Cloud Accounting Services

Cloud accounting means keeping a business's books in accounting software that runs online – or on a hosted server – so that owners, accountants and auditors can work on the same data from anywhere, with bank feeds, GST and e-invoicing connected. IMAK Advisory, an ICAI-registered CA firm in Bengaluru, helps businesses across India choose cloud accounting software, set it up, migrate from desktop systems such as Tally to Zoho Books or Tally on cloud, configure audit trail and backups, and keep the books every month.

Moving the books online is not only a technology change. Indian law sets rules for electronic books: companies must use software with an audit trail that cannot be disabled, keep daily backups on servers physically located in India, and preserve records for the period required; from 1 April 2026, the Income-tax Rules also require daily backup of electronic books on Indian servers for businesses that must keep books. This page explains what our cloud accounting service covers, how to choose between Zoho Books, Tally on cloud and other options, accounting software for small business, migration, audit trail, data location, e-invoicing integration and Power BI dashboards.

• Choosing cloud accounting software for your business and industry
• Set-up: chart of accounts, GST, TDS, inventory, users and approvals
• Accounting software migration from Tally, spreadsheets or other systems
• Audit trail, user rights and daily backup on Indian servers
• Bank feeds, payment gateways, e-invoicing and e-way bill integration
• Monthly bookkeeping and reconciliations in the cloud
• Power BI and MIS dashboards from accounting data

Our cloud accounting work runs in four stages: choose, set up, migrate and run. Many clients come to us at one stage – a migration that went wrong, or software chosen without checking GST or inventory needs – and we pick up from there.

1. Understand the business: transactions, inventory, branches, users, integrations and reporting needs
2. Recommend software options with the trade-offs, and confirm data location and audit trail
3. Set up the company file: chart of accounts, GST and TDS settings, tax rates, inventory, cost centres
4. Configure users, roles, approvals and audit trail
5. Connect bank feeds, payment gateways, e-commerce platforms and e-invoicing
6. Migrate opening balances, masters and, where needed, past transactions
7. Reconcile the migrated data with the old system and the last audited accounts
8. Run monthly bookkeeping, reconciliations and reports, or train your team to do so

Cloud accounting software is accounting software that is accessed through a browser or app, with the data stored on the provider's servers or on a hosted server, rather than only on one office computer. There are two broad types.

Native cloud software usually gives better integrations, mobile apps and automatic updates. Desktop software on a cloud server keeps familiar screens and workflows, which suits teams already trained on it. The right choice depends on the business, not on which is newer.

Cloud accounting brings real advantages, but it is not right for every business in every form. An honest comparison helps owners decide.

For most growing businesses the benefits outweigh the limits, provided the set-up is done carefully and the controls on access, backup and data location are in place.

Cloud accounting works well when every transaction carries its evidence: the purchase bill, the expense receipt, the contract or the approval email, attached directly to the entry. This makes monthly review, audit and tax assessments faster, because nobody needs to search physical files. Many products allow bills to be emailed or photographed into the software, read automatically, and turned into draft entries for review.

• Attach supporting documents to every voucher
• Use consistent file names and folders for documents kept outside the software
• Keep original documents where the law requires them
• Review automatically read bills before posting – the reading is not always accurate
• Back up the documents along with the data

The right accounting software for small business is the one that fits how the business actually works. A trading business with many stock items, a service business with recurring invoices and a manufacturer with job work each need different features. We compare options against your requirements before you buy.

We do not resell software or take referral commissions, so our recommendation is based only on your requirements. Where two options are close, we suggest a short trial with your real transactions before deciding.

Zoho Books is a native cloud accounting application widely used by Indian startups and service businesses. It supports GST returns, e-invoicing and e-way bills, bank feeds, recurring invoices, multi-currency, projects and approvals, and connects with other Zoho applications for CRM, inventory and payroll. Its data for Indian organisations is hosted in India according to Zoho's published information, which we confirm for each client's account.

