TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE STUDY CIRCLE
Meeting on ‘Simplify Accounting with QuickBook’ held on 19th July, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The Technology Initiatives Study Circle of the Technology Initiative Committee of the BCAS organised a meeting styled ‘Simplify Accounting with QuickBook’ by CA Paresh Panchal on 19th July 2019.
Paresh explained how to set up QuickBooks online and introduced implementation aspects of QuickBooks that fellow Chartered Accountants could apply for small and mid-sized businesses. A brief overview of various aspects of the software was provided, namely, invoicing, taxing, expenses tracking with payment due dates, cash flow, bank integration and on-time balance along with cash flow movement. The session was followed by questions and answers.
Participants enjoyed the talk and the Q&A session that followed. All queries were answered by the speaker. The session was telecast live for the benefit of outstation members.
TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE COMMITTEE
Meeting on ‘Hands-on Workshop on Dashboard Reporting with Advance Excel’ held on 2nd August, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
Another programme organised by the Technology Committee of the Society was a half-day programme called ‘Hands-on Workshop on Dashboard Reporting with Advance Excel’ at the BCAS Conference Hall on Friday, 2nd August, 2019.
The session was led by CA Nikunj Shah. He explained that Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence platform that offers a business analytics toolset designed to assist businesses in their efforts to systematically analyse data and share insights.
Nikunj introduced several features on how to use external data to create a pivot table, thereby converting data into information and further into insight by creating a dashboard. He conducted the demonstration of various features of Excel such as creating interactive charts, updating charts with live data and linking charts with the data source for automatic update of charts; he shared his in-depth knowledge with the participants.
The session was highly interactive, and the speaker demonstrated:
(i) New functions of Excel 2013
(ii) Interactive controls to make the dashboard more useful
(iii) Dos & Don’ts of Dashboard
(iv) Dashboard FAQs
In short, participants learned new ways of working more effectively in a business environment. Nikunj answered all the questions raised by the participants who appreciated the efforts put in by the speaker and the group leaders.
TREE PLANTATION AND EYE CAMP BY HRD COMMITTEE
BCAS Tree Plantation Drive and Eye Camp 2019 – Visit to Dharampur-Vansda, Gujarat, on 3rd – 4th August, 2019
The Human Resource Development Committee of the BCAS, jointly with the BCAS Foundation, in the constant pursuit of contributing to the socio-economic development of tribals in the remote interiors of Dharampur district, organised an ambitious social cause visit on 3rd and 4th August, 2019. The visit was for two purposes – tree plantation as part of the mission the ‘Grow Green Drive’, along with captive plantation on farmers’ land at Khadki-Dharampur (at Sarvodaya Parivar Trust – SPT), and an eye camp for cataract surgery at Vansda, Gujarat (at Dhanvantari Trust – DT).
A team of 44 enthusiastic volunteers from BCAS collected over Rs. 5 lakhs as a contribution towards the twin noble causes and set off to visit Dharampur to personally fuel the mission with their active participation. The journey started on a morning when it rained very heavily, all the way from Mumbai to Valsad; this was followed by a bus journey to the little village of Khadki.
The Sarvodaya Parivar Trust is involved in empowering the tribals and making them self-reliant. It engages in various welfare activities in the fields of education / health / agriculture / water management / environment / public awareness programmes and so on.
With the help of local farmers, the enthusiastic BCAS members assisted in planting various saplings of custard apple, mahogany, ambli, kher and bamboo on the outskirts of village Pindval-Khadki. They also distributed and planted mango saplings on the farmers’ land. The team then visited the nursery developed and nurtured by Trustee Sujataben, who has dedicated her entire life to the SPT.
The BCAS Foundation has committed itself to the plantation of 10,000 trees and has already made a contribution of Rs. 3,00,001 received through generous donations from several donors.
The BCAS team was overwhelmed to meet a villager, Pandu, who donated his entire holding of three acres of land to the SPT for carrying out its activities. He has been associated with the SPT ever since then, giving
his selfless service for the noble cause of benefiting the tribal villagers.
The team also visited the residential school run by SPT at Pindval-Khadki and distributed various educational games / stationery / chocolates to the children. It was a pleasure to see the commendable developments that had taken place over the last few years, thanks to the earlier projects done by BCAS with the help of SPT’s selfless team, which has certainly made a difference to the quality and standard of living of tribals at such a remote, interior village.
The team expressed its gratitude and affection for fellow respected CA Virendrabhai and Ashaben Virendra Shah, a lovely, jovial couple dedicated to SPT, living life as per the Gandhian philosophy; they took charge of all the arrangements for the project and treated the visitors from Mumbai like family.
The night halt at Tithal energised all the participants for their visit the next day to the Dhanvantri Trust at Vansda where they organised an eye camp for cataract surgery of the tribal people. The DT trustees were delighted to take the team through the hospital ward to meet and interact with patients and discuss the selfless activities carried out by them.
The Dhanvantri Trust was founded by the Late Dr. Kirtikumar Vaidya, a doctor who left Mumbai at a young age and dedicated his life for the socio-economic development of tribal villages of South Gujarat. With divine blessings and inspiration from his Guru Sant Shri Ranchhod Dasji Bapu, he started the eye hospital in Vansda. Till date, it has performed more than 42,000 successful cataract surgeries and has expanded to a multi-specialty ward.
The BCAS Foundation has committed to help perform 200 cataract surgeries and has made a contribution of Rs. 2,00,001 received through generous donors.
The team departed with a heavy heart and innumerable memories to board the train back to Mumbai. The youth team that participated in the event was deeply moved with the deliberations of the senior members and the interactions with the trustees of the NGOs, inculcating in them values of life and inspiring them for selfless service to society. In turn, the senior members got enthused with the zeal of the young participants and their new and dynamic ideas. The bonding that was shared amongst them was indescribable and all felt truly blessed at the end of the journey.
Indeed this soulful trip was an elevating and enlightening experience for everybody to feel a bit of a shift within from sympathy to empathy.
DIRECT TAX STUDY CIRCLE
Meeting on ‘Angel Taxation’ on 5th August, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall
The group leader, CA Mahesh Nayak, gave a brief overview of the introduction of section 56(2)(viib) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The provision was then analysed in detail. The group leader next dwelt on the meaning of ‘company in which the public are substantially interested’, with illustrations.
Thereafter, the group discussed the exemptions in the case of investments by certain AIFs, the exemption for investment in startups and the investment restrictions applicable to them. The consequences of non-compliance of investment restrictions were discussed by way of an illustration.
Finally, the valuation methodology to be adopted as per Rule 11UA was discussed along with relevant case laws and the interaction of section 56(2)(viib) and section 56(2)(x) of the Act.
