Before you look at any vendor
Write down three things on one page:
- The jobs that hurt today. For example: “GST returns take three days”, “stock in the godown never matches the books”, “payroll is in Excel”.
- Who will use it. Owners, accountants, sales staff, storekeepers, HR, your CA. Count them now and in two years.
- Your hard limits. Budget for three years, go-live date, and whether data may leave your premises.
The seven checks
1. India compliance
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does it prepare GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B from the books, or file them directly? | Files you upload yourself are fine; direct filing needs a GST Suvidha Provider account and fees |
| E-invoice and e-way bill: upload file, or direct API? | Above ₹5 crore turnover, every B2B invoice needs an IRN |
| Does it choose CGST + SGST or IGST by place of supply? | Wrong heads mean refunds and rework |
| PF, ESI, PT for your states, and salary TDS (Form 138 from April 2026)? | Payroll compliance is monthly and has fixed due dates |
| Who updates it when the law changes, and is that in the yearly fee? | GST rates changed on 22 Sep 2025 and again on 1 Nov 2026 |
Our GST guides and payroll compliance guides explain each rule.
2. Migration
- Which data moves: masters only, opening balances, or past years’ transactions?
- From your current software exactly (Tally, Busy, Excel), and has the vendor done it with real client data?
- Can you check an import before it saves anything, and undo one that went wrong?
- What is the cut-off date, and who checks the trial balance matches?
See the Tally migration checklist.
3. Roles and CA access
- Can each person see only what their job needs? Is view-only truly view-only?
- Can your CA log in with their own account, rather than sharing the owner’s password?
- Is there an audit trail of who changed what?
- Is pricing per user? If yes, every extra login for a storekeeper or CA costs money every month.
4. Data export and exit
- Can you export everything, including attachments, in open formats (CSV, Excel, JSON)?
- What does the contract say about exit: how fast, in what format, and at what cost?
- If it runs on the vendor’s cloud, who owns the backups?
5. Support
- Which languages? Which hours and days? Phone, WhatsApp, email or tickets?
- What are the response times for a critical issue, in writing?
- Is there help on return due dates, such as the 11th and 20th?
6. Cost over three years
Add up everything, not just year one. Our ERP cost guide lists the parts and public prices.
7. Deployment
Cloud, your own server, or a dedicated cloud server per client? Read cloud vs self-hosted.
Run your own month, not their demo
Ask each shortlisted vendor to run one real month of yours: 20 sales invoices, 10 purchase bills, a stock transfer, a payroll run and the GST return files. Watch for:
- How many screens and clicks each task needs.
- Whether your accountant can find the reports they use today.
- What the vendor has to “set up later”.
A scoring sheet
Score each vendor from 1 to 5 and weight what matters to you.
| Check | Weight | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India compliance | 25% | |||
| Migration | 15% | |||
| Roles and CA access | 10% | |||
| Data export and exit | 10% | |||
| Support | 15% | |||
| 3-year cost | 15% | |||
| Deployment fit | 10% |
Red flags
- No written price for the second and third years.
- “Unlimited” anything with conditions hidden in the contract.
- No way to export your data without the vendor’s help.
- Compliance features that exist only “on the roadmap”.
- Pressure to sign before you have seen your own data in it.
Where MyRecords fits, honestly
MyRecords covers accounting and tax, sales and purchasing, inventory and point of sale, HR and payroll, CRM, support, team chat and analytics in one system, with unlimited users and only the modules you switch on. It is sold as a one-time setup fee, then either MyRecords Cloud with maintenance monthly, or a yearly AMC on your own server.
What to know before you shortlist it:
- It prepares GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B files for upload (you file on the GST portal), creates the e-invoice and e-way bill upload files, and makes PF ECR and ESI files. Once you connect the GST portal APIs (your own NIC access or a GSP), it makes IRNs and e-way bills directly; through a GSP it also fetches GSTR-2B and sends IMS actions.
- Not yet: filing returns from inside MyRecords, GSTR-9, quarterly (QRMP) and composition returns, Form 16, and automatic bank feeds. See the roadmap.
- It is new. There is no free trial or self sign-up and no customer references yet; early clients join the pilot programme, where we run your first month with you.
Compare it fairly with others on our comparison pages, or book a demo: we show you the live system on a call and can give you a demo sign-in to explore it yourself.