Questions partners ask first

Akontec pays you. The fixed and variable components both move from Akontec to your registered current account against your invoice. The only money moving the other way is the one-time ₹3,15,000 onboarding, certification and audit fee.

Per certified active seat. If you run two shifts on one seat, that is one billable seat with two agents — your productivity gain, not a second billing line. The incentive slabs are also measured per seat.

Four conditions together: the seat is certified, it is staffed by a named background-verified agent, that agent was logged in for at least 90% of the rostered hours in the cycle, and the seat sits inside the contracted allocation. Between 60% and 90% the seat bills pro-rata; below 60% it does not bill.

The fixed leg is unaffected — it bills on staffed, logged seats. Slab B is measured as a completion rate rather than an absolute file count, so a thin month does not automatically cost you the slab. Volume risk sits with Akontec, not with your floor.

No, and this is a hard boundary. Your agents collect, verify against a checklist, coordinate and report. Every opinion, valuation and filing confirmation stays with the licensed CA, CS and legal panel. Agents who breach the boundary are retrained on the first instance and removed from the process on the second.

Fifteen is the floor, and it needs a written plan to reach 20 within 60 days of go-live. Below 15 the management overhead makes the economics work against you rather than for you, which you can see for yourself on the calculator.

No. Four language-certified seats are expected by day 60. Until then the desk runs on English and Hindi, and Akontec's own panel covers first-language calls. The ₹3,000 language premium starts when the certification does.

Akontec's client owns it. You process it under a data processing agreement, on Akontec-supplied systems, with no local export and no copies outside the audited environment. The compliance and records officer on your roll is the accountable person on your side.

Yes, on separate seats and separate systems. The audited area for this process must be physically and logically segregated, and no shared login may cross the boundary. Running other work is expected — it is why the cost model allows a smaller desk to share the manager and compliance officer.

The fixed leg for a cycle is released on the 15th of that same month. Since billing starts at go-live rather than at signing, your first payment lands on the 15th of the month after go-live and covers the part-month. The first variable payment follows roughly six weeks later.

Five per cent of each fixed payment is held and released in full at the end of every quarter, provided no service measure has sat below its floor for two consecutive cycles in that quarter. On a 20-seat desk it is about ₹1.28 lakh in the pipeline at any time. Over a full term it is a timing item, not a deduction.

Below floor for two consecutive cycles triggers a written improvement notice with a thirty-day plan. The fixed component continues to bill in full throughout. Termination for service failure needs three consecutive below-floor cycles after a notice has been issued — a deliberately high bar.

Roughly ₹16.25 lakh to open a 20-seat desk from nothing, of which ₹6.5 lakh is ramp funding for the pre-go-live and first-cycle payroll. On a floor that already has seats, systems and connectivity it is about ₹10.65 lakh, most of which is still the ramp line. Schedule E splits it out in full.

Then your margin is lower and your recovery is later, and you should model it before committing rather than after. At ₹27,000 a head the 20-seat target case nets about ₹1.67 lakh a month instead of ₹2.67 lakh. The calculator uses ₹22,000, so adjust for your own city.

Exclusive by city for the term. We will not place this process with a second partner in the same city, and we will tell you at application if your city is already committed rather than leaving it open.

Ninety days' written notice after the six-month lock-in, with a thirty-day transition assist during which the fixed component continues to bill. There is no exit penalty. Non-solicitation of the client and the panel runs for 24 months after exit.

Only on defined grounds: a confirmed data breach traced to partner negligence, below-floor service for three consecutive cycles after an improvement notice, or sub-contracting any part of the scope without written consent. Nothing else terminates the contract early.

The scale review is at day 90. If QA, SLA and attrition hold, the allocation opens to 40 seats on the same rate card with no further onboarding fee — only ₹1,500 per additional head certified. Margin improves with scale because the management layer does not double.