What accounting task takes up the most time for UAE SMEs?

For those running or working with SMEs in the UAE, I’m curious about which accounting tasks tend to take up the most time.

A few areas that seem to come up often:

• Keeping bookkeeping up to date
• VAT compliance and return preparation
• Corporate Tax requirements
• Bank reconciliations
• Accounts receivable and payable
• Monthly reporting
• Payroll
• Cash-flow tracking

From conversations with businesses, it seems the difficult part isn’t always the accounting itself. It’s often keeping the process consistent throughout the month — collecting documents on time, posting transactions regularly, reconciling accounts, and reviewing the numbers before month-end.

For business owners and accountants here:

Which accounting task takes up the most time for you, and have you found a process or software that genuinely makes it easier?

Interested in hearing what works (or doesn’t work) for different businesses.