MIS

in Tally 9
©Tally (India) Pvt. Ltd. 2008

Contents of this document, the design and layout is the intellectual property of Tally (India) Private Limited. Names of companies and
persons used in this publication are hypothetical and have been used for illustrative purposes. No part of this publication can be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Tally (India) Private Limited. Breach of
this condition is liable for legal action.

Important: Information in this document is subject to change without prior notice and does not represent any commitment on the part
of Tally (India) Private Limited.

This publication is being issued and released on the condition and understanding that the information, comments and views it contains
are merely for guidance and must not be taken as having the authority of or being binding in any way on the author, editors, publishers,
printers and distributors who do not owe any responsibility whatsoever for any loss, damage or distress to any persons, whether or not a
bonafide user, on account of any action taken or not taken on the basis of this publication. Despite all the care taken, errors or omissions
may have crept inadvertently into this publication. Tally (India) Private Limited shall be obliged if any such error or omission is brought
to their notice for possible correction in a future edition. All disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts in
Bangalore.

Trademarks: Tally, POWER OF SIMPLICITY are registered trademarks of Tally Solutions FZ-LLC.

Use of other names including product features is duly acknowledged and they continue to belong to their respective owners.

Version: MIS in Tally 9/1.0/August2008

 Contents
Introduction
Business Processes ....................................................................................................................................................1
Management Information System...........................................................................................................................2

Lesson 1: Advanced Accounting

1.1 Chart of Accounts .............................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Accounts Receivable/Payable ........................................................................................................................4
1.2.1 Groups and Sub-Ledger concept ................................................................................................................4
1.2.2 Receivables and Payables...........................................................................................................................6
1.2.3 Credit Control...........................................................................................................................................10
1.3 Interest Calculations .......................................................................................................................................11
1.3.1 Simple Mode .............................................................................................................................................12
1.3.2 Advance Mode ..........................................................................................................................................21
1.4 Cost Centres, Budgets & Scenarios .............................................................................................................23
1.4.1 Cost Centre ...............................................................................................................................................23
1.4.2 Cost Categories ........................................................................................................................................23
1.4.3 Budget .......................................................................................................................................................27
1.4.4 Scenario Management ..............................................................................................................................27
1.5 Bank Reconciliation .......................................................................................................................................31
1.6 Forex Management .........................................................................................................................................35
1.6.1 Creating Foreign Currency ......................................................................................................................35
1.6.2 Voucher entry in Foreign Currency .........................................................................................................36
1.6.3 Display books with/ in Foreign Currency ................................................................................................37
1.6.4 Adjusting Forex gain/ loss ........................................................................................................................39
1.6.5 ASCII values for Foreign Currencies .......................................................................................................42
1.7 Final Accounts ................................................................................................................................................42
1.7.1 Trial Balance ............................................................................................................................................42
1.7.2 Profit & Loss A/c ......................................................................................................................................43
1.7.3 Balance Sheet............................................................................................................................................45
1.8 Management Reports & Functionalities .....................................................................................................46
1.8.1 Ratio Analysis ...........................................................................................................................................46
1.8.2 Cash Flow.................................................................................................................................................48
1.8.3 Funds Flow ...............................................................................................................................................51
1.8.4 Exception Reports.....................................................................................................................................52
1.8.5 Filters to Reports ......................................................................................................................................56
1.8.6 Highest / Lowest / Average Balances .......................................................................................................59
1.8.7 Flexible Periods Accounting.....................................................................................................................60
1.8.8 Presentation Manager ..............................................................................................................................61
1.8.9 Percentage based Reporting .................................................................................................................62

i
 Contents

Lesson 2: Advanced Inventory

2.1 Classification of Stock Items ........................................................................................................................65
2.2 Reorder Level ..................................................................................................................................................66
2.2.1 Assigning Reorder Level...........................................................................................................................67
2.2.2 Reorder Status ..........................................................................................................................................69
2.3 Multiple Price Levels .....................................................................................................................................70
2.4 Reports..............................................................................................................................................................71
2.4.1 Stock Summary..........................................................................................................................................71
2.4.2 Movement Analysis ...................................................................................................................................76
2.4.3 Stock Ageing Analysis...............................................................................................................................78
2.4.4 Stock Query...............................................................................................................................................81

Lesson 3: Administration
3.1 Tally.ini - Tally Configuration File .............................................................................................................84
3.2 Consolidation...................................................................................................................................................86
3.3 Security .............................................................................................................................................................88
3.3.1 Security Control........................................................................................................................................88
3.3.2 Tally Audit ................................................................................................................................................94
3.3.3 Tally Vault ................................................................................................................................................99
3.4 Data Management .........................................................................................................................................102
3.4.1 Backup & Restore ...................................................................................................................................103
3.4.2 Export & Import of Data ........................................................................................................................105
3.4.3 ODBC ( Only for Microsoft -Windows)..................................................................................................110
3.4.4 SQL server within Tally ..........................................................................................................................117

Lesson 4: Data Synchronisation

4.1 Introduction to Tally Data Synchronization.............................................................................................119
4.1.1 System Requirements ..............................................................................................................................120
4.1.2 Precautions .............................................................................................................................................120
4.2 Data Synchronization using Tally.NET ....................................................................................................121
4.3 Synchronization — Private Network ........................................................................................................134
4.3.1 Configuring for Synchronization ............................................................................................................134
4.3.2 Procedure for Synchronization...............................................................................................................135
4.3.3 Security Issues ........................................................................................................................................140
4.3.4 Web page as a pass-through...................................................................................................................140
4.3.5 Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................................................140
4.4 Principle of ‘Synchronization in Tally’ ...................................................................................................142
4.5 Synchronizing back-dated vouchers ..........................................................................................................142

ii
Introduction

1.1 Business Processes

Business processes are a group of activities that a business undertakes in order to achieve its
goal. The business activities are day-to-day transactions like sending and receiving orders,
marketing products or services, and so on.
Typical business processes include purchase, manufacturing, sales, accounts, etc. These
business processes rarely operate in isolation; i.e., each of these business processes either
depends on or is interlinked with other business processes.

Figure 1.1 Flow diagram of Business Process

1
 Introduction

These processes have a common function but differ in their workflow across various kinds of busi-
nesses.
Business transactions or business activities fall in place depending on the operations of a
business. Keeping this in view, Tally has been designed as a business solution that can adapt to
the existing business processes rather than modify the processes to suit the dynamics of the
software.

Right at the beginning, while creating a Company in Tally, the option to maintain a Company as
‘Accounts only’ or ‘Accounts with Inventory’ proves the flexibility in implementing Tally.

On creating a Company, the process of configuring it in Tally can be done by either of the
following ways:
Get started with creating the accounting and inventory masters and input the opening bal-
ances.
Create accounts on the fly while recording transactions.

1.2 Management Information System

Tally packs enormous power to generate numerous reports for management information that
assists management in taking correct & timely decisions. This enables rapid growth and better
control of business. The primary concern for Management Information System of a business is to
ensure that the knowledge necessary to drive critical business processes is available at the right
place and time.
In this module, we highlight the salient features & capabilities to extract reports based on the data
entered in Tally. In the earlier modules, we discussed various reports that are generated for
Purchase, Sales and Manufacturing Process. In this module, we will discuss the remaining
reports in detail.
For the sake of convenience, we have classified it in different sections like Advanced Accounting,
Advanced Inventory and Administration & Housekeeping.

2
Lesson 1: Advanced Accounting

Lesson Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Classify account information using Chart of Accounts
Generate various reports for Receivables and Payables
Configure Tally for Interest Calculations
Create and manage Cost Centres, Cost Categories and Cost Centre Classes
Maintain Budgets & Scenarios
Generate Bank Reconciliation Statement
Create Foreign Currencies & adjust Forex gain/loss
Generate the Financial Statements & various MIS reports

3
 Chapter Title

Introduction
As a statutory requirement, all businesses maintain books of accounts, advance accounting activ-
ities like preparing chart of accounts, interest calculation, bank reconciliation, finalization of
accounts etc., form the important components of MIS.

