Accounts help organisations study their financial and non-financial information, thereby keeping all stakeholders, including regulators, investors and management updated on all developments. While technological advancements and innovations are disrupting every sector, the world of accounting is dramatically changing too.

Digitalisation is a priority for many accounting agencies and businesses. Today, most significantly, automation has opened the doors for industry professionals to grow and expand their businesses through remote working and by managing their books digitally. The year 2020 brought about a drastic change in the way companies started maintaining their accounts and finances.

As the government plans to make E-invoicing mandatory from 1st April 2021, businesses' need to stay GST compliant. This is true not just for large enterprises but also for startups and SMEs.

Having a pocket friendly GST compliant accounting software makes it easier for businesses to foresee any errors in their tax calculations and enables accuracy. This category of financial accounting software has, therefore, become the heart of reliable financial bookkeeping. Moreover, GST compliant accounting software can now meet needs specific to businesses. It can be integrated with the legacy systems at any given point.

For budding entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs, investing in technology is the key to providing hassle-free remote assistance to their clients. Accountants and tax experts see a need to evolve from manually crunching data and sourcing reports, to, using accounting technology. These technologies provide software that supports multi-currency, multi-branch and multi-company accounting. These allow one-click generation of E-way bills and communicate with the GSTN portal in real-time to generate E-invoices saving time and manual efforts.

How does a GST compliant accounting software benefit a startup?

1. Seamless set-up: GST compliant accounting software can help save time by facilitating automation in scheduling bill payments and tracking receivables.

2. Managing multiple projects effortlessly: A GST compliant accounting software enables startups to manage numerous projects simultaneously. Some additional features such as auto JV for essential transactions like GST on advances, Ineligible ITC, RCM and IGST Refunds make it a seamless financial operating system.

3. Generating invoices for customers with one-click: Manually generating an invoice is a tedious process. Earlier, paper invoices made it more complicated. Generating them took a lot of time and would often lead to multiple errors, making it more challenging to efficiently keep a close eye on finances. With GST compliant software, it becomes easier to manage clients more efficiently and produce multi-currency invoices.

4. Tracking bills and receivables is more straightforward: The ability to automatically keep important vendor information ready in your system is one of the most significant advantages. Few software solutions now provide document attachment features with every transaction, which helps generate E-invoices and E-waybills faster.

5. Maintaining detailed paperless reports: Credit reversal reports and MSME outstanding reports can be easily managed through a GST compliant accounting software. Since this is a paperless system, each statement can be prepared and stored quickly. Startups can always stay compliant, minimising the possibility of missing out on any crucial data or report.

For a vendor that provides a 24/7 support system to ensure customer satisfaction, a GST compliant accounting software can help startups save time and reduce reporting error. Manual efforts can be utilised for more value-added, analytical tasks. GST compliant accounting software can play a central role in supporting startup businesses align their accounting and financial information with utmost accuracy.

The author is Founder & Managing Director, Cygnet Infotech