• Suits service businesses, startups, agencies and simple trading
• Check inventory needs: advanced inventory may need an add-on
• Configure audit trail and user roles from the start
• Map GST settings and e-invoicing carefully during set-up
• Plan the chart of accounts for MIS and investor reporting

Zoho Books works well when the business wants online approvals, client and vendor portals and integrations. For businesses with complex manufacturing inventory, we compare it with other options before recommending it.

Tally on cloud usually means TallyPrime installed on a hosted server or virtual machine, accessed remotely by users with their licences. It keeps the familiar Tally workflows – fast voucher entry, strong inventory and GST features – while allowing remote access for owners, accountants and branches. Tally also offers its own connectivity and remote access options.

• Suits trading and manufacturing businesses already using Tally
• Confirm the hosting provider's server location is in India
• Ensure the edit log (audit trail) is enabled and cannot be switched off
• Set up daily backups and test restoring them
• Check licence terms for remote and multi-user access

The hosting provider, not Tally, holds the server in this set-up, so its security, uptime, backup and data location matter. We review the hosting arrangement as part of the set-up.

QuickBooks Online was a popular cloud accounting product in India until Intuit stopped offering it to Indian businesses in 2023. Indian subsidiaries of foreign groups sometimes still use the group's QuickBooks Online or other overseas systems for group reporting. In that case, the Indian books must still meet Indian GST, TDS, audit trail, data location and Schedule III requirements, which often means keeping the statutory books in an Indian system and mapping to the group's chart of accounts.

For group subsidiaries, we design a reporting bridge between the Indian statutory books and the parent's system, so that both sides agree every month.

Accounting software migration – including Tally to Zoho migration, the most common move we see – is where most cloud accounting projects go wrong. Masters are duplicated, opening balances do not match the audited accounts, GST settings are wrong, and the old system is switched off before anyone checks.

1. Choose the cut-over date, ideally the start of a financial year or quarter
2. Clean masters in the old system: customers, vendors, items, ledgers
3. Map the chart of accounts and tax codes to the new software
4. Import masters, opening balances and open invoices and bills
5. Decide whether to move past transactions or keep the old system read-only
6. Reconcile trial balance, receivables, payables, inventory and GST balances
7. Run both systems in parallel for a short period if volumes are high
8. Archive the old data with backups for the retention period

Past years' data in the old system must remain accessible for audits and assessments for the period the law requires. We document where it is kept and how to open it.

A migration done at the start of the financial year, with masters cleaned first, usually takes a few weeks. One done mid-year with messy masters can take much longer and leave errors for the audit.

Since 1 April 2023, every company that keeps its books in electronic form must use accounting software with an audit trail feature: a record of every change to every transaction, with the date and the user, which cannot be disabled. The statutory auditor reports on whether the audit trail was enabled throughout the year and not tampered with. Many businesses learned about this only when the auditor asked for the edit log.

• Use software versions that support an audit trail that cannot be switched off
• Enable it for every company file, including subsidiaries
• Do not delete and re-enter vouchers to hide changes
• Restrict who can edit closed periods
• Keep the audit trail for the full retention period
• Check that hosted Tally or other software meets the requirement

Non-corporate businesses are not covered by the Companies Act rule, but a reliable audit trail is still the strongest defence when books are questioned by tax authorities or banks.

Companies must keep backups of books maintained electronically on servers physically located in India, on a daily basis, even when the main data is held elsewhere. From 1 April 2026, Rule 46(8) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 adds a similar daily backup requirement on Indian servers for persons who must keep books under the income-tax law. Accessing data from India is not the same as storing it in India; the backup itself must be on an Indian server.

We document these answers for each client, because the auditor and, for companies, the annual filings may ask for them.

