Which software should a small consulting business use?
A small consultancy in India needs four tools and can start each on a free tier: Zoho Books for GST invoices and the books, Refrens for quotes and proposals, Clockify or Toggl Track for hours, and Zoho CRM for the pipeline. Zoho Books has a forever-free plan covering invoices, expenses and bank reconciliation; Standard is ₹749 a month billed annually (₹899 monthly) once you need more. Refrens, built in Bengaluru, makes GST invoices and quotations and turns one into the other, free for your first 15 documents. Clockify tracks time free for up to 5 users; Toggl Track is free for up to 3 and $9 a user a month on Starter, which adds billable rates. Zoho CRM's free edition covers up to 3 users. Rule: bill from the tool your CA files from, and start tracking hours the day you first bill by the hour.
Accounting software made in India with GST invoicing; it produces the profit and loss statement from your entries. There is a free plan for solopreneurs and micro businesses, and Standard is Rs 749 a month billed annually (Rs 899 monthly).
When your spreadsheet starts breaking (you are chasing invoices, guessing at GST, or dreading month-end) Zoho Books is the most sensible first move for an early Indian startup. The free plan is genuinely free for businesses under the turnover threshold and already handles GST invoicing, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and 50+ reports, so you can start at zero cost and upgrade only when you outgrow it. It is cloud-first and India-built, which matters if you are building outside the big startup hubs and want your accountant to log in from anywhere.
Refrens' own pricing page. Refrens is an Indian invoicing, quotation and bookkeeping tool popular with freelancers, agencies and exporters of services, with GST and foreign-currency invoices. It lets you create your first 15 documents free, with all premium features on a free trial.
Clockify tracks hours by client and project, the record a consultant bills from. The free plan covers time tracking, timesheets and the mobile and desktop apps for up to 5 users.
Toggl Track is a time tracker known for a fast timer and calendar integration. Free for up to 3 users; Starter at $9 a user a month adds billable rates and revenue reports.
Built by an Indian company and free for up to three users, this is the CRM a lot of early Indian B2B founders reach for because pricing and support are built around this market from day one. It covers the same basics, leads, deals, tasks, without the currency and localization friction some global tools carry.
