Most compliance pain is retrieval pain. If you can find the right file in 10 seconds, you win. If it takes 10 minutes, you'll postpone it — and postponing is where mistakes happen. The following folder system is used by over 500 businesses we work with.
The Founder's Compliance Folder System
- 01 — Invoices (Sales + Purchases): Month-wise sub-folders. PDF originals. Never modify.
- 02 — Bank Statements & Reconciliation: Monthly bank statement PDFs + reconciliation sheets
- 03 — GST Filings: Sub-folders by month: GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, payment challan (PMT-06), GSTR-2B download
- 04 — Income Tax: ITR acknowledgements, advance tax challans, 26AS/AIS downloads, Form 16
- 05 — Payroll & TDS: Monthly salary sheets, TDS challans (Challan 281), quarterly TDS returns (24Q, 26Q), Form 16/16A
- 06 — ROC / Company Filings: AOC-4, MGT-7A, board meeting minutes, annual return acknowledgements
- 07 — Agreements & Legal: Client contracts, vendor agreements, lease agreements, NDAs
- 08 — Regulatory: FSSAI, shop act, MSME registration, Startup India certificate, DPIIT
Digital Tools to Maintain This System
- Google Drive or OneDrive: Accessible by CA, accountant, and founders
- Naming convention: YYYYMMDD_DocumentType_Party.pdf (e.g., 20260410_Invoice_ClientABC.pdf)
- Automated backup: Enable version history and never delete — storage is cheap, recreating is expensive
- Access control: CA gets view/comment access — not edit access to original documents
Monthly Compliance Checklist
| Task | By When |
|---|---|
| Upload all invoices to Drive | 5th of next month |
| GSTR-1 filing | 11th of next month |
| GSTR-3B filing + tax payment | 20th of next month |
| TDS payment | 7th of next month |
| Bank reconciliation | 10th of next month |
Indus Tax can set up this system with you in a single onboarding call and maintain it monthly as part of our accounting and compliance packages.