{Startup Watch: IDOS} The Digital CFO to Completely Automate Routine Bookkeeping Accounting and Financial Management Processes

This platform is a digital CFO that provides accounting and financial management software to completely automate routine bookkeeping, accounting, and financial management processes.

The current corporate landscape has many accounting applications, simple and complex, but none of them empower users to ensure accuracy and reliability in real-time, thereby creating hurdles in real-time availability of actionable data. Further, there is also human error to account for.

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IDOS, a data-driven platform with conversational user interface, helps SMBs to overcome both these above challenges. Also, being cloud-based, it enables users to work from remote locations and from home.

The Tech Panda spoke to Cheruku Srikanth, Founder and CEO of IDOS about how they are helping automate accounting and financial processes.

Software must first focus on what’s important from the standpoint of the businessmen and stakeholders of the business. And for them, priority is accurate accounting and financial data that can be utilized in real-time for upstream value addition, including working capital management, digital invoice discounting, digital lending, digital payments, etc.

“With staff migrating to their native places, and work from home being the new normal, IDOS has become very valuable for businesses,” he says.

Origin and Inspiration

 IDOS was conceived and created by Srikanth, along with his partner Alexander Reife, in the process of finding cost effective and efficient solutions for many of bookkeeping and accounting clients in India, US, South America, South East Asia, and Middle East, primarily in the SMBs segment, business with two or more branches, as well as for not-for-profit organizations and aid organizations.

“Being professional accountants ourselves, we have been in the professional services business for over 15 years and personally experienced the pain in bookkeeping, accounting, and financial management in the SMB segment. We have seen the negative impact of absence of real time accounting and financial data for business owners and managers,” recalls Srikanth.

We have seen the negative impact of absence of real time accounting and financial data for business owners and managers

They also realized that the data generated by bookkeeping and accounting software is key for efficient working capital management of the business and the stakeholders need reports and analysis which supports their ability to manage working capital more efficiently. He further adds that current solutions focus on tax filing, balance sheet, etc., which, while important and critical, are only an additional task.

“One does not start a business to file tax returns and prepare balance sheets. These are consequence of running the business and not the purpose of business. Therefore, software must first focus on what’s important from the standpoint of the businessmen and stakeholders of the business. And for them, priority is accurate accounting and financial data that can be utilized in real-time for upstream value addition, including working capital management, digital invoice discounting, digital lending, digital payments, etc. IDOS was developed with this philosophy in mind – focus on end users and their priority,” he says.

The IDOS USP

IDOS is an integrated platform that enables businesses to handle bookkeeping, accounting, financial management, and reporting platform. This enables an SMB to handle all aspects of their accounting and financial management in a single application and not multiple disconnected applications, something significant for an SMB.

“This is important in SMBs since majority of them do not have dedicated IT department or staff. Also, most of them have their back-office staff multi-tasking, so that the same person handles multiple accounting and financial tasks, making it convenient for them to use the IDOS integrated platform,” Srikanth explains.

IDOS was developed with this philosophy in mind – focus on end users and their priority

While other similar products are available in the market, like Tally and Zoho, he says the edge of IDOS is in being integrated, cloud based, automated, and compliance focused. Tally is not integrated or cloud based, and Zoho is not automated and compliance focused. Also, both do not have inbuilt internal financial controls and automation to eliminate human errors.

Growth Story

IDOS develops and deploys a platform for empowering organizations with accurate and reliable financial information that fortifies efficiency in accounting and financial management. Their Digital CFO is trusted by leading organizations, including global industry leaders, Fortune 100 companies, listed corporates, SMEs, leading professional services providers, banks and financial institutions, and manufacturing enterprises.

Also, IDOS has been listed among the Top 10 Fintech Startups under NSRCEL.

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“Our biggest achievement is that two of the Big 4 global accounting firms are using IDOS, and we are the first accounting and financial management platform to have a white label agreement with Big 4 who sell IDOS under their brand name. We recently even signed a deal with one of the largest accounting services firm in the US and are going live in the US in July,” says Srikanth.

He says, going ahead, their strategy is to grow in a collaborative manner in partnership with accounting firms globally and be the platform of choice for every CA/CPA firm in the world. Additionally, they want to disrupt bill discounting and digital lending, making them a part of and an extension of their platform.