Businesses whose aggregate turnover in any year since 2017-18 exceeded ₹5 crore must issue e-invoices for business-to-business supplies through the invoice registration portal. Larger taxpayers must report invoices within 30 days of the invoice date. Good cloud accounting software generates the e-invoice and e-way bill directly from the sales invoice, so the invoice reference number and QR code are on the document and the data flows into GST returns.

• Enable e-invoicing and e-way bill integration with the correct credentials
• Test with sample invoices before going live
• Reconcile e-invoices with GSTR-1 every month
• Reconcile purchase invoices with supplier filings for input credit
• Train staff on cancellations and credit notes within the allowed time

Cloud accounting saves the most time when transactions flow in automatically. Bank feeds bring statement lines into the software for matching; payment gateways and marketplace settlement reports can be imported and split into sales, fees, refunds, tax collected at source and payouts. The rules for matching must be set carefully, or automation simply records errors faster.

• Connect bank accounts through supported feeds or statement imports
• Map payment gateway fees, refunds and settlements
• Import marketplace settlements with commissions and TCS
• Review auto-matching rules every month
• Keep supporting documents attached to transactions

Accounting data becomes more useful when owners can see it in a dashboard. Power BI and similar tools can connect to cloud accounting software or exported data to show revenue, margins, cash, receivables, payables and inventory, with drill-down by branch, product or customer. A dashboard is only as good as the books behind it, so we build it after the chart of accounts, cost centres and monthly close are reliable.

Cloud accounting makes it easy to give access to many people – and just as easy to give too much. Users should have only the rights they need: data entry staff create vouchers, a reviewer approves, and only a few people can edit masters, change tax settings or reopen closed periods. Approval workflows for payments, vendor bank detail changes and credit notes reduce fraud risk.

• Separate entry, approval and payment roles
• Two-factor login for all users
• Lock periods after the monthly close
• Review the user list and login history every quarter
• Remove access immediately when staff leave
• Give auditors read-only access

Most teams need two or three monthly closes to settle into new software. We stay close during this period and then step back to the agreed monthly role.

The licence fee is only part of the cost of cloud accounting. Hosting for Tally on cloud, add-ons for inventory or payroll, extra users, storage, integrations, training and the time spent on migration all count. We list these for each option during software selection so the comparison is complete; we do not quote vendors' prices, which change often and depend on plans and discounts.

Accounting systems hold personal data – customers' and vendors' names, addresses, phone numbers and bank details, and employees' salaries. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and its rules, being phased in, require businesses to protect such data, use it for the stated purpose and respond to breaches. Choosing a provider with strong security, limiting access by role, and removing access promptly when staff leave all support compliance. We include these checks in the set-up and the quarterly health check.

One of the main reasons owners move to cloud accounting is to see the business from anywhere – cash, receivables and sales on a phone, approvals for payments while travelling, and a dashboard that updates daily. To make this safe, owners should use two-factor login, approve rather than enter transactions, and avoid shared logins. Accountants and the CA firm work in the same system, so questions are answered on the transaction itself rather than over email.

These are starting points. The final choice comes from your requirements list and a trial with real transactions.

Industry matters as much as size. A pharma distributor needs batch and expiry tracking; a construction company needs project-wise costing and retention tracking; an export business needs multi-currency invoicing, export-without-tax settings and foreign inward remittance records. Before recommending software, we list the three or four features your industry cannot do without and test them first, because a product that handles everything else well but fails on one of these will be replaced within a year.

A well-run cloud accounting set-up shortens the year-end. Auditors can be given read-only access, documents are attached to transactions, reconciliations are complete, and reports for Schedule III mapping, tax audit and the income-tax return come from the same data. We plan the year-end close in the software from the first month.

When Tally runs on a hosted server, the hosting provider controls security, uptime and backups. Before choosing one, ask where the servers are located, how often backups are taken and where they are kept, how quickly data can be restored, what happens during an outage, how user access is secured, and how the data is returned if you leave. A written agreement covering these points protects the business, and the answers are useful evidence for the auditor on data location and backup.

