New GST-friendly open source accounting software for craft producers and micro-finance groups

With Goods and Service Tax (GST) marking a year since it was implemented, there have been various measures by companies to make filing easy for MSMEs.

Built by the technology team at Digital Freedom Foundation, GNUKhata is an open source accounting and inventory management software. The product recently launched its new version making it more GST-friendly with user experience enhancements especially for non-accountants like shopkeepers, dispensaries, small and wholesale traders. 

What is GNUKhata

GNUKhata is a free and flexible software for accounting and inventory management that supports a wide range of applications in every field of economic activity, including factory or farm-based production, a point of sales accounting & inventory and work in the service sector.

While it serves such traditional accounting requirements, it is best-suited for the emerging sectors of the economy who are required to keep audited accounts, such as self-help groups, craft producers, and micro-finance groups.

GNUKhata is highly customisable, given its open source nature. It can be easily transformed into Indian languages, largely unreached by existing software solutions. The project is currently funded by International Center for FOSS, a Kerala government undertaking and is now adopted by AccionLabs.

New version makes GST-compliance easy

Small to medium enterprises from computer, stationery shops or cloth stores, small retailers, schools, small rural or semi-urban shops, service sector industry of micro to medium scale such as IT startups and NGOs can potentially use this software.

The version 5 has a lot of new additions to the already existing modules. These new additions include sales and purchase order, Credit and Debit note, Rejection note, and a revamped invoice module, all GST ready. In fact, the Delivery note is also GST ready. “We also have the sales and purchase register revamped for new updates to GST. After a long discussion with our existing customer base, we decided to export all reports to xlsx instead of the previous ODS format this makes it easy to send data to other popular accounting software. Note that data provided in spreadsheets from other programs can also be imported in GNUKhata. We have also revamped the Profit and Loss statement and made it more auditor friendly. Lastly, we have made the import from software like Tally even easier,” informs KrishnaKant Mane, Founder of GNUKhata.

Krishnakant Mane, fondly called KK, is blind, but that didn’t stop him from programming. He created and maintains the GNUKhata project, a free and open source accounting software. He and his team are passionate about open source wanted to give the small & medium businesses an alternative to the proprietary software to make accounting simple and easy at lowest or no cost at all.