Small businesses devote a lot of time to be compliant right from the invoice you issue to the return you file. GST software’s that are designed for small businesses are of great help. You can manage the compliance with minimum efforts and time and allows you to focus on the things that matter most.
Here are 5 tips to choose a GST software for small businesses.
GST compliant invoice
GST being a transaction-based tax, every invoice you issue need to be compliant. The GST act prescribes certain mandatory details that need to be captured in the invoice. Also, the act prescribes different types of invoices that need to be issued based on the nature of supply that is made. If you are supplying taxable goods or services, you need to issue a taxable invoice. If you are supplying exempt goods/services or you have opted for composition registration, you need to issue a bill of supply. Similarly, there are different invoices for exports you make.
Invoicing is a critical aspect of the business; GST makes it even more important. Because your customer will be eligible to claim input tax only if you issue a GST compliant invoice. Else, he will be denied and the credibility that you have built will be impacted. Being a small business, this matters a lot.
The GST software you choose should be the one that is inbuilt to capture all the mandatory details in the invoice and allow you to capture non-mandatory details that are required by the business.
Also, the GST software should have inbuilt intelligence to understand the nature of the transaction that is been made and automatically generate the invoice type that is prescribed by the law. For example, you are supplying exempt goods, the GST software should automatically generate a bill of supply.
There are GST software for small business that are inbuilt to generate GST compliant invoice and automatically generate different types of invoices based on the nature of supplies. This small business GST software prevents all possible errors such as incorrect tax type, amount etc by automating the calculation.
Quick GST set-up
The GST software for small business should allow you to on-board quickly with minimum efforts and time. To on-board, you need to configure the GST details such as GST rate for products, GSTIN for party ledgers etc. If you deal with 100’s of products and if the GST software requires you to configure GST details for each product, it’s a time-consuming task. It becomes even more challenging to update if there is a change in GST rate.
The GST software for small should be designed in such a way that your efforts to update 50 or 500 products remain the same. To elaborate, small business GST software should allow you to configure the details at the group level which in turn gets inherited to all the products under the group. Let’s say, you have 200 products under a group having the same GST rate, you can configure the GST rate at a group instead of requiring to configure at each product level. This way it becomes easier to update the revised GST rates as well.
Prevention and alert capabilities
Prevention and alert capabilities are crucial if you are looking for GST software for small businesses. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure, the GST software should be inbuilt with the capabilities that will prevent all possible errors while recording the transactions and alert the users.
This becomes possible if the GST software is intelligent enough to read through the details such a rate, party registration type, State etc. defined at the master level ( products, party ledger etc.) and accordingly predict the value/tax type that is required in the transactions.
Let’s say, if your party ledger is configured with different state and you are selling taxable products, the GST software should be intelligent enough to know the tax type that is required i.e. IGST. In case, if a user chooses a wrong tax type or tax ledger is all together is missed, the GST software should prevent and alert the user about the discrepancies.
This way, all the possible errors at the source level can be avoided.
Accurate returns
First thing first, the GST software for small businesses should help you generate Form GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B in excel and JSON format that can be directly uploaded into GSTIN system.
Secondly, the GST software for small business should have in-built intelligence that helps you to generate 100% accurate returns with minimum efforts. That’s exactly Tally's renowned 'Prevention - Detection - Correction' technology does. The inbuilt intelligence understands the return requirements and includes only those transaction which should be included in the return.
The GST software should also detect the transactions having insufficient information or errors and allows for seamless system assisted correction. This way you will be confident that 100% of transactions are analyzed and only the right ones are included in the returns that you file.
Product updates to support the GST changes
We all know, the GST rules and laws changes frequently. The GST changes can be as small as rate changes to big as a change in return format. The GST software should be flexible to allow user self-change the rate instead of needing wait for product updates. For all other things which affect the return format and any other things, you need continuous product updates to stary-up-to date.
If you are a small business looking for GST software, product update is a key factor to consider.
How Tally can help?
Managing GST compliance in TallyPrime is as easy as 1,2, 3. TallyPrime makes the process of GST compliance seamless and efficient. This is made possible using Tally's renowned Prevention - Detection - Correction' technology.
With TallyPrime, all you need to do is a 3-4 simple steps process to maintain the data in the right manner for ease and quick filing of GST Returns. Take a look at what all you can do using TallyPrime.
