Accounting and bookkeeping in Italy

Italian company accounts follow a fixed yearly cycle, and a foreign owner meets it early. For an S.r.l., the accounts go to the quotaholders within the term set by the deed and no later than 120 days after the year closes, and a copy of the approved accounts is then filed with the Register of Enterprises. A founder living abroad rarely does this alone: bookkeeping is kept in Italian, on Italian forms, and signed by a local professional.

When you read a profile, look for three things. Does the firm produce a monthly or quarterly reporting pack in English for the parent company? Does it keep the books of the entity type you hold, such as an S.r.l. or a branch of a foreign company, and does it submit the Register filing itself? Does it publish a fee, or only quote after a call? Seven firms publish prices.

Seventy-one firms in Italy offer accounting: 57 accounting firms, 8 law firms and 6 corporate service providers. Forty-three are small, 22 medium-sized and 6 belong to large networks. All 71 work in Italian and 63 in English, with French offered by 14 and Spanish by 9. Real estate is the sector named most often, followed by start-ups and family businesses. Most are in Milan, then Rome and Turin. For the legal steps before the first ledger, read the Italy guide.