Has anyone confirmed those debtor balances with the debtor?
Delhi's wholesale trade runs on credit and on relationships, and its books reflect that. Debtor balances accumulate over years, are settled by understanding rather than by document, and are rarely confirmed with the counterparty. That works commercially until somebody needs the number to be true, which is usually a lender, a buyer, an assessing officer, or the family during a succession.
Very high party counts, long credit cycles, thin item masters because goods are described loosely, substantial cash movement, and ledgers that have accumulated across decades without anyone archiving the dormant ones.
Balance confirmation is the unglamorous discipline that Delhi trading books most need and least often have. A debtor ledger nobody has confirmed is an estimate, and an estimate that has compounded for six years is not recoverable in any practical sense even where it is real. The monthly close is where this gets fixed incrementally: age the ledger, confirm the significant balances on a rolling basis, and write off what is genuinely gone rather than carrying it forward because writing it off feels like an admission. The same applies on the creditor side, where MSME suppliers now need identifying separately because unpaid dues to them defer your own deduction.
Delhi does not levy professional tax, so the monthly payroll cycle covers PF and ESI without a PT component for staff working in Delhi.
The reason this stopped being a matter of tidiness is that reconciliation moved upstream of the return. Auto-populated outward liability in GSTR-3B has been non-editable since the July 2025 tax period and Table 3.2 has been system-locked since the November 2025 period, so a mistake in GSTR-1 is corrected through GSTR-1A before you file rather than adjusted afterwards. The Invoice Management System treats inaction on an inward invoice as acceptance, so input credit is settled by what happened during the month. And a GSTR-3B cannot be filed more than three years after its due date, so an old backlog is a shrinking asset rather than a static problem. The month is now where compliance is decided, and the return only reports it.
| Item | Position as at August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Who must keep books, individuals and HUF | Income above Rs 2,50,000 or turnover above Rs 25 lakh in any of the 3 preceding years |
| Who must keep books, others | Income above Rs 1,20,000 or turnover above Rs 10 lakh, on the same test |
| Governing provision | Section 62 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, which carries forward the old section 44AA |
| Penalty for not keeping them | Rs 25,000 under section 441 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 |
| Electronic books | Rule 46(8) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 requires a daily backup on servers located in India |
| Retention, income tax | Seven tax years from the end of the relevant tax year, under Rule 46(9) |
| Retention, Companies Act | Eight financial years, section 128(5). The longest applicable period governs |
| Retention, GST | 72 months from the due date of the annual return, extended during proceedings |
| GST edit log | Rule 56(8). Required for electronic records, every registered person, since 2017 |
| Company audit trail | Rule 3(1), Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014, financial years from 1 April 2023 |
| GSTR-3B outward liability | Auto-populated and non-editable since the July 2025 tax period |
| MSME creditors | Deduction deferred until paid where a micro or small supplier is paid late |
| Plan | Fee | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Rs 2,499 a month | Up to 100 transactions a month, one GSTIN |
| Growth | Rs 6,999 a month | Up to 400 transactions, up to three GSTINs |
| Controller | Rs 17,999 a month | High volume, multi-state, or reporting to outsiders |
| Backlog clean-up | From Rs 9,999 | Prior periods rebuilt, sequenced oldest first |
| Books health check | Rs 4,999 | Written diagnosis, credited against the first retainer |
Priced on transaction volume and the number of GSTINs rather than on turnover, because that is what actually drives the work.
Every price above is a professional fee, excluding GST and government charges. 50% on delivery.
All fees and charges listed are indicative only and do not constitute a binding offer. Final amounts may vary depending on the volume of work and the complexity involved.
Age it, confirm the significant balances on a rolling basis, and deal with what is genuinely irrecoverable rather than carrying it forward indefinitely. A ledger nobody has confirmed is an estimate, and an estimate compounded over six years distorts every ratio a lender or a buyer will look at. The monthly close is the right place to do this incrementally, a few balances at a time, rather than as a single painful exercise.
It raises the standard rather than lowering it. Cash movements need recording with the same discipline as banked ones, and the cash balance has to be verifiable at any point. It also affects tax audit thresholds, since the higher turnover threshold is available only where cash receipts and payments are both within 5 per cent of the totals. Businesses running substantial cash frequently assume they are under the audit limit when the cash proportion has taken them over it.
Separate GSTINs in those states, each with its own monthly GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, filed whether or not anything sold from there in the month. It also means stock records by location, because goods not accounted for can be treated as supplied and taxed. NCR businesses routinely treat the three jurisdictions as one operation commercially and then discover they are three separate monthly compliance cycles.
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Reviewed by the CA and CS Team, CorporateWalla · Last updated 17 August 2026 · · Sources: GST portal, Income Tax Department, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Udyam Registration portal
Canonical: https://corporatewalla.com/services/monthly-bookkeeping/delhi
