Outsource your accounting and focus on growing your business

Advantages of outsourcing your accounting

Outsourcing your accounting is not simply hiring someone to post journal entries. It means accessing a team of up-to-date professionals, cutting-edge technology, and optimized processes that an SME can rarely replicate internally at the same cost.

The most tangible benefits are fixed cost reduction (eliminating the salary, social security, training, and software of an in-house accountant), elimination of turnover risk (if your accountant leaves, the service continues), and quality improvement (a specialized team makes fewer errors than an overloaded single-person department).

What our service includes

Our outsourced accounting service covers everything a finance department needs:

• Daily bookkeeping of invoices, expenses, and bank transactions
• Monthly bank reconciliation
• Preparation and filing of tax returns (VAT, corporate tax, personal income tax, withholdings)
• Annual accounts preparation and filing at the Commercial Registry
• Monthly financial reports with profit and loss and balance sheet
• Handling tax authority enquiries and notifications
• Dashboard with key financial performance indicators

Technology and real-time access

We believe accounting should be a management tool, not a chore. That is why we provide real-time access to all your financial information through a cloud platform. You can check your balance sheet, profit and loss, cash flow, and budget comparisons at any time.

Moreover, digitized document workflows simplify day-to-day operations: you can submit invoices by photographing them on your phone, approve payments from anywhere, and receive automatic alerts about tax deadlines and other critical dates.

The Spanish compliance calendar: what must be filed and when

Spanish tax compliance is highly calendar-driven. Missing a deadline triggers automatic surcharges (recargos) of 1% per month for the first 12 months and 15% plus interest beyond that. An outsourced accounting team manages the full calendar on your behalf.

Monthly obligations (for companies in the monthly VAT reporting scheme, Régimen de Devolución Mensual or large businesses with turnover above €6 million): Modelo 303 (VAT settlement), Modelo 111 (withholdings on employee salaries), Modelo 115 (withholdings on rental payments).

Quarterly obligations (standard VAT payers): Modelo 303 due by the 20th of April, July, October, and January. Modelo 111 and 115 follow the same quarterly schedule. Modelo 130 applies to self-employed (autónomos) in direct estimation who make IRPF advance payments.

Annual obligations: Modelo 200 (corporate income tax, filed within 25 days after six months from the financial year end — typically 25 July for calendar-year companies); Modelo 347 (transactions exceeding €3,005.06 with any single counterparty, filed in February); Modelo 390 (annual VAT summary, filed in January); annual accounts (cuentas anuales) filed at the Commercial Registry within seven months of the financial year-end.

Occasional obligations: Modelo 036/037 (census registration changes), Modelo 340 (VAT registers for SII participants), Modelo 232 (related-party transactions), Modelo 289 (CRS/DAC2 financial accounts reporting for qualifying entities).

Spanish accounting standards (PGC) and what they require

Spain’s national chart of accounts (Plan General de Contabilidad, RD 1514/2007) applies to all commercial entities. SMEs may use the simplified version (PGC PYME, RD 1515/2007) provided they meet two of three thresholds: total assets below €4 million, net revenue below €8 million, fewer than 50 employees.

The PGC requires specific treatment for provisions, lease accounting (IFRS 16 alignment since 2021 for the full PGC), deferred tax assets and liabilities, and financial instrument classification. Common errors in in-house accounts include the incorrect treatment of leases (not recognising a right-of-use asset), excessive provisions without a formal estimate, and failure to recognise deferred tax liabilities on accelerated depreciation.

Annual accounts must be signed by all directors and submitted to the Registro Mercantil within seven months of year-end. Late filing creates a public record of non-compliance and — after three years of non-filing — results in the company being struck off (cierre registral), blocking registration of company acts including capital increases, director changes, and share transfers.

Intercompany transactions and transfer pricing documentation

Spanish companies that are part of a group — whether a domestic group or an international structure — must comply with transfer pricing documentation requirements under Article 18 of the Corporate Tax Act (Ley 27/2014). The obligation applies regardless of whether the company meets the OECD documentation threshold; Spanish rules require an annual review of intercompany prices by the company’s tax advisor.