1.1 Chart of Accounts

Tally follows Single Ledger concept of Accounting -all transactions are identified with the ledger
accounts.
Tally further provides Accounts Group to classify ledger information, to conform with mercantile
laws and provide meaningful reports. In fact, Accounts Group serves both the purpose of classify-
ing and identifying related ledger accounts according to their nature to present summarized infor-
mation. The Accounts Group determines whether the ledger is classified under Profit & Loss A/c
or Balance Sheet items.
In order to trap errors based on the groups, Tally filters the ledger accounts that would be
available at each point while creating the voucher. And displays ledgers ledgers permissible at
that point. For Example: In a Contra Voucher you can record transactions between Cash &
Bank accounts, hence, only the related ledgers will pop-up for selection.
Therefore in order to get desired reporting, the foremost task is to organize the Chart of
Accounts as per reporting requirement. Tally provides complete flexibility to organize Accounts
Ledgers and Groups in a versatile way without any limit on depth of nesting, number of Groups,
Sub Groups and Ledger Accounts that can be placed under any Group.

Tally creates 28 predefined Groups by default conforming with mercantile

accounting conventions. The naming conventions of any of these Groups
can be altered and further groups may be created as sub-Groups of
existing groups or at primary level as per requirements. For visual clarity,
Tally presents the Chart of accounts in a hierarchical tree like structure.

1.2 Accounts Receivable/Payable

1.2.1 Groups and Sub-Ledger concept

In vouchers, ledger accounts are directly transacted as there is no concept of Control-ledger and
sub-ledger in Tally.
An organisation may need to create hundreds of ledgers for Sundry Debtors, Creditors,
Employees etc. but that may clutter the Trial Balance or Group Summary when expanded to
the lowest level. Tally enables limiting this listing.

4
 Chapter Title

To limit listing of sub-items (i.e., to display only the group balance but not the underlying individual
ledger balances)

Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info > Groups > Create or Alter
1. Select the Group
2. Set the Group behaves like a sub-ledger option to Yes

Figure 1.1 Group Alteration screen

This function prevents the user from viewing details of the group while showing the report in a
detailed or exploded manner.
A control ledger can be simulated with the help of the Accounts Group. A sub-ledger can be seen
by viewing the Group Vouchers of the Account Group, which behaves like a sub-ledger.

Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Accounts Book > Group Vouchers
1. Select the Sub-Ledger from the List of Groups drop-down

The feature of viewing Group Vouchers is available for all accounts groups
regardless of whether the feature Group to behave like a sub-ledger is
enabled or not.

5
 Chapter Title

1.2.2 Receivables and Payables

Effective and efficient management of money leads to better deployment of funds and count in
success of every business. In most businesses, credit sales are common. Timely realization of
outstanding money from customer is an important function to ensure timely payment to creditors
and smooth operation of business.
Tally provides instant report of accounts outstanding. It also provides complete bill-wise informa-
tion of amounts receivable and payable. Tally can track bills, bill history, payments/receipts, and
advances on account payments and receipts.

Setup
1. In F11: Accounting Features
2. Set Maintain Bill-wise Details to Yes.
For bill-wise tracking of non-party ledgers (For Example: Loans / Advances to Employee)
3. Set Non Trading A/cs also to Yes.
In the Ledger Master
4. Set Maintain balances bill-by-bill to Yes.

In the voucher involving the party, enter bill-wise details like New Ref / Against Ref / Advance or
On Account, Bill Reference, Credit Days and Amount in the Bill-wise allocation screen.

To view the reports follow the steps listed below:

Reports
1. To list bill by bill outstanding (receivable) for all parties
Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Outstanding > Receivables

Bill Receivables screen is displayed as shown.

6
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.2 Bills Receivables Report

The list displays pending amount as well as the due date along with over due days.
To list bill by bill outstanding (payable) for all parties

Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Outstanding > Payable

1. Press Alt+F1 to display all vouchers related to the bills that are listed in subsequent
rows in a particulars column, , Press Enter to display voucher alteration screen.
2. Press F4 to toggle between Receivable and Payable.
3. To split the outstanding into different ageing slabs, press F6 and select either of these
options: Ageing by Due Date, Ageing by Bill Date

Figure 1.3 Ageing Methods screen

Then define the date periods, e.g., you may specify, 45, 90, 180 to get Age wise analysis for
<15, 15-30, 30-45, 45-90, 90-180, >180 days.

7
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.4 Company Ageing Alteration screen

Figure 1.5 Bills Outstanding Report

The user can press F12 and set the options to configure the display and content of the report.

Receivables of an Accounts Ledger

Receivables lists outstanding amount for all the parties. For individual party-wise outstanding,
follow the path:
Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Outstanding > Ledger
1. Select the Ledger, Global Traders

8
 Chapter Title

2. Press Alt+F1 to display associated vouchers for each outstanding Bill.

This report lists bill-by-bill display of all outstanding bills for the selected party along with the total
outstanding amount. On Account amount, if any, is shown below the outstanding particulars to
reconcile the ledger balance. The associated vouchers can be altered in case the references are
not as required.

Figure 1.6 Ledger Outstandings Report

Press F6 for age-wise break-up. To view outstanding for another party, press F4 and select the
ledger or just press + key to view the bill-wise details of the next ledger. Press F12 and set the
options to configure display and contents of the report.

Receivables for a Group

Typically, in an organization, Sundry Debtors would be classified under area, region, class etc. To
view outstanding for a particular group under Sundry Debtors or any sub-group, follow the steps:
Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Outstanding > Group
1. Select the Group, Sundry Debtors
2. Press Alt+F1 for detailed report .
All the ledgers belonging to the selected group along with outstanding amount will be listed. In
case, there exists any sub-group, name of the sub-group with total amount outstanding from the
parties under the group will appear.

9
 Chapter Title

Press F12 and set Expand all levels in Detailed Format to Yes and press Alt+F1 to list all
parties’ details.

Figure 1.7 Group Outstandings Report

Press F5 to view ledger-wise listing. To get age-wise break-up, press F6 and select ageing style
and define ageing slabs. Press F12 to configure the contents. To view the bill wise details of the
entire group select F7: Billwise.

1.2.3 Credit Control

In a business where goods or services are sold on credit, in order to curb potential bad debts and
possible blockage of funds or slow collection, the management may wish to set a limit on credit to
each party and ensure that credit exceeding the limit is not extended to the customer. Only the
authorized user can alter the Credit Limits.
Tally provides the option to set Credit Limit for each party, and during sales transaction entry, the
transaction crossing the credit limit, would be declined. To enable Credit Limit, the user has to
enable Maintain Budgets & Controls option in the F11: Company Features. Credit Limit has
been explained in the Sales process.

Payment Performance Analysis of Debtors

Credit is the backbone of every business. But if the payment is not made in time, it affects the
business adversely. In fact, it affects the complete cycle. Thus, it is important to analyze the col-
lections. If the debtor, who pays in time, is given some incentive (such as some discount, any

10
 Chapter Title

other benefit), it will result in increase of turnover, high return on investment and reduction of
working capital need.
In order to carry out such an analysis, select a debtor’s ledger from Display and set the period for
which the analysis must be done. Press F8 and select Ledger Payment Performance. The
following screen, which gives bill wise payment details and payment performance, will appear:

Figure 1.8 Ledger Payment Performance Report

1.3 Interest Calculations

Interest is the return on money invested or loans. It is a common business practice to charge
interest on delayed payments. Tally provides various methods of Interest computation which you
can configure as per your requirement and get Interest Computation statement on Overdue Bills,
Loan etc, also penal & variable interest rates. It also allows special periods like 30 day month etc,
to meet traditional interest computations.

Setup
1. In F11: Features, Set Activate Interest Calculations to Yes
2. Use Advanced Parameters to Yes.
For advanced features of interest calculation (For Example: penal interest rate etc).

Under F12: Configure, in Ledger creation/alteration screen,

1. Set Allow Advanced entries in Masters (under Accounts Master heading) to Yes.
Under F12: Configure, for the ledgers for which Interest should be computed,

11
 Chapter Title

2. Set Activate Interest Calculation to Yes.

Many organizations need to compute Interest receivable or payable. Normally interest is
computed for ledgers under Sundry Debtors, Sundry Creditors, Unsecured Loans, Secured
Loans, Bank OD A/c, Loans (Liability), Loans & Advances (Assets).

