Best billing software in Nepal: how to choose (updated for FY 2083/84)

Start with your five daily jobs

Before you look at a single product, write down the five things your business does every day. For most shops the list looks something like this: bill a customer fast, record a supplier bill, receive stock, collect udhaaro (money customers owe you) and check what sold.

Then write down the one thing that went wrong last month. It might be purchases recorded late, a stock count that did not match, a customer arguing about a bill, or a VAT return filed in a panic.

Those six lines are your specification: the list of what the software must do for you. They are more useful than any feature comparison, because they describe your own trade instead of an average shop.

Which nine criteria decide it?

1. Compliance, as pass or fail. Is the product on the Inland Revenue Department’s list of enlisted software? Check this on the Department’s own website, not the vendor’s. Will the vendor give you the certification document and the user approval letter? Where is the server, and is the company that runs it registered in Nepal? Check that the product numbers invoices in sequence within the fiscal year and refuses to delete records. It should also mark reprints as copies with a count, and print an activity log (a record of who did what, and when). If any of that is missing, the other criteria do not matter. We set out the detail in IRD-listed billing software in Nepal.

2. Invoice discipline. This means strict rules for numbering and changing bills. Look for one number sequence per fiscal year, and credit and debit notes linked to the original invoice. Cancellations should be recorded, never deleted. There should be templates for A4, A5 and thermal receipt widths. Ask to see a reprint and a cancellation on screen.

3. VAT reporting you can file from. You need the sales register, the purchase register, both return registers, a VAT summary laid out by Nepali month, and the counterparty schedule. Ask the vendor to print all of them from demo data in front of you, and to export them. A product that can bill but cannot produce these registers has only moved your problem to the 25th of next month.

4. Inventory depth that matches your trade. A pharmacy needs batches and expiry dates, with a view of what expires soon. A hardware shop needs units and conversions, for example buying by the box and selling by the piece. A distributor needs warehouse transfers and a record of stock that is on the way between them. A clothing shop needs variants, such as size and colour. Ask, too, whether the product warns you before an item runs out and shows which items sell fastest. Those two things decide what you reorder and when. Do not pay for depth you will not use. Do not accept a product that is weak in the one place you need it, either.

5. Counter speed. Test this at your own busiest hour, not in a quiet showroom. Try barcode scanning and keyboard shortcuts. Count how many keystrokes a common sale takes. Check whether a sale put on hold can be picked up again, and how fast the thermal receipt prints.

6. Branch and user handling. If you have a second location, or plan one, ask exactly what changes. Who sees which stock? How is a transfer recorded? How can prices differ by branch, and what does it cost? Then ask about roles, meaning what each staff login is allowed to see and do. The day you hire a cashier, you will want them to bill without seeing your margins.

7. Data portability. This means you can take your data out. Can you export your items, parties (customers and suppliers), invoices and ledgers yourself, without asking the vendor? The compliance rules require exports to spreadsheet, XML and PDF from the front end, the screens you use every day. A vendor who hesitates here is telling you something about their compliance, and about how hard it will be to leave.

8. Support you will actually use. You want one phone number, one set of hours and a real person. Ask who answers on a Friday evening, and in which language. Ask for the response time in writing.

9. Total cost over five years. Add up the subscription or licence with VAT, annual maintenance, hardware, setup, training and the renewal price. We work through this in what billing software costs in Nepal.

The market, described rather than ranked

It helps to know the main types of product on offer, because most products fall into a few groups.

Desktop accounting and inventory products such as Tally, BUSY and Swastik have been used in Nepal for a long time. They are strong on ledger work, and they are tied to the computer they are installed on. They suit a business with one location and an accountant who already knows them.

Nepali cloud billing products such as Tigg, OneFlow, Karobar, Nepal E-Billing, IMS and Kuver Books are built around local compliance. You use them from a browser or a phone. They differ most in inventory depth, reporting and how they handle branches.

International cloud accounting such as Zoho Books goes deep and can be set up in many ways. It fits a business trading across borders better than a kirana counter in Kathmandu.

Spreadsheets and a bill book are still what most small shops really use. For a single counter with few suppliers they work, until one day they stop working. That day usually comes with a compliance notice, or a stock loss nobody can explain.

These groups do not tell you which product is better. They tell you where to start looking.

Which demonstration questions separate vendors?

Take this list to every demonstration (demo). Ask the vendor to show each answer on screen instead of describing it.

• Show me a reprint. Does it say it is a copy, and does it show the count?
• Cancel an invoice. Where does the reason go, and where is the report?
• Record a supplier bill with a discount and a deduction withheld. How long did that take?
• Print the counterparty schedule for a month.
• Show me a stock count and the adjustment it produced.
• Transfer stock to another location. Where does it sit between dispatch and receipt?
• Make a cashier account that cannot see profit.
• Show me what sold most this month, and which items are about to run out.
• Export everything I have entered, right now.
• What does this product not do for a business like mine?

The last question matters most. Every product has limits, and a vendor who names theirs is easier to trust about everything else.

Run a two-week pilot

Do not buy a yearly plan on the strength of a demo. Run a pilot with real work. Bill at the counter for a week. Record a full purchase cycle, from order to bill to stock. Issue one return as a credit note, and do one stock count. Then print the month’s VAT reports and show them to your accountant. If your accountant can file from the exports, the product passes. If they cannot, a long feature list will not make up for it.

Where Kuver Books fits, and where it does not

Kuver Books is cloud billing, POS, inventory, purchasing and reporting software for businesses in Nepal, with a connected online store included. It was built against the Electronic Billing Procedure 2074. It suits retail, pharmacy, hardware, mobile and electronics, wholesale and distribution, and counter-service food businesses. Its strengths are invoice discipline, VAT reporting, batch and expiry handling, warehouse transfers, and entering supplier bills from a photograph.

It is not a general ledger system, the double-entry books an accountant keeps. It handles receivables, payables and cash flow: who owes you, whom you owe, and the money coming in and going out. It gives your accountant the records they need for the statutory accounts, but it does not produce those accounts itself. It does not do table service or kitchen ticketing for restaurants. It does not do production planning for manufacturers. If you need those things, buy software made for them.

That is the honest picture. Judge us on the nine criteria in the same way you judge everyone else, and run a pilot before you decide.