CA, Online Platform or In-House Accountant: Who Does What

A practising chartered accountant or CA firm works with you directly, usually through a named person who knows your books. An online compliance platform offers filings through a website or app, often with a support team instead of one fixed contact. An in-house accountant is your employee, working inside your shop or office on your records every day.

These are not exclusive choices. Many small companies keep an in-house accountant for day-to-day books and use an outside professional for filings that need certification. What matters is that each task has a clearly named owner, and that the arrangement is written down.

The matrix below lists the questions that usually decide the choice. Each cell shows the typical pattern and what you should confirm. It does not describe any particular provider.

Read across each row and mark which risk matters most to your business. A company that receives frequent queries may weight notice handling heavily. A company with one long-serving accountant should weight handoff risk.

The statutory registers, minutes, filed forms and acknowledgements belong to the company. Problems arise when copies live only in a provider's folder or a former employee's email. Keep a master set in storage that the company controls, with logins held by a director rather than the provider.

Portal credentials deserve special care. Make sure the company's own email and mobile number sit on official portal accounts and digital signature records wherever possible, so that recovery does not depend on a third party.

Ask these questions before you sign up, and keep the answers in writing. The same questions work for a new in-house hire if you reword them as job duties.

• ✓Where will our documents and filed forms be stored, and can we access them at any time?
• ✓In what format can we export everything, and is export available after the engagement ends?
• ✓Whose email and mobile number will be registered on portal accounts used for our filings?
• ✓Who prepares each filing, and who certifies or signs it where certification is required?
• ✓Will we receive a copy of every filed form and its acknowledgement as soon as it is filed?
• ✓Are notice replies covered, who drafts them, and how will we be told a notice has arrived?
• ✓What is the normal response time, and who do we escalate to if it is missed?
• ✓What does the handover pack contain if we move to another provider?
• ✓How much notice is required to exit, and what happens to our data afterwards?

For a structured way to exchange documents with an outside firm, see the guide on document collection for CA firms without WhatsApp chaos.

1. Name an internal owner for each filing, even when an outside party does the work.
2. Keep a compliance calendar inside the company, not only with the provider.
3. Save every filed form and acknowledgement to the company's master folder after each filing.
4. Log every notice, its due action and its owner in one tracker.
5. Review the handover pack once a year as if the arrangement were ending.

The guide on assigning compliance owners in a small business explains how to set up the ownership step. The compliance calendar guides help you keep due dates visible to the owner rather than relying on reminders from a provider.

• Assuming the provider, not the company, is responsible for compliance.
• Letting portal accounts be registered to a provider's or employee's email and phone.
• Choosing on convenience without asking who certifies filings.
• Never asking for filed copies until something goes wrong.
• Relying on one in-house person with no written procedures or backup.
• Switching providers before collecting a complete handover pack.

This comparison does not cover fees, which filings require a professional by law, or legal advice on a specific notice. For those points, consult your chartered accountant or company secretary and check the official MCA portal for current requirements.