Cloud or desktop billing software: what changes for a shop in Nepal

What actually changes with cloud software?

Where your records live. Desktop keeps them on one computer in the shop. Cloud keeps them on a server you reach over the internet. Everything else follows from that one fact.

Who is responsible for backups. On desktop, you are. In practice someone has to remember to do it, and the copy has to be kept somewhere outside the shop. On cloud, the provider is responsible, and you should ask how they do it and how often.

Who installs updates. On desktop, a technician visits or you do it yourself, and most vendors in Nepal charge a yearly fee for this. On cloud, updates arrive without you doing anything. That is convenient, but now and then it is not, because you do not choose the timing.

Who can see the figures. Desktop ties you to the machine. If you want today’s sales at home, someone has to send you a photograph of the screen. With cloud, the owner, the accountant and a second branch can all see the same figures from wherever they are. Roles decide who sees what.

What happens when the hardware dies. Think about this case carefully. If a shop computer is stolen, soaked or simply fails, a desktop system goes with it. Your position then depends entirely on your last backup. With cloud, the computer is only a window onto your records, and a replacement laptop restores your access in an hour.

What happens when the connection dies. This is the reverse case. Desktop keeps billing. Cloud stops until the connection comes back. This is the strongest argument for desktop in Nepal, and it depends on where your shop is more than on the software.

What does the IRD require of cloud billing?

This part is specific to Nepal, and comparisons often leave it out.

The Electronic Billing Procedure 2074 allows invoice data to be kept on a central server away from the billing device. It sets conditions for this.

If the business runs its own central server, the server must be inside Nepal. The Department and the tax office must be told where it is, and they must be able to reach it.

Every cloud product is a rented or hosted service, and the conditions for that are longer. The company that operates the server must be registered in Nepal. The server must be inside Nepal, with its location reported in advance. The Department and the tax office must have access. The system must store each taxpayer’s data separately from everyone else’s. On top of that, three parties sign an agreement in the prescribed format covering data storage and security: the software maker or distributor, the server operator and the business. A copy is filed with the Department and the tax office.

Only multinational companies may keep the central server outside the country. Even then, each invoice has to be written, at the moment it is issued, to a separate audit log server inside Nepal.

For a shopkeeper, this comes down to four questions for any cloud vendor. Where is the server? Who runs it? Are they registered in Nepal? Is my data stored separately from other customers’ data? A vendor who cannot answer these plainly has not read the procedure. The detail is in Electronic Billing Procedure 2074 explained.

Where does desktop still win?

Desktop is the better choice in three situations.

A genuinely unreliable connection. We mean a connection that goes down for long periods, not one that is slow or annoying now and then. If your area loses the connection for hours at a time, and mobile data does not cover the gap, cloud billing will stop your counter. Buy for that reality.

A single machine, a single user, a settled trade. Picture one counter, one person, a steady routine, and an accountant who already uses the same desktop package. You gain little by changing.

Deep local customisation. Some businesses run a desktop product that a local implementer has changed heavily for them. That work has real value, and it does not move to a new system.

Where does cloud win?

More than one person touching the records. Once an owner, a cashier and an accountant all need the same figures, one computer holds everyone up. You also need roles to control who sees what.

More than one location. Branch and warehouse work is where desktop products need workarounds: exports, phone calls, and a spreadsheet that is out of date by lunchtime.

You want the figures without being in the shop. Most owners find this is the feature they use most. From a phone you can see what sold today and what is running low, and decide what to reorder before you reach the shop.

Backups you do not have to remember. A backup that runs without anyone remembering it is the one that actually gets done.

Updates when the rules change. Tax rules in Nepal change with each Finance Act and with Department notices. Cloud products are updated in one place, for everyone.

The questions that decide it

Ask every vendor, cloud or desktop:

• What happens to my billing during a connection outage, specifically?
• Where is my data, who operates that server, and is the operator registered in Nepal?
• How are backups taken, how often, and have you ever restored one?
• Can I export everything myself, today, without asking you?
• What does a second branch or a second till cost, and what does it change?
• What do I pay in year two, and is maintenance included?
• Who answers the phone at six in the evening, and in which language?

Most people skip the export question, and many regret it later. The Electronic Billing Procedure 2074 requires exports to spreadsheet, XML and PDF from the front end, the screens you use every day. So a vendor who hesitates is telling you something about their compliance, and about how hard it will be to leave.

How Kuver Books answers them

Kuver Books is cloud software. You use it from a browser on whatever computer is at the counter, and from a phone when you are away. Billing, POS, inventory, purchasing, reporting and a connected online store are in one account. Roles let a cashier bill without seeing your margins. Backups and updates are our job, so you do not have to do them. Our service target is 99.5% uptime target during business hours. We call it a target, not a guarantee, because that is what it is. Where customer data is hosted is published on the IRD listing page, next to our listing details. You can check it against the conditions above yourself, instead of trusting one sentence on a website.

Two honest limits. First, a cloud product needs a connection at the counter. If your location cannot provide one reliably, a desktop product is the better buy, and we would rather tell you now. Second, moving from a desktop system is easiest at the start of a fiscal year. You carry over opening balances, items, customers and suppliers, instead of matching two systems across one period. The Tally migration guide explains how that works.

Check anything that depends on your own permission letter, or on the rules for your trade, with the IRD or your accountant.