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Growth Guide

Patent Filing in India in 7 Easy Steps

If you are a small business or startup that has come up with an innovative concept or idea, then read on to understand more. You will understand what patent filing is, and why you should consider patent filing and patent filing in India in simple steps. 

What is a patent?

Let’s start by looking at what a patent means. By definition when you or your business has come up with a unique product or concept that has not been invented or discovered until now, then you can patent the idea or concept as belonging to you. Having a patent for a product or concept means that you have the exclusive right to the idea and that others who want to use the idea will have to pay you patent fees.

Why file for a patent?

Today, one of the most valuable assets is intellectual property. In a world where information on any aspect is available online, if you have a unique idea, it is better to patent that concept. There are several reasons for doing this.

Protecting your intellectual property

Since a lot of effort has gone into the concept, you need to protect the rights of your business. In case somebody wants to use the concept, then they will need to pay you to get the rights to do so.

Curbing misuse or distortion

The way today’s market conditions are, makes competitors take a concept and slightly change or distort it to present it as their own. Patenting prevents this from happening and protects you.

Improve the valuation of your business

If your business has a unique idea, then it makes sense to consolidate your position as the market leaders and improve the valuation of your business. Patenting your idea helps you do just that.

Catch investors’ attention

As a small business or a startup, it is essential to catch potential investors’ attention so that your business can attract capital or debt as required to grow and flourish in a competitive market.

Now that we have understood what patent registration means and why you should register your patent let’s look at how to go about patent filing in India.

Also Read:

What is the process for patent filing in India?

Conceive your invention

The first step is once your business has come up with your invention to get all information together. Factors like the type of invention, the advantages, how it help, and carrying out a search whether there is an existing patent needs to be done. Under the act, you need to ensure that the concept does not fall under the categories that are not patentable.

Search and draft patent

Once you are through the first part, you have to start searching in terms of patentability before drafting your concept. This search will identify the concepts that are closest to the one you are trying to patent. 

File the application for patent

Patent filing process in India
Process for patent filing

Once you have completed the draft, you can file it with the patent office, generally using form 1, and you will be given a receipt along with a patent application number. As a startup or a small business, you need to use Form 28 to file for patents.

Publishing the application

The application is filed after 18 months of filing the application. In case you do not want to wait for 18 months, you can request for early publication and pay the prescribed fee using Form 9. With this move, you can expect publication within one month of application. 

Request for evaluation

Unlike the publication stage, the evaluation does not happen automatically and you have to file a request latest by 48 months from the date you file the application under Form 18. Once the controller gets the request, the application is passed on to the patent examiner who will look at it from different patentability criteria points of view. The application, usage, novelty, etc is looked at and the applicant is provided with the First Examination Report or FER. You can also request an expedition using Form 18A under Rule 24C. 

Respond to queries and objections

Once you get the FER, you are supposed to respond to all the objections raised in the report in writing. As the applicant you can negate any objections and prove the applicability of the invention. This can be done by physical presence or through video conferencing.

Patent grant 

Once all the objections are addressed, and if the patent application is found to meet all criteria, then it could be placed for a grant and the patent granted to the applicant. Anybody who wants to oppose the patent will have to do so within 12 months of the patent grant via a notice to the controller.

What is the cost of patent filing in India?

The cost of patent application is around INR 4000 for smaller businesses, INR 8000 for larger businesses, and additionally, there could be attorney fees ranging from INR 20000 to INR 35000.

Visit EnKash to learn how as Asia’s 1st & Smartest Spend Management Platform, we help businesses like yours grow to their full potential.

Categories
Growth Guide

Essential HR Policies for a Startup Company

Human Resources (HR) is an important department for every profitable business. The human resource department forms the organization’s backbone by hiring suitable people. The success of any business enterprise is measured in terms of staff satisfaction and work performance.

The Human Resource (HR) Department undeniably plays a vital role in any organization, whether a startup or a multinational. In a startup, HRs are responsible for supporting the growth of the business by defining and attracting the ‘right’ talent, determining the organizational structure, creating clear communication channels, framing the code of conduct, and so much more.

