Mumbai: The first VAT-complaint business accounting solution has been introduced in the country, with Indian and state specific statutory reports. Introduced by Tally Solutions, India's largest financial accounting software company whose products are claimed to be used by around 75 per cent businesses. The software, christened Tally 7.2, will ease accounts conversion to VAT as businesses gear up to adopt the value added tax from 1 April 2005.

Introducing the new software, Bharat Goenka of Tally Solutions said, "To make the changeover with simplicity, Tally 7.2 offers the convenience to print state specific Statutory VAT reports. This is an unprecedented move by any 'accounting' software tool."

Aimed at the over eight million establishments in the SME segment, the solution is positioned as the 'ultimate accounting software tool' for India. According to a study by McKinsey 95 per cent of those SMEs in India who are computerised bought a PC for the management of accounts. The VAT regime will require the remaining SMEs to computerise as well, as manual book keeping will become a very tedious process.

"VAT is simple and is aimed at transparency, but the changeover to VAT is a challenge, requiring a clear understanding of rules and compliance norms by the business community and more importantly the trading community," says Goenka. Explaining the Tally initiative, he adds that Tally has driven over 75 per cent of all VAT-related education in India through seminars over the last two months and we have committed to conduct over 1,500 customer event to demystify VAT in the coming weeks."

According to Bharath Gopalakrishnan president, Tally Solutions, "With Tally 7.2, all a user needs to do is ensure the accuracy of all recorded 'purchase invoices' and 'sales invoices'. Thereafter, at the press of a key, state specific statutory reports, documents and accounts will be directly generated, along with forms, which can be directly printed for filing 'statutory returns'. Tally Solutions has over a decade of experience in countries like the UK, Singapore and a few others where our solution is already handling VAT successfully."

The software will be sold through an extensive channel network of over 25,000 Tally resellers in the country. "We have taken good care of both affordability and availability across India," adds Gopalakrishnan.

Tally 7.2 has been designed to address all VAT implementation issues such as: