Mall GTO Sales Reporting in Singapore: What Tenants Need to Know

This guide is general information, not legal or accounting advice. Your lease agreement decides what you must report and how. Read it with your lawyer or accountant.

What is GTO rent?

GTO stands for gross turnover. In a GTO lease, part or all of your rent is calculated as a percentage of your sales in the unit. The Code of Conduct for Leasing of Retail Premises in Singapore (version 3) describes GTO Rent as a rent component “based on tenant’s gross sales or gross turnover”.

The Code’s rental formula section gives examples of the structures you are likely to see, using placeholders rather than actual rates:

Rental formula (as written in the Code)	Compliant with the Code?
S$X psf	Yes
Y% of GTO	Yes
S$X psf + Y% of GTO	Yes
S$X psf or Y% of GTO, whichever is higher	No, unless mutually agreed as an exception
(S$X psf + Y% of GTO) or Z% of GTO, whichever is higher	No, unless mutually agreed as an exception
S$X psf + Y% of GTO above S$Z per month	No, unless mutually agreed as an exception

So a common structure is a fixed base rent plus a percentage of your gross turnover. The Code also notes that gross rent typically consists of base rent, service charge and an advertising and promotion (A&P) charge. The actual percentage and base rent are commercial terms you negotiate with the landlord. There is no standard rate, and we do not quote one here.

The practical point for tenants: when GTO is part of your rent, the landlord needs your sales figures, and those figures need to be right.

What the Code of Conduct says about GTO leases

MTI’s announcement of the Lease Agreements for Retail Premises Bill explains that the law mandates compliance with the Code of Conduct for qualifying retail leases. According to the Code, a qualifying lease is one for retail premises signed on or after 1 February 2024 (including extensions and renewals), for a period of one year or more. It covers retail premises in shopping centres, office buildings, mixed-use developments, shophouses, MRT stations, airports and more. The Fair Tenancy Industry Committee (FTIC) publishes the Code.

For GTO tenants, the relevant parts are:

• Single rental computation. As a general rule, the rent must not use an “either/or, whichever is higher” formula, or add a GTO component only when GTO exceeds a set amount. Exceptions need both parties’ agreement, and the landlord must declare the deviation to FTIC.
• POS integration costs. Where the landlord requires integration between its POS system and yours, each party pays to maintain its own system. If your existing POS is compatible, integration costs are shared 50:50, unless you each agree to pay your own vendor. If you must buy a new POS to integrate, the purchase and integration are shared 50:50. New tenants must buy a compatible POS at their own cost, unless compatible options are limited and substantially more expensive, in which case the cost is shared 50:50.
• Sales audits. Landlords must not require sales audits unless the rent includes GTO Rent. The rules for GTO tenants are covered below.
• Sales data transparency. Landlords who collect sales data for GTO rent must share sales metrics by trade category (total monthly sales and total floor area) before the lease is signed, and every six months during the lease. They do not have to share where there are fewer than 3 tenants in the category.
• Sales performance clauses. As a general rule, the lease must not let the landlord penalise you for missing a sales target, unless both parties agree to an exception.

The Code is reviewed from time to time. In a September 2025 parliamentary reply, MTI said FTIC was studying standards for trade categorisation as part of a Code review expected to finish in the first half of 2026. Check which version of the Code applies to your lease.

Why landlords want daily sales data

If part of your rent depends on turnover, the landlord cannot bill it without your sales figures. Many malls collect sales daily rather than monthly, for reasons like these:

• Rent calculation. Daily figures add up to the monthly or annual GTO used for billing.
• Verification. Figures sent each day from a POS are harder to adjust after the fact than a monthly total typed into a form.
• Mall performance. Landlords use aggregated sales to understand trade categories, plan the tenant mix and, under the Code, share trade-category data back with tenants.

Your lease will say how often you must report, in what format and by when. Treat it as an ongoing obligation, like paying rent, not a one-off set-up task.

How GTO sales submission works

Each landlord sets its own requirements, and we could not find any major landlord that publishes its technical specification on a public page. Your mall’s leasing or tenant relations team will give you the details. From what POS and integration vendors describe publicly, the common methods are:

• Automated POS submission. The POS, or a middleware service, sends daily sales to the mall or its appointed agent on a schedule, in the file format the mall specifies. SHOPLINE’s GTO page describes scheduled automatic transmission, a manual resync if something goes wrong, and submissions that follow “the file specification document provided by the mall”.
• File export and upload or email. The tenant exports a daily sales file, for example a text file, and uploads or emails it as instructed. SHOPLINE lists downloading the file and sending it by email as one of its options.
• Integration services. Some providers connect POS systems to many mall systems. EISOL’s EIX page describes collecting POS sales, applying GTO rules, converting to each mall’s format and sending on a real-time, batch or daily schedule, with retries when a transmission fails.
• Manual entry. Some landlords accept daily totals entered on a portal or in a manual report, particularly where integration is not required.

Before you sign, ask the mall: which method it requires, the file format and fields, the daily cut-off time, how to correct a wrong submission, and whether you are expected to integrate your POS. Then check whether your POS vendor can meet that specification and who pays, keeping the Code’s cost-sharing rules in mind.