HR Policies for a Startup in India

  • Code of Conduct: The code of conduct HR policy consists of the aim, vision, and mission of any startup. It also helps to build and maintain the right workplace for the employees. Most importantly, it contains rules and regulations for the employees to abide by.
  • Leave Policy: This is one of the most important policies for any employee of the organization as it outlines the various types of leaves an employee can avail in different situations like maternity leave, female-day care leave, casual leave, sick leave, annual leave, and more. Many organizations have a non-paid leave policy as well depending on the situation where the salary of the employee will be deducted.
  • Employee Appraisal and Promotions: This is another policy company that stands as one of the important HR policies for a startup. In this, the founders, and the top-level management evaluate the employee’s performance over a period of six months or annually and provide them critical feedback on their performance, and then reward them accordingly with an increase in salary and promotions.
  • Rewards & Recognition: When the employees are appreciated, they tend to work better. As part of many HR policies, this policy states how the employees must be rewarded based on values, goals, and priorities. Many companies reward employees quarterly with monetary rewards or gift vouchers to boost employee morale.
  • Work from Home Policy: Ever since the novel coronavirus hit the globe, various organizations have shifted away from the traditional way of only working from the office to working from anywhere i.e. working from home. Some startups are working completely remotely whereas others are insisting their employees come to the office full-time, or a fixed number of days a week.
  • Health and Safety Policy: For any startup, the well-being of its employees is the foremost concern. It includes not only physical well-being but also mental and emotional well-being. Hence, the HR department frames various health and safety policies for the employees to ensure that every employee is provided with the best work environment at the workplace.
  • Employee Separation Policy: When the employee decides to leave the organization, once again the role of HR comes into place where various documentation work is exchanged amongst the employees and the employers. There are various exit formalities that are to be cleared by the employees before the company in order to avail the full & final payment, relieving letter, or experience letter.
HR Policies Checklist for a startup
Types of HR policies in India

Why does a startup need an HR policy?

There are various reasons why a startup needs an HR policy. Listed below are a few reasons:

  • In a startup, clear-cut HR policies help to treat employees fairly across the organization.
  • Such HR  policies serve to preempt various misunderstandings between employees and the employer regarding employees’ rights and obligations in the workplace.
  • These policies help early-stage & growth-stage startups in saving valuable time and resources.
  • The absence of clear HR policies leads to a decline in employee morale, deterioration in employee loyalty, and increased vulnerability to even legal penalties.

Conclusion

This blog gives an overview of any organization’s most commonly used policies. These policies majorly depend on the company size, type, and industry, and these policies must come into action based on the same. When framing the HR policies and procedures, it is imperative for the Human Resource team of every organization to keep in mind all the business practices and all the applicable national, state, and local laws.

Categories
Growth Guide

5 Credit Mistakes to Avoid as a Growing Business

When running a business, be it small or large, its management is certainly not an easy feat. A growing business requires a lot of strategizing cash flow, investment in the right areas, planning for maximizing profits while minimizing business expenses, and much more. 

However, while running a growing business, there are high chances that obstacles to business growth are a common challenge faced by various entrepreneurs/business owners. This happens due to various reasons, such as vastly overestimating the value of the business, lack of understanding of the market, etc. 

In this post, various credit mistakes are highlighted that must be avoided by a growing business.

Use of both Personal and Business Credit for Growing Business

One of the most common mistakes made by a growing business is mixing personal and business finances, thinking it will help them build a good business credit score. In fact, paying anything relating to your business expenses with personal credit will only increase the chances of harming your personal credit score. 

However, you must try to build the credit profile of your growing business by always making all the purchases either through a business credit card or a business account so that there is a complete track of all your business expenses. Moreover, you must know that the credit limit issued to businesses is very high in comparison to the limit issued to individuals owning personal cards.

Over-hiring Instead of Smart Hiring

As a small business owner, another mistake that you must avoid is over-hiring employees. Instead, your key focus is on hiring the smart and right workforce to help you save your time, money, and resources. If you hire the wrong people, your business will no doubt collapse in no time.

Hence, you must be clear about your growing business requirements and then seek candidates to help you fulfill them and not over-hiring the people and later regret the decision. Your workforce must be a mixture of people with a go-getter attitude, easy to work in a dynamic environment, keen to learn new skills and techniques, and most importantly who can think outside the box.

You must never hire just for the sake of hiring but only hire when you are confident that they will be a valuable part of your business’s growth.