Interest may be computed in either of the two methods:

On Outstanding Balance Amounts: In this method, interest is calculated on outstanding
balance, normally suitable for Loan Accounts where interest is computed on running balances of
the account.
On Outstanding Bills/ Invoices/ Transactions: This is applicable for ledgers for which Bill by Bill
option has been set to Yes e.g. Sundry Debtors or Creditors.
1.3.1 Simple Mode
On Outstanding Balance Amounts
Step 1: Altering the Ledger
Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info > Ledgers > Alter
1. Select Solomon & Company from the List of Ledgers
2. Set Activate Interest Calculation to Yes

Figure 1.9 Ledger Alteration screen

3. Set Calculate Interest Transaction by Transaction to No

4. Type 24 in Rate

12
 Chapter Title

5. Select the option Calendar Year in per

6. Select the option Debit Balances Only in on

Figure 1.10 Interest Parameters screen

7. Press Ctrl+A twice to Accept

To see the Ledger Interest

Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Interest Calculations > Ledger
Select Solomon & Company from List of Ledgers

13
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.11 Ledger Interest screen

Only one Ledger is shown in the list of ledgers, as only that ledger is
enabled for Interest Calculations.

Accounting for Interest Due & Accrued

The example above shows that interest is being calculated but these have not been brought into
books. They only give you the interest implications. Tally enables booking the interest implications
through Voucher Classes in Debit Notes & Credit Notes.

14
 Chapter Title

Interest can be calculated on Simple or Compound basis and separate

classes should be used for them.

To create Voucher Class in Debit Note

Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info > Voucher Types > Alter
1. Select Debit Note from the List of Voucher Types
2. Type Simple Interest in the Name of Class field

Figure 1.12 Voucher Type Alteration screen

3. Set Use Class for Interest Accounting to Yes and Amounts to be treated as Com-
pound Interest to No

15
 Chapter Title

The Voucher Type Class screen is displayed as shown

Figure 1.13 Voucher Type Alteration screen - Simple Interest

4. Type Compound Interest in Name of Class field to create another class

5. Set Use Class for Interest Accounting and Amounts to be treated as Compound
Interest to Yes

Voucher Type Alteration screen is displayed as shown

16
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.14 Voucher Type Alteration screen - Debit Note

Similarly, create Simple Interest and Compound Interest Voucher Class in Credit Note
To account for Interest Accrued as well as Interest Due create the following ledgers
Interest Accrued under Indirect Income
Interest Receivable under Current Assets
Interest Due under Indirect Expenses
Interest Payable under Current Liabilities

Example
On 31.01.2009, a debit note is raised on Solomon & Compnay for Rs.6542.67, the interest due
upto Jan 09.

Create Debit Note

1. Select Accounting Vouchers
2. Press Ctrl+F9 for Debit Note
3. Select Simple Interest as class in the Voucher Class field
4. Press F2 and change date to 31-01-09

In Particulars, Solomon & Company appears automatically in the By field due to voucher class
selected.

17
 Chapter Title

5. Type 6542.67 in Debit

6. In Bill-Wise Details screen, select New Ref and type Interest Upto Sept 06
7. In the Accounting Voucher Creation screen, select Interest Accrued in the To field
8. Type Interest Charged upto Jan 09 in Narration

Debit Note Voucher Creation screen is displayed as shown

Figure 1.15 Debit Note Voucher Creation

9. Press Enter to Accept

When the ledger of Solomon & Company is viewed the ledger balance
would increase by the interest amount debited.

Now if you wish to charge simple interest then the interest amount should be nullified and the
interest amount transferred to Interest Receivable ledger account. This ledger account can be

18
 Chapter Title

enabled for Bill wise tracking of interest receivable. Under F11: Features, set Billwise details for
Non-Trading a/cs to Yes.

Create a Journal
1. Select Accounting Vouchers
2. Press F7 for Journal
3. Press F2 and change date to 31-01-09
4. Select Interest Receivable in the By field
5. Type 6542.67 in Debit
6. In Bill-Wise Details screen, select New Ref and type Solomon & Company - Jan 09
7. In the Accounting Voucher Creation screen, select Solomon & Company in To
field
8. In Bill-Wise Details screen, select Agst Ref and Interest Upto Jan 09
9. Type Interest Receivable from Solomon & Company transferred in Narration

Figure 1.16 Journal Voucher Creation

10. Press Enter to Accept

19
 Chapter Title

Since interest has to be booked manually, care should be taken to book

it regularly for the desired period.
Simple interest requires special treatment by way of an additional entry.
In the entry using interest class, you must use the account for which
interest is enabled because that brings up the calculated interest
amount. Using another account like Interest Receivable will not bring up
the amount and you would have to remember the figures from the inter-
est statement to journalise them.
The Interest Calculation module is discussed in detail in Tally Graduate
course material as well as in the online help of Tally.

On Outstanding Bills/ Invoices/ Transactions

For ledgers where Maintain Bill by Bill and Activate Interest Calculation is set to Yes, set
Calculate Interest Transaction -by- Transaction to No

Interest Parameters screen is displayed as shown

Figure 1.17 Interest Parameters screen

20
 Chapter Title

Calculate Interest Transaction-by-Transaction: To get separate calcula-

tion for each transaction, set this to Yes, else Interest computation will be
similar to Outstanding Balance Amounts.
Override Parameters for each transactions: To enter different Interest
rate for each transaction, set this to Yes. During Voucher entry, you would
be prompted to input the rate of applicable interest for each transaction.

To View Ledger interest report

Go to Gateway of Tally>Display>Statement of Accounts>Interest Calculations>Ledgers
1. Select Global Traders
Interest Calculation screen is displayed as shown

Figure 1.18 Global Traders - Interest Calculation screen

1.3.2 Advance Mode

The Advance Mode offers more options for Interest Calculation, Advanced Parameters -
Interest Calculations on outstanding balances. The Interest Parameters are as follows:

On Balances: Select the balances on which interest should be calculated, (a) All balances b)
debit balances only or (c) credit balances only.

21
 Chapter Title

Applicable from: Enter the date from which the rate is applicable to a specific date. This enables
different rates applicable for different periods.

Rounding Off: If the amount is to be rounded off, select the rounding methods from three
available options, namely, Downward Rounding, Normal Rounding, Upward Rounding. In
case rounding off is not required select Not Applicable.
Enter the Rounding off limit, for example: 0.50, 0.10, 0.01, 1.00 in the field provided.

Thus in Advanced mode, you can specify whether the interest to be computed on all or particular
balances, specify varying interest rates for different periods with specified rounding methods and
limits, particularly useful for accounts where rate varies from period to period.
Advanced Parameters -Interest Calculations on Outstanding Bills/ Invoices/ Transactions.
You get Interest Parameters screen as shown below.

Figure 1.19 Advanced Interest Parameters screen

Calculate Interest Transaction-by-Transaction: Set Yes to get interest computation bill-by-bill.

Override Parameters for each Transaction: To input different rates of interest for each transac-
tion during voucher entry, set to Yes. During voucher entry you would be asked to enter Interest
rate and periodicity for the transaction.

Override advanced parameters: To override advanced parameters set in ledger during voucher
entry, set Yes. This will cause an additional option Date Specified During Entry in Interest Appl
From pop-up at Calculate From prompt to enable entering Date during voucher entry.

On Balances: Select from options available in Interest Balances pop-up (a) All balances (b)
Credit Balances Only (c) Debit Balances Only

22
 Chapter Title

Applicability: Select from the options (a) Always (b) Past Due Date

For the option Past Due Date, enter the number of days in the By field
Calculate From: Select the option from Interest Appl From pop-up consisting of the following
options:
Date of Applicability: Due Date of Invoice/Ref.
Date specified during Entry.
Due Date and Invoice Reference
EPF-Date of TRansaction
The next field consists of the following options:
Effective Date of Transaction: Date specified during Entry (appears if Override
Advanced Parameters is set to Yes, if set to No – this option does not appear)
Rounding: If the amount is to be rounded off select the rounding methods from three avail-
able options, namely, Downward Rounding, Normal Rounding, Upward Rounding. In
case rounding off is not required select Not Applicable.

