Three UN targets, and what we actually do about them

The target, in the UN’s words

Encourage the formalization and growth of micro, small and medium sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.

What the product does about it

Formalization is the operative word. A business that cannot produce books, a VAT return or a payslip stays informal, and informality is what keeps it out of credit, contracts and public tenders. Softbooq ships double entry accounting, payroll with income tax and statutory remittance, and VAT returns, at a price a business with five employees can carry.

The target, in the UN’s words

Increase the access of small scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services and their integration into value chains and markets.

What the product does about it

Softbooq carries four statutory accounting frameworks rather than one: SKR03 in Germany, PCG in France, PGC in Spain, and SYSCOHADA across the seventeen OHADA member states of West and Central Africa. Most small business accounting software supports a single country properly. SYSCOHADA is the part that matters here, because it is the framework that is usually missing.

The target, in the UN’s words

Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection.

What the product does about it

A country collects tax from businesses that can calculate it and file it. Softbooq produces VAT returns, payroll tax remittance and per jurisdiction tax accounts as ordinary output of keeping the books, which turns compliance into a by-product of running the company rather than a specialist exercise.