You close a ₹50,000 service engagement on Monday. Your team works 40 hours in Kuala Lumpur, 30 hours in Jakarta, and 10 hours in Singapore. By Wednesday, your accountant asks: one invoice or three? How do you split the revenue? Where does each tax code land in the GL? Most service businesses make one of two mistakes here. They either invoice one lump sum (and watch tax authorities in two countries demand clarification), or they split it three ways without a proration logic that an auditor can follow. Both cost time and credibility. The correct answer depends on how your contract is structured, where the work happened, and which tax authority owns the relationship with your client. If you get this wrong, you'll reconcile it three times and your accountant will flag it every quarter. One invoice or three? The contract rule Start with your contract. This is not optional. Single-invoice rule: If your client signed one statement of work and paid one invoice number, you can (and should) stay with one invoice. But the invoice itself must show the tax calculation by jurisdiction. If you're billing ₹50,000 for work split across three countries, your invoice line items should break down how much work (in hours or deliverables) happened in each place. Three-invoice rule: If your engagement letter sets different rates, schedules, or service levels per country, or if each country's tax authority requires a separate registration and invoice number, issue three invoices. This happens most often when you have a local subsidiary in each country, or when the client's procurement team insists on local vendor invoicing. For example: Scenario A (one invoice, three tax jurisdictions): You are a Singapore-registered entity. Your client (UK-based, buying globally) signs one SOW with you for "30 days of software development, mix of locations." Issue one invoice from Singapore with footnotes showing SST applies to 40 hours (Malaysia), PPN to 30 hours (Indonesia), and GST to 10 hours (Singapore). Scenario B (three invoices): You have a Malaysia subsidiary, an Indonesia PT, and a Singapore entity, all registered and active. Your client requires local invoicing for compliance reasons. Issue three separate invoices, one from each entity, with matching SOWs and separate tax IDs. If you are not sure, ask your accountant and the client's procurement team at contract signature. Do not decide this when you are ready to invoice. Proration logic: hours, deliverables, or cost allocation Now that you have decided on one or three invoices, you need to decide how to split the work across jurisdictions. This is the proration step, and it must be defensible. Method 1: Hour-based proration You track hours per country. This is the cleanest method if your team logs time by location. Example: ₹50,000 project, 80 total billable hours. Malaysia (40 hours): 50% of project cost = ₹25,000 Indonesia (30 hours): 37.5% of project cost = ₹18,750 Singapore (10 hours): 12.5% of project cost = ₹6,250 Then apply each jurisdiction's tax: Malaysia: ₹25,000 + SST 6% = ₹26,500 Indonesia: ₹18,750 + PPN 10% = ₹20,625 Singapore: ₹6,250 + GST 8% = ₹6,750 Total invoice (one line item, three tax zones): ₹53,875 Method 2: Deliverable-based proration If your contract breaks work into deliverables ("mobile app design", "API testing", "deployment"), assign each deliverable to the country where it was completed. This works well when tasks are clearly location-specific. Example: Same ₹50,000, but three deliverables: Deliverable 1 (Design, completed in Malaysia): ₹20,000 + SST 6% = ₹21,200 Deliverable 2 (Development, completed in Indonesia): ₹20,000 + PPN 10% = ₹22,000 Deliverable 3 (QA, completed in Singapore): ₹10,000 + GST 8% = ₹10,800 Total invoice: ₹54,000 Method 3: Cost allocation (most complex, use only if hours are not tracked) If you cannot track hours or deliverables cleanly, allocate cost based on the team headcount or operational cost in each location during the project period. This is harder to audit, so use it only as a last resort. Example: Your 10-person team has 6 people in Malaysia, 3 in Indonesia, 1 in Singapore. Allocate costs proportionally: Malaysia (60%): ₹30,000 + SST 6% = ₹31,800 Indonesia (30%): ₹15,000 + PPN 10% = ₹16,500 Singapore (10%): ₹5,000 + GST 8% = ₹5,400 Total invoice: ₹53,700 Pick one method and document it in your invoice notes or a separate proration schedule. Your accountant and an auditor must be able to trace the math in under five minutes. If they cannot, you will reconcile it quarterly. GL splits and tax coding by jurisdiction Once you have your proration, post it to the ledger. This is where most service businesses get tangled. Your GL structure should separate revenue and tax by jurisdiction. Here is a minimal chart: Revenue accounts: 4100 Service Revenue - Malaysia 4200 Service Revenue - Indonesia 4300 Service Revenue - Singapore Tax payable accounts: 2200 SST Payable (Malaysia) 2210 PPN Payable (Indonesia) 2220 GST Payable (Singapore)