How working with us actually works

Recurring compliance work — bookkeeping, payroll, routine tax filings — is quoted as a fixed periodic fee, so you can budget for it. Project work such as audits, investigations and advisory engagements is quoted per engagement after a scoping review, because the effort depends on the state of the records. We do not put open-ended hourly billing on routine compliance.

Because the honest answer depends on what condition your records are in, and we cannot know that from a description. A short scoping review costs you nothing and produces a number we will stand behind, rather than an estimate that moves later.

Yes. The introductory call is at no charge and carries no obligation to engage us. If we think another firm is a better fit for what you need, we will say so on that call.

We come back to you before doing it, not afterwards on the invoice. Where a clean-up uncovers materially more than the scoping review suggested, you get a revised scope and fee to approve first.

We work with owner-managed businesses across a range of sectors, with NGOs and donor-funded organisations, and with public-sector and parastatal entities. The practice has particular depth in public-sector audit and in the financial administration of entities carrying public accountability requirements.

No. Independence requirements prevent a firm from auditing financial statements it prepared. Where an audit is required we either prepare the accounts and work alongside your appointed auditor, or perform the audit on accounts prepared elsewhere. It is worth settling that split before year end rather than during it.

Yes — PAYE computation, monthly remittances and returns, benefit valuations and the annual reconciliation. NSSA and any National Employment Council obligations are separate regimes and we track those separately.

Call before you start asking questions internally. The most common way an investigation is compromised is an internal enquiry that alerts the subject before evidence is secured. See our forensic audit page for how these engagements are scoped.

Recoverable, in almost every case, but the sequence matters. Quantify the exposure and establish what input tax is recoverable against it before approaching ZIMRA — a computed position with a proposal is a materially better outcome than the same liability found on audit. What does not work is an unprepared admission.

Yes. Registration creates filing obligations whether or not you traded, and nil returns are still returns. Unfiled periods on a dormant company routinely block a tax clearance application years later.

Deliberately not. Rates, thresholds and deadlines are amended regularly, commonly through the annual Finance Act, and a figure published on a website ages badly. Our Insights articles explain how each obligation is structured and flag exactly which figures you need to confirm against current ZIMRA sources.

Retention periods come from several statutes at once — the Income Tax Act, the VAT Act and the Companies and Other Business Entities Act — and they do not perfectly align. The practical rule is to retain for the longest applicable period. We cover the detail in our record-keeping article.