FTA Audit File Software Keep the Evidence Behind Your VAT and Corporate Tax Returns Reconciled and Ready
Custom FTA audit readiness software for UAE businesses whose tax evidence lives across more systems than their accounting package. The FTA's audit file, the FAF, is an invoice-level export your accounting software produces on request; what it does not carry is the evidence behind the numbers - contracts, customs documents, supporting records - which must be retained for at least five years and produced under deadline when an audit lands. We build the evidence layer that sits alongside your accounting system: indexed, reconciled to the ledger, and ready. Your accountants and tax agents handle the tax; we build the system.
Why a tax audit becomes a scramble
The FAF export is the easy part; any accredited accounting package produces it. The hard part is everything behind it. When the FTA audits, it can ask for the records that support the numbers - contracts, invoices, customs declarations, adjustments - across periods going back five years. If that evidence lives in inboxes, shared drives and three systems, the audit response becomes a reconstruction job under deadline.
Evidence lives everywhere
The invoice is in the accounting system, the contract on a shared drive, the customs declaration in a broker's email. Nothing links them, so every audit question means a search across systems.
The ledger and the paper drift apart
Returns are filed from the ledger, but the supporting records are never reconciled back to it. Gaps and mismatches surface for the first time when an auditor finds them.
Retention is assumed, not managed
Records must be kept for at least five years, longer for some categories. Nobody checks completeness until a request arrives for a period whose records left with a former employee.
Corporate tax doubles the load
VAT evidence discipline was hard enough. Corporate tax adds its own return, its own evidence pack and its own audit exposure, drawing on the same scattered records.
The evidence layer behind your returns
Four capability areas that turn scattered tax records into one indexed, reconciled and retained evidence file, sitting alongside the accounting system you already run.
Invoice-level evidence index
Every transaction linked to its supporting records - contract, invoice, delivery note, customs declaration - so the evidence behind any line in a return is one lookup, not a search.
Ledger reconciliation checks
Continuous checks that the evidence file, the ledger and the filed returns agree, with mismatches flagged as they appear rather than found by an auditor.
Retention and completeness monitoring
Retention schedules applied per record category, with completeness monitored across periods, so a five-year-old record is still there when it is asked for.
Audit response workspace
When a request lands, the requested items, the deadline and the assembled pack are managed in one place, so the response is an export with a checklist rather than a scramble.
Any accredited package produces the audit file. What decides how an audit goes is whether the evidence behind it is indexed, reconciled and still there - and that is a systems problem, not an accounting one.
Your audit readiness at a glance.
A gauge view shows the readiness position. Evidence linked, ledger reconciled and retention complete tell finance whether an audit would be an export or an excavation.
Discuss your audit readiness platformWhy UAE businesses invest in audit readiness.
The standing obligations behind the returns.
Talk to us about FTA audit file software.
A short call surfaces whether a custom evidence layer makes sense for you. Best positioned for businesses whose tax evidence spans multiple systems, entities or high transaction volumes - importers, groups, and operators with customs, contract and invoice records living in different places. A small business whose whole picture sits in one accounting package is well served by that package, and we will say so. We build the evidence and readiness system; we are not a tax agent, an accounting firm, or an auditor, and we do not replace your FTA-accredited accounting software, which continues to produce your returns and your FAF. Tax judgements and filings stay with you and your advisers. BY BANKS is an independent software engineering company: we design and build the platform and hand it over, your team operates it. Authority names on this page are referenced descriptively to describe scope, and imply no affiliation, endorsement, or approval. This is not tax advice.
How audit readiness software works for a UAE business
The detail behind the headline - from the evidence index and the reconciliation checks, through retention, to the audit response workspace. Evidence and readiness, not tax advice and not an accounting system.
What changes, in practical terms
We do not prepare returns, give tax advice, or deal with the FTA on your behalf. The system holds and reconciles the evidence; the returns, the judgements and the filings stay with your finance team and your tax advisers.
The detailed questions UAE finance teams ask us
Expand each to see how bespoke audit readiness software actually works.
What does FTA audit file software actually cover?
Who this is for: businesses whose tax evidence spans multiple systems, entities or high volumes. A small business whose whole picture sits in one accounting package does not need it, and we will say so.
Four connected areas: (1) An invoice-level evidence index linking transactions to their supporting records. (2) Reconciliation checks across evidence, ledger and returns. (3) Retention and completeness monitoring. (4) An audit response workspace. It evidences and reconciles; it does not file or advise.
Does this replace our accounting software?
No, and it should not. Your FTA-accredited accounting package continues to run the ledger, produce returns and generate the FAF on request. That is what it is accredited to do.
