Good and Services Tax (GST) is revolutionizing the Indian tax system and is the biggest tax reform since independence. It will simplify the process of indirect taxation and will replace the complicated taxes such as State Value Added Tax (VAT), Central Excise, Service Tax, and other indirect taxes.

Do you run or plan to start a small or medium enterprise? GST has the following benefits for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

• Commencing business has been simplified with uniform GST. Currently if a SME has operations across states, it has to register for VAT based on turnover slabs per state. GST will standardize the processes, such as VAT registration and make multi-state operations a smoother reality. Under GST, you can actually look forward to expanding your business footprint across states.
• For those in the business-to-business model, expand your business across states. Your customers no longer need to limit themselves to a particular state for your products and services.
• You do business across states? Say good-bye to time-consuming tax procedures! GST reduces logistics overheads related to border tax procedures.
• Does your organization sell products as well as provide services? You don’t have to track and distinguish between the two for taxation purposes. GST looks at total revenue instead of distinguishing between the two.
• Amongst all these changes, the biggest benefit to your organization is the fact that India is finally a unified market! You don’t have to worry about state specific procedures and taxation rules. You can focus on national level operations now!

Now that you have all these benefits, the next question in your mind will be – what tools do I have to operate my business in a GST regime? The answer is SAP Business One Cloud. Specifically designed to aid SMEs, it is a product by SAP, a market leader in enterprise applications and is a cloud-based ERP. It helps managing all critical business processes.

• Since it is a Cloud based ERP it is a software-as-a-service model in which you can start small and scale up as your business grows without worrying about setting up infrastructure or related capital costs.
• It will help in integrating and streamlining your business processes. This will aid decision making by providing a unified, real-time source of information.
• Streamline your accounting and financial operations. These include daily accounting, banking as well as financial reporting and analysis.
• Manage the entire sales process from one system.
• Take advantage of the customer relationship management (CRM) tools to manage your customer relationship from initial contact to final sale and after-sales service and support.
• Manage the purchase life-cycle including receipts, invoices, and returns.
• Utilize the state of the art inventory management system that provides various costing methods. Get real-time insight into inbound and outbound shipments.
• Generate reports based on needs that can assimilate information across your departments.

Conclusion

GST is a game changer for SME businesses. However, without the proper tools, you may not be able to take adequate advantage of this change. SAP’s Business One ERP solution gives you the right tool to take advantage. It gives you the cost effectiveness of a large enterprise, but, allows you to maintain the nimbleness of a SME.