• Servers and backups in India
• Daily backups with tested restoration
• Two-factor or secure remote access
• Clear uptime commitments and support hours
• Data return and deletion on exit

Cloud accounting does not remove the need for reconciliations; it makes them faster. Bank feeds match most entries automatically, leaving exceptions to review. GST input credit can be matched with supplier filings through the software or a connected tool, and TDS can be compared with the tax department's records. Receivable and payable balances can be confirmed through customer and vendor portals. We set a monthly reconciliation checklist in the software, so nothing is left for the year-end.

Software is only as good as the people using it. After set-up, we train your accounts team on daily entry, document attachment, bank matching, GST and e-invoicing, and the monthly close, and owners on reports, approvals and dashboards. Short written procedures for the main tasks help when staff change. Where your team keeps the books, a monthly or quarterly review by us keeps quality consistent.

1. Requirement workshop with owners and finance staff
2. Software shortlist with trade-offs, and a trial if needed
3. Set-up design: chart of accounts, tax settings, users, approvals
4. Migration plan with cut-over date and reconciliation steps
5. Configuration, integrations and testing
6. Go-live and parallel run where needed
7. Training for your team
8. Monthly bookkeeping, or a periodic health check of your team's work

After go-live, a quarterly health check reviews audit trail, backups, user access, reconciliations and GST matching, so problems are caught before the year-end.

We do not publish fees. The cost depends on the number of entities and users, inventory complexity, integrations, the amount of history to migrate, data quality, dashboards and whether we keep the books monthly. Software licences and hosting are paid by you directly to the providers. Our team shares the exact total after reviewing your requirements.

A Startup Moving From Spreadsheets

A startup tracked income and expenses in spreadsheets until its first audit. We set up native cloud software with the audit trail on, imported opening balances agreed with the auditor, connected the bank feed and payment gateway, and the next monthly close took two days instead of two weeks.

A Distributor Moving Tally to the Cloud

A distributor with three branches used Tally on separate computers and consolidated by email. We moved it to Tally on a hosted server in India, merged the company files, enabled the edit log and daily backups, and gave branch staff remote access with limited rights.

A Subsidiary Reporting to a US Parent

An Indian subsidiary kept its books only in the parent's overseas system. We set up Indian statutory books with GST and TDS, mapped them to the group's chart of accounts, and set a monthly reconciliation so the group reports and the Indian audit agreed.

• Choosing software without checking inventory or GST needs
• Migrating mid-year without reconciling opening balances
• Duplicated customers, vendors and items after import
• Audit trail not enabled, or enabled late in the year
• Backups not on Indian servers, or never tested
• Everyone given administrator rights
• Bank feed rules that misclassify transactions
• Old system data deleted before the retention period ends

Multiple Companies and GSTINs

Groups with several companies or GSTINs need separate company files or organisations, with consistent charts of accounts and inter-company reconciliation.

Businesses With Branches Abroad

Foreign branches may need separate books in local currency and law, with consolidation into the Indian books.

Non-Profits

Trusts and societies need fund accounting and donor reports, which some software handles better than others.

Highly Regulated Sectors

Some sectors, such as NBFCs, have regulator-specific reporting needs that general accounting software may not meet.

• We do not sell software or take commissions from vendors
• We do not host servers ourselves; reputable hosting providers do
• We do not disable or work around the audit trail
• We do not hold your banking passwords
• We do not delete old data before the retention period ends

If your business already uses suitable software with audit trail and Indian backups, your accountant keeps the books well, and the auditor has no concerns, you may need us only for a health check or a dashboard. If you are a small business with simple invoicing, you can often set up cloud software yourself with the vendor's guides and ask us to review the set-up.

