Can you close every GSTIN by the 10th, not just the biggest one?
Mumbai books fail on volume rather than on complexity. A distribution or trading business here can raise several hundred documents a month across three or four state registrations, and the close does not break because anyone made a mistake. It breaks because there is more work than the cut-off allows, so the largest GSTIN gets reconciled properly and the smaller ones get a summary. Those smaller registrations are where the notices come from.
High document volume, long debtor and creditor ledgers, several GSTINs under one entity, and a chart of accounts that has accumulated party ledgers over years. Financial services and broking entities bring a different profile again, with many small ledgers that were never intended to be permanent.
The multi-GSTIN close is the specific Mumbai discipline and it is where a generic arrangement fails. Each registration has its own outward supplies, its own inward credit, its own IMS position and its own GSTR-1 by the 11th. Since the liability tables in GSTR-3B were locked, a registration that was reconciled loosely can no longer be tidied up at the return stage. In practice that means every GSTIN needs the same close, on the same date, with the same rigour, and the temptation to triage by size is precisely what creates exposure at the registrations nobody is watching.
Maharashtra levies professional tax, so PTEC and PTRC run through the monthly payroll cycle alongside PF and ESI, with the February instalment that trips systems configured on a flat monthly assumption.
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.
Yes, and this is where most multi-state arrangements quietly fail. Each registration files its own GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, has its own IMS position and its own input credit reconciliation, and since the liability tables were locked none of it can be corrected at the return stage. Closing the largest registration properly and summarising the rest is the commonest pattern we take over, and it is invariably the smaller registrations that have accumulated the problems.
On transaction volume and GSTIN count rather than on turnover, because that is what actually drives the work. At that level you are past the Growth tier and into Controller, where the close is staffed to hit the 10th across every registration rather than sequentially. We would rather quote for what the volume genuinely requires than agree a low fee and then miss the date every month.
Yes, and it is a chart of accounts problem rather than a bookkeeping one. Where every cost sits in a handful of general ledgers, no report can show which product, channel or branch actually earns. Redesigning the chart is a one-time exercise that includes remapping historical balances so comparatives still work. For a Mumbai trading business with several lines under one entity it is usually the single highest-value change available.
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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
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