How can an accounting firm or company secretary get recommended by ChatGPT? (Malaysia)
EasyFound · · 10 min read
Put the facts a client checks on your own website: your licences, services and fees. In our test, ChatGPT rarely named a company secretary and sent people to SSM to check registration, while Gemini kept naming the same handful of firms. Asked about fees, ChatGPT named firms that publish their prices. If you're an MIA member, skip self-ranking 'best firm' pages: MIA's marketing rule bars exaggerated claims.
What gets an accounting firm or company secretary in Malaysia recommended by ChatGPT is a website that passes the three checks a client makes: is it registered, what does it do, and what does it charge. In our test, ChatGPT named a company secretary in just 1 of 6 company secretary answers and pointed readers to SSM's register instead. Keep every page factual, because the MIA By-Laws bar members from exaggerated claims in marketing.
This guide follows those checks in the order a client makes them, then turns to the one rule that limits what you can write. It rests on 36 answers that ChatGPT and Gemini gave to six Malaysian accounting, tax and company secretary questions, in English, Malay and Chinese.
Does ChatGPT tell clients to check that a company secretary in Malaysia is registered?
Yes: in all six company secretary answers in our test, ChatGPT cited SSM and told the reader to check that the secretary is registered. In five of those six it named no secretary at all, only the register. One answer said: "I can’t honestly name one single “best” firm without knowing your budget and needs."
The register exists because the law demands it. SSM says Section 241 of the Companies Act 2016 "requires any person who are qualified to act as a secretary to register with SSM and obtain Practicing Certificate before he can act as a company secretary" (SSM, List of Registered Secretaries).
So a company secretarial practice gets its opening by being easy to confirm against that list. Two of ChatGPT's Malay answers went further and told readers to look for a firm that shows its practising certificate number. Gemini took the opposite line, naming firms in every company secretary answer, each list led by the same digital platform. Our SSM tally saw SSM cited this way across more questions.
Which pages tell ChatGPT what services an accounting firm in Malaysia offers?
Mostly the firm's own pages: both tools cited accounting firms' service and home pages more often than any independent list or directory, though each leaned on a different kind of page.
| Kind of site | ChatGPT (50 cited) | Gemini (121 cited) |
|---|---|---|
| A firm's own service or home page | 13 | 51 |
| A firm's own price page or fee guide | 12 | 27 |
| A firm's own free Google Sites page | 10 | 0 |
| A firm's own "best" or "top" page | 1 | 22 |
| Independent list, directory or guide | 4 | 17 |
| SSM | 6 | 1 |
| Google Maps, app store or social media | 4 | 3 |
A costly website isn't the price of entry. Four ChatGPT answers to the KL tax-filing questions, in English and Chinese, cited firms' free Google Sites pages, much as our tuition centre test found. What a services page needs is a plain list of the filing, secretarial and bookkeeping work a small company buys, in the words an owner would type.
Does publishing fees help an accounting firm get recommended by ChatGPT in Malaysia?
In our test, published fees went with being named. Asked for an affordable firm and what it charges, ChatGPT named firms in two of its three answers, and it described every firm it named there as publishing its prices or packages.
Gemini is a separate product, asked through a separate API with different settings (it had no location setting), and it behaved like one. Of the 81 firms the two tools named in all, only 13 came from both. Gemini's most-named firm turned up in 17 of its 18 answers. It kept the same firm first across all three runs for four of the six questions, something ChatGPT never managed.
Our wider comparison found the same split in other trades, and the full side-by-side is under Sources. ChatGPT's instability is the useful part. No single firm appeared in all three of ChatGPT's runs of any question, which is why one look at your phone says little, and why a firm with a clear fee page still has room on ChatGPT's shortlist.
Can an accounting firm in Malaysia call itself the best to get recommended by ChatGPT?
Not if MIA members run it, in our reading, even though Gemini leaned on such pages: it cited a firm's own "best" or "top" page in 13 of its 18 answers. Paragraph R115.2 of the MIA By-Laws says a professional accountant marketing their services "shall not make: (a) Exaggerated claims for the services offered by, or the qualifications or experience of, the accountant; or (b) Disparaging references or unsubstantiated comparisons to the work of others" (MIA By-Laws, updated 5 November 2024).
