Meet the man behind homegrown K.G. Tan & Co. PAC

The rest is history after he founded the firm in 2006.

If clients and colleagues were to describe KG, the adjectives ”dynamic” and “visionary” would probably be most fitting. This energetic leader is always on the go, constantly pushing and defining boundaries beyond the normal expectations of SMPs prevalent within the accounting industry. He seeks to go beyond offering the standard compliance services by looking at areas that can help clients in their business development plans.

KG and the firm endeavour to become a success story for Singapore in the accounting industry, leading and inspiring their peers to transform the Singapore accountancy sector into a leading global accountancy hub for the Asia-Pacific region.

Personal Background

Mr Tan Khoon Guan (“KG”), aged 40, is the founder of K.G. Tan & Co. PAC, a certified public accounting firm that was set up in May 2006.

The firm has achieved significant growth since its inception and has grown from a 2-man firm to a current headcount of 45 staff with over 500 local and multinational clients from a diversified group of industries.

They are a member of Alliott Group, an international alliance of independent accounting, law and consulting firms with 180 members across 80 countries and ranked within the top 30 alliances worldwide.

Prior to setting up the firm, KG has more than fifteen years of experience in the fields of finance, accounting, auditing and structured and corporate finance advisory. Earlier in his career, he joined Arthur Andersen (now merged with Ernst & Young) where he was responsible for a diverse portfolio of clients as an audit manager. KG was also with Asia Power Corporation Limited, a listed company in Singapore, as their Chief Financial Officer overseeing the Group’s financial management, accounting, taxation and treasury functions.

A staunch believer in developing innovation through the use of technology, KG is actively collaborating with IT developers, IDA and ISCA to develop a full suite of cloud enabled SMP applications such as practice management, accounting, auditing and tax workflows which will be hosted and operated under a single platform to be subscribed by SMPs as Software as a Service (“SaaS”) applications.

KG has also been appointed in several high profile positions in the accountancy industry, namely:
- Council Member, Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (refer to Appendix 5)
- Member, Public Accounting Practice Committee, ISCA
- Member, Accountancy Sector Research Centre Advisory Council, SAC
- Chairman, 1-SMP Committee, ISCA

Career Highlights

The firm has achieved significant milestones and several key highlights during KG’s leadership.

In 2008, they became the only accounting firm in Singapore to develop a web-based practice management application that automates the entire workflow of our operation and integrates fully with our accounting, payroll, administrative and CRM functions.

This application is also currently being adopted under the Infocomm Development Authority's (IDA) call for collaboration for accountancy firms and IT vendor to develop a cloud based practice management solution for the accounting sector.

In 2011, realizing the need to internationalise the business, the firm was admitted to the Alliott Group, one of the top 30 international alliances of accounting, law and consulting firms. The application is rigorous but the benefits to be part of Alliott Group are massive in terms of branding, global network and knowledge sharing.

Not only does it enable the firm to assist their clients in globalising their businesses, it also provides them with the necessary platform to service large multinational companies such as Mango and Sinopec etc.

In 2013, the firm was ranked as one of the top 25 accounting firms in Singapore by Singapore Business Review despite the fact that this is only their 7th year of practice. They are the youngest firm to achieve the feat.

In 2014, the firm was honoured to be the recipient of the “M&A Accountancy Firm of the Year – Singapore” by Corporate International and “Goods & Services Tax Team of the Year – Singapore” by Acquisition International.