Free vs Paid Accounting Software for Small Businesses in Nepal

Three ways to keep the books

Paper and Excel

Excel works when there are few bills and one careful person keeps them.

As the bills grow, each bill is typed into the sales list, the customer's sheet and the VAT sheet. Each copy can have a mistake. A deleted row leaves no trace, and the bill number depends on the person who types it.

For example, on 15 Kartik 2083 you sell goods worth NPR 50,000 to Ram Traders on credit. VAT at 13% is NPR 6,500, so the bill total is NPR 56,500:

Accounting software makes this entry when you save the bill. In Excel, someone makes it by hand.

What to check in a free plan

You will put a year of records into it, and moving later is hard work. Check these points first.

• Limits. How many bills, users or companies, and what counts? At the limit, what stops? Can you still record payments?
• Does it end? A free trial ends after a set number of days; a free plan should not.
• Users. If the owner and an accountant both work in the books, one user is not enough. Do not share one password.
• Taking your data out. Can you download ledgers, VAT books and statements in Excel or PDF, and take all your data if you leave?
• Moving up. When you start to pay, do you keep the same books, or start again?
• IRD's bill rules. A free plan must follow them too. See what IRD-compliant billing means.
• Support. Who helps, how and when? Is help included on the free plan?
• Who owns the data. Read the terms. Your books should stay yours.
• Backups. How often, and can you get a copy?
• The provider's name on your bills. Some free plans print it.

When to move to a paid plan

• More than one person keeps the books, such as the owner and an accountant.
• You pay staff and want payroll in the same books.
• You need an audit trail: a record of who changed which bill, and when.
• You want to email invoices, statements and payment reminders.
• Your business must send its bills to IRD's e-billing system (CBMS).
• You reach the free plan's limit on bills or sales.

Compare the money too. Say a paid plan costs NPR 10,000 a year. If fixing Excel mistakes takes your accountant 3 hours a month at NPR 500 an hour, that is NPR 18,000 a year, so the paid plan costs less.

Common mistakes

• Thinking a free trial is a free plan.
• Entering a year of bills before checking how to take the data out.
• Bills in software but the VAT book in Excel. The two drift apart.
• Starting without opening balances. Then no ledger shows the right balance.
• Choosing on price alone, without asking your auditor which reports they need.

CAS360's Free plan

• Price: NPR 0. No end date. A company on Free is never warned or stopped for payment.
• Users: 1.
• Documents: 1,000 in all: sales and purchase invoices, credit and debit notes, journals and contras, counted from the day you join and never reset. Receipts and payments are not counted.
• At the limit: new invoices, notes, journals and contras stop. Receipts and payments go on.
• Sales: up to NPR 30 lakh a year. Above that, we ask you to move to a bigger plan, but your work does not stop.
• Moving up: a new plan keeps the same company and all its books.
• IRD's bill rules: VAT registers in IRD's format and Anusuchi 5 and 6. The first print says "Tax Invoice", later prints "Copy of Original". A cancelled bill is marked cancelled, never deleted.
• Your bills: bills printed on Free carry our watermark until you move to a paid plan.
• Support: call or WhatsApp CompTech International on +977 9860274090, 24/7.

Free includes invoices, receipts, payments, journals, contras, customer and supplier ledgers, the Party Statement, trial balance, profit and loss and balance sheet. It has Bikram Sambat dates with AD, any currency on a document, and cost centres.

Not on Free: more than one user, emailing documents and reminders, payroll, the audit trail and user activity log, analytics summary and detail and the forecast, IRD e-billing (CBMS), Import from MIS, GDS import, Data Imports, QR collection and projects. Personal (NPR 1,000 a month or 10,000 a year) adds email, the audit trail and analytics, with 5,000 documents and one user. Business adds 3 users and payroll for up to 5 employees. IRD e-billing (CBMS) is on Enterprise. VAT is added to the prices.

How long 1,000 documents last: with 80 sales invoices and 20 purchase invoices a month, you make 100 documents a month, so 1,000 last about 10 months.

To start: sign up with your name, email and a password, then open the link we email you within 24 hours. It makes your company on the Free plan, with the simplified chart of accounts and you as its owner. Your PAN is checked after.

See the Free plan and all plans and prices.