Services now dominate the outsourcing industry, driven by digital transformation, technological advancements, and the increasing demand for expertise in each functional area within the organisation. Organisations are now expected to be proactive in governing outsourcing contracts to minimise risk and value leakage to achieve business goals in this current environment.
Ensuring a compliant financial reporting framework
With effect from 1 April 2023, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has made it mandatory for companies to maintain an audit trail throughout the year for transactions impacting books of accounts. While the circular dated 24 March 2021 laid out the requirement for management to enable the “audit trail feature”, this was deferred twice, with the requirement now finally being applicable with effect from 1 April 2023.
The rules require for each company to use accounting software that can record the “audit trail” to capture change history, including the “who”, “what”, and “when” for relevant transactions impacting the books of accounts.