The most common intercompany flows that require documentation are management fee charges from a parent company, royalties for use of group intellectual property, intercompany loans and interest rates, and the provision of services between related entities. Each must be priced at arm’s length and supported by a local file (documentación específica de las partes vinculadas) that sets out the transaction, the tested party, the transfer pricing method applied, and the outcome of the arm’s length analysis.

Outsourcing accounting to a team familiar with these obligations ensures that the documentation is prepared annually as part of the year-end process, not retrospectively when an inspection is opened.

Foreign-owned Spanish companies: the additional compliance layer

Spanish subsidiaries and branches of foreign parent companies face compliance obligations beyond those of purely domestic companies. These include:

DAC6 reporting: Spanish-source arrangements that have cross-border characteristics and one of the hallmark features listed in the Directive must be reported to AEAT within 30 days of implementation. The obligation falls on the taxpayer when the intermediary (advisor) is based outside the EU.

Modelo 232: Related-party transactions with non-resident entities above €250,000 (or transactions without arm’s length pricing regardless of amount) must be disclosed annually. This catches management fees, royalties, and intercompany loans not covered by the main transfer pricing documentation.

Fiscal representation: Non-resident companies with a Spanish PE are required to appoint a fiscal representative (representante fiscal) responsible for ensuring Spanish tax compliance. This representative assumes joint and several liability for tax debts.

NIF maintenance: The company’s tax identification number (NIF) must remain active and be renewed if the company has not filed for more than a year. A lapsed NIF blocks VAT recovery and banking relationships.

An outsourced accounting team covers all of these obligations within the standard service scope, eliminating the need for a non-resident director to navigate Spanish regulatory requirements independently.

Transitioning from an in-house accountant or previous advisor

The most common concern when switching to an outsourced accounting model is the transition: will there be a compliance gap? Will the incoming team have all the information they need? In practice, a structured transition eliminates this risk.

Our transition process begins with a full diagnostic of the current accounting state: we request the accounting files, review the books for accuracy, identify any outstanding filings or corrections needed, and assess whether the chart of accounts and the accounting methodology in use are appropriate for your business. If we identify errors — incorrect VAT treatment, misclassified transactions, unrecorded provisions — we correct them proactively before taking over ongoing management.

We manage the formal notification to AEAT of the change of fiscal representative (representante) and handle all communications with the previous advisor regarding file handover. The transition typically takes two to four weeks for an SME, with no interruption to regular compliance filings during the process.

For companies joining BMC mid-year, we assume responsibility from the current month forward and review the year-to-date position for any adjustments needed before the annual close. Companies joining in the fourth quarter benefit from our year-end closing service, which includes tax optimisation planning for the current year before the financial year ends.

Annual accounts and Commercial Registry filing

All Spanish limited companies (SL and SA) must file their annual accounts (cuentas anuales) with the Registro Mercantil within seven months of the financial year-end. For a December year-end, the deadline is 31 July. The annual accounts package includes the balance sheet (balance de situación), the profit and loss account (cuenta de pérdidas y ganancias), the statement of changes in equity (estado de cambios en el patrimonio neto), the cash flow statement (for full PGC companies), and the notes to the financial statements (memoria).

The accounts must be approved by the shareholders at a general meeting (junta general) within six months of the financial year-end, and filed within one month of approval. Failure to file within seven months of year-end creates a public record of non-compliance visible to any party conducting a registry search — including banks, customers, suppliers, and potential business partners.

Late filing also suspends the company’s ability to register any corporate acts at the Registry: capital increases, director changes, registered office moves, and share transfers cannot be registered until all outstanding annual accounts are filed. After three consecutive years of non-filing, AEAT may request the company’s cancellation (cierre registral) — a status that does not dissolve the company but creates substantial practical difficulties.

Our annual accounts preparation service ensures timely filing, correct application of PGC accounting standards, and integration with the annual corporate tax return (Modelo 200) to ensure that accounting and tax figures are consistent and the filing deadlines are met without manual coordination by the client. We manage the directors’ approval process, coordinate shareholder signatures, and submit the accounts to the Registro Mercantil — a complete end-to-end service that requires no action on the part of the company beyond approving the draft accounts.