GTO / Sales Audit · Singapore
GTO Audit Singapore: What Retail and F&B Tenants Need to Know
If your landlord has requested an audited sales report, GTO certificate or turnover verification, it usually means your tenancy agreement requires your sales to be independently verified.
Updated
7 October 2026
Focus
GTO & sales verification
Published by
Vertex Assurance Insights
For many retail and F&B tenants, this is a practical lease-compliance requirement rather than a full financial statement audit.
The key question is usually simple: how do I complete the landlord's requirement quickly and correctly?
Why Landlords Ask for GTO Audits
Many retail tenancy agreements include a rental component linked to Gross Turnover (GTO). This may be structured as base rent plus a percentage of sales, turnover rent, a variable rental component, or another sales-linked arrangement.
Where rent depends on sales, landlords may require independent verification of the reported turnover. The purpose is to give the landlord confidence that the sales figure used for rental or contractual purposes has been properly determined.
Do All Retail Tenants Need a GTO Audit?
No. The requirement usually comes from the tenancy agreement.
Some tenants may need to submit an audited sales report every year, while others may only need to do so when specifically requested by the landlord.
This is why the first thing Vertex would usually review is the relevant tenancy clause or landlord reporting requirement. From there, the appropriate scope can be determined.
GTO Audit for Retail and F&B Businesses
GTO audits are commonly relevant to retail shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, beauty and wellness outlets, gyms, entertainment businesses and other businesses operating from shopping malls or commercial premises.
For F&B businesses, turnover may come from dine-in sales, takeaway, delivery platforms and online ordering. For retail businesses, sales may come from physical stores, e-commerce channels or multiple payment platforms.
KEY POINT
The important point is that the reported GTO should follow the definition in the tenancy agreement.
What If Your Sales Records Are Complicated?
This is a common concern. Businesses may have multiple outlets, several POS systems, online and offline sales, delivery-platform revenue, vouchers and promotions, refunds and cancellations, or sales recorded across different systems.
That does not necessarily make the engagement difficult. What matters is whether the sales information can be properly reconciled and whether the reported turnover follows the landlord's contractual definition.
A well-structured GTO engagement should help the tenant complete the requirement without turning it into a full statutory audit exercise.
GTO Audit vs Statutory Audit
A GTO audit is generally much more focused than a statutory audit.
GTO engagement
A GTO engagement focuses primarily on the sales or turnover figure required by the landlord.
Statutory audit
A statutory audit covers the company's financial statements as a whole.
For this reason, the engagement is usually narrower, more targeted and based on the specific terms of the tenancy agreement. This can be particularly useful for businesses that are otherwise exempt from statutory audit but still need an independently verified sales report for their landlord.
GTO Audit vs Agreed-Upon Procedures
In some cases, the landlord may not require a traditional audit opinion. Instead, the requirement may be for a specific set of procedures to be performed over the sales information.
This may be structured as an Agreed-Upon Procedures (AUP) engagement, where the practitioner performs defined procedures and reports factual findings.
Whether the requirement should be treated as a GTO audit, certification engagement or AUP depends on the landlord's wording. It is therefore usually better to send the tenancy clause or reporting template to the auditor first rather than deciding the engagement type yourself.
How Much Does a GTO Audit Cost?
There is no single standard fee.
The cost normally depends on the number of outlets, transaction volume, number of sales channels, complexity of the reporting requirement, quality of the available records and urgency of the engagement.
Typical driver
Number of outlets
Typical driver
Sales channels
typical driver
Reporting scope
For a straightforward single-outlet retail or F&B business, the engagement is usually much more manageable than a statutory audit. For larger multi-outlet businesses or businesses with several sales channels, the scope may be broader.
The most practical way to obtain a fee is to provide the auditor with the landlord's requirement and a brief summary of the business.
Why Engage an Auditor Early?
The biggest problem is usually not the audit itself. It is leaving the requirement too close to the landlord's deadline.
When the deadline is approaching, businesses may face difficulty obtaining system reports, unresolved differences in sales figures, delays in landlord submission or unnecessary back-and-forth.
Engaging the auditor early usually makes the process much smoother.
GTO Audit & Sales Verification
Need a GTO Audit or Audited Sales Report?
Vertex Assurance PAC provides GTO audits, sales verification and agreed-upon procedures for retail, F&B and other commercial tenants in Singapore.
We focus on keeping the engagement practical and proportionate to the landlord's requirement.
If you have received a request for an audited sales report, GTO certificate, turnover verification, landlord sales confirmation or agreed-upon procedures over sales, you can send us the tenancy clause or reporting requirement.
We can review the requirement, advise on the appropriate scope and provide a written fee proposal.
Contact Vertex Assurance PAC for a GTO audit or sales verification quotation.
This article is general information only. The tenancy agreement and landlord reporting requirement determine the actual scope, reporting form and deadline applicable to the engagement.