Poor Budget Planning

Many times, business owners misjudge the costs of scaling a business. However, when a specific budget for a business is created, ensure that funds’ allocation for your business requirement must be given top priority. If you fail to plan a proper budget, the consequences for the same are too painful as it will drive your business away from reaching your financial goal, might lead you towards a debt trap and so much more. Undoubtedly, this is one of the biggest obstacles to business growth.

Poor Focus on Marketing for Your Business

Marketing for a small business is as important as that for any long-established business since the world needs to know about your business, products, and services that are ready to serve your customers. However, this is another big mistake that business owners make by not focusing on marketing strategies which leads to slow business growth. You must do marketing with the target audience in mind and work towards catering to their needs.

Wanting to Do It All Attitude 

Another challenge of expansion for businesses is trying to master everything at once, due to which the entrepreneurs fail to focus on the things that are important to business growth. With this attitude, you will never be able to reach your business goal; at every point, you will be stuck. So, don’t become a jack of all trades and a master of none. Instead, you need to plan and then prioritize accordingly.

Final Words

For businesses in the growing stage, expenses are likely to increase and profits never come to reflect overnight. As a result, the owners can make mistakes relating to business finances which will ultimately lead to slow progress and in the worst case, even business failure. You must consider these mistakes for running your business in the most effective & efficient way.

Categories
Growth Guide

5 Reasons for Startups to Make Technology Investment

If you are a business that is considered a small or medium-sized business or in the initial stages of growth, you will find this article of interest. Often you will hear small business owners talking about their struggles to keep their heads above water. Most of the time the struggles that smaller or newer companies face have to do with financial issues. However, when you do a deeper dive, you realize that the problems go beyond that. 

The issues for SMBs and startups not only stem from money issues but also the lack of investment in technology which further affects their financial management and other aspects. According to CB Insights, there are many reasons that result in a small business failing, with finance issues and product-market demand mismatch topping the list. A slightly deeper dive shows that all these factors will reveal that the root cause of these issues is a lack of investment in technology.

5 reasons to invest in technology as a growing SMB or Startup business

Major Reasons that you should invest in technology
5 Reasons that you should invest in technology

Out-of-control financial management

Often smaller businesses make the mistake of using manual processes to manage their finance and accounting processes. This not only results in cash flow issues but also affects their other functions. For instance, manual accounting can be frustrating and error-prone which results in employee attrition, not meeting compliance requirements, waste of resources, and a lack of analytics resulting in poor planning. Even external-facing factors like market reputation (due to late payment to vendors and suppliers) and customer experience (because of poor collection techniques) are adversely affected.

The solution: A complete spend management solution that not only helps them manage payables and receivables but also helps you with aspects like audits, bank reconciliation, insights, and overall customer experience.

Product-market mismatch due to lack of technology investment

Many SMBs and startups start their business based on radical product or service ideas they had at the beginning. While this works for their initial vision and based on the expertise and skill set they bring to the table, there may not necessarily be long-term demand for the same. If anything, the product needs to keep developing to meet the changing needs of the market. 

The solution: Get tools that provide you insights into how customers have responded to your product or services like social media measurement or survey tools.

Hiring the right people and retaining them

Most small businesses or startups start with the mindset of keeping all aspects within a chosen few who have been with the founders from the start. However, as the business takes off, the need for the right talent makes itself felt.

Whether it is gig workers or permanent staff, hiring can be a challenge if you do not have the right setup for it. All this starts with ensuring that you build a consistent reputation of being a fair employer.

To do this, you need to ensure that you make payroll on time, your rewards and recognition program keeps up with the times, and your gig workers have the choice of different modes of payment. What is more, you need to create a fine balance of allowing your employees to have the freedom to spend independently without losing control over how spends are made.

Solution: An integrated solution that will help HR set policies and hierarchies for spends, approval stages, preset spend limits, and types of expenses. An integrated dashboard that enables finance and HR to work together without IT dependence.

Regulatory and audit struggles

No matter the size of the business, there are always regulatory requirements that the business has to fulfill to ensure smooth running over time. While documentation of different transactions and creating a credible track of paperwork and approvals may sound simplistic when a business is starting operations, it becomes complicated when the business grows.

