How to read a setup consultant quote

Where the headline numbers come from

A Saudi setup consultancy advertises company formation from SAR 1,200, and totals the official fees at SAR 1,700 before VAT. Both are defensible: SAR 1,200 is the ministry's LLC establishment fee, and SAR 1,700 is that plus publication before VAT. What the headline leaves out is the trade name and the tax, which is how a genuinely sourced figure still ends up a few hundred riyals below what you will pay.

The four questions that sort a quote out

You do not need to know Saudi procedure to test a proposal. You need the quote to separate what it hands to a ministry from what it keeps.

• Which lines are government fees and which are your fee? Ask for them in two columns.
• What is your MISA registration fee figure, and which page is it from? The ministry's own guide says the amount is set by the ministry on approval.
• Is VAT shown separately? The ministry lists 15% VAT with the establishment and publication fees.
• What is excluded? Translation, embassy attestation, the national address, and bank account opening are the usual four.

Signals that a quote has been assembled carefully

A good one names the entity type before pricing it, because SAR 1,600 and SAR 1,000 are different fees from the LLC figure. It tells you the trade name costs more in English. It flags the annual confirmation of SAR 1,200 for next year instead of letting you discover it. And it treats the MISA fee as open until approval rather than printing a confident number.

Signals worth slowing down for

A single all-inclusive figure with no breakdown. A fixed annual investment licence fee quoted without a source. A capital requirement asserted for an activity without reference to the ministry's activity table, when trading alone carries SAR 30,000,000. Any of these can be an oversight rather than sharp practice, and all of them are reasonable things to query before signing.

What a consultant is genuinely worth

The fee schedule is public; the sequencing is where money is actually lost. Getting documents attested in the right order, keeping the investment certificate valid when you incorporate, meeting the payment window after approval, and getting the general manager's work permit issued before the residence permit is attempted. That is the work. A firm that explains it in writing, with dates, has earned its margin.

Use the calculator to fix the government side of the number before your first call, so the conversation is about service rather than about arithmetic.