In this guide 6 sections
A due-date Excel works while one person can hold allocation, document chasing and billing in their head. Practice software helps once articles share work and fees slip. GullySystem’s CA Practice Management Software tracks jobs, documents and fees, but files nothing. A single practitioner with twenty clients should stay on the sheet.
What the Excel tracker does well
A shared sheet with clients down the side and returns across the top is free and familiar. Everyone already knows how to use it. For a small practice it may be all that is needed.
It works while one careful person updates it. It also works while that person knows, without looking, which client is slow with papers.
Where the sheet starts to fail
Several people update the sheet at different times. A partner cannot tell whether a cell is current. Two articles may each assume the other filed a return.
The sheet also holds no history. It shows a status, but not how many times a client was chased, who reviewed the work or where the acknowledgement went.
- Status cells nobody trusts at a glance
- No count of reminders sent to each client
- Filed copies and challans kept elsewhere
- One-off work done and never billed
- No record of hours against the fee
What practice software adds
Practice software treats each filing as a job with a due date, a preparer, a reviewer and a status. Document requests sit on the job, and reminders are counted.
The acknowledgement, filed copy and challan stay on the job that produced them. When a notice arrives later, the proof is one search away. Notices themselves get a reply due date and an owner.
Fees sit beside the work. Jobs marked done become bills, and unpaid fees show by age.
What neither of them does
Neither the sheet nor practice software files returns. Filing still happens on the portals, with the tax software your firm trusts.
Neither makes a firm compliant with ICAI guidance. What that guidance asks of your firm is for your partners to decide. Software only records the work.
- Filing on the GST, income tax or MCA portals
- Writing your clients’ books
- Deciding what a notice reply should say
- Judging what ICAI guidance requires
How to decide for your firm
Count the trackers the firm keeps and the people who update them. Count the unbilled jobs found at the end of last season. If both counts are small, keep the sheet.
If allocation, chasing and billing no longer fit in one head, test software against a month of your own calendar. Ready tools exist for Indian CA firms, and some fit well. Custom work suits firms whose partner reports or client portal do not fit those screens.
Tracker health check
List every tracker the firm keeps, who updates each, and when it was last updated. Add the number of recent jobs where the filed copy took more than a few minutes to find. The answers show whether the sheet still holds.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Does practice software file our GST or income tax returns?
No. Filing still happens on the portals. The software raises the job, holds the papers and stores the acknowledgement and filed copy.
Is there a UDIN log or DSC register?
Not in GullySystem’s practice software. The job holds the acknowledgement number, filed copy and challan. A UDIN or DSC register would be separate work.
Can our Excel client list be imported?
Yes. Client masters, GSTINs, PANs, services, fees and open work come in from your sheets. One month of the calendar is checked against your own list before go-live.
Does bank reconciliation belong in the same system?
It is a separate product. Bank reconciliation software matches books against statements, including several client accounts, while practice software runs the firm’s own work.