1.4 Cost Centres, Budgets & Scenarios

1.4.1 Cost Centre
A business, for achieving optimum cost-effectiveness, assigns its controllable costs to cost
centres. Any unit of the organization to which costs can be allocated is a Cost Centre. For
Example: Branches, Departments, Projects, Products, Persons and so on.
Tally enables a business to allocate transactions to Cost Centres. For example, besides the
ledger-wise accounting allocation, a transaction may be allocated amongst different Branches.
Tally allows to compare one Cost Centre with another, hence provides information regarding the
performance of each Cost / Profit Centre.

Examples of Department-wise Cost Centres have been illustrated in

Purchase Process.

1.4.2 Cost Categories

Cost Category is a cluster of related cost centres. Cost Categories allows parallel allocation of the
same transaction in multiple dimensions. In many cases, a single transaction may have to be
allocated to more than one type of Cost Centre. Cost Categories enable allocating costs to
parallel sets of Cost Centres i.e. the same amount can be allocated to more than one cost centre.

23
 Chapter Title

Examples of Department-wise as well as Salesman-wise cost allocations

have been illustrated in Sales Process.

Reports
Category Summary: This report displays the summary of all the cost centres under a cost
category.
Cost Centre Break-up: This report displays Ledger and Group summary information for the
selected cost centre.
Ledger Break-up: This report displays the summary information of all Cost Centres for the
selected Ledger.
Group Break-up: This report displays the summary information of all Cost Centres for the
selected Group.

Cost Centre Classes

Cost Centre Classes are used to automate Cost Centre allocations in transactions. You can use
cost centre classes if you do not wish to manually allocate amounts to cost centres in each entry.

Select the Cost Centre Class as required on the voucher screen before mak-
ing the voucher entry. You can also use cost centre classes along with
Voucher Classes.

Example
In Acme Corporation, the management has decided to make separate bills for each of the sales-
persons Suhas, John and Vinod so that for each sales invoice entered, the cost centre allocations
are allocated to only one sales person to avoid any errors in the data entry while allocating the
cost centres.

Step 1: Create Cost Centre

24
 Chapter Title

Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info > Cost Centres > Create
2. Type Steve in the Name field
3. Select Primary in Under

Figure 1.20 Cost Centre Creation screen

4. Press Enter to Accept

Similarly, create cost centres John and Vinod.

Step 2: Define Cost Centre Classes

1. In F11: Accounting Features, set Use Pre-defined Cost Centre Allocations dur-
ing Entry to Yes

Figure 1.21 Advanced Company Operations screen

2. Press Enter

25
 Chapter Title

3. Type Steve in Class Name

4. Select Primary Cost Category from List of categories
5. Select Steve from List of Cost Centres
6. Repeat the steps to create more Class Names

Figure 1.22 Auto Cost Allocations screen

To view Cost Centre Summary

Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Accounts > Cost Centers > Category
Summary

Figure 1.23 Cost Category Summary screen

26
 Chapter Title

1.4.3 Budget
Budget is a detailed plan of income and expenses expected over a certain period of time. A
budget can provide guidelines for managing future investments and expenses. Every Business
has its objectives and goals and must have an efficient mechanism to set its targets and appraisal
of achievements in respect of the target.
To achieve the important managerial controls, Tally provides the flexible system of Budgets for
Group, Ledger or Cost Centres. Tally allows creating multiple Budgets for different purposes. For
Example: Sales budget, Expenses budget, etc. You can compare the actual performance with
budge created and also get variance report to ensure corrective measures, if required.

Example of Budgets has been shown in Purchase process and Sales

process

1.4.4 Scenario Management

A scenario can be understood as an imagined sequence of events. That is, if some action is
carried out, we can envisage or imagine the scenario (or result) of doing it.
Tally’s Scenario Management is an effective management tool that enables different views of your
information without actually putting the entries through the main books. The actual as well as
projected figures of accounts related information – can be viewed – by selectively including
certain types of vouchers without affecting the books of accounts.
The scenarios created can depict only financial effects and not inventory related effects.
In a business, there may be occasions when you may need reports on different hypotheses. For
example, to substantiate your ability to repay loan in time, the Bankers may insist for Projected
Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss A/c for the rest of the financial year. Tally allows creating different
scenarios and getting What-if reports on this basis.

Tally permits to optionally include Memorandum vouchers, Reversing

Journal Vouchers and optional voucher for any individual voucher type.
This provides the ability to manipulate information, create different
situation and view what-if scenarios. Mid-period Final Accounts can also
be created by a scenario, where you should include Reversing Journal
vouchers.

27
 Chapter Title

Few possible applications of Scenarios:

1. Projected Final Accounts: Enter the estimated figures in Journal vouchers and mark them as
Optional (press Ctrl+L). Create a scenario Projected FA where Optional Journal vouchers
are included. Now, if you generate Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss account, the Projected
Report is displayed as a new column.
2. Sales Forecast: You may enter anticipated Sales in SalesVoucher (e.g., one for each month
and mark the voucher as Optional to exclude from actual books of accounts). Create a sce-
nario Sales Forecast and include Optional Sales Voucher but exclude Actuals. You may com-
pare the Scenario against actual Sales later.
3. Half-Yearly Accounts: All the provisions like Depreciation, Liabilities for Expenses,
Income accrued not accounted for, may be entered in Reversing Journal and in a Scenario H/
Yly Accounts ReversingJournal Vouchers may be included (besides the Actuals) to obtain
Final Accounts including transactions entered in Reverse Journal vouchers.

Scenarios can be used as a management tool to obtain different views of information for accounts
as well as inventory, by selectively including provisional vouchers without affecting the base data,
since Memorandum Vouchers, Reversing Journals and any Voucher marked as Optional are not
posted in the actual books of accounts but stored in separate registers (may be accessed through
Exception Register under Display menu). Later any of these vouchers can be converted into
regular vouchers and included in the main books of accounts.

To create Scenarios
Setup:
In F11: Accounting Features, set Use Reversing Journals & Optional Vouchers to Yes
Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info. > Scenario > Create
1. Type Name for the scenario (For Example: H/Y Accounts)
2. Set Include Actuals to Yes
3. Set EXCLUDE Inventory Tracking Calculation to Yes
4. Select Reversing Journal in the Include
5. Select End of List in the Exclude column

28
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.24 Scenario Creation screen

Reversing Journal
For half-yearly accounts, the proportionate amount of depreciation, Interest payables, out-
standing expenses etc., should be taken into account. Similarly accrued income, interest
receivable etc should also be considered. Normally at year end, for closing of books, these
entries are made and it’s not a common practice to enter such transactions every quarter or half-
yearly and then pass contra entry the next day.
Reverse Journal dispenses with the need of entering transaction and reverse it the next day as it
is specially designed and treated differently from other vouchers.

Let us enter a Reversing Journal for 6 months depreciation as under:

Voucher Date Amount Applicable Upto Narration

31-1-2009 20000 31-1-2009 Depreciation for first 6 months of FY 2008-09

To Create Reversing Journal

1. Select Accounting Vouchers

29
 Chapter Title

2. Press F10 for Reversing Journal

3. Press F2 and change date to 30/1/2009
4. Under Particular, select Depreciation for By
5. Type 20000 as Amount
6. Select Car for To
7. Type 30/1/2009 in Applicable Upto

In the ApplicableUptofield, enter the date till which the voucher would be
included in scenario report. The voucher will be considered in reports till
the ApplicableUptodate but not in reports extending beyond the date.

Reversing Journal screen is displayed as shown

Figure 1.25 Reversing Journal Creation

8. Press Enter to Accept

30
 Chapter Title

Scenario Reports
On creation of scenario, you can get report using the scenario. You can use Scenarios in most
statements (but not for registers) where you get an option to create a NewColumn. At Type of
Value to Show prompt, you will get list of scenarios (in addition to the Budgets). We show a report
using the Bi-monthly Accounts Scenario created by us.

Go to Gateway of Tally > Balance Sheet

1. Press Alt+C for New Column
2. Type the date From & To
3. Select H/Y Accounts for Types of Value to show
4. Set Show Variance to No

Figure 1.26 Balance Sheet Actuals Vs Scenario

1.5 Bank Reconciliation

Bank Reconciliation is the process of systematically comparing the balance as reported by the
bank with the balance on the company’s books and explaining any differences. It is a report
showing the name of each account, the balance as per the bank statement for each account plus
the outstanding deposits for each account (not credited by the bank) less the outstanding cheques
for each account (all cheques expended which have not yet been debited to the account per bank
statement).

