Accounting built around stock, shipments and margin
Landed cost, multi-currency purchases and designated-zone VAT — kept accurate every month for UAE traders, importers and distributors.
- Landed cost per shipment
- Import VAT recovered
Price off the invoice alone and this shipment looks 15.8% cheaper than it is. That gap is where trading margins quietly disappear.
500+ Businesses
Supported across the UAE
Import & Re-export
Inbound, outbound and transit stock
Designated Zone
Mainland and free-zone VAT treatment
Dedicated Advisor
One person who knows your stock
Three things that break a trader’s books
Not general accounting with stock bolted on. These are the places trading businesses actually lose money and fail reviews.
Cost that arrives in pieces
The invoice, the freight bill, the clearing agent and the duty all land on different dates and often in different currencies. Booked separately, no shipment ever shows its real cost — and margin is guesswork.
Stock that is counted twice or not at all
Goods in transit, goods in a bonded warehouse and goods on a customer’s floor are all yours, and all easy to miss. A count that does not tie back to shipping documents will not survive an audit.
VAT that changes with the address
The same pallet is treated differently inside a designated zone, moving to the mainland, or leaving the country. Get the treatment wrong and the correction lands with the return, not before it.
“Most trading clients arrive with a profit figure they cannot explain. It is almost never the selling price — it is what never made it into the cost.”
Ripple Accounting · DubaiDesignated zone or mainland — the VAT is not the same
The single most common correction we see on trading returns. Which side your goods are on decides who accounts for the VAT.
Inside a designated zone
Treated as outside the UAE for VAT on goods
- Goods can enter without VAT paid up front, while they stay under customs control
- Movement between designated zones can stay outside the VAT net when the paperwork holds
- The customs declaration, transport document and warehouse record are the proof — not the invoice
Moving to the mainland
Treated as an import into the UAE
- The recipient accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge, in their own return
- The same return claims it back as input tax, so cash is not tied up when it is done right
- Miss the entry and the FTA sees an unreported import, not a rounding error
The whole cycle, from purchase order to filed return
Landed cost per shipment
Freight, insurance, duty and clearing allocated back to the goods, so cost of sales is real and margin is not a guess.
Stock and COGS
Opening stock, purchases, closing stock and cost of sales reconciled every month — not once a year in a panic.
Import and export VAT
Reverse charge on imports, zero-rating on exports, designated-zone movements — recorded with the evidence attached.
Multi-currency purchases
Supplier balances and exchange differences handled properly, so a weak month is not mistaken for a bad margin.
Supplier and customer ledgers
Aged payables and receivables you can act on, with credit notes and returns matched rather than left floating.
Corporate Tax readiness
Records that stand behind the return, so the 9% above AED 375,000 is calculated on numbers you can defend.
Four steps, then it runs
Stock and cost review
We look at how shipments, costs and stock are recorded today, and where the gaps are.
Set the method
One agreed way to build landed cost and value stock — written down, so it is applied the same way every month.
Monthly close
Purchases, shipments, stock and VAT reconciled, with the supporting documents filed against each entry.
Returns and reporting
VAT filed inside the 28-day window, and a monthly margin view you can actually price from.
Common questions from UAE traders
Do I have to register for VAT?+
Registration is mandatory once taxable supplies and imports pass AED 375,000 over the previous 12 months, or if you expect to pass it within the next 30 days. Voluntary registration is available from AED 187,500 — often worth it for traders carrying recoverable input VAT.
How should landed cost be calculated?+
Every cost required to bring the goods to their present location and condition belongs in the cost of the stock — the supplier invoice, freight, insurance, duty and clearing. What matters as much as the method is applying the same one every period, and being able to show how a figure was built.
What happens to VAT when goods leave a designated zone?+
Moving goods from a designated zone into the mainland is treated as an import, so the recipient accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge in their own return and claims it back as input tax in the same return. The customs declaration and transport documents are what prove the movement.
My stock count has never matched the books. Can that be fixed?+
Usually, yes. It normally comes down to goods in transit, unrecorded returns, or costs never allocated to shipments. We reconcile back to shipping documents and set an opening position you can stand behind — then keep it tied month to month.
Talk to someone who has seen your books before
Thirty minutes, a look at how your shipments and stock are recorded, and an honest view of what is missing.
- Free first consultation
- No obligation
- Response within 24 hours