The guidance note, 115.2 A1, adds that an accountant "in doubt about whether a form of advertising or marketing is appropriate" is "encouraged to consult with the relevant professional body". This is general information, not legal advice.
The rule pushes you back to the three checks. A page stating who is licensed, what you do and what it costs compares you with no one, and those are the facts ChatGPT reached for.
What should an accounting firm in Malaysia do in its first week to get recommended by ChatGPT?
Spend the week making those three checks easy, roughly one page a day, after first seeing what ChatGPT says about firms like yours today.
- Monday: find out where you stand. Ask EasyFound for a free check of the answer ChatGPT gives a business owner looking for an accountant or company secretary like you, and walk through it with us on a free call.
- Tuesday: the registration page. Name each company secretary as registered with SSM, your licensed tax agent and your MIA members, worded as on the registers.
- Wednesday: the fees page. Starting fees and what each covers: Form C, CP204, annual return, monthly bookkeeping.
- Thursday: one page per service, including e-invoicing support and the areas you serve, such as PJ or Bangsar.
- Friday: reread, then recheck. Swap any "the best firm in KL" wording for facts a client can verify, and ask Gemini each question three times on its own.
EasyFound is an AI search visibility (GEO) tool built for Malaysian businesses. It answers a narrow question for an accounting or company secretarial firm: do ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI engines name you when a business owner asks about Form C, fees or a company secretary, and which pages do they cite? Our team can run it for you through our AI SEO service, writing page changes with the MIA By-Laws in mind.
Would ChatGPT name your firm to a new Sdn Bhd?
See what ChatGPT says when a business owner asks for an accountant or company secretary like you, then go through it with us on a free call.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an AI SEO company that works with accounting firms in Malaysia?
Yes. EasyFound is one, so weigh this answer knowing we'd like your business: it's a GEO tool made for Malaysian businesses, and our team can also run it for an accounting, tax or company secretarial practice. Before hiring anyone, us included, find out which AI tools they test (Gemini as well as ChatGPT), in which languages, whether you get to see the unedited answers a prospective client would read, and whether the page changes they write respect the MIA By-Laws on marketing.
Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my company secretarial firm?
Often it doesn't recommend any firm. In EasyFound's Malaysian test through OpenAI's API, ChatGPT named a company secretary in only 1 of 6 answers to 'best company secretary' and cost questions. In all six it cited SSM, and it told the reader to check that the secretary is registered with SSM. So make each secretary's SSM registration easy to confirm on your own website, then check again: the answers change from run to run.
Does Gemini recommend the same accounting firms as ChatGPT in Malaysia?
Rarely, in EasyFound's test of six Malaysian accounting, tax and company secretary questions, asked three times each through both companies' APIs. Of the 81 firms named across all those answers, 13 were named by both tools. Gemini repeated a short list of firms, with the same firm first in all three runs for four of the six questions. ChatGPT didn't keep the same first firm across all three runs for any of them.
Can my accounting firm publish a 'top 10 accounting firms in Malaysia' article?
Be careful. Gemini cited firms' own 'best' or 'top' pages in 13 of 18 answers in EasyFound's Malaysian test. But the MIA By-Laws say a member marketing their services 'shall not make: (a) Exaggerated claims for the services offered by, or the qualifications or experience of, the accountant; or (b) Disparaging references or unsubstantiated comparisons to the work of others.' Factual pages about your services, fees and registrations are the safer route. Ask MIA if unsure; this is general information, not legal advice.
Kenapa ChatGPT tidak menamakan setiausaha syarikat bila ditanya dalam Bahasa Melayu?
Dalam ujian EasyFound, apabila ditanya kos setiausaha syarikat dalam Bahasa Melayu, ChatGPT tidak menamakan sebarang firma dalam ketiga-tiga jawapan dan merujuk pembaca kepada SSM. Ia lebih suka menyuruh pembaca menyemak pendaftaran daripada mengesyorkan nama. Jadi letakkan fakta yang boleh disemak di laman web anda sendiri: pendaftaran setiap setiausaha dengan SSM serta lesen ejen cukai, perkhidmatan (contohnya Borang C, CP204, penyata tahunan) dan yuran permulaan. Jika anda ahli MIA, elakkan dakwaan 'firma terbaik', kerana Undang-Undang Kecil MIA melarang ahlinya membuat dakwaan yang keterlaluan. Ini maklumat umum, bukan nasihat undang-undang.
