Start with the operation you need to fund
Describe the team, premises, research or production work, customers and expected payments. Build the budget around those activities, then arrange the banking, bookkeeping and company services they require.
A starting reference for a Beijing premises budget
- Yizhuang Development Zone
- RMB 81.65 / m² / month · Grade A offices, Q4 2025
- Wangjing–Jiuxian Bridge
- RMB 159.31 / m² / month · Grade A offices, Q4 2025
- CBD
- RMB 219.22 / m² / month · Grade A offices, Q4 2025
- Zhongguancun
- RMB 264.86 / m² / month · Grade A offices, Q4 2025
The 2025–2026 Foreign Investment Guide reproduces Cushman & Wakefield’s Q4 2025 effective rents for Grade A offices. The figures below are dated market benchmarks in RMB per square metre per month; obtain a property-specific quote for the space you intend to use.
- Compare the full occupancy cost: rent, deposit, fit-out, management charges, utilities, connectivity and equipment installation.
- For a laboratory or workshop, obtain a separate quote covering technical fit-out, power, ventilation, waste handling and shared equipment or technician charges.
- Build the operating budget around staff, research services, bookkeeping and travel as well as the premises. Record which costs are one-off, monthly or charged per project.
The guide’s utility tables distinguish residential and non-residential uses. Match each tariff to the property, meter and activity; a household electricity rate is not an industrial-power estimate.
Six questions to separate
Capital contribution: how and when the investor funds the entity. Business banking: which account and onboarding facts the bank requires. Bookkeeping and invoices: how real transactions are recorded and invoiced. Founder compensation: whether salary, service fees or another arrangement fits the actual role. Tax residence, payroll and social insurance: which facts create which obligations. Profits, dividends and foreign exchange: what must be true before funds are distributed or remitted.
- Bring the investor and entity outline.
- Describe expected customer, vendor, payroll and cross-border money flows.
- State the founder’s actual China work and residence position.
- Ask each party what it can confirm in writing, and what it cannot.
From rule to first action
Bring the entity plan, expected money flows, employment plan and current legal status to the first conversation. A bank, accountant, tax authority and company-setup adviser own different confirmations; a promising answer from one is not a substitute for another.