What counts as gross turnover?

There is no single definition. Your lease defines gross turnover, and the details matter because they change your rent. Leases commonly deal with items such as:

• GST. Whether figures are reported before or after GST. One integration provider’s FAQ describes the daily figure as net sales after deducting tax and discounts, but only your lease decides.
• Discounts and promotions. Whether turnover is before or after discounts, staff discounts and complimentary items.
• Refunds, returns and voids. How cancelled and refunded sales are deducted, and in which period.
• Service charge. For F&B tenants, whether service charge is included.
• Delivery and online sales. Whether orders fulfilled from the unit through GrabFood or your own website count as turnover in the unit.
• Vouchers and stored value. Whether turnover is counted when a gift voucher or top-up is sold or when it is redeemed.
• Other income. Delivery fees, packaging charges and sales of items for other brands.

If a definition is unclear, ask the landlord to confirm it in writing before you set up your POS reports. Then configure your reports to match that definition, so the number you submit comes straight from the system rather than from a manual calculation.

Common GTO reporting mistakes

Most GTO problems come from mismatches between what the POS records, what the lease defines and what reaches the mall. Watch for these:

• Voids and refunds handled differently. A refund processed the next day may reduce a different day’s sales. Agree how refunds should be reported, and restrict voids and refunds with staff permissions.
• GST inclusive vs exclusive. Submitting GST-inclusive figures when the lease expects net figures overstates turnover and rent. The reverse understates it and can raise questions in an audit.
• Delivery sales left out or double-counted. If delivery orders are entered separately from the POS, they may be missed. If the platform’s figures are also added manually, they may be counted twice.
• Missed days. A failed automatic submission, a closed store or a network outage can leave gaps. Check the mall’s confirmation or portal regularly and resubmit promptly.
• Wrong outlet or business date. Multi-outlet tenants sometimes send one outlet’s figures under another’s ID. Late-night trade may fall on the wrong business date if the day-end cut-off is not set properly.
• Training and test transactions left in live sales data.
• Manual adjustments without records. Any correction should have a note and supporting documents.

A simple habit prevents most of these: each week, compare the figures you submitted with your POS daily reports, card and PayNow settlements and cash counts.

Sales audits and verification

Under the Code of Conduct, a landlord may require a sales audit only if your rent includes GTO Rent. For GTO tenants, the Code sets out two cases:

• If your POS is integrated with the landlord’s system: you must be allowed to give an upfront monthly undertaking by your director or a Certified Public Accountant on the accuracy of your sales submission, with your monthly submission, plus an annual statutory declaration by your director, instead of an annual audited sales report. The landlord may still ask for an annual audited sales report if the lease says so, and the cost is then shared 50:50.
• If your POS is not integrated: you must meet the landlord’s verification requirements in the lease, and if the landlord requires an annual sales audit, you bear its full cost.

Auditors check that the turnover you reported follows the lease definition. Audit firm Koh Lim Audit’s guide to GTO audits says auditors typically ask for POS reports, daily sales summaries, invoices, bank statements, card transaction records and cash records. It lists poor record-keeping, disputes over the GTO definition and tracking cash sales among the common difficulties. Good records from day one make audits quicker and cheaper.

Choosing a POS for a mall outlet

Whether or not your mall requires integration, your POS is the source of every GTO figure you report. Look for:

• Reliable daily reports that show gross sales, discounts, refunds, voids, GST and service charge separately, by outlet and business date.
• Exports you can use to prepare or check a submission file and to give auditors what they need.
• Delivery orders in the POS, so channel sales are recorded in one place.
• Payment reconciliation that matches POS sales to card, PayNow and other settlements.
• Staff permissions for voids, refunds and discounts, so there is an audit trail.
• Offline resilience, so an outage does not leave a gap in your records.
• Accounting integration, so the turnover in your books matches what you report.
• A clear answer on mall integration for the specific mall you are signing with.

ChaChaCha’s POS reports give daily sales breakdowns and exports, and its payments include automated reconciliation. GrabFood orders come into the POS through our delivery integration, and the POS keeps taking orders if the internet drops and syncs later. For accounts, ChaChaCha integrates with Xero (see accounting integration). These help you keep figures accurate and consistent. Mall submission requirements vary, so ask us about your mall’s submission requirements before you sign. For more on setting up a store, see our retail POS and food court POS pages.

Checklist for new mall tenants

1. Read the rental formula and check it against the Code’s single-computation rule.
2. Get the lease definition of gross turnover, and confirm unclear items (GST, refunds, delivery, vouchers) in writing.
3. Ask the mall for its sales submission method, file specification, cut-off time and correction process.
4. Confirm whether POS integration is required, whether your POS can do it, and how costs are shared under the Code.
5. Configure POS reports to match the lease definition; remove test and training transactions.
6. Set staff permissions for voids, refunds and discounts.
7. Reconcile submitted figures with POS reports and payment settlements every week.
8. Keep supporting records for audits: daily reports, settlements, cash counts and correction notes.
9. Diarise monthly undertakings or annual audit deadlines if your lease requires them.