Samir Phuyal of Gothgau, Morang was fresh out of school five years ago when he started tinkering with computer programs like Microsoft Office suite and Adobe Photoshop.

Phuyal was passionate about computer applications and the Internet of Things from his early days. He used to spend hours exploring the features of this software and always wondered how they were made.

Since his school did not teach adequate programming knowledge, and there were no computer institutes in his town, he started teaching himself programming and coding on the Internet.

“At first, I created a couple of websites that provide notes from high school textbooks to my fellow students,” said the 21-year-old programming aficionado.

“But they weren't very popular, so I worked harder to make the websites more attractive and moved on to other projects.”

By the end of 2020, after finishing high school, he had enough coding skills and he started making apps and websites for Nepali and foreign companies.

His parents ran a general store in Gothgau. Like most Nepali small and medium-sized enterprises, they wrote down details of their transactions, dues and payables in a notebook.

“My parents kept records of the transactions in an informal manner. As a result, sometimes the journal entries got lost,” said Phuyal.

"One day, when my father couldn’t trace the dues of a customer, he asked me if I could help him record the transactions systematically and safely. At first, I looked for readily available accounting software, but they were too complex and unsuitable for my not-so-tech-savvy parents. Thus, I started working on Karobar–an accounting app for small and informal traders”

At first, Phuyal developed a simple mobile application that recorded the names of the customers and their dues and installed it in his parents' mobile phones. His application used the Nepali calendar and Nepali fonts for easy use by his parents.

“Record keeping in the shop became a lot easier, and there were fewer errors after my parents started using the app. Soon stationery and hardware shop owners nearby started asking for the app,” said Phuyal.

Then he uploaded the app to Google Playstore to make it publicly available for all small business owners.

Within a couple of months, people started downloading his app and provided their feedback and areas for improvement.

Phuyal was motivated by the response, and realised that such an app had good market potential. He removed the bugs and added features demanded by the users.

Because of the simplicity and localised approach, his app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times by small firms and traders.

A United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) report estimates that the country’s micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) employ more than 2.7 million people.

In Nepal, it is estimated that there are more than 923,000 registered businesses. Approximately 90 percent of them are MSMEs, accounting for 45 percent of all jobs. And about 12 percent are small and medium businesses, accounting for 40 percent of employment.

A 2022 study states that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently lack proper accounting systems and may even fail as a result of ineffective accounting practices. Accounting can, in fact, help a struggling SME turn around and slow down the progression of a crisis, says the report.

“We want to help small business owners from potential loss due to their unsystematic accounting system,” said Phuyal.

Karobar offers several features for business owners such as recording stocks, sales, purchases, lists of buyers and suppliers, business statistics and expenses and preparing bills, among others.

Users can also import their data from Microsoft Excel to the app where they can access features such as cloud storage.

The offline version of the app is also available for users who don’t have access to the Internet at their shops. It gets uploaded to the app's cloud storage when the user gets connected to the Internet, and can retrieve the data at any time.

Currently, the app is available in three options: Karobar Basic which is a free option, Karobar Plus which costs Rs2,300 a year, and Karobar Pro which costs Rs4,600 a year.

In addition to the basic features, Karobar Plus offers some additional features such as multi-user support, uploading bill images, invoice customisation and app lock.

In the Karobar Pro version, the user can also access the desktop web version and create premium greeting cards to send to their buyers and suppliers.

Karobar is meant for internal use by SMEs, informal traders and businesses operating with a Personal Account Number (PAN).

“Our app is not for supermarkets, large traders or other businesses. It’s only for small and informal traders who want to have better accounting,” he said.

Businesses registered with Value Added Tax (VAT) must use only the e-billing software authorised by the Inland Revenue Department.

Phuyal is planning to create an app for SMEs in other developing countries too.

A team of 13 persons at Karobar are working to customise the app for users in Bangladesh. It is in the Bengali language, features their calendar and is adapted to local trading practices. Users can obtain a one time password through a Bangladeshi phone number.

“We already have 280 users in Bangladesh, and we are making further changes to our app as per their feedback. If everything goes well, we will formally launch our operation in Bangladesh too,” said Phuyal.

Karobar app was awarded with the Rising Star Innovation category in the ICT Award 2022.