Outsourced accounting in Luxembourg: scope, timeline and cost

What exactly does an outsourced accounting engagement cover in Luxembourg?

A full engagement covers seven work blocks: day-to-day bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, periodic VAT returns, closing work and inventory entries, preparation of the annual accounts (balance sheet, profit and loss account, notes), preparation of the approval documents, validation of structured data on eCDF, then filing with the RCS. Management reporting, consolidation and payroll are contracted separately.

Three choices are settled at scoping: bookkeeping frequency, who records the documents, and the degree of automation. A company feeding statements through an automated bank connection does not carry the same processing load as one sending scanned documents at quarter-end, and pricing reflects it. Deliverables are detailed on the annual accounts page and the applicable framework on the LuxGAAP accounting page.

Who does what between your company and the firm?

Responsibility for keeping proper books and approving the accounts rests with the management body; the firm performs the engagement entrusted to it. This split drives the timetable: any delay in sending documents translates directly into the filing date.

In practice: you transmit documents and approve; we record, reconcile every bank account, prepare and file VAT returns, and document valuation and provision proposals; the management body decides and approves the accounts; the general meeting approves; we validate the data on eCDF, file with the RCS and hand over the filing evidence. This responsibility matrix is agreed at the start of the engagement and annexed to the mandate. It addresses the main cause of delay on taken-over files: ambiguity over who triggers the next step.

What does an accounting engagement not cover?

Five categories of work fall outside the scope of a licensed accounting firm: the statutory audit, which belongs to the approved audit firm (réviseur d'entreprises agréé) where required; the supervisory auditor mandate (commissaire), a distinct body under a separate mandate; drafting legal and notarial deeds; valuation decisions, which we document and propose but the management body decides and owns; and reconstructing documents held by third parties, where we organise follow-ups but cannot substitute for their holder.

An explicit scope prevents end-of-engagement disputes more effectively than an exclusion clause buried in the mandate.

What is the legal closing timeline in Luxembourg?

For the commercial companies concerned, the annual accounts are approved by the general meeting within six months of the financial year-end, then filed with the RCS within the month following approval, i.e. no later than seven months after year-end. Obligations vary with legal form, size and applicable framework.

For a 31 December year-end: collection and bookkeeping of the final period from January to March, closing work in March-April, approval documents in April-May, general meeting by 30 June, eCDF validation and RCS filing within the month of approval, by 31 July at the latest. The real timetable is built backwards: we set the target meeting date, then derive the deadline for the last documents, usually end of February on a calendar year.

Late filing exposes the company to increased filing fees, weakens its position in bank and compliance reviews, and slows any financing or sale process: an acquirer starts by reading the filed accounts.

Which controls do we run before the accounts are approved?

Fourteen controls are performed systematically before approval and documented in the closing file: reconciliation of every bank account with justified differences, matching of customer and supplier accounts, clearing of suspense and transit accounts, cut-off of income and expenses, depreciation review, provisions and contingent liabilities review, doubtful receivables assessment, tax and social liabilities check, reconciliation of accounting revenue against VAT returns, equity movements check, related-party transactions identification, intragroup balances reconciliation, going-concern assessment, and consistency of the notes with the balance sheet and profit and loss account.

The sequence applies whatever the file size, including holding companies with no operating activity. These controls reduce the risk of error, inconsistency or rejection at filing; they do not eliminate it, as the outcome also depends on the quality and completeness of the information received. The VAT-to-books reconciliation surfaces the most anomalies: a gap almost always signals an unrecorded invoice or a misqualified intra-Community transaction, both far costlier to detect after filing than before.

How do eCDF, the RCS, the LBR and the RESA work?

They are four distinct mechanisms, operating in this order. Structured financial data is prepared and validated on the eCDF platform, in the standard chart of accounts format. The annual accounts and related documents are then filed with the RCS, kept by the Luxembourg Business Registers. The filing notice is finally published in the RESA.

The phrase "eCDF filing" feeds a common confusion: eCDF is a validation step, not the final public filing. A company whose data has been validated on eCDF but whose RCS filing has not been completed remains in breach of its filing obligation.

How much does outsourced accounting cost in Luxembourg?

From €250 excl. VAT per month for a company with limited activity, excluding 17% Luxembourg VAT. Eight factors drive the quote: monthly entry volume, VAT frequency, number of bank accounts and currencies, payroll, intragroup and international transactions, consolidation or group reporting, the age and quality of the taken-over file, and urgency. Annual accounts, tax returns and filing fees are quoted separately.

Two common misreadings: comparing a bookkeeping-only fee with one that includes the annual accounts, where the apparent gap is scope rather than unit price; and underestimating the state of the taken-over file, which weighs more on the first year than current volume. Profile-based packages are on the accounting pricing page.

How do we take over a late file or switch firms?

A late file is rebuilt financial year by financial year, in chronological order, starting from the last filed trial balance: diagnosis and regularisation calendar, general ledger reconstruction, regularisation of periodic returns, then filing of the missing years in order. The quote always separates the catch-up from the running subscription. A backlog does not merely grow in volume: documents get lost, contacts change, and reconstructing an old transaction absorbs research effort unrelated to its accounting value.

Switching accountant is organised on the trial balance and general ledger handed over by the outgoing firm, completed with the current-period documents, with continuity of periodic filings throughout the transition.