31
 Chapter Title

All businesses account for cheque payments and collections on the day it is issued or sent for col-
lection. The cheque however may not be processed on the same day. As a result, a company’s
bank book balance does not tally with the Bank statement balance. To reconcile this, a business
tracks causes the difference between these balances.
Tally handles this by tracking bank dates – date on which a Bank Book voucher gets reflected in
the Bank Statement by using reconcile option in the bank book, available bank dates can be set
against corresponding vouchers.

Bank date can be set for a voucher and not for its components. So
clubbing two or more cheques in a single payment voucher is not advisa-
ble. Receipt vouchers may have one or more instruments, if they are sent
for collection by single pay-in-challan and banker has the practice of
reflecting it as a whole.

After entering and accepting bank dates, Bank Reconciliation Statement can be availed with
reconcile option. Items not reflected in the Bank Statement and reflected subsequent to the stipu-
lated period will be listed out as causes of difference.
Normally cheques issued but not encashed and cheques sent for collection but not collected
during the stipulated period are listed as causes of difference. After taking them into account, the
company’s bank book balance gets reconciled with the Bank statement balance.
Charges made directly by bankers have to be incorporated in the books of accounts. Service
charges, Periodical interests, Folio charges and Cheque book charges are some of the
examples. These can be entered either through payment voucher or through journal voucher.
(F12 Config - Enable Cash ledgers in journal).
Bank dates already entered can be corrected or viewed by configuring the bank ledger to get rec-
onciled vouchers also. This setting will arrange bank book vouchers in ascending order of their
bank dates. With this order, bank vouchers can easily cross-checked with the bank statement.
Bank Reconciliation option can also be initiated from any part of the books of accounts. Setting a
date in Effective date for reconciliation field in the bank ledger alteration, will give this flexibility.

Bank reconciliation can be prepared for a ledger placed under Account

Group Bank Accounts or Bank OD / OCC A/c only.

32
 Chapter Title

Example
Reconciliation for April month’s National bank book can be done as follows with the help of
following bank statement:

National Statement Period 1.4.2008 to 30.4.2008

Bank
A/c : Acme Corporation
Date Particulars Deposits Withdrawals Balance
1.4.2008 Opening Balance 0 Cr
20.4.2008 Ch. 9821250 8000 8000 Cr
22.4.2008 Ch. 4563219 Next Gen 4500 12500 Cr
30.4.2008 Clg: 126789 49920 37420 Dr
Total 49920 12500 37420 Dr

Steps to view Bank Reconciliation of National Bank

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Accounts Books > Ledger
2. Select National Bank from List of Ledgers
3. Press F5 for Reconciliation

To view Narration press F12 and set Format to Detailed, Show Narration also to Yes

33
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.27 Bank Reconciliation Statement

The above screen explains tracking of bank dates.

4. Press Ctrl+A to accept the Screen

Shown below is the reconciliation statement for the month of April 08 and the balance gets recon-
ciled with the bank statement.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Accounts Books > Ledger
2. Select National Bank from List of Ledgers
3. Press F5 for Reconciliation

34
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.28 Reconciled Bank Book

1.6 Forex Management

Due to globalization, business Organizations from different nations deal with one another and
thus, in multiple currencies. However, they are liable to maintain their books of accounts in the
home currency. This leads to conversion of foreign currencies into home currency, which requires
maintenance of exchange rates . In such a scenario, you may be concerned about the calculation
of gain/loss due to exchange fluctuations.
Tally gives a simple solution for this complicated procedure. The first step is to create the currency
masters. Once the currencies are created, you may enter the exchange rates or directly enter
vouchers in foreign currency along with exchange rate. Tally automatically calculates Forex Gain/
Loss. Tally provides the user with the flexibility of entering/altering exchange rate and re-calculate
gain/loss due to the change.

1.6.1 Creating Foreign Currency

To enable the user to create foreign currencies, Tally provides a option in F11: Features. Press
F11 and set Allow Multi-Currency to Yes.

To create a new currency, follow the steps:

Go to Gateway of Tally > Accounts Info. > Currencies > Create

35
 Chapter Title

You will be required to enter the symbol, formal name, number of decimal places in the creation
screen.
For Example, to treat exports to the US, a currency has to be created with $ as its symbol and US
Dollar as its formal name (you can also enter the letters USD instead of the symbol).
Formal name will help you to specify/recognize a particular currency. By looking at $, one can
assume it as Australian dollar or Singaporean dollar. Here, the formal name plays an important
role in identifying the currency.
Number of decimal places may vary from one currency to another. Normally, 2 (two) is accepted
in the number of decimal places.

It may be 3 (three) for some currencies like Dinar and 0 (zero) for Vietnam-
ese Dong.

Show amounts in Millions is an option that can be set to Yes or No depending upon the nature
of the currency.

The currency creation screen is shown below:

Figure 1.29 Currency Creation screen

1.6.2 Voucher entry in Foreign Currency

Once the currency is created, you can make voucher entries with amounts specified in that
currency. In order to create an amount entry in foreign currency, prefix the amount with symbol of
that foreign currency. When you accept such an amount, Tally will prompt for the rate of exchange

36
 Chapter Title

of that currency with respect to the home/base currency. With rate of exchange as input, amount
is automatically converted into base currency. The rate of exchange is stored in the data reposi-
tory, which can be altered any time in future.

Rates can be obtained from bankers or from print / visual / electronic

media.

The Accounting Voucher creation screen (prompting for rate of exchange) is shown below:

Figure 1.30 Forex Rate of Exchange screen

1.6.3 Display books with/ in Foreign Currency

Normally, the books of account and the reports are displayed in base currency. However, Tally
gives you the flexibility of displaying forex details as additional information.
In order to view the forex details in the reports, press F12 in Day Book and set Show Forex
Transactions to Yes.

37
 Chapter Title

The F12 configuration screen is shown below:

Figure 1.31 F12: Configuration screen

After enabling the option in F12, the Day Book appears as shown below:

Figure 1.32 Day Book

38
 Chapter Title

1.6.4 Adjusting Forex gain/ loss

The organisations that deal in multiple currencies are interested in knowing the forex gain/loss. Its
analysis gives an insight into the deal i.e. whether it is fruitful or not. Tally makes the calculation of
forex gain/loss simple.
In order to adjust it, follow the steps:
Create a voucher class Forex under journal voucher type.

Figure 1.33 Voucher Type Class screen

Create a ledger Forex Gain/Loss under indirect expenses or incomes (based on the past trend or
future projections).

39
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.34 Forex Gain/Loss Ledger Creation screen

To Create a Forex class journal voucher

Forex class journal voucher is created to adjust forex gain/loss. The steps are given below:
1. Press V to select Accounting Vouchers
2. Press F7 to create a journal
3. Select Forex in class
4. Press F2 to change the date
5. Select the concerned ledger (Naveen Traders, in this case) in particulars field
6. Select the appropriate bill from the List of pending bills
7. Forex gain/loss is automatically calculated and placed in the amount field

The completed forex class journal voucher is shown below:

40
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.35 Forex Gain/Loss adjustment Journal

Once the Forex gain/loss has been adjusted or accounted for, it is shown in the Profit/Loss
account. If it is not adjusted, then the amount appears in the Balance Sheet.

Figure 1.36 Profit & Loss A/c showing Forex Loss written off

41
 Chapter Title

1.6.5 ASCII values for Foreign Currencies

There are certain symbols that are not found on the keyboard. The ASCII values of some of those
symbols are given below:

Currency Symbol Formal Name ASCII Value

¢ Cent Alt + 155
£ Pound Alt + 156
¥ Yen Alt + 157
ƒ Franc Alt + 158
€ Euro Alt + 0128

To get the currency symbol in Tally, keep the ALT key pressed and type the
numbers from the numeric pad with the Num Lock on.
For all the other currencies, initials can be used to create the currency sym-
bol e.g. DM for Deutsche Mark (German Currency).

