AS | Ankit Sarawagi|Founder, CFOmatrix·July 2026·11 min read | The compliance SOP |
- One master calendar, not scattered memory. List every recurring and event-based filing with its frequency, due date, owner, reviewer and proof location, all in one place.
- Every line has a named owner and a reviewer. One person files, a second confirms it was filed on time, so no return rides on a single memory.
- Reminders lead the due date. Set alerts a few days ahead of each date; the founder confirms the month’s dues at the monthly financials review.
- Misses cost money and trust. Late fees, interest, disallowed TDS and per-day ROC penalties add up, and a pattern of misses dents diligence.
- Proof is the point. Save every challan and acknowledgement in a tool with an audit trail, so compliance is provable, not just done.
| 3 Cadences to cover: monthly, quarterly, annual | 1 Named owner per filing (plus a reviewer) | ₹0 The late fee a calendar is built to avoid |
Why a Compliance Calendar Matters
A statutory compliance calendar matters for one blunt reason: the dues do not wait for you to remember them. Every deposit and return has a date attached, and the moment it passes, a late fee, interest or a penalty starts running whether or not anyone noticed. In a lean startup, where the same one or two people juggle everything, a missed GST return or a late TDS deposit is not a sign of a bad team; it is a sign that compliance was living in someone’s head instead of on a calendar.
It also matters because auditors and diligence teams check statutory dues directly. CARO 2020 requires the auditor to comment on whether statutory dues have been paid regularly and to report amounts in arrears, so unpaid or late dues do not stay quiet, they end up in the audit report. When an investor’s diligence team arrives, one of the first things they test is whether GST, TDS, PF, ESI and ROC filings were made on time, and whether the proof exists. A clean calendar with challans and acknowledgements on file answers that in minutes; a scramble to reconstruct it does not.
This SOP is the process that keeps you current. Where a filing has a matching policy, for example an accounting or payroll policy, treat the CFOmatrix policy library as the rules and this calendar as the schedule that executes them. This post is one of the operating SOPs in our finance SOPs and controls guide for startups.
The Filings a Startup Must Track
Most private limited startups share the same core set of filings. The table below is the heart of the calendar: each filing, how often it recurs, its typical due date, and a suggested owner. Treat the dates as indicative and subject to current law: rates and due dates change and extensions are common, so verify each against the live position before you rely on it.
| Filing | Frequency | Typical due date | Owner |
| GSTR-1 (outward sales) | Monthly / quarterly (QRMP) | 11th next month (13th QRMP) | Finance / accountant |
| GSTR-3B (summary & tax) | Monthly / quarterly (QRMP) | 20th next month (22nd/24th QRMP) | Finance / accountant |
| TDS deposit | Monthly | 7th of next month | Payroll / finance |
| TDS return (24Q / 26Q) | Quarterly | 31 Jul, 31 Oct, 31 Jan, 31 May | Payroll / finance |
| PF deposit | Monthly | 15th of next month | Payroll owner |
| ESI deposit | Monthly | 15th of next month | Payroll owner |
| Professional Tax (PT) | Monthly / periodic | Per state due date | Payroll owner |
| Advance tax instalment | Quarterly | 15 Jun, 15 Sep, 15 Dec, 15 Mar | Finance / CA |
| Income tax return | Annual | 31 Oct (audit) / 31 Jul | CA / finance |
| ROC AOC-4 (financials) | Annual | Within 30 days of AGM | CS / CS firm |
| ROC MGT-7 / 7A (annual return) | Annual | Within 60 days of AGM | CS / CS firm |
| DIR-3 KYC (directors) | Annual | 30 Sep | CS / CS firm |
| Event-based (PAS-3, DIR-12, MGT-14, charge forms) | On the event | Set days from the event | CS / CS firm |
Two things to note. First, event-based ROC filings do not appear on a fixed monthly grid, they are triggered by actions: a share allotment (PAS-3), a new or resigning director (DIR-12), certain board or shareholder resolutions (MGT-14), or a charge created on assets. Build a habit of asking, after any such event, what does this trigger? Second, the exact set that applies to you depends on turnover, headcount and state, so tune the list to your company rather than filing what you do not owe.
The Compliance Cadence
The same filings become far easier to run when you group them by cadence rather than reading them as one long list. Almost everything falls into three rhythms: a monthly beat, a quarterly beat, and an annual beat. Learn the rhythm and the calendar runs itself.
“The startups that get caught out are not the ones doing something wrong, they are the ones who did the work but never put it on a calendar. Once every due date has a date, an owner and a reminder, compliance stops being a fire drill.”
Ankit Sarawagi, from building finance functions inside startupsThe SOP: One Calendar, Owner, Reminder, Proof
The SOP itself is short. A compliance calendar works when four things are true for every line: it lives in one master calendar, it has a reminder ahead of the date, it has an owner who files and a reviewer who confirms, and the proof lands on record. Miss any one of those and the calendar quietly stops protecting you.
On who owns what, keep it lean and specific: the head of finance or the outsourced accountant owns GST, advance tax and income tax; the payroll owner owns TDS on salary, PF, ESI and PT; the company secretary or CS firm owns the ROC filings. The founder is the natural reviewer, confirming at the monthly close and financials review that the month’s dues went out on time. Salary-linked filings flow straight out of the payroll process, so the two SOPs should share the same owner and reminders.
Get the CFOmatrix Statutory Compliance Calendar: every filing above as a ready tracker with frequency, indicative due date, owner, reviewer and a proof-on-record column, laid out by monthly, quarterly and annual beat. Fill in your dates, set the reminders, and run it every month so nothing slips.
Lean Version vs When to Add a Step
A five-person startup and a forty-person startup do not need the same compliance machinery. Start lean, and add structure only when scale actually demands it.