Sources
A declared interest: EasyFound sells AI visibility work, accounting firms among its possible customers, so read our conclusions with that stake in view.
Our data: All 36 answers were collected on 1 October 2026, just after midnight Malaysia time (still 30 September in UTC, the time the CSV records), in the same run as our Gemini comparison. EasyFound saved them for six Malaysian buyer questions about accounting, tax filing and company secretarial services, each asked three times of each tool: "accounting firm in KL to do tax filing for my Sdn Bhd", "affordable and reliable accounting firm in Malaysia and how much they charge", "best accounting firm in Malaysia for small businesses", "best company secretary service in Malaysia", "berapa kos setiausaha syarikat dan firma mana yang boleh dipercayai" and "吉隆坡找会计公司帮Sdn Bhd报税，哪间好". ChatGPT ran on OpenAI's Responses API, model gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17, with web search and approximate location Malaysia; Gemini on Google's Gemini API, model gemini-3.8-flash, with Google Search grounding and no location setting. Both used default settings and no chat history, and each model decided whether to search; these are API answers, not the ChatGPT or Gemini apps. ChatGPT searched only in English for the Malay and Chinese questions. Gemini didn't search for the Chinese question; for the Malay one, 4 of its 6 searches were in Malay. The counts needed no new AI calls. Firms were hand-coded after reading every answer in full: a firm counts if a buyer could hire it (accounting, tax, company secretarial and bookkeeping providers, including digital platforms and international networks offered as an option); directories, regulators, software named only as a tool and firms named only to be dismissed were not counted, and names paired with a slash count separately. On that coding, ChatGPT made 63 firm namings across its 12 answers that named any, and Gemini 167 across 18. Because of the hand coding, these firm-level counts differ from our Gemini comparison, which listed businesses automatically across 45 questions (its company secretary figure covers nine questions, and its automatic list counted SSM's e-Secretary portal as a business in one Malay answer that we read as naming no firm). Cited sites were counted once per organisation per answer and typed from their address and page title, checked by hand; where one answer cited several pages from the same organisation, the most specific type counts ("best" or "top" page, then price page, then other). "A firm's own 'best' or 'top' page" includes ranking articles on a firm's own site and service pages titled "top" or "best". The fee-question finding covers the two ChatGPT answers to that question that named firms (nine firms in all); the third named none. Small samples are examples, not rates, and we don't name firms, because three runs of six questions aren't a ranking. Download the per-answer data (CSV).
| ChatGPT | Gemini | |
|---|---|---|
| Searched the web | 18 of 18 answers | 14 of 18 answers |
| Named at least one firm | 12 of 18 answers | 18 of 18 answers |
| Firms per answer, median, when it named any | 5 | 9.5 |
| Same first firm in all three runs | 0 of 6 questions | 4 of 6 questions |
| Company secretary answers that named a firm | 1 of 6 | 6 of 6 |
What this test can't show:
- The apps. We used each company's API, not the ChatGPT or Gemini apps, which can add location and chat history.
- Other questions. Six short keyword-style questions, asked on one night, can't cover audit, payroll or every town.
- Why a firm was named. We saw what each tool said and cited, not its reasons.
Rules (read 14 October 2026):
- Malaysian Institute of Accountants, By-Laws (On Professional Ethics, Conduct and Practice), updated 5 November 2024, effective 15 December 2024, paragraph R115.2 and 115.2 A1, read through a reader proxy (link)
- Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM), List of Registered Secretaries (link)
The data is shared under CC BY 4.0: you're free to reuse it, with credit to EasyFound. The MIA By-Laws apply to MIA members; company secretaries who belong to another body, such as MAICSA, follow that body's rules, which we haven't read. This is general information, not legal advice.
Both tools' answers shift from week to week; these counts describe one night in October 2026.
Research by Janice Pang, EasyFound.