This platform sits alongside it, holding what the accounting system does not: the contracts, customs documents and supporting records behind the numbers, linked at invoice level and reconciled back to the ledger. The two together are what an audit actually tests.
What is the FAF, and does the platform generate it?
The FAF is the FTA's audit file: an invoice-level CSV export covering company information, supplier and customer listings and the general ledger, which the FTA expects accredited tax accounting software to produce on request.
Your accounting package generates it. What this platform adds is everything the FAF references but does not contain - the underlying evidence - indexed against the same transactions so the export and the records behind it tell one consistent story.
How do the reconciliation checks work?
The platform draws the ledger and the filed return figures from your accounting system, and holds the evidence index on the other side. Continuous checks confirm the three agree: every ledger line has its evidence, every return figure traces to the ledger, and mismatches are flagged as they appear.
The aim is simple: nothing an auditor can find that you have not already found first.
Does it cover corporate tax as well as VAT?
Yes. The same evidence discipline serves both. VAT evidence runs at invoice level through the year; the corporate tax side assembles the annual evidence pack - financial statements support, adjustments, and the records behind them - as the year runs rather than in the weeks before the return is due nine months after period end.
Where transfer pricing records are needed, they are commonly held in a companion system; we build both.
How does retention monitoring work?
Tax records must be retained for at least five years, with longer periods for some categories. The platform applies a retention schedule per record type, monitors completeness across periods, and flags gaps - a missing month of customs declarations, an unlinked invoice batch - while they can still be recovered.
Determining the retention period that applies to each category stays with your advisers; the software enforces whatever schedule you confirm.
What does this sit alongside in a typical business?
Audit readiness sits on the evidence side of the finance stack.
Accounting - it draws the ledger and returns from your accredited package, which it complements rather than replaces.
Operations - it collects supporting records from the systems where they arise: procurement, customs brokers, document storage. Integration approach is scoped during discovery, and we do not ask you to replace tools that work.
How long to go live, and what does it cost?
A scoping phase maps where your evidence lives today, how it reconciles to the ledger, and where the gaps are. It produces a current-state map, gap analysis, recommended scope, integration scope and a fixed-price build proposal.
A core build runs from there, with the evidence index and reconciliation first, then retention and the response workspace. Pricing varies by scope and volume, so a bracket is not published; scoping produces a fixed-price proposal with no obligation to proceed.
How each role experiences the change
Different roles feel audit readiness differently. Custom software works when it reduces friction for each one.
Finance
The evidence behind any return figure is one lookup, and the CT pack builds itself through the year instead of consuming the filing month.
Tax advisers
A clean, reconciled evidence set to work from, so adviser time goes on judgement rather than document chasing.
Group leadership
One readiness picture across entities, and audit exposure that is a known state rather than an unknown.
The audit team, on the day
A request answered by export with a checklist, inside the deadline, rather than a reconstruction across inboxes.
Questions We Get Asked
Who is FTA audit file software for?
Businesses whose tax evidence spans multiple systems, entities or high transaction volumes - importers, groups, operators with customs and contract records in different places. A small business whose whole picture sits in one accounting package is well served by that package, and we'll say so.
Does it replace our accounting software?
No. Your FTA-accredited package continues to run the ledger, produce returns and generate the FAF. This platform holds the evidence behind the numbers - contracts, customs documents, supporting records - indexed at invoice level and reconciled back to the ledger.
What is the FTA audit file (FAF)?
An invoice-level CSV export the FTA expects accredited tax accounting software to produce on request, covering company information, supplier and customer listings and the general ledger. Your accounting package generates it; this platform indexes the evidence behind it.
Does it cover corporate tax as well as VAT?
Yes. The same evidence discipline serves both: VAT evidence runs at invoice level through the year, and the corporate tax pack assembles as the year runs rather than in the weeks before the return is due nine months after period end.
Does it deal with the FTA for us?
No. We're not a tax agent and the platform doesn't file or correspond with the FTA. It assembles what your finance team and advisers need to respond - the requested items, the deadline and the export pack - in one place.
How long do tax records need to be kept?
At least five years under the Tax Procedures framework, longer for some categories. The platform applies retention schedules per record type and monitors completeness, so a five-year-old record is still there when it's asked for. Confirm the periods that apply to you with your advisers.
How does it connect to our systems?
It draws the ledger and returns from your accounting package and collects supporting records from where they arise - procurement, customs brokers, document storage. Integration is scoped during discovery; we don't ask you to replace tools that work.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
A scoping phase produces a current-state map, gap analysis, recommended scope and a fixed-price build proposal. The evidence index and reconciliation come first, then retention and the response workspace. Pricing varies by scope and volume; scoping gives a fixed price with no obligation to proceed.
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