Corporate Governance Checklist for Startups Preparing for Series A 📌 The Investor’s DD Team Will Check 40 Things. How Many Are You Ready For? You have built a product the market wants. Revenue is growing. A Series A investor is interested. Then their legal counsel sends a 12-page DD checklist — and the governance gaps […]
Category Archives: Business Model
Business Model
Board Resolution Drafting: 25 Templates Every Startup Needs 📌 The Resolution Your CS Firm Drafted Won’t Survive RBI Scrutiny Generic board resolution templates — the kind available on compliance portals and CS forums — satisfy the Companies Act checkbox. They do NOT satisfy FEMA. When RBI examines your FC-GPR filing, they look at the board […]
Company Secretary & Secretarial Services: Board Resolutions, ROC Compliance & Corporate Governance 📌 Compliance Is Not Filing Forms. It’s Governance Infrastructure. Most CS firms file your AOC-4 and MGT-7 and call it “secretarial compliance.” That is form-filling, not governance. Real secretarial practice means: board resolutions drafted with FEMA-compliant language that survives regulatory scrutiny, shareholder registers […]
Employee Fraud in Indian SMEs: Detection, Investigation, and Prevention 📌 5% of Your Revenue Is Walking Out the Door The ACFE‘s global data estimates that organizations lose 5% of annual revenue to occupational fraud. For an Indian SME with ₹10 crore turnover, that is ₹50 lakh per year — often more than the entire net […]
Red Flags in Startup Financial Statements: What Investors Miss 📌 The Numbers Look Great. That’s the Problem. The pitch deck shows 3x revenue growth. The P&L shows improving unit economics. The cap table looks clean. Every metric points toward “invest.” But a Certified Fraud Examiner looking at the same numbers asks different questions: Why does […]
Financial Due Diligence for Startup Investment: A CFE’s Checklist 📌 The ₹8 Lakh Investigation That Saves ₹8 Crore A standard financial DD verifies that the startup’s books are correctly maintained. A forensic DD investigates whether the numbers tell the real story. When 22% of “recurring revenue” turns out to be related party transactions, when 3 […]
Forensic Accounting & Fraud Investigation Services 📌 When Numbers Don’t Add Up — You Need Investigation, Not Audit A statutory auditor tells you the financial statements are “true and fair.” A forensic accountant tells you where the money actually went. Whether you are a board member confronting a whistleblower complaint, a PE investor discovering post-acquisition […]
Transfer Pricing Disputes: When the IT Department Challenges Your Intercompany Pricing 📌 Your TPO Just Proposed a ₹10 Crore Adjustment. What Happens Next. The Transfer Pricing Officer has reviewed your intercompany transactions, rejected your benchmarking study, and proposed an adjustment that treats your management fees as NIL, your royalty as excessive, or your IT services […]
How to File Income Tax Appeal Before CIT(A): Complete Process 📌 Quick Answer: Form 35 on the e-Filing Portal, Within 30 Days To appeal an income tax assessment or penalty order, file Form 35 on incometax.gov.in within 30 days of receiving the order. You need: the order being appealed (PDF), grounds of appeal, statement of […]
Income Tax Appeal Services: CIT(A), ITAT, Section 263 Defense & Penalty Appeals 📌 Your Assessment Order Is Not the Final Word Every income tax assessment order, penalty order, and revision order is appealable. The appeal — not the assessment — is where the final tax liability is determined. Over 5 lakh appeals are pending at […]