Bespoke Accounting, Umm Suqaym (2026)

05/11/2025

Nothing worth having comes easy.

Building a business in Dubai takes effort.
Compliance. Tax filings. Accurate books.

But if every quarter feels like a battle with paperwork…
If growth slows because admin takes over…
That’s a problem.

You didn’t start this business to drown in forms.
You need the right support to clear the path.

So consider this:
➤Is your accounting system helping you move faster—or slowing you down?
➤Are you paying fines that could be avoided with proper guidance?
➤Do you have the clarity to make decisions with confidence?

Success will always take work.

But with the right accountant, the hard part won’t be compliance. ✅

03/11/2025

Performance reviews - yay or nay? 💆

Most people think they’re only for big corporates.

But here’s the truth: none of our team had done
regular reviews before joining us —
they all came from SMEs where it wasn’t the norm.

The truth is: whether you’re a 5-person team
or a 500-person company, reviews are powerful.

If your company is not doing a regular (ie quarterly)
performance reviews - Q4 of 2025 is a great time to start!

If you are still thinking why bother, here are your whys:

1️⃣ Improves alignment

Is your team aligned on your goals?
Are they moving in the right direction?
Does your team know of what is expected from them??

2️⃣ It strengthens engagement

Do you give space and time to your employees to be heard?
Do the issues get voiced and addressed early enough?

3️⃣ It encourages growth

Do your employees have opportunities to safely discuss how they can grow in your organisation?
Do they voice on what is needed or what is lacking?

Here are the steps that we used to create performance review system in our company:

1. Define your values
(as you need to anchor your reviews on something)

2. Choose how often you want to do the reviews
(we do them quarterly, just before our team quarterly meeting where we take half day off work focusing on our team)

3. Set evaluation criteria
(should be linked to your values)

4. Create an evaluation form that you will use
(we started with Jotform and then moved to the form
that we created in our Notion portal)

5. Train managers (or yourself!) to give feedback

6. Set goals and follow up

7. Refine constantly after each review cycle is done
(before you forget what needs to be improved!)

Oh, and if you’re looking for a professional accounting firm
with a happy team — one that’s heard and supported
through regular reviews —
look no further, you found us Bespoke Accounting 📥

31/10/2025

Did you know that??

Dubai’s coldest workout with the warmest cause

Join us next weekend!

Guaranteed:
- strengthen your legs
- meet new people
- sharpen your mind in cold air
- support Gulf for Good in helping children around the world

📆Every Saturday, 7am
📍Ski Dubai
💳AED99
(purchased on Gulf For Good website)

29/10/2025

his time of the year

Renewals and price increases.

This is what we have so far:

1️⃣ Software costs go up

Intuit QuickBooks announced last week
about their subscription
fees going up on average by 15%.

Xero - also announced that it will be increased.

Zoho - didn't announce anything yet, but surely it will follow suit.

Wafeq وافِق - also waiting.

2️⃣ Rent increase

Even though we try to minimise our admin costs as much as possible
30% of us works completely remotely, our rent for next year goes up by 5%.

3️⃣ School fees

Up by 5–15%. And since education costs are part of the cost of living in Dubai for many, this feels like a strong signal of overall living cost increases.

So now I’m curious:

👉 What are you doing with your prices in 2026?
👉 Do you give your team regular salary increments to match these increases?

27/10/2025

Why every business needs a task management software

Running a business without a task management tool
is like flying a plane without a dashboard.

You may take off, but you don’t really know
where you are going, how fast, or what’s next.

Here are 5 ways task management software helps:

1️⃣ Visibility
Everyone sees what needs to be done, by when,
and by whom. No hidden work.

2️⃣ Accountability
No more “I thought you were doing it.”

3️⃣ Prioritization
You can see the urgent vs the important.
Helps focus on what really drives growth.

4️⃣ Collaboration
Team members can comment, share files,
and keep conversations in one place.

5️⃣ Efficiency
Automations cut repetitive admin work.

Some tools that do this really well:

Karbon
for accounting firms and this is
what we used in our company almost from day 1.

monday.com
very flexible

ClickUp
all-in-one task management software

Asana
popular for startups and mid-sized teams, very user-friendly.

trello
simple Kanban boards, good for visual thinkers.

Jira
widely used for software development teams.

Basecamp
minimalistic, combines tasks, chat, docs in one.

Notion
flexible, mixes task management with docs and databases,
however requires quite some effort to set it up
(we use Notion for our HR and admin life)

Teamworks
useful for agencies with client projects.

Smartsheet
spreadsheet-style project management.

Wrike
strong for bigger teams and complex workflows.

Microsoft Planner or Microsoft Project
if the company is deep in Microsoft ecosystem.

Todoist
more for personal or small team task management.

Which do you use?

24/10/2025

🚫 Stop Looking for Tax Loopholes in the UAE!

