When Nepal went into lockdown in 2020 to curb the Covid pandemic, Prarthana Saakha was also forced to work from home. But the co-founder of Kathmandu’s popular premium his helmet shop, Helmet Nepal, didn’t find it fruitful.
For her, working remotely has not created major challenges in managing human resources or financial transactions. However, she and her team had to go to the office to review business transaction files, reports, documents, and invoices, which was a real hassle during lockdown.
Later she realized that this was not just her problem, many people in different fields had similar problems at the time. This led her to consider another avenue: cloud-based accounting and documentation software. Saakha, along with her longtime friend Ramesh KC, launched her Tigg in December 2021, claiming to be the country’s first cloud-based accounting application.
For Tigg, KC specializes in accounting and Saakha has entrepreneurship experience. In just one year, the software application has acquired over 600 customers representing different parts of the country, from different sectors ranging from trading companies to construction companies.
Most of our customers are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including startups. The developers also say they want to focus on small businesses, as they claim they need such programs the most.
be smart
Saakha said big companies can invest heavily in expensive technology, but it’s difficult for small businesses. “For this reason, many of them do not have organized documents or transaction records,” he says.
In fact, the brand has already started attracting its target customers. A coffee shop owner in Solukhumbu photographs all invoices and documents in Solukhumbu and sends them to an accountant in Kathmandu who runs the software. “Owners are desperate because they want all their books to be safe,” she says.
Tigg currently has an inventory accounting model and a customer relationship model (CRM), and is also working on a manufacturing model and a point of sale (POS) model to evolve the software.
Comfortably
According to Saakha, a key aspect of Tigg’s preference is its user-friendly nature. Short videos published on YouTube and Tigg’s official website can help users to understand its function easily. Tigg also offers his 20-minute training session to showcase the application.
“You don’t have to be a professional accountant or bookkeeper to use Tigg,” she says.
Subscribing to Tigg is easy. You can visit its website for subscription. There is also an option to use the free version for 15 days if the user is unsure of the quality of the application.
There are currently three packages for users: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. Pricing starting at Rs 15,000 per year varies by features.
In recognition of the same, Tigg recently received a Public Choice Award at the ICT Awards presented by Living with ICT magazine. This is one of the prominent awards in ICT sector in Nepal.
Future tasks
However, developers recognize that even greater challenges lie ahead.
However, the team has yet to acknowledge its challenges in the first few months. The only challenge facing the company today is finding the right people.
“No other software has a working model like ours, so it’s hard to find trained people who are equally proficient in accounting and technology,” says Saakha.
But she says Tig has more and more to look forward to. However, accounting and documentation platforms are working to develop a variety of new models and features to address possible issues.
“We also want to digitize the agricultural sector and empower small businesses, which is why we have advocated for unsecured loans,” she says.
