Meta description: See how Compliance Radar helps Indian SMEs build an applicable compliance timeline, track deadlines, monitor rule changes and find schemes today.

Missing one annual return can cost a company ₹10,000 plus ₹100 for every continuing day of default under Section 92(5) of the Companies Act, 2013, subject to a maximum of ₹2 lakh for the company and ₹50,000 for an officer in default. Compliance Radar is built for the business problem behind that penalty: an Indian SME often does not know every obligation that applies, who owns it, or when a rule has changed until a notice arrives.

The answer is not another generic calendar copied from the internet. It is a compliance system connected to the business's legal entities, locations, employee strength, registrations and activities. This guide explains what that system should contain, how Compliance Radar approaches the job, and how an owner, CA, CS or compliance officer can put it into daily use.

Why a generic compliance calendar fails an Indian SME

A calendar can remind you only about an obligation already entered in it. It cannot detect the obligation you never knew existed.

That gap matters in India because applicability changes across several layers:

The result is an applicability problem before it is a deadline problem. A Gujarat office calendar cannot simply be copied to a Maharashtra factory. A software startup's register cannot be reused for a food-processing unit. Even two branches of the same company may answer to different local bodies.

Spreadsheets usually fail in four predictable ways. The source law is missing, ownership is vague, recurring dates are copied without checking current notifications, and an event such as opening a branch does not create new tasks. A coloured cell may show that someone remembered a date. It does not prove why the filing applies or whether the rule is still current.

What does Compliance Radar actually do?

Compliance Radar is a compliance and incentive intelligence platform for Indian businesses. You describe the business once; the platform uses that profile to organise the compliances that apply, build a timeline, surface government schemes for which the business may qualify, and alert the team when relevant regulations change.

The useful unit is not a document or a reminder. It is an obligation, connected to five things:

  1. Applicability: Why does this rule apply to this entity, location or establishment?
  2. Legal source: Which Act, section, rule, notification, licence condition or regulator instruction creates it?
  3. Trigger and due date: Is it monthly, annual, event-based, threshold-based or tied to a licence expiry?
  4. Owner and evidence: Who must act, who reviews the work, and what proves completion?
  5. Change status: Has the legal source, threshold, form, due date or process changed?

Compliance Radar is designed to turn that complexity into an operating timeline rather than a pile of circulars. It does not replace the judgement of a CA, CS, advocate or environmental consultant. It gives that professional and the business owner a common, current map of what needs attention.

Which business facts determine your obligations?

The accuracy of any compliance management system depends on the accuracy of its business profile. “Private limited company in India” is not enough. Record these facts before generating a calendar.

Profile field | Why it changes compliance

Legal structure | A company, LLP, partnership and proprietorship have different corporate filings and governance duties.

Registered office and operating states | State labour, professional-tax, Shops and Establishments and municipal requirements attach to location.

Premises and activity | Office, warehouse, factory, restaurant and retail outlet attract different licences and inspections.

Products and sector | Food may require FSSAI controls; regulated electronics may require BIS compliance; manufacturing can add safety and pollution obligations.

Turnover and registration status | GST registration, return frequency and other thresholds can change with turnover and transactions.

Employee and worker counts | Social-security, occupational-safety and state labour duties may switch on at prescribed thresholds.

Wage bands and worker categories | EPF and ESI coverage is affected by statutory wage ceilings, existing membership and employee category.

Expansion events | A new state, product, plant, warehouse or employee threshold can create obligations before revenue arrives.

Take social security. The Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 applies to specified factories and notified establishments engaging 20 or more employees, according to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation. The standard employee contribution is 12% of basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance, and the employer also contributes 12%, with prescribed allocation between EPF and the Employees' Pension Scheme.

For ESI, the employee wage ceiling is ₹21,000 per month. ESIC's employer guidance states that the employer contribution is 3.25% and the employee contribution is 0.75%, payable within 15 days after the end of the month in which wages fall due. Coverage of the establishment itself depends on the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 and the applicable notification for the class of establishment and jurisdiction. That final qualification is exactly why a single national checklist is unsafe.

The profile must also be reviewed whenever the business changes. Do not wait for an annual audit. A twentieth employee, a first interstate warehouse or a new food product can change the compliance map immediately.

How Compliance Radar turns rules into an operating timeline

A useful timeline separates recurring work from changes and one-time events. Mixing them produces a long list that nobody trusts.

Recurring filings and payments

Recurring obligations belong on the calendar with a legal source, frequency and review date. For example, the GST portal states that monthly Form GSTR-3B filers generally file by the 20th of the following month. Quarterly filers generally use the 22nd or 24th after the quarter, depending on the notified state or Union Territory grouping. Government notifications can extend these dates, so the stored rule and the live due date both need monitoring.

The business consequence is measurable. Under Section 47 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, late fees apply when prescribed returns are filed after their due dates. The GST portal currently computes GSTR-3B late fees at ₹25 per day under the CGST Act and ₹25 under the corresponding SGST Act for a return with liability; for a nil return, it computes ₹10 per day under each Act. Delayed tax also attracts interest under Section 50 at the notified rate.

Annual and event-based company filings

Company filings should be calculated from the event, not typed as a fixed national date. Section 137(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 requires a company to file its financial statements with the Registrar in Form AOC-4 within 30 days of the annual general meeting. Section 92(4) requires the annual return in Form MGT-7 or the applicable abridged form within 60 days of the AGM.

