IRD-listed billing software in Nepal: what the list means and how to check it

What is the IRD list of billing software?

The Electronic Billing Procedure 2074 says a business may use only devices and software that have been enlisted with the Department to issue invoices electronically. Enlisting works like this. For a product made in Nepal, the maker certifies to the Department, in the format the procedure sets out, that the product meets every standard in the procedure. For an imported product, the authorised distributor in Nepal does the same. Where a product is imported with no distributor and a single user has agreed to take on the maker’s responsibilities, that user may certify and enlist it themselves.

The Department then publishes which devices and software are enlisted, and the procedure names its own website, ird.gov.np, as the place to get that information. Products certified under the procedure before an amendment are treated as automatically enlisted.

Two consequences follow. Listing is a statement by the maker, accepted by the Department, that a product meets a specification. And listing attaches to a named product and a named software version, not to a company in general.

How to verify a vendor in five minutes

1. Go to ird.gov.np and find the notice page for software enlisted under the Electronic Billing Procedure 2074. Read the list there. The Department’s page is the only authority; a logo, a badge or a PDF hosted by the vendor is not.
2. Match the exact software name and version, not the company name. A vendor may sell several products.
3. Ask the vendor for the certification document it filed. The procedure sets the format, and it names the maker, the distributor, the permanent account numbers of both, the product, the version and the technology used.
4. Ask for the user approval letter. The procedure requires a listing holder to give each user a letter, in a prescribed format, consenting to that user running the product, and to report the issue of that letter to the Department. If a vendor cannot produce one, that tells you something.
5. Ask where the central server is, who operates it, and whether that operator is registered in Nepal. The cloud clauses of the procedure require the server to be inside the country, reachable by the Department, and multi-tenant so that one taxpayer’s data is kept apart from another’s.

What does listing guarantee?

Listing tells you that a product has been declared to meet the procedure’s standards. Read against the procedure, that covers a specific and useful set of behaviours:

• Invoice numbers issued in sequence within each fiscal year, from a structured table that can be printed as a report.
• One print per invoice, with any further copy clearly marked as a copy and carrying the number of times it has been printed.
• No deletion of data once entered. Corrections supersede a record rather than removing it, and a report shows what was corrected.
• Cancellation with a recorded reason, a master schedule updated, and a printable report of cancelled invoices.
• An audit trail of every user action, viewable and printable.
• Exports of the underlying tables to Excel, XML and PDF.
• The ability to send invoice data to the Department’s Central Billing Monitoring System through a web service or web API.

If a product is on the list, those are fair expectations to hold it to, and fair things to ask for in a demonstration.

What does listing not guarantee?

This is the half that sales conversations skip.

Listing is not a quality rating. The Department is not scoring products against each other, and there is no ranking on the list.

Listing is not your permission to bill electronically. That is a separate approval, applied for at your own tax office, granted as a permission letter, and extended to every branch you declare. Listed software plus no permission letter is not compliance.

Listing is not a statement about price, support hours, training, uptime or how long a vendor will stay in business.

Listing is not a statement of fit. The list cannot tell you whether a product handles batch and expiry dates for a pharmacy, or warehouse transfers for a distributor, or counter speed for a kirana shop at six in the evening. Test that yourself.

Listing is not permanent proof about the build in front of you. It names a version. Ask what happens when the version moves.

And listing is not certification by the IRD of anything the vendor chooses to say next. There is no such status as software certified or approved by the IRD. The procedure’s word is enlisted. The honest claim names the listing and the date it was granted, and can show the document behind it.

Where Kuver Books stands

Kuver Books is built against the Electronic Billing Procedure 2074, and the behaviours above are how the product works rather than options you switch on: sequence numbering inside the Nepali fiscal year, reprints marked and counted, cancellations recorded with reasons, a full activity log, and exports for filing. Our listing details, including the listing number and date, are published on the IRD listing page so that you can check them against the Department’s own list rather than taking our word for it. Until a document can be shown for a claim, we do not make the claim.

A note on the phrase you will hear most

Many Nepali businesses are told they must buy software approved by the IRD. What the law actually says is narrower and more useful: use software that is on the Department’s list, get your own permission letter, keep your data where it can be inspected, and never destroy a record. A vendor who can explain that distinction without being prompted is usually the vendor who has read the procedure.

Whether electronic billing is compulsory for your business today depends on notices the Department issues for particular groups of taxpayers. For that, and for anything that turns on your turnover or trade, confirm with the IRD or your accountant.