Two calendars, one business
Nepal's official calendar is Bikram Sambat (BS), which runs about 56 years and 8 months ahead of the international Gregorian calendar (AD). Salaries, school terms, tax periods and government forms all follow BS, while banks' international systems, email and most software follow AD. A business in Nepal has to work in both every day.
Why BS is hard for software
In the Gregorian calendar every month has a fixed length. In Bikram Sambat a month can have 29 to 32 days, and the length of the same month changes from year to year. There is no simple formula. Software needs a table of month lengths for each year and must convert dates using that table.
Software that only "displays" a BS date on top of AD data often makes these mistakes:
- Monthly reports start and end on the wrong days.
- Interest or late fees are calculated for the wrong number of days.
- The fiscal year is treated as January to December.
- Recurring bills fall on dates that do not exist in that BS month.
The fiscal year
Nepal's fiscal year starts on 1 Shrawan (mid-July) and ends on the last day of Ashadh. Accounting, VAT returns, audits and budgets all follow this period. Software that cannot close its books at the end of Ashadh creates extra manual work every year.
Where correct dates matter most
- Schools: academic sessions, exam routines, fee months and certificates.
- Cooperatives and finance: interest calculation, loan instalments and maturity dates.
- Payroll: monthly salary, festival allowance and leave records.
- Billing: invoice dates and tax period reports.
- Hospitals: date of birth and age on patient records.
Checklist before you buy or build
- Can users type and pick dates in BS, with a Nepali date picker?
- Are both BS and AD stored or shown, so that nothing is lost in conversion?
- Do monthly and yearly reports follow BS months and the Shrawan–Ashadh fiscal year?
- Are public holidays and Saturday weekends handled?
- Can printed documents show dates in Nepali numerals?
- Who updates the calendar table when a new year is published?
Our approach
Systems built by Neuro AI Nepal treat Bikram Sambat as a first-class date, not an afterthought, alongside Nepali language and local payment methods. See ERP development, school LMS development and our industry solutions.