- One shared calendar or spreadsheet tracker
- Accountant or CS firm files; founder reviews monthly
- Calendar reminders a few days ahead of each date
- Challans and acknowledgements in one dated folder
- A compliance-tracker tool with automated alerts
- Separate owners for tax, payroll and ROC filings
- Multi-state PT and GST registrations tracked per state
- A quarterly compliance report to the board
Penalties and the Audit Trail
The whole calendar exists to avoid the box below. Penalties for missed filings are not trivial, and unlike most startup mistakes they compound automatically with time.
Every miss carries its own cost, and several keep growing until you file:
- GST: a daily late fee plus interest on tax paid late.
- TDS: interest on late deposit, a late-filing fee, and possible disallowance of the expense.
- PF and ESI: interest plus damages for the delay.
- ROC (AOC-4, MGT-7): a per-day additional fee that mounts with no cap, plus penalties on the company and its officers.
Beyond the money, a pattern of late dues surfaces in the audit report and in diligence. Exact rates and fees are subject to current law; verify before relying on any figure.
The flip side of penalties is proof. Auditors and diligence teams do not just ask whether you paid, they ask to see the evidence, so the audit trail is the real deliverable of this SOP.
Run compliance this way and the paperwork an auditor wants appears as a byproduct of filing on time, not as a scramble before year-end. It connects directly to the audit and diligence readiness SOP, is fed by the payroll process for the salary-linked dues, and sits inside the wider system laid out in the finance SOPs and controls pillar guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a statutory compliance calendar?
A statutory compliance calendar is a single master list of every recurring and event-based filing a company must make, each with its frequency, due date, the owner who files it, the reviewer who checks it, and where the proof is kept. For a startup it typically covers GST returns, TDS deposits and returns, PF and ESI, Professional Tax, advance tax instalments and the annual ROC and income tax filings. It turns compliance from something remembered on a good day into a fixed schedule that anyone on the team can run, so nothing is missed and the paper trail exists when an auditor or diligence team asks for it. Due dates should always be verified against the current law, because rates and dates change.
What filings must a startup track on its compliance calendar?
A typical private limited startup tracks monthly GST returns (GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, or the quarterly QRMP variant), monthly TDS deposits and quarterly TDS returns, monthly PF and ESI deposits, monthly or periodic Professional Tax, quarterly advance tax instalments, the annual income tax return, and the annual ROC filings (AOC-4 for financial statements and MGT-7 or MGT-7A for the annual return) after the AGM, plus director KYC. On top of these sit event-based filings triggered by actions such as a share allotment, a new director, or a charge on assets. The exact set depends on turnover, headcount, state and the events in the year.
What are the GST, TDS, PF and ESI due dates?
As a general guide, subject to current law: GSTR-1 is due by the 11th of the next month for monthly filers (13th of the month after the quarter under QRMP), and GSTR-3B by the 20th of the next month (or 22nd or 24th quarterly under QRMP by state). TDS deducted in a month is deposited by the 7th of the next month, and quarterly TDS returns are due by 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May. PF and ESI are both deposited by the 15th of the next month. Professional Tax due dates are set by each state. Always confirm the live dates, as they change and extensions are common.
Who should own statutory compliance in a startup?
Each filing needs one named owner who prepares and files it and one reviewer who confirms it was filed correctly and on time, so no return depends on a single person’s memory. In a lean startup the head of finance or the outsourced accountant usually owns most filings, the payroll owner handles TDS on salary, PF, ESI and PT, and a company secretary or CS firm owns the ROC filings. The founder is the natural reviewer: at the monthly financials review the founder confirms the month’s dues were deposited and returns filed, and the proof is on record. The point is two sets of eyes and a named owner per line, not a long approval chain.
What are the penalties for missing a statutory filing?
Missing a filing is rarely free. Late GST returns attract a daily late fee plus interest on tax paid late. Late TDS deposit carries interest and a late-filing fee, and can lead to the expense being disallowed. Late PF and ESI carry interest and damages. Late ROC filings such as AOC-4 and MGT-7 carry a per-day additional fee that mounts with no cap and can attract further penalties on the company and its officers. Beyond the money, a pattern of missed dues shows up in audit and diligence and dents investor confidence, which is why a calendar that prevents misses pays for itself. Verify current rates before relying on any figure.
How do I keep proof of compliance for an audit?
For every filing, save the challan or payment proof and the acknowledgement or return receipt in one organised place, ideally inside the tool that generated it so it carries an audit trail, with a backup folder arranged by financial year and filing. Auditors and diligence teams do not just ask whether dues were paid, they ask to see the challans, the filed returns and their acknowledgement numbers. Keep the accounting software’s edit-log audit trail switched on as India’s MCA rules require, reconcile the amounts deposited to the books, and if a reminder or approval happened over email or chat, capture it back into the record so the whole trail stays audit-defensible.
This is general educational information for founders, current to mid-2026, drawing on the author’s experience building finance functions inside growing startups, and is not legal, tax or audit advice. Statutory due dates, rates, fees and thresholds for GST, TDS, PF, ESI, Professional Tax, advance tax and ROC filings change, vary by state and are subject to the current law and to extensions; all dates here are indicative only. Verify the live position or consult a professional before acting on a specific matter.
Audit and Diligence Readiness SOP
Finance SOPs and Controls: The Founder’s Guide
AS | Founder, CFOmatrix | Finance Strategy & Equity Compliance CFOmatrix is a knowledge platform focused on how finance actually works inside growing companies. This SOP draws on hands-on experience keeping startups current on GST, TDS, PF, ESI, advance tax and ROC filings, with owners, reminders and an audit trail that survives diligence. |