Not only do regulatory and audit issues take up resources like time, manpower, and money, but they also tend to put a lot of stress on different departments. In many cases, it could also result in the business being penalized.

Solution: You need a system that tracks and updates the details of transactions and the approval trail in real-time without errors. 

Fragmented marketing and sales efforts

Businesses of all sizes have had to add a digital touch to their marketing and sales efforts without that they would see a poor return on marketing investment.

Often SMBs and startups hesitate to invest in a holistic marketing tool that gives them an overview of the journey that a customer goes through before making the purchase decision. Today decisions, especially in the B2B segment are not made by a single person and usually take a longer time. Not only does the initial touchpoint with the customer play a huge role in the way the decision moves forward but the support you provide at each step matters a lot. 

Solution: Invest in a sales and marketing tool like HubSpot, ZOHO, Salesforce, etc to ensure that your marketing and sales teams have an overview of the customer journey at various touch points.

Conclusion and next steps

It is essential for SMBs and startups to start thinking of technology as an investment rather than an expense. Investment in the right technology can have a deep-seated impact on the operations of your business in terms of human resource management, finance, marketing, sales, and customer experience.

While evaluating the tech stack that you are planning to invest in, pay particular attention to ease of use, the initial investment, dependence of IT to configure changes, usability across functionalities, and sync with existing systems, if any.

Categories
Growth Guide

Tips on how to Increase your CIBIL Score

Are you struggling to get a loan or credit due to a poor credit score? Well, did you know you have the ability to increase your CIBIL score in days by simply changing your behavior towards the credit? A credit score is considered to be one of the most important factors when applying for a loan or a credit card. 

At EnKash, our customers often ask us how they can improve their credit score. In this article, we are sharing some easy tips on how to increase your CIBIL score to help you handle your finances better.

Why Do You Need a Good Credit Score?

A good credit score is important because a score of 750 and above will help you get better and quicker loans, premium credit cards, etc. at attractive interest rates. In contrast, a poor credit score can create a lot of issues when you need funds immediately. Not only this, it leads to higher interest rates and fewer loan options. Hence, maintaining a good credit score is essential to meet your future financial needs.

How to Increase CIBIL Score Quickly?

You can follow the tips mentioned below to help you increase your credit score in no time:

5 Reasons to increase CIBIL Score quickly

5 ways to keep a check on your CIBIL Score

  • Review Your Credit Report Regularly

    You must track your credit report regularly to stay updated on your credit score. Moreover, it helps you to keep a track of any errors in your credit report. You can immediately raise a dispute for any sort of inaccuracy in your credit report to the CIBIL and get it updated at the earliest. This will help you improve your credit score.
  • Pay Your Credit Card Bill on Time

    Do you know every bill that you miss paying lowers your credit score? However, it is important that you pay your credit card bill on time to help you improve your CIBIL Score in the long run. Remember, you must pay the total amount due on your credit card since the outstanding amount along with the new transaction on your credit card will attract an interest rate which will again adversely impact your credit score. The easy way to pay your dues on time is by setting the payments by setting up reminders, auto-pay mode, etc.

  • Maintain a Healthy Credit Mix

    One of the foremost reasons for a low credit score is unsecured loans i.e., personal loans, business loans, etc. These loans are sanctioned without any collateral. This makes such loans high-risk in nature in comparison to secured loans i.e., auto loans, home loans, etc. However, to improve your credit score, you should always create a healthy credit mix of secured loans and unsecured loans since this no longer makes you a high-risk borrower for the banks.
  • Avoid Multiple Credit Card/Loan Enquiries

    Another way to improve your credit score is by limiting your loan and credit card applications as it gives a wrong impression to the lenders about you being ‘credit hungry’.Not only this, it might come across as if you might already have an additional debt and may not to repay it later.

  • Never Close Your Old Accounts

    You must never close your old account as it shows your long association with the banks and financial institutions along with your long repayment history. If you decide to close your old accounts, it completely nullifies all your previous records with the issuing bank. Hence, it will negatively impact your credit score.

The Bottom Line

A credit score of 750 and above is usually considered a good credit score by most lenders. However, if you want to avail a loan or a credit card at lower interest rates make sure you consider the above simple tips to see a gradual increase in your credit score.

