This Fintech Company Will Ensure Your Easy Crossover to GST Regime "As per the new tax regime, where you have to file your returns every month, one cannot run on a process which is not automated"

Financial management may or may not come to an entrepreneur naturally, but he or she is always eager to know what cash flow is? How is profit or loss calculated? How many people do he/she has to pay and does the bank account have enough money to pay salaries?

Intuit's Quickbooks is a software fintech company that helps small and medium sized companies (typically 12-18 months olds) to manage the finances.

In a conversation with Entrepreneur India, Managing Director (Intuit India) Nikhil Rungta expounded on how the company is helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) migrate to goods and services tax (GST) regime.

The F-game

There is no dearth of examples of companies that had to shut shops due to bad financial management. It is one of the most critical issues but the problem lies here — entrepreneurs figure out their financial management strategy after clearing their growth or marketing strategies.

Quickbooks helps an entrepreneur run his/her business, said Rungta and added, "You need to understand that one can understand complicated processes like cash flow, invoicing and filing returns at the click of a mouse now. So, we enable an entrepreneur, who may or may not be good at understanding finances, to run the software without any licences to keep his/her business under control."

Crossover

One of the key strengths of Quickbooks is its presence all over the world, which has allowed the company to adapt according to different local taxes and compliance systems, claimed Rungta. Quickbooks was launched in India in 2012 and has come a long way from being obliging to old taxes like the Krishi Kalyan cess or the Swachh Bharat cess to the new GST regime.

"A number of small businesses work through excel sheets or Google sheets. As per the new tax regime, where you have to file your returns every month, one cannot run on a process which is not automated," Rungta pointed out. The software, which is now GST compliant, allows one to make a GST-ready invoice that includes GSTIN number, HSN/SAC code, GST rates, supply location along with an option to work on the GSTIR reports," he added.

Awareness

There is huge confusion out there and informal business, which are resisting GST, will soon start to feel the heat or understand that the new tax system is actually good for business as input credit can be claimed apart from their being the part of a formal economy.

Quickbooks is trying to educate SMEs through newsletters, webinars, Facebook live videos and GST center, a segment on its website. Educating the MSMEs will continue for a while, may be six-12 months more, he stressed.

Getting in line

Rungta, who felt GST and Digital India campaign were perfect for economical boost said, "I think it is the true reflection point and we see a huge improvement in terms of growth in business from here."

Talking about the response from its customers, the Intuit's India head claimed that their numbers have just doubled — whether it is the number of visitors on the website, the number of people taking up trial or the number of people subscribing.

Even though the US-based firm doesn't market in smaller cities, the company is getting a lot of response from areas, which they were never expecting, such as Beed in Maharashtra. This means business in the smaller cities, forming the informal economy, are mulling ways to become GST compliant, Rungta concluded.