While conducting business in India, many companies today need to adapt to keep up with evolving regulations and modern market expectations. These challenges include:
- Navigating Tax Obligations – Complying with India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) requirements. It can be burdensome for businesses to calculate, and keep localized reports related to the various sales tax liabilities in India, and a technology solution built for NetSuite can streamline and enhance a company's related processes.
- Ensuring General Ledger Back-Up – Maintaining proper accounts and financial records in line with Section 128, which calls for the audit readiness of information and stipulates record-keeping requirements for companies based in India, for which a CFO is ultimately responsible. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has mandated that books of accounts and their backups must be maintained on servers physically located in India, with backups updated daily, and companies often need help from technology enablement experts to comply with these latest requirements.
- Enabling Modern Payment Processing – Integrating payment processing between a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP), system, such as Oracle NetSuite, and a specific bank, such as HSBC. This type of integration can help a company's finance function enable more seamless transactions.
How three NetSuite-based technology solutions help businesses operating in India tackle these common challenges
For businesses using NetSuite, Riveron has developed and implemented fit-for-purpose technologies that extend the usefulness of the ERP in addressing these India-specific tax, accounting, and bank integration challenges. These solutions include: (1) an India GST SuiteApp built for NetSuite; (2) a database connector that helps businesses maintain Section 128-compliant records in the general ledger; and (3) a payment processing solution that enables companies to connect NetSuite and HSBC bank.
1 – Managing tax reporting and compliance in India with the GST SuiteApp by Riveron (built for NetSuite)
Built for NetSuite (BFN), the GST SuiteApp by Riveron is designed to help businesses in India manage their operations, reporting, and compliance with Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) requirements. This comprehensive suite extends NetSuite's functionality to address the complexities of GST computation, reporting, and GSTR-2A reconciliation.
Riveron's GST SuiteApp automates a company's ability to determine its GST type and helps business manage local tax requirements. To help businesses take advantage of incentives and make the most of the order-to-invoice process, GST SuiteApp by Riveron also handles the GST impacts for special economic zone (SEZ) and export sales, along with TDS, while integrating seamlessly with E-Invoice and E-Way bills. Using the app allows companies to create localized reports aligned with local regulations. In addition to ensuring tax compliance, the Riveron GST SuiteApp can automate rules management and seamlessly integrate into business systems, workflows, and processes—enabling better financial reporting.
Key features of the GST SuiteApp include:
- Creating tax records for India GST calculations with tax codes (HSN/SAC) and types (CGST, SGST, IGST),
- Calculating GST during sales and purchase transactions,
- Complying with details necessary for filing tax returns, submitting to tax authorities in India, and input tax credit utilization.
- Supporting the export or import of goods and services,
- Facilitating statutory reporting with the ability to generate adjustment journals. Enabling digital invoicing, with the capability to integrate with leading GSP providers like Cygnet Infotech and ClearTax GSP.
2 – Configuring ODBC and SFTP Connector to comply with India's Section 128 general ledger back-up
Section 128 is the requirement under the Indian Companies Act, 2013, which mandates that companies maintain proper books of accounts and records. It outlines the obligation for businesses to keep their financial records and books of account general ledger (GL) within the country of their registration. To address Section 128 requirements, an ideal solution will allow companies to:
- Support all transaction types
- Accommodate financial segments
- Transfer data according to the date of creation
- Provide everyday incremental transfers
- Enable quarterly on-posting periods for reconciliation purposes
The ODBC Connector, provided by Oracle NetSuite, is configured by the Riveron experts within NetSuite. A company identifies its target database location, which is configured by the support team. This connector allows the business to create a secure copy of its NetSuite data for storage at any location. It supports a wide range of relational databases, including cloud and columnar platforms, providing flexible architecture options and avoiding vendor lock-in. Additionally, it enables long-term, incremental backups of a company's NetSuite data (either on-premises or in the cloud), ensuring regulatory compliance.
The SFTP connector – All transaction types brought into saved searches in Oracle NetSuite are saved into CSV files and stored to the NetSuite File Cabinet. Subsequently, an API facilitates data transfer via a simple file transfer platform (SFPT) connector, ensuring the data is stored to a physical or cloud server located in India being the country of the registered office.
The system supports all transaction types, allowing for tracking subsidiary-wise, based on the creation date. It facilitates daily transaction updates and also enables quarterly reconciliations according to the posting period for accurate reporting and alignment.
3 – Enabling efficient transactions with PayLink, a tool for integrating your ERP and HSBC bank
With India-based businesses in mind, Riveron's technology enablement experts developed PayLink, a plug-in that seamlessly integrates a company's ERP system to HSBC bank. This simplifies the payables process. This solution streamlines vendor payments, employee reimbursements, and vendor advances. PayLink allows NetSuite to securely send encrypted payment data to the HSBC bank servers via APIs and SFTP, while allowing the HSBC bank to send encrypted payment confirmation notifications back to NetSuite through this secure data layer, ensuring a smooth and secure transaction process.
PayLink automates the payables process, reducing errors and ensuring seamless reconciliation with two-way communication. Traditional payment management often faces challenges such as the need for manual processes, requiring in-person bank visits to process payments, time-consuming and error-prone transactions, mismatches or delays in data synchronization, and the lack of approval generated during the payment process. PayLink addresses these issues by streamlining payment processes, automatically transferring Accounts Payable (AP) data from NetSuite to banks while syncing transfer acknowledgment data back to NetSuite. It supports various data formats and uses industry-standard PGP encryption to ensure secure data transmission, with easy decryption for incoming acknowledgments.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