1. How many invoices, bills and stock items do you handle each month?
2. Do you need inventory with batches, godowns or bill of materials?
3. How many users, and from where?
4. Which banks, gateways and marketplaces must connect?
5. Do you issue e-invoices and e-way bills?
6. What reports do owners, banks or investors need?
7. Where will data and backups be stored?

Your accounting data shows every transaction of your business. As chartered accountants we follow ICAI's confidentiality rules. Our access is limited to named team members with the rights we need, and is removed when the engagement ends.

Use this list when moving to or reviewing cloud accounting.

• Software chosen against a written requirement list
• Data and daily backups on servers in India
• Audit trail enabled from day one and cannot be disabled
• Chart of accounts and tax settings designed
• Opening balances agreed with audited accounts
• Users and roles set, two-factor login on
• Bank, gateway and e-invoicing integrations tested
• Old data archived for the retention period
• Monthly close and reconciliations scheduled
• Quarterly health check planned

Our only office is in Whitefield, Bengaluru, where clients can meet us in person. Cloud accounting is set up and run online, so we serve businesses in every state. We do not have offices outside Bengaluru.

What is cloud accounting?

Keeping a business's books in online or hosted accounting software, so authorised users can work on the same data from anywhere.

What is the difference between cloud accounting software and Tally on cloud?

Native cloud accounting software is built to run online; Tally on cloud is desktop Tally installed on a hosted server and accessed remotely.

Is Zoho Books good for small businesses?

It suits many service businesses and startups. Businesses with complex inventory should compare it with other options first.

Which is the right accounting software for small business?

The one that fits your transactions, inventory, GST, users and reporting needs. We compare options against a written requirement list.

Can we still use QuickBooks Online in India?

Intuit stopped offering QuickBooks Online to Indian businesses in 2023. Indian subsidiaries using a group system still need Indian statutory books.

How long does a Tally to Zoho migration take?

Usually a few weeks at the start of a financial year with clean masters; longer mid-year or with history to move.

What does accounting software migration involve?

Cleaning masters, mapping accounts and tax codes, importing balances and open items, reconciling, and archiving old data.

Is audit trail mandatory in accounting software?

For companies, yes, since 1 April 2023: the audit trail must record every change and cannot be disabled.

Must accounting data be stored in India?

Companies must keep daily backups on servers in India, and from 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Rules require daily backup in India for those who must keep books.

Is cloud accounting secure?

It can be, with reputable providers, two-factor login, role-based access, backups in India and regular access reviews.

Does cloud accounting software handle e-invoicing?

Most major products generate e-invoices and e-way bills from sales invoices when integration is set up correctly.

Can you build a Power BI dashboard from our accounts?

Yes, once the books are reliable. We connect Power BI or similar tools to show revenue, margins, cash, receivables and inventory.

Do you sell accounting software?

No. We do not resell software or take commissions; licences are bought directly from vendors.

Can our auditor access cloud accounting software?

Yes, through a read-only user, which saves time during the audit.

What happens to old data after migration?

It is archived and kept accessible for the retention period, usually with the old system in read-only mode.

How much does cloud accounting set-up cost?

We do not publish fees. The cost depends on entities, users, inventory, integrations and migration, and our team shares the exact total after reviewing your requirements.

Bookkeeping and Accounting · Financial Statements and MIS · GST Registration and Returns · Virtual CFO Services · Statutory Audit · Payroll Processing

Share your current software, number of entities and users, monthly transaction volume and integrations needed. Our team will suggest the options and a plan.

Contact Details

Office Address

IMAK Advisory, ITPL Main Rd, Pattandur Agrahara, Whitefield, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560066, India

Phone

+91 79798 50684 (call or WhatsApp)

Email

imakadvisoryteam@gmail.com

Sources: Companies Act, 2013 (section 128) and Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 (rule 3 – electronic books, backup in India, audit trail from 1 April 2023); Income-tax Rules, 2026 (rule 46(8) – daily backup from 1 April 2026); CGST Rules and notifications on e-invoicing. Checked 2 November 2026.