Hainan Setup

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Megalodon Tech, a custom software development and IT outsourcing services company for clients in China and overseas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Hainan Setup to accomplish for Megalodon Tech?

We hired Hainan Setup to register our company in Hainan and handle our ongoing bookkeeping and tax filing. As a small software team, we wanted to stay focused on development work and leave the compliance and paperwork to a local partner. They also helped us understand which local policy incentives applied to our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hainan Setup has handled the full company registration process, including preparing and submitting the application documents and getting our business license and company seals issued. Since then, they’ve been managing our monthly bookkeeping and tax filings, reminding us ahead of every deadline. The main deliverables have been the business license, company seals, tax registration, and ongoing monthly financial statements.In addition to registration, Hainan Setup has walked us through the Hainan Free Trade Port policies and explained which incentives we could qualify for as a software company, such as the reduced corporate income tax rate. They’ve also flagged a few local compliance details we wouldn’t have known about on our own.

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–5 teammates from Hainan Setup.

How did you come to work with Hainan Setup?

We found them through a referral. We chose them over other options because they were close to our geographic location, their pricing fit our budget, and they were referred to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Hainan Setup has set up our company smoothly. The business license and tax registration have been completed within the expected timeframe, without delays or repeated submissions. Since then, across seven years of monthly filings, we’ve had no penalties and no missed deadlines. The monthly statements always arrive on time, so we always know where we stand financially.Moreover, our monthly filings are usually completed within a few days after we send over our documents; we’ve never had to chase them. Regarding the incentives, the clearest example is the corporate income tax policy they’ve advised us on: under the Hainan Free Trade Port policy, qualifying companies pay a reduced 15% rate instead of the standard 25%. They’ve helped us understand whether we qualify and how to apply it, which matters a lot to our cost structure as we grow.Overall, compliance used to be a background worry; now, it’s completely off our plate. We no longer track filing deadlines or regulatory changes ourselves — Hainan Setup handles everything and flags anything that affects us. The monthly statements are consistent and always on time, so our financial picture is much clearer than before. Practically, it means our small team spends zero time on accounting and all of it on client work.

How did Hainan Setup perform from a project management standpoint?

Hainan Setup’s project management is organized and low-maintenance on our side. We communicate mostly over WeChat and email, and they respond quickly, usually the same day. Deliverables arrive on or before the deadline every time; in seven years, I honestly can’t recall them being late. They’re also proactive — for example, they remind us ahead of filing deadlines instead of waiting for us to ask.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Two things stand out. First, their knowledge of local policies is genuinely deep — they don’t just file paperwork; they explain how Hainan’s Free Trade Port policies apply to our specific situation, in plain language we can act on. Second, the consistency: we’ve worked with them since 2019 and never had a reason to switch. They have the same reliability year after year — filings on time, questions answered the same day, and they tell us about relevant policy changes before we even know to ask.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, there’s nothing major. If I had to name something, in the early years, their onboarding checklists were quite technical. As a non-finance person, it took a bit of back-and-forth to understand exactly which documents were needed. However, their process has become much smoother since then, so it hasn’t been an issue for a long time.