ACRA Annual Return and Nominee Disclosures: What Should You Check in October?
A late annual return is a $300 or $600 penalty, but the real exposure sits in the registers behind it: controllers, nominee shareholders and whether your corporate secretary is even registered with ACRA. Here is the October check that keeps all three clean before the December queue.
Itemised Payslips and the Progressive Wage Mark: Would Your Payroll Survive an Audit in 2027?
Most SME payroll passes on the full-time staff and fails on the part-timers and peak-season temps. Here is the October self-audit that closes the gap before a customer, an auditor or MOM asks for the records.
Commercial Rent and Equipment Lease Renewal: What Should You Decide in October for 2027?
Landlords and leasing companies set renewal terms three to nine months ahead, which means a first-half-2027 expiry is an October 2026 decision. This post works through the real monthly cost of your space, what reinstatement does to a move, when buying equipment beats renewing the lease, and what to put in the renewal file before you reply to anyone.
Temporary Peak Staff: What Must Be Set Up Before the First Shift?
Before a temporary or part-time hire starts a peak shift, four things must already exist: written Key Employment Terms, a payroll record that produces an itemised payslip, work injury insurance that covers them, and a named login tied to one end date. This post covers what still applies when someone works only twelve days, what a peak temp really costs per hour, which systems they should and should not touch, and how to make the last shift as clean as the first.
Pre-Budget 2027 Planning: What a Singapore SME Should Commit to in Q4 2026
Budget 2027 will be delivered in February, five weeks after the year's biggest cost changes have already taken effect. That gap is where small companies lose money. This post separates the 2027 costs that are already law and must go into your budget now from the grants and rebates that genuinely should wait, gives you three tests to sort any item into the right column, and lists the deadlines that fall before the Budget speech.
AI Meeting Note-Takers: Who Has to Consent Before the Bot Joins the Call?
An AI note-taker that joins a client call is collecting personal data, and the duty to announce it sits with your business, not the software vendor. This post gives the thirty-second consent script, the list of meetings the bot should never enter, the retention and storage questions to put to the vendor, and the seven lines to write down before January.
Shared Parental Leave in Singapore: Rewriting a Small Company Leave Policy for 2027
Shared parental leave is now up to 10 weeks per couple, and the default split gives each parent five. For a team of twelve that is a real absence to plan for. This is what to change in the staff handbook, the leave system and the job quote before the first request arrives.
Card, QR and PayNow Fees: What Is Your Real Cost Per Order Before Peak?
Card, QR and PayNow all cost different amounts, and your December sales mix pushes the average toward the expensive end just as discounts cut gross margin. Here is how to calculate your blended fee rate, see what it takes out of gross profit, and decide in October which changes are worth making before 2027.
Corporate Income Tax Filing by 30 November: What an SME With No Finance Team Can Actually Assemble
Corporate income tax e-filing for Year of Assessment 2026 closes on 30 November 2026, and it applies even to a loss-making or dormant company. The form takes under an hour. Assembling the numbers behind it takes six weeks. Here is the record list, the form choice, the Corppass role that blocks the whole thing, and a week-by-week plan from mid-October.
Local Qualifying Salary and Progressive Wage Model 2027: Model the Wage Bill Before You Quote
Wage floors move on fixed dates in 2027, but quotes for 2027 work are being signed now. A short modelling exercise in October tells you whether the price you are about to put in writing still has a margin in it next June.
11.11 Discount Stacking: What Floor Price Protects Your Margin?
Four separate discounts can land on the same 11.11 order, and most sellers only see the combined effect after the campaign has closed. A floor price per product, set before sign-up, is the control that stops volume turning into loss.
Retirement Age 64 and Re-employment Age 69: The Contract and HR Record Changes Small Teams Must Make
When the statutory retirement age moves to 64 and the re-employment age to 69, the real work for a small company is not legal drafting. It is knowing who turns 63 in the next 12 months, when each re-employment offer is due, and which system still has an old age threshold buried in it. Here is the October checklist for a 10 to 20 person team.