Zoho Books Partner in India: GST Workflows, Migration and the First 30 Days

Run your own scenarios in the demo

A polished demo uses easy data. Bring five real transactions that have caused trouble in the past and ask the partner to record them live.

• An inter-state sale to an unregistered customer
• A purchase where input credit is blocked or reversed
• A vendor bill with TDS on professional fees
• A credit note issued after the month in which the invoice was raised
• A customer payment received in a foreign currency

How they reason through each case tells you more than any feature list.

Migration: three realistic routes

• From Tally: export masters and balances, clean duplicates, import and reconcile the trial balance on the cut-off date. Bringing years of transactions is usually unnecessary; opening balances plus open bills often suffice.
• From spreadsheets: structure the data first, since errors hide easily in spreadsheets. Budget extra time for customer and item masters.
• From another cloud tool: exports are cleaner, but mapping of taxes and accounts still needs a human decision.

Whatever the route, agree the cut-off date and who signs off the opening trial balance. Most disputes later trace back to an unsigned opening position.

GST workflows to confirm

• Multiple GSTINs and branches, with correct state for each
• Invoice numbering series that follows your legal requirements
• E-invoicing and e-way bill handling for the cases that apply to you
• Matching purchases with GSTR-2B and handling items not found
• Treatment of reverse charge purchases
• Reports your CA needs for return filing, such as rate-wise summaries

Rules and thresholds change. Ask the partner to show the current screens rather than describe them from memory, and ask your CA to confirm the settings.

Banking, TDS and approvals

Bank feeds reduce typing but still need rules. Ask how the partner sets up matching rules for recurring items such as rent, salary and loan EMIs. For TDS, check that sections are chosen by transaction, that deducted amounts show up in a payable account and that your CA can pull a section-wise report. For approvals, define who may create, approve and pay bills, then configure it before go-live.

A dated first-30-days plan

1. Week 1: sign the scope, collect masters and last trial balance, create the organisation in your own name.
2. Week 2: configure taxes, accounts and templates, import opening balances, CA reviews tax settings.
3. Week 3: train users, connect banks, run a parallel week with live transactions.
4. Week 4: reconcile, compare GST working with the old method, fix gaps and agree the support plan.