Event-based work is easier to miss. A director appointment or change in particulars, a registered-office change, a new allotment of shares or a charge over company assets can start a separate filing clock. The system should create a task when the event is recorded, calculate its deadline from the relevant provision and request the required evidence.

Renewals and licence conditions

A licence is not one completed task. It has an issue date, validity period, renewal window and continuing conditions. Pollution-control consents are a good example: the consent to establish, consent to operate, validity and renewal process depend on the applicable pollution control board, industry category and consent order. There is no honest universal “PCB renewal date for India.”

Store the consent order itself, its conditions and the board jurisdiction. Create reminders well before expiry, but also create recurring tasks for any monitoring reports, waste returns or operating conditions written into the consent. The same principle applies to fire approvals, factory licences, FSSAI licences and municipal trade licences.

A practical workflow for owners, CAs and compliance teams

Software helps only when it changes daily behaviour. Use this seven-step workflow.

  1. Create the complete business profile. Include every entity, branch, factory, warehouse, headcount band, registration, product and regulated activity.
  2. Review applicability. Have the internal owner and relevant professional verify why each high-risk obligation applies. Record central, state, municipal and sector jurisdiction separately.
  3. Assign one accountable owner. A task can have contributors, but only one person should be responsible for completion. “Accounts team” is not an owner.
  4. Set an internal due date. Keep it earlier than the statutory date. A GST return due on the 20th may need reconciliation by the 12th, review by the 15th and approval by the 18th.
  5. Attach an evidence requirement. Define the acknowledgement, challan, reconciliation, approval or inspection closure needed before a task becomes complete.
  6. Triage regulatory alerts. Decide whether a notification changes applicability, a date, a form, a process or only background information. Assign impact assessment rather than forwarding the circular to ten people.
  7. Review exceptions weekly. Look at overdue tasks, upcoming renewals, missing evidence, unassigned changes and profile events that have not been assessed.

For a CA or CS firm, add a client layer. Keep each client's profile, owners and evidence separate; never manage 50 clients in one undifferentiated sheet. The firm can monitor exceptions across the portfolio while each client sees only its own timeline.

What a strong compliance dashboard should show

A dashboard should answer business questions, not display decorative percentages. At minimum, it should show:

Avoid a single “95% compliant” score without context. Missing one internal register and missing a factory consent are not equal. Rank obligations by consequence. Preserve an audit trail showing who changed a date or applicability decision, why, and which official source supports it.

How to evaluate compliance management software in India

Before buying any tool, test it against your hardest establishment, not your simplest office. Ask the vendor to demonstrate these eight capabilities:

Do not buy based on the number of laws in a database. Coverage without relevance creates alert fatigue. The better question is whether the system can identify what changed, whether it applies to your business, what action follows and who must complete it.

A 30-day rollout plan for Compliance Radar

Start small enough to finish, but with a scope important enough to prove value.

Days 1-5: map the business. Enter the legal entity, states, premises, activities, registrations, employee counts and existing advisers. Collect current licences and the last filed returns.

Days 6-10: verify high-risk applicability. Begin with tax, payroll and social security, corporate filings, licences, worker safety and environmental permissions. Mark open questions for a qualified professional instead of guessing.

Days 11-15: assign ownership and internal dates. Create preparer, reviewer and approver responsibilities. Move internal cut-offs ahead of statutory deadlines.

Days 16-20: attach evidence standards. Specify what closes each obligation. For example, a GSTR-3B task should not close with “CA confirmed”; require the filed return, ARN, challan where applicable and reconciliation approval.

Days 21-25: process regulatory changes. Review alerts, record impact decisions and turn relevant changes into dated actions. Archive irrelevant updates with a reason so the same circular is not assessed repeatedly.

Days 26-30: run an exception review. Measure overdue high-risk items, evidence gaps, unassigned obligations and renewals inside 90 days. Fix the profile if irrelevant work appears or known obligations are absent.

Success after 30 days is not “all tasks are green.” It is a trusted obligation map, named owners, evidence-backed completion and a repeatable process for rule changes.

Frequently asked questions

Is Compliance Radar a replacement for my CA or company secretary?

No. A CA, CS or lawyer provides professional judgement, interpretation and representation. Compliance Radar organises applicability, timelines, schemes and regulatory alerts so the business and adviser work from the same current record.

Can one compliance calendar work for every Indian business?

No. Central requirements overlap, but state, municipal, sector and premises-specific rules differ. The calendar must be generated from the entity's locations, activities, thresholds, registrations and licence conditions.

How often should I update the business profile?

Update it whenever an entity, state, premises, activity, product, registration, headcount band or regulated process changes. Also conduct a formal quarterly review. Threshold-triggered obligations should not wait for year-end.

Can a CA firm use Compliance Radar for multiple clients?

The operating model fits a multi-client practice: maintain a separate profile and obligation timeline for each client, then review deadline and change exceptions across the portfolio. Access and evidence must remain segregated client by client.

Does Compliance Radar also cover government schemes?

Yes. Compliance Radar is designed to surface schemes and incentives linked to the business profile. Eligibility still needs verification against the scheme's current guidelines, application window and documentary conditions before an application is submitted.

Build a compliance system before the next notice

Compliance management is not the act of remembering more dates. It is the discipline of connecting business facts to legal obligations, assigning work, preserving evidence and reacting when rules change. Compliance Radar gives Indian SMEs, CAs, CS professionals and compliance teams one place to build that operating timeline and identify relevant government schemes.

Do not wait for a penalty notice to reveal what the spreadsheet missed. Check your compliance posture free at complianceradar.in and see which obligations apply to your business.