Student Records, Receipts and VAT for a Nepal Consultancy

An education consultancy in Nepal handles personal documents, service fees and sometimes money that passes through to institutions. Good records protect you in disputes, make audits painless and help you answer a student who says "I already paid." This article is about record keeping and software, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your specific obligations with your accountant, the Inland Revenue Department or the relevant registrar.

The records every consultancy should keep

At minimum, for each student, keep:

• Contact details, including a second contact such as a parent, with permission to use it.
• A signed service agreement describing what your office will do and what it will not do.
• The fee plan, with each instalment date and amount.
• A receipt for every payment, numbered in sequence.
• A log of counselling sessions and calls, with dates.
• The document checklist, showing what was received and when.
• Any refund request and the decision taken.

These records matter most when something goes wrong. A student changes plans, an institution rejects a file, or a relative arrives at the office asking what was paid. If your records are on one counsellor's phone, you will have a bad afternoon.

Service agreements and expectations

A written agreement that states clearly what your office provides helps both sides. It should not promise outcomes you do not control. Many disputes in this industry start when a student believed a result was guaranteed. Keep a signed copy in the student file and a plain-language version on your website or office wall. Ask a lawyer to review the wording once instead of copying another office's template blindly.

Fee receipts and VAT

Nepal's standard VAT rate is 13%, and whether and how it applies to your service fee depends on your registration and the nature of what you charge. Do not guess. Ask your accountant three questions:

1. Is my consultancy required to be VAT registered at my turnover?
2. Which parts of what I collect are my service fee and which are pass-through payments to third parties?
3. What invoice or receipt format do I need to issue?

Once you have answers, configure your software to match. Receipts can show the service fee, VAT line where applicable, and separate pass-through amounts so reports stay clean. If you need formal VAT billing across the business, see our VAT billing software page. WebsNP can set up billing formats that your accountant specifies, but we do not decide your tax treatment.

Keeping pass-through money separate

If your office ever collects money on behalf of a student to pay a third party, treat it differently from your own income. Record it as a liability until it is paid out and keep proof of payment. Mixing it with revenue creates confusion at year end and can make profit look better than it is.

Using the Nepali fiscal year

The Nepali fiscal year begins in Shrawan. Reports should be filterable by fiscal year as well as by calendar month, because your accountant will think in fiscal years. Software that only reports by English calendar year forces manual conversion each time.

Refunds and disputes

Every consultancy eventually faces a refund conversation. Decide your policy before it happens, write it in the agreement and record each refund request with its date, the reason and the decision. Keep the original receipt reference on the refund entry so the story is complete. Calm, documented answers prevent small misunderstandings from becoming public complaints on Facebook.

Month-end routine for the accountant

At the end of each Nepali month, export the receipts list, the dues list and any refunds. Check that receipt numbers have no gaps, that cash and bank totals match your books and that pass-through amounts are separated. Handing the accountant a tidy set each month is far cheaper than a year-end reconstruction.

Protecting student information

Passports, certificates and bank papers are sensitive. A few simple habits go a long way:

• Give each staff member a personal login, never a shared one.
• Restrict who can export student lists.
• Remove access the day a staff member leaves.
• Do not collect more documents than the process needs.
• Tell students how long you will keep their files.

Good software supports these habits through roles, access history and structured storage. It cannot replace the habits themselves.

When a student leaves or a staff member resigns

Two moments test your records. When a student withdraws, close the file with a status and a reason, settle the fee position in writing and keep the file for the period you agreed. When a counsellor resigns, reassign every open student the same day and remove their login. A system that records who changed what makes both moments calm instead of chaotic.

Keeping records useful

A record that cannot be found is no record at all. Name files consistently, store them against the student rather than in a folder tree and attach every receipt to a payment entry. When your accountant asks for all receipts in a month, a good system produces them in seconds.

The consultancy system from WebsNP keeps the student file, the fee plan, the receipts and the document checklist together, with reports by fiscal year. Message us on WhatsApp at +977 9846280400 to see how receipts and fee plans are set up for your office.

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