No, you cannot issue invoices for e-commerce services if what you actually provide are logistics services.

No, you cannot invoice only for the margin
just to reduce VAT to the minimum.

No, you cannot pay your kids’ school fees
and slip them into taxable income for Corporate Tax.

Really?!

I still get these kinds of questions on calls.
It amazes me. The UAE already has some of
the lowest tax rates worldwide.
Yet some people still look for shortcuts.

Here’s the truth:

Cutting corners with tax is illegal.

It’s also bad for business.

At Bespoke Accounting, our license
and reputation matter more than
helping someone save a little extra.

That’s why we don’t work with clients
who insist on bending the rules.

✅ Want to stay compliant,
protect your reputation,
and still optimize taxes the right way?

👉 Book a consultation today
and get clarity on how to run your UAE business the responsible way.

22/10/2025

Cash vs accrual accounting explained

I get asked a lot what is cash vs accrual accounting?

In case you are wondering, especially, that
in your first UAE Corporate tax return you need
to make a selection favoring one or another...read on.

💰 Cash accounting:
- you record income when money comes in.
- you record expenses when money goes out.

📃 Accrual accounting:
- you record income when you issue an invoice
(service is rendered or goods are delivered).
- you record expenses when you get a bill
(services or goods received).

Example:
You sell a service in June.
Client pays in August.

Cash basis → income in August.
Accrual basis → income in June.

Cash shows money in your bank.
Accrual shows the real performance
of your business.

Most small businesses start with cash.
Most growing businesses need accrual.

Simple question to ask yourself:
Do you want to see bank balance?
Or do you want to see business reality?

20/10/2025

In case you are contemplating whether to move to the UAE or not

This graphic (courtesy of Voronoi App ) might shift your perspective.

UAE doesn’t have personal income tax (however it does have Corporate income tax at 9% rate)

Of course, you shouldn’t decide based on tax implucations alone, but it is apretty goid place to live (apart from the weather!)

17/10/2025

How we shortlist 3,000+ candidates

We are hiring an accountant.
We just went through 3,000+ CVs.
If you are applying for a job,
here are my tactics for handling so many.
Maybe it will help you too.

I give each CV about 3 seconds.
Then I decide if it is worth a second look.

Here is what makes me look away:

1️⃣ No photo
I want to see that you are human.

2️⃣ Irrelevant experience or
no relevant industry exposure

3️⃣ No accounting or tax qualification
Complete or in progress.

4️⃣ No UAE work experience

5️⃣ No software experience
Today software is king, you must know it.

If you tick these boxes, you are in the game.

What else would you add to this list?

15/10/2025

Why I share financials with my team

Many founders keep numbers hidden.
They think that financial results should
be hidden from the team as it's confidential.
(oh..they signed a confidential clause in their
employment agreements, right?)

Every month my team sees:
- revenue
- net profit
- churn rate
- KPIs such as Revenue/Staff costs

Why?

Because I think when they see the numbers,
they see the impact of their work.

When they see profit,
they know they created it.

When they see costs,
they understand why we manage them.

It builds trust and ownership.

13/10/2025

5 apps that save hours for me and my team

Time is the hardest resource to manage.

These 5 apps save hours for us every week:

1️⃣ Loom
We record short videos to explain things,
we record client meetings, we record internal
meetings.
No need for another call. 😉

2️⃣ Slack
Huddles solve things fast - no need
to schedule a meeting!

3️⃣ Pemo
Clients snap and upload receipts.
Then transactions are uploaded to
accounting software directly
(with the attachments!)

4️⃣ Wafeq وافِق
If expenses are not paid by Pemo☝,
then Clients send receipts to Wafeq' inbox.
They turn into bills automatically.

5️⃣ Karbon
Automated client requests.
E-signatures from within.
Client's approvals from within.
No chasing for info.
And so many more.

Tools don’t just cut time.
They cut stress.

Which app saves your team the most hours?

10/10/2025

How I keep my energy this October

Long hours. Deadlines. Pressure.

But energy is key.

Here is what helps me:

1️⃣ Morning walks
Luckily I have a dog that I have to walk
every morning. No matter the heat or how humid it is.
I am out of the door 5-30am for 30 mins walk
which gives me around 3.5k steps. 💪

2️⃣ Clear schedule
I block time for work. No calls.

3️⃣ Eating light
Heavy food makes me sleepy.
I keep it simple, sometimes just a protein shake.

3️⃣ Forced breaks without phone
No comments (and no scrolling).

4️⃣ Early sleep
This is mandatory.
My 'Do not disturb mode' is on
from 8-30pm.

Energy is not luck.

How do you keep yours high?

Bespoke Accounting

05/11/2025

03/11/2025

31/10/2025

29/10/2025

27/10/2025

24/10/2025

22/10/2025

20/10/2025

17/10/2025

15/10/2025

13/10/2025

10/10/2025

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