An honest comparison
Saral vs the spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet is the real incumbent, and it deserves an honest comparison — including the part where it wins.
| Situation | The spreadsheet | Saral |
|---|---|---|
| Starting out — 2 founders, no investors | Genuinely fine. A sheet is fast, free and flexible. Use one. | Saral’s Free plan is for the moment that stops being true. |
| Version truth | Whoever edited last wins. Three copies circulate; nobody knows which the CS filed from. | One append-only ledger. Every view replayed from it. History tamper-evident. |
| Point-in-time answers | “What was the cap table at the last AGM?” means archaeology through email attachments. | Pick a date. The ledger replays to it. |
| Compliance clocks | The sheet does not know PAS-3 is 15 days for your round, or that the money is locked till it’s filed. | Obligations are generated from transactions the moment they happen, with the statutory basis shown. |
| CCPS math at exit | Someone rebuilds preference stacks in Excel during the most stressful week of your life. | The waterfall engine computes it continuously — try the free simulator. |
| ESOP tax | Per-employee perquisite math by hand, with the 2026 law change applied… hopefully. | Computed per exercise, with the valuation checks the law requires and statements citing the right Act. |
| Registers (MGT-1, SH-6…) | Hand-maintained, drifting from reality since the last funding round. | Generated live from the ledger. Cannot drift. |
| Cost of an error | Penalties, a blown diligence, or repricing an employee’s life-changing exercise. | The engine is tested against hand-computed fixtures and reviewed by a practising CS. |
Comparing platforms? Ask about capabilities, not logos.
We won't name competitors or talk anyone down. Instead, here is the India-specific checklist to put in front of ANY platform you evaluate — including us. Every item below is live in Saral today.
- ✓Compliance obligations GENERATED from equity events (not a to-do list you type in yourself)
- ✓The PAS-3 15-vs-30-day branch, with the Sec 42(4) funds-lock surfaced
- ✓Stamp duty at the current central rates, with the demat/physical distinction and disputed-state warnings
- ✓PAS-6 book-vs-demat reconciliation with an actual diff engine
- ✓Indian instruments as structured data: CCPS terms, CCDs, iSAFEs, partly-paid shares
- ✓FEMA workflow: FC-GPR packs, per-tranche FC-TRS clocks, the register gate on unacknowledged transfers
- ✓Distinctive numbers on certificates: assigned, split FIFO, retired, audited
- ✓ESOP Rule 12 enforcement: the 12-month cliff and eligibility exclusions as blocks, not tooltips
- ✓Exercise-time FMV gating (Category I merchant banker, 180-day freshness)
- ✓Data residency in India, stated plainly
Bring your spreadsheet — the importer is the front door.
Saral parses it, shows a dry-run validation, and writes only after you approve.
Want the details module by module? Start with the compliance engine →