Thinking of switching?
Whether you are on paper, on a desktop package or on another app, the question is the same: does this hold up on a busy evening with no signal and a queue at the counter?
Below is what Khata does, a checklist you can run against any app — including this one — and an honest list of where something else is the better answer.
What Khata does
Every line here is something you can verify by installing it. We do not claim to have more features than everyone else, because we have not audited everyone else — and a number you cannot check is worth nothing to you.
Free, with nothing held back
One business plan with every feature in it, at no cost. No trial that expires, no card required, and no checkout anywhere in the product.
India and Nepal, not India alone
GST formats for India, VAT for Nepal, billing in INR or NPR, and filing-deadline tracking for Nepali VAT and advance income tax.
Billing that survives a dead signal
Bills are written to the device first and queued. When the connection returns they sync automatically, with duplicate protection so a retry cannot double-count a sale.
Phone, tablet and web — no desktop licence
Android, iOS and the web dashboard all use the same account and the same data. Nothing is tied to one machine.
Staff logins with real permissions
Give each staff member their own login and control what they can see. A cashier can bill without seeing your profit margins.
English, हिन्दी and नेपाली
The app ships in all three, so staff who are not comfortable in English can still run the counter.
Six things to test in any billing app
Run these against Khata too. A checklist only one product can pass is an advertisement wearing a checklist’s clothes — and if you run it and find that out, nothing else on this page is worth reading either.
- 1
Turn off the network and complete five sales, including one on credit. Then reconnect.
Exactly five should appear on a second device — not four, not ten. Plenty of apps finish one offline sale and then duplicate or drop them on sync, and you only discover it at month-end when nothing reconciles.
- 2
Add a staff login and check what it can see.
If your cashier can read purchase prices or profit, that is a decision you should make deliberately rather than inherit from a default.
- 3
Export your data and open the file.
Do this before you depend on the app, not after. If you cannot get your records out in a form you can read, you do not really own them.
- 4
Bill your five fastest-moving items, timed.
Feature lists do not tell you what a queue feels like. The app that wins on paper often loses at the counter by two taps per line.
- 5
Check the language your staff will actually use it in.
An owner comfortable in English is not the person at the counter on a Saturday evening.
- 6
Ask what happens if you stop paying, or stop using it.
Whether your records stay readable is worth knowing on day one. On Khata there is nothing to stop paying — but ask it of anything you trust with your books.
When something else fits better
These are real gaps, not softened ones. You will find them in week one anyway, and it is cheaper for both of us if you find them now.
You need batch numbers and expiry dates
Products carry name, price, cost, unit, stock, barcode and a reorder threshold. There is no expiry tracking or FEFO logic, so a pharmacy managing shelf life should not rely on Khata for that part of its stock.
You quote before you sell
There is no estimate, quotation or proforma document type. If most of your work starts as a quote that becomes an invoice, that gap will be felt daily.
Your billing happens on a Windows desktop
Khata is a mobile app with a web dashboard. There is no desktop application, and if your counter is a PC with a keyboard operator, a desktop-first product will feel faster.
You need someone to file your returns
Khata keeps records, exports them, and tracks filing deadlines so one does not pass unnoticed. It does not generate returns or file anything. That is your accountant's work.
Your team is already fast on another system
Retraining has a real cost, and a slower counter for three weeks is a genuine loss. Switching should solve a problem you actually have.
Moving across takes a week, not a weekend
You do not need to enter your history. You need each customer’s balance today, entered as an opening figure, and everything after that recorded in one place.
Most shops move without losing an hour of trade, because the data entry happens during sales that were happening anyway.