1.7 Final Accounts

The three financial accounting reports Trial Balance, Profit & Loss A/c and Balance Sheet are
collectively known as Final Accounts. Trial Balance sums up the book of accounts. Profit &
Loss a/c and Balance Sheets are derived from Trial balance.

1.7.1 Trial Balance

Tally shows group wise Trial Balance. Next level detail for a group can be exploded by pressing
Shift+Enter. Details of all groups can also be obtained through configuration except for groups
behaving like sub-ledgers.
A Trial Balance can be shown with opening balance, transactions and closing balance or for any
one of these. Choosing transactions will give further liberty to restrict Net transaction (Net of Dr
and Cr). Net transactions will be useful while viewing group summary for Expenditure groups /
Income Groups. Proceeds from train ticket cancellation may also be credited in travelling
expenses itself. In such a case, Net transaction will show Debit side total after adjusting the
credits.
Trial Balance can also be shown ledger wise. Sorting ledgers in ascending or descending order
based on their names or amounts is also possible
To view trial balance
Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Trial Balance

42
 Chapter Title

1. Press Alt+F1 for detailed format

Figure 1.37 Trial Balance

If there is a difference in opening balance, an additional line will be inserted

at the end of the Trial Balance.

1.7.2 Profit & Loss A/c

Profit and Loss account provides the details of all accounts along with the Net Credit & Debit
profit/loss during a period.
Profit & Loss can be viewed horizontally as well as vertically. By default, it is in Horizontal Mode.

To view Profit & Loss A/c in Vertical mode

1. Press F12 and set Show Vertical Profit & Loss to Yes

43
 Chapter Title

To view trial balance

Go to Gateway of Tally > Profit & Loss A/c
1. Press Alt+F1 for detailed format

Figure 1.38 Profit & Loss A/c

To view Profit & Loss without percentage & gross profit. Press F12 and
set Show percentages and Show with gross profit to No. Normally
non-trading concerns / service providers require Profit & Loss without
gross profit.
To view Profit & Loss in different valuation methods, such as FIFO,
LIFO, Avg .Cost, Avg Price, Std. Cost, Std. Price, etc. Press F7 and
select any of the Valuation Method from the list.
You can toggle between Income / Expenditure Statement & Profit &
Loss A/c by pressing F11 feature and set Income/Expense Stmt
instead of P & L to Yes & No respectively. This will be useful for non-
profit organizations such as Trusts, Educational Institutions, NGOs, and
Hospitals etc.

44
 Chapter Title

1.7.3 Balance Sheet

Balance Sheet is an itemized financial statement that lists a Company’s total assets, liabilities,
and capital at a given time. Generally, amounts shown on a balance sheet are the historic cost of
items and not their current values.
To view balance Sheet in Vertical mode press F12 and set Show Vertical Balance Sheet to Yes
Balance Sheet also adapts horizontal format by default. Vertical format, percentages, stock
valuation methods are some of the options available to configure Balance Sheet.
Balance Sheet can be set to show working capital. Working capital is the difference between
current assets and current liabilities.
All these three have the choice to display ledger’s names or alias names or both. Though Tally is
a codeless accounting software, it has the flexibility to have codes for ledgers. This is to cater to
the users who get migrated from codified accounts to Tally. Alias Name is the option to enter
codes.
Figures of these three reports (Trial Balance, Profit & Loss a/c & Balance Sheet) can also be
converted into required scale factor i.e. rupees in tens, thousands, lakhs and so on. By using new
number in scale factor, the figures can be converted into a multiplication or division factor. For
example, if the new number is set as 47.5, then the figures will be divided by 47.5. Figures will get
multiplied by 0.475, if new number is 0.475.

To view Balance Sheet

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Balance Sheet
2. Press Alt+F1 for detailed format

Figure 1.39 Balance Sheet

45
 Chapter Title

To change the method of showing balance Sheet press F12 and set
Method of Showing Balance Sheet to either Assets/Liabilities or
Liabilities/Assets.
To view Balance Sheet with working capital. Press F12 and set Show
Working Capital figures to Yes.
You can view different valuation methods like (FIFO, LIFO, average.
Cost, Avg Price, Std. Cost, Std. Price , etc) in the same way as Profit
& Loss A/c

1.8 Management Reports & Functionalities

1.8.1 Ratio Analysis
Ratio, in general terminology, is referred to as a quantitative relation between two numerical
values. Ratio Analysis is a way of expressing relationships between a firm’s financial numbers.
Ratios are most commonly used to analyze the financial and operational characteristics of a
company. Ratios give managers a tool to conduct comparison and trend analysis
Ratios are used to effectively monitor and plan the following
Overall financial health of the business
Liquidity position
Receivables collection
Payables rescheduling
Level of exposure to external borrowings
Prospective investment levels
Managerial decision making process
At centre (unit/division) level, ratios are one of the best tools to identify
And compare centre wise profitability
Centres that require attention in terms of additional investment, cost reduction, human
resources etc.
The most and least preferred customers based on their performance
Ratios are effective management decision making tools. The following are some of the manage-
ment decision making areas, where ratios are used
expansion of business
diversification
raising additional working capital
additional investment etc.

46
 Chapter Title

To view Ratio Analysis

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Ratio Analysis

Figure 1.40 Ratio Analysis Report

47
 Chapter Title

The following ratios can be viewed in Tally

i. Current Ratio - (Current Assets: Current Liabilities): which indicates the
solvency position of the enterprise. The ideal ratio is 2 under normal busi-
ness conditions.
ii. Quick Ratio - (Current Assets – Stock in Hand : Current Liabilities):
which indicates the liquidity position of the enterprise. This ratio is useful in
planning future cash requirements
iii. Debt Equity Ratio - (Loans (Liabilities) : Capital + Net Profit): which indi-
cates the level of exposure to external borrowings and is a useful tool in
determining the options of raising additional capital internally or externally.
iv. Gross profit % – Gross Profit / total Turnover – indicates the percentage
of profit earned from direct operations (manufacturing)., This ratio is useful,
where an enterprise produces more than one product, in identifying the
order of profitability and making decisions such as increasing production
capacity, continuance of a product etc.
v. Net Profit % -Net Profit/ Total Turnover – indicates the percentage of net
profit earned by the enterprise after considering all expenses of the enter-
prise. This is useful in identifying the overall profitability of the enterprise.
vi. Operating Cost – is referred to as the percentage of operating cost with
respect to the total turnover – This ratio is useful in making decisions in the
areas of cost control, cost reduction etc.
vii. Receivables Turnover –is an analysis of debtor wise payment perform-
ance and a useful tool in identifying the most preferred and least preferred
customers or agents and planning the receivables collection process.
viii. Return on Investment –is referred to as a percentage of net profit / capi-
tal + net profit. This is a useful tool in measuring returns expected of the
project/product and plan additional capital infusion, increase in production
capacity (subject to market demand) etc.
ix. Return on working capital – is referred to as the percentage of net profit
to working capital (current assets – current liabilities).
x. Working capital turnover ratio – indicates how effectively working capital
is used in terms of turnover it can help to generate. It is a useful tool in iden-
tifying the level of deployment of funds with respect to sales.
xi. Inventory turnover ratio –turnover / inventory – indicates the relation-
ship of inventory with respect to sales. This is a useful tool in identifying the
extent of investment in stock and indicates
Stock control measures whether to be taken in case of change in
demand
Procurement planning

1.8.2 Cash Flow

A Cash Flow is a measure of a business’s financial health. It is defined as cash receipts minus
cash payments over a given period of time.
Through Tally, a business can analyze the following:

48
 Chapter Title

Periodic cash flows

Group & Ledger wise cash flows
Periodic cash flow statements can be used by a business to effectively analyse and plan
The current pattern of cash flow under various heads
The timing and certainty of its future cash flows
The availability of excess funds-the extent and tenor of such availability for short term
investment.
Group & Ledger wise cash flow statements can be used to
Identify major heads, which require constant monitoring.
Analyze the pattern of inflow/outflow under a particular group/ account head for planning
overall cash requirement.
Cash flow statements can also be used as receipts and payments statement. This is particularly
useful for businesses such as Non Profit Organizations where receipts and payments statements
need to be generated.

