lamp vs Busy
Direct answer
lamp and Busy are not substitutes. Many businesses would use both.
Busy (from Busy Infotech) is accounting, GST billing and inventory software for Indian businesses. It is where you record invoices, stock and ledgers, and where you generate e-invoices and e-way bills and prepare GST returns.
lamp is an AI operations assistant that works inside WhatsApp. It reads your records and documents, finds what needs you today, and prepares the follow-up. Nothing goes out until you say yes. lamp is invite only.
Pick Busy if you need books, GST and stock in one system. Pick lamp if you already have records but the chasing, checking and remembering all falls on the owner. Pick both if you want clean books and someone to follow up on them.
At a glance
| lamp | Busy | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI operations assistant | Accounting, GST billing and inventory software |
| Main job | Finds what needs the owner today and prepares the next step | Records transactions and produces accounts, invoices and returns |
| Where you use it | In WhatsApp, with no server to buy | Installed desktop software, BUSY Online (cloud) and a mobile app that syncs with the desktop |
| Who uses it daily | The owner and team, by chat | Accounts and billing staff, and the owner for reports |
| GST filing and e-invoicing | Does not file returns or generate e-invoices | Standard edition and up: GSTR-1 upload, automatic e-invoice and e-way bill, GSTR reconciliation |
| Inventory and batches | Reads stock from your records and checks it against a new order. It is not a stock ledger | Multi-godown stock, batch with manufacturing and expiry dates, serial numbers, FIFO or LIFO valuation |
| Manufacturing depth | None. It does not hold a BOM or plan production | Standard page lists multi-level BOM, production planning report, stock journal and job work |
| The main way you use it | Sends invoices, ledgers and reports by WhatsApp. It is not a chat assistant | |
| How follow-ups happen | Drafts a reminder for each customer, shows when it is read, follows up again | Mobile app can send reminders to customers with overdue payments. Read tracking is not published |
| Approvals | You approve every message before it goes. Important decisions come back to you | Voucher and master approval with a reject option, in Enterprise |
| Setup effort | Sign in, connect what you use, answer short questions in the first weeks. No setup fee is stated on the pricing page | Install, set up company data, sync the mobile app. Implementation is not priced on busy.in |
| Data it needs | Your current records: Tally, an ERP, a sheet, or photos of bills and registers | The transactions you enter. It becomes the record |
| Price as published | Not published. Ask on WhatsApp | BUSY 21 from free (Express) to ₹22,000 (Enterprise), plus GST. See below |
| Limits | Cannot post an entry, file a return or fix your books. Can misread a blurry photo | Not a chat assistant. Which edition has which feature needs checking |
Busy facts are from busy.in, read on 26 October 2026. Prices exclude GST.
What Busy costs
busy.in shows two licence families. Both were on the pricing page on 26 October 2026.
| Plan | Published price | Renewal |
|---|---|---|
| BUSY 21 Express | Free (billing and accounting) | Not stated |
| BUSY 21 Basic | ₹11,000, single user | ₹4,000 a year |
| BUSY 21 Standard | ₹16,500, single user | ₹6,500 a year |
| BUSY 21 Enterprise | ₹22,000, single user | ₹7,500 a year |
| BUSY Magic START, SMART, POWER, POWER+ | ₹5,000, ₹8,000, ₹12,000 and ₹50,000 per 360 days | Subscription |
| BUSY Online (cloud) | ₹10,800 a year per user, one company | Per year |
| Mobile app | ₹3,600 a year per device for 1 to 4 devices | Per year |
If a BUSY 21 renewal lapses, the software keeps working and your data stays. New releases, updates, support and connected GST functions stop. Additional users, implementation and customisation are not priced on the page. The Standard edition is where GST filing, e-invoicing, batch tracking and BOM first appear on the BUSY 21 list.
lamp's price is not published. The pricing page says you pay for the people who use it, and that customers and suppliers who only get WhatsApp messages are free. Ask on WhatsApp for a figure.
Choose Busy if...
These examples are illustrative.
- You run a 15-person fabrication shop and your accountant still works from Excel and handwritten bills. You need GST invoices, e-way bills and a ledger first. Busy does that and lamp does not.
- You buy raw material in batches and need expiry or batch records, or a bill of materials for a product you make.
- You send material out for job work and need to match what returns against the challan.
- You have no accounting system. lamp reads records. It does not keep them.
Choose lamp if...
These examples are illustrative.
- Your accountant knows which customers owe money, but the calls wait for the owner. By the time a reminder goes, credit of 45 days has become 75.
- Customers send purchase orders as photos on WhatsApp. Someone retypes each one, checks the rate and checks stock by hand.
- Your books are fine. What slips is the follow-up, because no one has that job.
- You want to keep the final say. lamp drafts, you approve.
Use both when...
- Busy holds your invoices and stock, and lamp turns them into a short list each morning: who has not paid, which order is short of material.
- A customer's PO arrives as a photo. lamp reads it and checks the rate against your last quote and the stock against your records. It drafts a purchase for the shortfall. Your team then enters the order in Busy as usual.
- The owner travels. The books keep running in Busy. lamp tells the owner on WhatsApp what needs a decision.
How they work together without double entry
lamp reads the records you already keep. It does not change anything in them. The lamp pages say that connections are read-only: lamp reads from Tally or your ERP and never changes anything in them. That means lamp cannot spoil your Busy books, and your team does not enter anything twice for lamp's sake.
One caveat. The lamp pages name Tally, ERPs such as SAP, Zoho and Odoo, Excel or Google Sheets, and photos of bills and registers. Busy is not named. Busy can export reports to Excel and Google Sheets, so a sheet is one route. A direct read of Busy is something to ask the lamp team about before you rely on it. A sheet you export by hand is only as current as the last export. If a receipt is not entered yet, lamp may think the invoice is still due, which is one reason every reminder comes to you first.
What lamp does not do
- It does not keep accounts or post entries.
- It does not file GST returns, generate e-invoices or e-way bills, or prepare any statutory return.
- It does not collect payments. It reminds and follows up. The money still comes to your bank.
- It does not make phone calls. It tells you who to call.
- It does not run production, hold a BOM or plan machines.
- It does not send anything without your approval.
Questions people ask
Can lamp replace Busy? No. lamp is not an accounting system and does not file GST. If you need those, you need Busy, Tally or similar.
Can Busy replace lamp? Only in part. Busy can send invoices by WhatsApp, and its mobile app can send payment reminders. It does not read a photo of a purchase order, decide what needs you today or follow up for you. The published pages do not describe those.
Does lamp work with Busy? lamp reads Tally, ERPs, sheets and photos. Busy is not on the connections the lamp pages name. Ask the team on WhatsApp what is possible for your setup.
Is Busy cheaper? Different things are priced differently. Busy lists licences with a yearly renewal. lamp prices by the people who use it, and the figure is given on request.
Can I get lamp today? lamp is invite only. The next batch starts in November.
Research sources
Pages fetched on 26 October 2026:
Plans and prices change, so confirm them on busy.in before you buy. Vendor pages describe advertised features, not how any one setup performs. lamp facts come from lamp's own pages.