Case study · Implementation

An industrial packaging trader goes live on Zoho Books in four weeks

From spreadsheets and a desktop billing tool to Zoho Books with three warehouses, e-invoicing, e-way bills, three price tiers and a purchase approval workflow. First GST return filed from Zoho in month one.

Zoho Books implementation
Three warehouses
E-invoicing and e-way bills

Client details and figures changed to protect confidentiality.

4 weeks
to go-live: 11
users with roles: 3
warehouses: 3
price tiers: Month 1
first GST return from Zoho

Context and challenge

The situation

The trader supplies corrugated boxes, stretch film and strapping to manufacturers. Sales invoices were made in a desktop billing tool. Purchases, receipts and payments sat in Excel. A part-time accountant combined everything for the CA each quarter.

Turnover had grown past the point where e-invoicing applied, and the billing tool was not coping with IRN and e-way bills. Stock across three warehouses was kept in a sheet that only the stores head fully trusted.

The owner had tried to move to a larger system before and abandoned it half way, because nobody had time to enter data twice. He agreed to try again on one condition: the old tool and the spreadsheets would stop on a fixed date, with no long overlap.

What to watch for

What made it tricky

This was a fresh setup, not a migration, but the spreadsheets were not clean masters. Customer names, GSTINs and item descriptions had to be cleaned before anything could be imported.
There were three price tiers for customers, with different rates for the same item. Purchase orders above a limit needed the owner to approve before they went to the vendor. Two banks were in use and had to be connected so that reconciliation was not a monthly chore.
E-invoicing and e-way bill had to work from the first live invoice. A failed IRN on day one would have stopped dispatch.
The approval workflow needed a decision on the limit and on who covers when the owner is travelling. These are management questions, not software settings, and they took a short meeting to settle before configuration.

How it ran

What we did

1
Week 1: understood how the business actually bills, buys and moves stock. Cleaned customer, vendor and item sheets. Agreed the chart of accounts with the CA.
2
Week 2: configured the organisation, GST settings, three warehouses, items with HSN and tax, three price lists and user roles. Imported masters and opening balances as of the go-live date.
3
Week 2 to 3: connected e-invoicing and e-way bill with the GST portal credentials, tested with sample invoices, set up the purchase order approval rule, connected the two bank feeds and set up bank rules for regular entries.
4
Week 3: practice run with real documents. The team created invoices, purchase orders and receipts while the old tool ran in parallel. Mismatches were corrected.
5
Week 4: go-live with the team and hands-on support through the first dispatch days. Eleven users were set up with roles for sales, stores, purchase, accounts and view-only access for the CA.
6
First month end: reconciled banks, reviewed ageing and prepared the GST return data from Zoho Books for filing.
7
Set bank rules for regular entries such as freight, bank charges and loan instalments, so that the accountant reviews instead of typing.

Outcome

Results

Live in four weeks, with IRN and e-way bills generated from the invoice.
Eleven users set up with roles, each seeing only what their job needs.
Purchase orders above the approval limit wait for the owner. Smaller ones go straight through.
Both bank accounts feed daily.
The first GST return was filed from Zoho Books data in the first month after go-live.

Operational impact

Before

Invoices in a desktop billing tool, everything else in Excel.
Stock across three warehouses kept in a sheet.
The billing tool was not coping with IRN and e-way bills.

After

Live in four weeks, with IRN and e-way bills from the invoice.
Both bank accounts feed daily.
First GST return filed from Zoho Books data in month one.

What the CA or owner gets now

The CA has a view-only login, a chart of accounts they approved and a monthly GST working in the format they asked for.
He no longer receives a pile of spreadsheets at quarter end.
The owner approves purchase orders from the phone and sees stock by warehouse without calling the stores head.

More reading: Tally vs Zoho Books: an honest comparison for Indian businesses

Client details and figures changed to protect confidentiality.

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