Every compliance failure story starts the same way: 'pata hi nahi chala kab date nikal gayi.' Indian business compliance is genuinely calendar-shaped — the same dates recur every month, quarter and year — which means one well-built calendar, owned by one named person, retires the entire category of missed-deadline penalties. Here is the SME master calendar, followed by the system that keeps it alive.
The monthly heartbeat (every month)
- 7th: TDS/TCS deposit for the previous month
- 11th: GSTR-1 (monthly filers); 13th: IFF window closes for QRMP takers
- 15th: PF (ECR + payment) and ESI contributions
- 20th: GSTR-3B with tax payment (monthly; QRMP has its 22nd/24th state-wise quarterly pattern with monthly PMT-06 by 25th)
- Month-end: professional tax per state dates; RCM screen on freight/legal/imports; the books' monthly close by the 7th of the next month
Five recurring dates cover the monthly regime. Automate reminders at T-3 days and the month runs itself.
The quarterly layer
- Advance tax instalments: 15 June (15%), 15 September (45% cumulative), 15 December (75%), 15 March (100%) — presumptive filers: single instalment by 15 March
- TDS returns: 24Q/26Q by 31 July, 31 October, 31 January, 31 May — then Form 16A issuance within 15 days
- QRMP filers: quarterly GSTR-1/3B on their cycle
- Board meetings for companies: at least four a year with gaps ≤120 days — minute them contemporaneously
The annual season map
April–June: new financial year setup (regime elections, salary structures, LUT renewal for exporters by March-end/early April, MSME Udyam detail updates); Form 16 to employees by 15 June. July–September: ITRs for non-audit cases (31 July); tax audit and audit-case ITR season culminating 30 September (as extended year-wise); companies' AGM by 30 September. October–December: ROC annual filings — AOC-4 (30 days from AGM) and MGT-7/7A (60 days from AGM); GST annual return GSTR-9/9C by 31 December; the November ITC/credit-note guillotine (30 November) checked in October, not discovered in December. January–March: TDS proof collection and salary true-ups; March's advance-tax finale; year-end stock counts; and the licence-renewal sweep below.
Beyond statutory dates live your licences: FSSAI (validity-based), trade licence (commonly annual, state dates), Shops & Establishment (state cycles), fire NOC, pollution consents, PSARA/sector licences, insurance policies, DSC expiries, and rent agreements. One register with expiry-minus-90-days action dates — reviewed at every quarterly close — is worth more than most consulting.
Entity-specific additions
- Companies/LLPs: DIR-3 KYC for directors (30 September), DPT-3 (30 June), MSME-1 half-yearly (April/October) for dues to MSME suppliers, LLP Form 11 (30 May) and Form 8 (30 October)
- Exporters: LUT annually, MEIS/RoDTEP-linked filings, BRC realisation tracking
- Food businesses: FSSAI annual return (D1 by 31 May for manufacturers), water tests, medicals
- Factories: annual returns under Factories Act, environment statements (Form V by 30 September), fire and lift inspections
The system that makes it work
A calendar nobody owns is decoration. The working system: one master sheet (statutory + renewals + entity-specific) with dates, owners and proof links; reminders at T-7 and T-3 into a channel people actually read; a monthly 30-minute compliance review (last month's proofs verified, this month's dates confirmed) chaired by the owner; and an annual January rebuild against law changes — dates move, forms change, thresholds shift. Businesses that run this spend a few hours a month; businesses that don't fund the penalty economy.
How Aidwish helps
Aidwish builds and runs compliance calendars for clients — entity-specific date maps, the renewal register, reminder systems and the monthly review — as the backbone of its retainers, because every other business plan assumes the base layer never breaks.