To view Cash Flow Summary

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Cash/Fund Flow > Cash Flow

Figure 1.41 Cash Flow Statement

49
 Chapter Title

To view Monthly/Quarterly cash flow statement press Alt+F5 Further Dis-

play can be configured through F12 Configuration
i. Appearance of names: alias / names, alias only, name/ alias, name
only
ii. Scale factor for values: crores, ten millions, millions, ten lakhs,
lakhs, ten thousands, thousands, hundred
iii. Periodicity to use: 4 week month, daily, fortnightly, half yearly,
monthly, quarterly, weekly and yearly
iv. Show average details: selecting yes option will display the average
of the selected period’s cash inflow and outflow at the end of the
statement.
v. Show with Graph: selecting yes option will display the graph in
terms of period selected.

To view detailed Detailed/Condensed Press Alt+F1

Figure 1.42 Cash Flow Summary

To view Daily flow / Break up Press F4

50
 Chapter Title

1.8.3 Funds Flow

The Funds Flow depicts the Working Capital analysis of the company. It gives details of the
movement of funds in a business, i.e. source of funds and their application. Working Capital is the
net difference between Current Assets & Current Liabilities
Fund flow statements are useful tools to analyze
The changes in the net assets
Its financial structure
Its solvency and liquidity
Its operating performance
Areas that require immediate attention
Periodic fund flows
Group wise and ledger wise fund flows

Display of sources and application separately for each group enables a business to identify core
areas that require immediate attention and take effective steps to address the issues.
To view Funds Flow Summary
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Cash/Fund Flow > Fund Flow

Figure 1.43 Funds Flow Statement

2. Press Enter to get Funds flow Summary for the month

51
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.44 Funds Flow Summary

1.8.4 Exception Reports

To view Negative Stock
This report lists Stock Items for which the closing balance has turned negative.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Negative Stock
2. Press Alt+F2 and type (From: 1/5/2006 and in To: 31/5/2006)

52
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.45 Negative Stock Report

To view Negative Ledger

This report lists ledger accounts having reverse balances than less balances than what they are
deemed to be possessing. For example, normally Asset or Expenses Type ledgers should have
debit balance. All such ledgers, which are deemed to have debit / credit balances but are having
credit / debit balances respectively (the reverse) are listed in this report.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Negative Ledgers

53
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.46 Negative Ledger Report

To view Memorandum Vouchers

This brings month wise summary of Memorandum Vouchers showing numbers of Vouchers in
each month.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Memorandum Vouchers
2. Select August Month Press Enter

Figure 1.47 Memorandum Vouchers

To View Reversing Journals

This report displays monthly summary of Reversing Journal vouchers showing numbers of
vouchers in each month.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Reversing Journals
2. Select September Month and press Enter.

54
 Chapter Title

Figure 1.48 Reversing Journal Vouchers

To view Optional Vouchers

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Optional Vouchers

Figure 1.49 Optional Vouchers

To make optional voucher in to regular voucher select the voucher by press-

ing Enter and then press Ctrl+L.

To view Post Dated Vouchers

To create a Post dated voucher
Voucher Date Activity
Sales 20-1-09 (later than Create a voucher on a date later
the current date) than the current date and click
the button Post-Dated on the
button bar.

55
 Chapter Title

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Exception Reports > Post Dated Vouchers

Figure 1.50 Post Dated Vouchers

1.8.5 Filters to Reports

Tally retrieves numerous reports with varying contents & formats offering flexible configuration
options. However, at times, a business may look for filtered Reports as per its specified condition.
For example, for Income Tax or Audit purpose a business may wish to list all payments exceeding
Rs.20000 paid in Cash or transactions involving commission, gift, subscription/ entrance fees paid
to club or donations to political parties etc.
Tally provides this option to specify Query criterion to retrieve filtered Reports based on specified
Query Conditions.
In the button bar, you may find Alt+F12 Range or press Alt+F7 and Ctrl+F12 Value or press
Ctrl+F7 to build up your query through a series of screens to specify your conditions.
Alt+F12 Range enables to filter information displayed on monetary value. Ctrl+F12 Value
enables the user to specify Value to Calculate in Report
In the query, you may give a single condition or multiple conditions. You may specify compound
conditions by selecting appropriate operators from the Conditionpop-up.
In case of compound conditions, you get results that satisfy ALL the conditions you specify by
selecting AND operator. You can also specify to retrieve reports meeting ANY of the conditions
you specify by selecting OR operator. You can also combine your specification.
Thus, your query may read as under:
<Type of Info> having <Particulars> <Range of Info> value (if any)
<Type of Info> having <Particulars> <Range of Info> value (if any) and/or <Type of Info>
having <Particulars> <Range of Info> value (if any) and/or (in case of further conditions) so
on.

56
 Chapter Title

Type of Info:-Items for this option is report specific.

Following option appears at this pop-up depending on the Report:

Accounts Inventory
Groups Stock Groups
Ledgers Stock Item
Vouchers Vouchers
Bills Locations
Stock Category
Voucher Types
Voucher Type

Options of Particulars and Range of Info pop-ups depends on the selection of the item at Type
of Info
And finally select the condition from the pop-up consisting of following options:
End of List
And
Or

Example
To retrieve list of transactions of Rs.3000 or more paid in Cash.
To view Cash Ledger with Filter
Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Account Books > Ledger
1. Select Cash from List of Ledger Accounts
2. Press Alt+F12 for Range of Information in Report
3. Select Voucher from Type of Info
4. Select Ledger Amount from particulars in Having field
5. Select Greater than from range of Info
6. Type 629.99 and press Enter

57
 Chapter Title

7. Select And from Condition

8. Select Vouchers from Type of Info
9. Select Ledgers from particulars in Having field
10. Select Name from particulars in With field
11. Select Containing from Range of Info
12. Type Cash

Figure 1.51 Alt+F12: Range screen

13. Select End of List from Condition

14. Again Select End of List from Condition

The report will list only the voucher complying with the query condition.

Figure 1.52 Cash Ledger display

58
 Chapter Title

Likewise, to retrieve vouchers containing keywords like ‘commission’, ‘gift’,

‘subscription’, ‘donation’ etc, you may build query as under:
<Vouchers> having <Narration> containing “donation” to list all the vouchers
where the narration contains the word “donation”.

1.8.6 Highest / Lowest / Average Balances

To view Highest, Lowest and Average Balances in Ledger Voucher Monthly Summary.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Account Books > Ledger
2. Select Global Traders from List of Ledgers and press F7

To view Average Balance

1. Press F12 and set Show Average Details to Yes

To view High/Low Balances

1. Press F12 and set Show High/Low details to Yes

Figure 1.53 High Low Average screen

59
 Chapter Title

The High / Low balance details are added after the Grand Totals.

1.8.7 Flexible Periods Accounting

In Tally fixed Financial Period data of several years may be kept together in a single company
and it is possible to obtain any report for any period (even of 5 years in case you have the data),
whatever be your financial accounting year. Thus, you can get reports of a project spanned over a
period of 5 years or the sales report of a customer for the last 3 years.

Setup
1. Go to Gateway of Tally, press Alt+F2 to change date, From : 1/4/2008 and To : 31/3/
2009
In the left top corner of the Gateway of Tally you can see the current date has changed from 1-4-
2008 to 31-3-2009

For Example:
To view comparative cash flow for the first 15 days of April and May 08
Go to Gateway of Tally
1. Select Display
2. Select Cash /Fund Flow
3. Select Cash Flow
4. Select any month and press Enter
5. Press Alt+C for New Column

In Column Details
1. Type 1/4/2008 in From (blank for beginning)
2. Type 15/4/2008 in To (blank for end)
3. Select Base Currency for Currency
4. Press Enter
5. Press Alt+C again for New Column

60
 Chapter Title

In Column Details
1. Type 1/5/2008 in From (blank for beginning)
2. Type 15/5/2008 in To (blank for end)
3. Select Base Currency for Currency
4. Press Enter

Figure 1.54 Cash Flow Summary

1.8.8 Presentation Manager

Tally has a classical menu interface. But it also provides buttons in a report, which allows the user
to change to any other accounting or inventory report. While doing so, Tally stores the history of
reports traversed internally. When you press Esc key you reach the previous report you were
viewing, and this process continues till you reach Gateway of Tally. This feature of Tally can be
effectively used to present accounts in Tally to an audience with the help of a PC or an LCD
projector connected to a PC.
Consider an example where you need to show following screens in the given order to the
audience.
Stock Summary
Sales Register
Trial Balance
Profit & Loss a/c
Balance Sheet

61
 Chapter Title

Ratio Analysis

To arrive at the Stock Summary Report, select the reports in the reverse order.
1. Launch Tally & Select the required Company
2. Select Ratio Analysis from Gateway of Tally
3. Press F10 for Accounting Reports & select Balance Sheet from the list
4. Press F10 for Accounting Reports & select Profit & Loss from the list
5. Press F10 for Accounting Reports & select Trial Balance from the list
6. Press F9 for Inventory Reports & select Stock Summary from the List

In all the periodic summary reports (Monthly, weekly, daily, fortnightly. quar-
terly, etc) Bar Graphs can be viewed at the bottom of the screen.

