Accounting outsourcing
At PwC Outsourcing Services LLC, we have a team of professionals who are ready to help you prepare your corporate accounting books and financial statements using their knowledge and experience in Japanese accounting standards and tax laws. We provide high-quality services by leveraging our extensive hands-on experience with accounting needs specific to foreign-owned companies and collaborating closely with the member firms of the PwC Japan Group.
For multinational companies looking to expand their operations in Japan, it is essential to have accounting personnel who are well versed in Japanese accounting standards and tax laws in order to properly file corporate tax returns and prepare financial statements. However, with increasingly complex systems and recent legal reforms, continuing to employ staff with a well-balanced combination of hands-on experience in Japanese accounting and tax fields and the ability to work seamlessly with affiliated companies on a multinational level has become very difficult.
This means that for foreign-owned companies expanding to Japan from overseas, doing accounting work in-house is complicated and risky, especially before their business takes off in Japan. In light of these circumstances, there has been an increasing demand for outsourcing services rendered by service providers who are familiar with accounting requirements specific to foreign-owned companies.
At PwC Outsourcing Services LLC, we have teams of professionals who can support your accounting operations with their deep knowledge of accounting requirements specific to foreign-owned companies and their excellent English communication skills. Our managerial staff carefully review all deliverables before sending them to our clients to ensure the highest quality. In addition, for services that require a more in-depth consideration of accounting and tax treatment, we collaborate closely with member firms of the PwC Japan Group, such as PwC Tax Japan and PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan LLC, to provide a one-stop solution for your needs. We are able to share accounting information across our member firms so that PwC Tax Japan can complete tax filing processes for you without any hassle on your part.
We have plenty of experience in adjusting IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and US-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles adopted in the United States) for Japanese accounting standards and vice versa. We can also prepare reporting packages in your own format to meet your multinational company standards.
In addition, we offer comprehensive support for your back-office operations by providing payroll and payment services depending on your needs.
Our main services
- Recording of financial transactions based on invoices, receipts etc.
- Delivery of monthly or quarterly trial balance and general ledger reports
- Preparation of packages for reporting to parent companies outside Japan
- Recording and clearing of accounts receivable and accounts payable
- Preparation of quarterly and annual financial statements
- Preparation of account subject itemized statements (勘定科目内訳明細書) and corporate business overview statements (法人事業概況説明書)
- GAAP-adjustments (reconciliation of differences resulting from the use of different accounting standards)
- Support for the preparation of accounting documents required for tax returns
- Support for financial statement audits
- Support for preparing, reviewing and submitting annual withholding income tax reports to the tax office
- Support for collecting and managing ‘Individual Numbers’ for remuneration payment reports
- Providing advice on the implementation of accounting systems
- Providing advice on the implementation of expense reimbursement systems
- Reviewing your bookkeeping processes and making proposals for improvements
- Reviewing accounting records
Examples of our services
| Bookkeeping | Case #1 The client has just established a subsidiary in Japan. They want to outsource most of their accounting work since they need to operate the subsidiary with limited personnel. Services we offer We can provide monthly bookkeeping and reporting services, including reporting to the client’s parent company outside Japan, using English account titles in a bilingual accounting system. In addition, depending on the client’s needs, we can also provide advice on how to improve the employee expense reimbursement process, the implementation of new systems and accounting considerations for transactions with the parent company. |
| Financial reporting | Case #2 The client is a foreign company that has a subsidiary in Japan. Furthermore, their shared services centre, one of their group companies located outside Japan, is responsible for the accounting function of the Japanese subsidiary. As the shared services centre keeps the accounting records of the subsidiary in English, using IFRS accounting standards, the client wants support for preparing their financial statements in accordance with Japanese accounting standards and filing their tax returns in Japan at the same time. Services we offer We can help the client prepare Japanese financial statements for their corporate tax returns. This is done by directly obtaining necessary data from their shared services centre and performing GAAP-adjustments (i.e. reconciliation of differences resulting from the use of different accounting standards) to align the statements with Japanese accounting standards. Furthermore, we can provide one-stop services from GAAP-adjustments to tax filing in collaboration with PwC Tax Japan, which will handle the tax returns. |
| Review of accounting records | Case #3 The client’s Japanese subsidiary has its own accounting function. However, it is difficult for them to hire and retain staff with both English proficiency and accounting expertise. To maintain the quality of their accounting records, they want to have the records reviewed by external professionals. Services we offer Upon receiving accounting records and supporting documents, such as invoices, on a monthly or quarterly basis from the client, we can review the data. This allows us to check, for example, whether consumption tax was processed correctly for each transaction, whether fixed assets are recorded properly without omission and whether the timing of cost and revenue recognition is appropriate. After that, we can compile our comments into a report for the client. |
