Zoho Corporation, the Chennai-headquartered global technology company, has released the results of its recent survey conducted among Indian businesses using Zoho Books, a comprehensive GST-compliant cloud accounting platform. The survey, which sampled 470 businesses, was aimed at understanding how businesses have benefited from using the audit trail in Zoho Books. The results revealed that 69% of the respondents feel that the audit trail has helped them ensure better accountability, protect against fraud, and improve security. The survey further indicated that nearly 60% of the respondents were able to identify and correct discrepancies in their financial records.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in India requires businesses to have audit trail capabilities in their accounting software from April 1, 2023. The audit trail mandate stipulates that businesses must maintain a complete record of their financial transactions including change logs. With audit trail, the auditors and regulators can enforce better internal controls, easily trace transaction history, and identify discrepancies.
Prashant Ganti, Head of Product Management, Zoho Finance and Operations Suite commented, “Audit trail is an intrinsic part of an accounting system. This capability strengthens the internal controls by ensuring financial integrity and compliance. At Zoho, even before audit trail was mandated by the MCA, we’ve been evangelising it to our customers not just in India but across the world. As a direct result of this, the majority of our customers have been using the audit trail, and have benefitted from it as captured in our survey results.”
Zoho Books is a comprehensive, cloud-based accounting software that helps businesses take care of their finance, perform core accounting functions, track stocks, reconcile bank accounts, manage projects, and keep them GST/e-invoicing compliant. The software also comes with other advanced capabilities like built- in order management, budgeting, workflow automation, customisations, advanced business analytics, and more.
Research Methodology
The company surveyed business owners through primary research. The survey questionnaire had qualitative aspects based on the usage and impact of the audit trail in Zoho Books to gain a holistic outlook from customers.
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