Accounting and bookkeeping in Oman

Accounting for a company in Oman owned from abroad has two audiences: the Omani authorities, who will see the annual financial statements and the tax return built on them, and the owners at home, who want monthly figures they can read. A good Omani bookkeeping arrangement serves both from one ledger, in a currency and format your head office can consolidate without rework.

Before you sign, ask a firm which accounting framework it will use for the statutory accounts and whether it can also report in your group’s format. Ask who posts the entries, how often you will receive a management pack, and how it handles invoices issued in Arabic. Find out whether the same team prepares the figures for the auditor and for the tax return, and what the monthly fee covers once transaction volumes grow. If you also trade with VAT-registered customers, ask how the VAT ledger is reconciled to the books each period; VAT in Oman covers that service.

Accountanty lists 29 firms in Oman that keep accounts: 26 accounting firms and three corporate service providers. Twenty are small, seven medium-sized and two part of large networks, and 12 say they focus on foreign clients. All work in English and nine also in Arabic. Every one of them is in Muscat, and all 29 also offer audit and tax compliance, so you can ask for a combined quote.