operating outside Mauritius, and its central management and control must sit outside Mauritius. That does not make record-keeping optional. Several parties look at your paperwork, each for a different reason:

• The FSC receives an annual financial summary, filed within six months after the end of the financial year, in the format of the Ninth Schedule of the Companies Act (or other documents specified by the FSC Rules).
• Your bank wants to see that incoming and outgoing payments match a real activity. Weak records are one of the reasons accounts are questioned; see why banks refuse offshore company accounts.
• Tax authorities elsewhere may ask you to evidence income and costs if your own residence rules reach the company. What applies depends on your situation and calls for a qualified adviser.
• You, when you want to pay a dividend, change provider or sell the company and need a clean history.

Who keeps the books: three realistic models

There is no single correct arrangement. The right one depends on transaction volume, your comfort with accounting and how much of the process you want to control.

A point that surprises many owners: the Mauritian registered agent of an Authorised Company must be a FSC-licensed corporate service provider (Management Licence). Among its statutory functions are filing the returns and documents required under the FSA, the Income Tax Act or the Companies Act, relaying communications with the FSC, the Mauritius Revenue Authority and the Registrar, carrying out anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures, and keeping the company's records such as minutes, resolutions and transaction documents (section 71A(8) FSA).

That list is about corporate and regulatory records. It does not mean your provider keeps your sales ledger. Unless you have agreed a bookkeeping service in writing, assume the commercial books are your responsibility, and ask the question before you sign. The questions to ask a corporate service provider include a line for exactly this.

Self-service: what it takes

Doing it yourself is realistic if you follow a fixed routine and keep every document. It fails when receipts pile up for months and the books are rebuilt from bank statements at year end. If you choose this route, consider paying an accountant for a light review once a year, even if you handle everything else.

Using a third party: what to hand over

If you outsource, the quality of the output depends on the quality of what you send. Agree in advance:

1. How documents reach the bookkeeper (shared folder, forwarding mailbox, accounting software invite).
2. How often bank and payment-platform data is reconciled.
3. Who answers queries, and how fast.
4. Who owns the data and in what format you can export it if you change provider.

Offshore company accounting software: what to look for

You do not need an enterprise system. For most small structures, any mainstream cloud accounting package will do the job. Judge a tool on practical criteria rather than brand:

A spreadsheet can serve a very small, low-volume company, but it carries two risks: silent formula errors and no audit trail. If you start with a spreadsheet, plan the move to proper software before volume grows.

Two things are worth setting up from day one, whatever the tool:

• One chart of accounts, kept simple, that separates revenue streams, platform fees, contractor costs and owner transactions.
• One base currency for reporting, with exchange rates taken from a consistent source.

A routine that holds up

Records are easiest to keep when each task is small and scheduled. The sequence below is a template; adjust the rhythm to your volume.

Weekly and monthly habits

• Weekly: photograph or download receipts as they arrive; do not wait for month end.
• Monthly: reconcile, review and archive, as in the cycle above.
• Quarterly: check indirect-tax questions if you sell to consumers abroad; see VAT when selling to EU customers, and check whether any income received has been subject to deductions at source (withholding tax on payments received).
• Yearly: close the period, prepare the figures for the financial summary and diarise statutory deadlines with the help of the yearly checklist for an Authorised Company.

Keep the owner's money separate

Never pay private expenses from the company account, and never pay company costs from a personal account without recording it as a loan or an owner contribution. Mixed finances are one of the fastest ways to weaken the credibility of the whole structure, and they make the year-end work much harder. If you want to take money out, follow the rules in paying yourself from an offshore company rather than improvising.

What to keep: documents and registers

Two families of records exist: the commercial books and the corporate registers. Keep both in an orderly, retrievable form.

Commercial records

• Sales invoices and credit notes, with the contract or order behind each.
• Supplier invoices and receipts.
• Contractor agreements and proof of payment.
• Bank and payment-platform statements, in every currency held.
• Records of loans, owner contributions and any distribution.
• Notes explaining any unusual transaction.

Corporate and ownership records

• Beneficial ownership. Every Mauritian company must at all times identify its beneficial owner and, where relevant, any nominee, and record them in a separate register: full name and residential address, national identity or passport number, nationality and the ownership structure that identifies the ultimate beneficial owner (Companies Act 2001, section 91(3A), as updated on 15 May 2026). The company must also keep a trace of its identification steps, including a written declaration from the beneficial owner, who must tell the company of any change in status.
• Registrar's register. The Registrar of Companies holds a Beneficial Ownership Register that competent authorities can access; the Companies Act does not describe it as public. For the practical meaning of this, read whether the owner of an offshore company is private.
• Minutes, resolutions and the constitution. Your registered agent keeps records of these on its side, but hold your own copies too.

How long to keep records

The Companies Act and tax rules set the retention periods that apply to your company, and the answer can differ by record type. Ask your adviser for the exact periods rather than relying on a general rule. For context, the anti-money laundering law (FIAMLA) obliges regulated professionals, which include company service providers, to retain customer due diligence records and transaction records for at least seven years after the end of the business relationship or the transaction respectively (section 17F). That is an obligation on the provider, not on your company, but it explains why your provider will ask you for identity documents and may keep them long after the relationship ends.

A practical approach is to keep everything for the longest period any adviser suggests, in a form that can be produced quickly.

Decide your bookkeeping set-up

Common mistakes

• Rebuilding the year from the bank statement. Without invoices and contracts, entries cannot be explained.
• Ignoring currencies. A single balance in one currency hides the real movements.
• Assuming the provider keeps the commercial books. Its duties under section 71A(8) FSA are corporate and regulatory.
• No back-up. Cloud tools fail or accounts get locked; export key reports regularly.
• Late filing of fees and summaries. Annual fees are paid through the FSC One platform, and the FSC has moved the payment deadline in some cycles, so check the current date with your provider. Late payment brings a higher fee. See annual fees and the overview of annual obligations.

Year-end checklist

Use this short list before handing figures to your accountant or provider.

• Every bank and payment account reconciled to the last day of the year
• All sales and purchase documents attached to entries
• Foreign-currency balances revalued consistently
• Owner loans, contributions and distributions identified and explained
• Beneficial ownership register and declarations up to date
• Minutes and resolutions for the year saved
• Back-up of the full ledger and supporting files stored in a second location
• Questions for the adviser listed, including home-country reporting