Categories
Growth Guide

7 Super Easy Tips to Manage Small Business Finance

We can all agree that small businesses form the backbone of our economy. Not only do small businesses lead the way forward, they also provide employment, nurture innovation, and ensure affordable goods. However, while there is a lot being done for the development of small and medium businesses, small business finance is one aspect that many of them struggle with. There are several reasons for issues with small business financial management, the top of which include:

  • Lack of formal funding leading to capital struggling
  • Low awareness of options to get easy finance
  • Failed collections resulting in cash issues
  • Too many resources used for non-core activities like finance
  • Unclear data and insights to enable planning
  • Poor supply chain management due to delayed payments
  • Lack of communication and control between different teams

Given that small and medium-sized businesses would normally not prefer to invest in IT infrastructure beyond their core business, they face issues like finance and manpower management. There is no denying the importance of money management in business, which when ignored leads to poor performance.

Read More: Best Accounting Software in India for Small Business

Now that we have a clear understanding of the issues that small businesses face, let’s look at some tips that will help you manage finances better for your business.

how to manage Small Business Finance
7 Tips to manage small business finance

7 Super Easy Tips to Manage Small Business Finance

Tip 1: Discover sources for quick and easy finance

If you talk to entrepreneurs of small and medium businesses, you will find that their top concern is that of finding sources for quick and easy finance for business owners. Since most business owners may not have the financial or educational background to easily gain access to finance, making sure that working capital is always available can be a major issue. Today, companies like EnKash have made this easy with quick and collateral-free finance with minimal formalities. In fact, you can even tap on free sources for finance by tying up with such companies.

Tip 2: Decentralize spends related to regular expenses

Besides finance, another aspect that often causes problems in the path of a small or medium-sized business is the time spent on looking at expenses, ensuring that they are correct, and then disbursing them. The time spent increases either due to lack of trust or due to lack of authority given to the person who needs to make the expense. What you need is a way to decentralize payment but without diluting the controls. All these factors showcase the importance of money management in business, but more so for SMBs.

Tip 3: Ensure that you pay your vendors and suppliers on time


To run a business, you need to deliver goods or services to your customers on time, in the right quantity, with the right quality, and at reasonable prices. As simplistic as this sounds, this is easier than done for a small business. The problem could arise because you are not in a position to pay your vendors and suppliers on time. Which in turn, means that this affects your ability to deliver goods and services as promised, which results in poor collections and ends in a cash flow problem. What you require is a solution that lets you pay on time and provide you with required credit limits as per your needs.

Tip 4: Automate your collections processes


As mentioned in the earlier section, the cash flow of your business is affected by poor collections. Often companies face collection issues because they are unable to send invoices on time as a result of manual processes. In some instances, it is the lack of convenient options to make payments that acts as a deterrent to the timely payment of the dues. Something as simple as automation of the invoice creation and dispatch process and adding a payment link will ensure better collections and help with small business financial management.

Tip 5: Stay on top of expenses with controls to prevent fraud


When you are a small business, you need to have complete control of your expenses. Often, the process to establish this kind of control also results in restricting your people from quickly purchasing what they need for work. When you have a holistic spend management platform in place, it becomes easy to enable payments while still ensuring that there is no fraud. For instance, providing your system admin with a corporate credit card to specifically spend on AWS kind of purchases will ensure there is no fraud while enabling faster operations. You can also remove access when an employee leaves if you manage the whole process with a DIY dashboard.

Tip 6: Get insights to plan for your cash flow in the future


Small business finance is a function that becomes essential when you are able to get smart insights on how your money is working for you. Having a dashboard that you can customize to get an overview of your spends, collections, account payables, and more will ensure that you are able to plan better. Once you have insights on the way your cash works, it becomes easier to save on interest rates, penalty charges, and also get rebates on early payments.

Tip 7: Make sure that your financial records are clear for audits


Another aspect of small business financial management that the finance and accounts teams will confirm is that much of their time is spent on preparing for audits and statutory compliance. Having a dashboard to approve, record, and update all the financial transactions will definitely help you increase your focus on core activities.

At EnKash, we specialize in quick and efficient solutions for companies like yours. Our solutions will help you track spend, make payments, collect quicker, reconcile bank accounts, and much more. What is more, we also have a quick and collateral-free loan to meet your urgent needs.