1.8.9 Percentage based Reporting

Businesses do analytical review of the financial statements. Percentage plays a vital role in
defining the financial statement.
Profit & Loss A/c, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance are the reports that can be configured to show
percentages. Totals of each column/side are taken as the base for calculating percentages of Trial
Balance and Balance Sheet items. Sales Accounts total will be the base for percentages of Profit
& Loss A/c items.
Gross Profit Ratio, Net Profit Ratio, percentage of purchase or expenditure on sales, stock
holding percentages are the benefits of percentage reported Profit & Loss A/c. A business’s cost
effectiveness can be derived by the percentage of cost of sales on sales.
Percentage based Balance Sheet will derive the contribution rate of each source and usage rate
of each application. Analyzing the percentage of applications helps in reduction of working capital
requirement, capital block in idle / excessive stock and so on. Percentage wise sources, will give
an idea about the rate of borrowed capital / equity, current liabilities.
Multi columnar Trial Balance with the percentage helps in inter / intra firm comparison. While
using columnar report, percentages can be calculated either on the vertical totals or on the hori-
zontal totals. Percentage can also be calculated on the first column of the report.
For example, B Ganesh, Proprietor of both Ganesh Enterprises and Ganesh Traders can
compare his entities by using column and percentages. Percentages based on vertical totals will
enable him to view the percentage reported Trial Balance of two entities at a time. Where percent-

62
 Chapter Title

age on Cross Totals, will show the total of every group of both entities and entity’s share in every
group.
From a Trial balance configured to show the percentages, user can drill down upto ledger monthly
summary along with percentages.

To view Percentage based reporting

Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Trail Balance
1. Press Alt+N (Auto Repeat Columns)
2. Select Company in Repeat Using
3. Type Yes in Show Total Column
4. Press F12 : Configure
5. Set Show Percentage to Yes
6. Set Type of % age to of Totals
7. Press Ctrl+A to generate the report

Figure 1.55 Trial Balance

63
Lesson 2: Advanced Inventory

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Classify the Stock items and get more flexibility in the reports
Create Price List (s) and use these prices in the Invoice creation
Configure Tally for generating following Stock Reports
Stock Summary
Movement Analysis
Ageing Analysis
Stock Query

1
 Advanced Inventory

Introduction
By now we are comfortable working with the inventory part in Tally. We have already discussed
about the basic features such as creation of stock item, stock group, price list and multiple
price list etc. We shall now get into the depth of the Tally software and configure Tally for the
advanced features for inventory, such as: classify the stock items, re-order level, re-order
status, stock valuation, reports related to stock etc.,

2.1 Classification of Stock Items

Booking of the inventory transactions not only includes the accounts ledgers but also the stock
items. You create the stock items the company is dealing in i.e. all the items that you purchase,
manufacture and sell.
In the reports pertaining to these stock items, you might require the list of stock items classified
according to the dimension you follow or the dimension your client (to whom you want to show the
report) follows. Thus, in order to organize your stock items, Tally provides you the facility to
create stock groups and stock categories. Stock groups and stock categories may be viewed
as different dimensions to classify the stock items. Stock Items are the actual items that are
transacted (purchased, manufactured or sold) and take part in any Inventory Voucher. For
Example, a medicine dealer may prefer to classify items on the basis of the manufacturer. This
will help him to list stock items pertaining to a company and place orders with that company. He
may also classify the same items on the basis of the type of medicines. This will help him to offer
an alternate item, in case the desired item is not available in stock.
Consider another example of a bookshop. A bookshop owner may prefer to classify books on the
basis of subject, author or publisher.
Tally allows a parallel method to organize the Stock Items under Stock Group and Stock Catego-
ries and retrieve either report. This offers great flexibility in reporting.

To view all the stock items under the relevant stock groups and sub groups, follow the steps:
Go to Gateway of Tally -> Display -> List of Accounts -> Stock Items (Ctrl+I)

The List of Accounts screen is shown below:

2
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.1 List of Stock Items

2.2 Reorder Level

Reorder Level is important for manufacturers or the assembling industry for timely procurement
of materials to ensure there is no production loss due to non-availability of raw materials or
components on time. In the same way, a business can identify items for which timely orders are
placed for proper servicing their customers.
The management determines the Reorder level for each item, which is the quantity when the
stock for the item reaches that specified level, the procurement order is placed with vendor. This
level is normally derived based on past experience, Tally allows a facility to compute, based on
the previous consumption during a specific period. Many vendors determine a minimum ordering
quantity for accepting order for each item. In some businesses, it is economical to buy a larger lot
as compared to immediate requirement -you can specify such Minimum Ordering Quantity to
achieve economies of scale.The Reorder level helps to place Purchase Order for proper quantity
at the right time.

When the stock-in-hand reaches the Reorder level, the Organization should place an order with
the vendor for supplies. Every business desires to execute its customer orders in time and also
have sufficient stocks to serve them, yet avoid over-stocking. Therefore, the Reorder level takes
into account the lead time taken by suppliers to deliver the ordered materials, the time required to
deliver materials to the customer and the stock in hand to execute orders in the stipulated time.
Thus, the re-order level makes a balance between Stock-out & Overstocking. The Reorder level
figure may be based on historical data, recent past consumption or sales trends. It may vary from
trade to trade and even for item to item.

3
 Advanced Inventory

In view of varied requirements, Tally provides twin options - Simple and Advanced. In the Simple
mode, you can enter absolute quantity for re-order and Minimum Order Qty. In the Advanced
mode, you can additionally compute Re-order / Minimum Order Qty based on consumption for
last period & other parameters specific to your requirement.

2.2.1 Assigning Reorder Level

To Specify Reorder Level Quantity

Setup 1
1. Gateway of Tally-> F11: Inventory Features
2. Set Allow Purchase Order Processing to Yes
Setup2
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Inventory Info. > Reorder Levels
2. Select the Group (For example: Accessories), screen displays all Stock Items under
the selected Group (Accessories)
3. Enter Re-Order Level Quantity and Minimum Order Quantity for each Item

Figure 8.2 Reorder Levels screen

4. Press Ctrl+A to accept the screen

4
 Advanced Inventory

To Specify Reorder Level Quantity in Advance Mode

1. Press Alt+R for the Advance Mode (or click Adv Reorder button)

Figure 8.3 Advanced Reorder Levels Screen

2. Press Ctrl+A to accept the screen

This will activate the Reorder Level entry in Advanced mode where Reorder level may be based
on past consumption. The following additional fields appears in the Advanced mode:

Consumption for the Enter the value of the period in number ( in terms of days /
last weeks / months or year) by selecting in the next field from
Periods pop-up menu to get the consumption of the Stock
Item for computing the Reorder quantity.
Period Select the Period from Periods pop-up. The options are: Days,
Months, Weeks and Years.
Criteria Select either Higher or Lower.

5
 Advanced Inventory

To enter Minimum Order Qty in Advanced mode, click Adv Min. Qty but-
ton

2.2.2 Reorder Status

This report helps to take appropriate decisions for timely purchase of materials and provides all a
ready and relevant information required for placement of a Purchase Order.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statements of Inventory > Reorder Status
2. Select the Group (For example: Accessories)

Figure 8.4 Reorder Status Report

6
 Advanced Inventory

To get reports for all the Stock Items, select Primary from List of
Group.
To view more information about the Stock item press Enter on the
respective column in Inventory Reorder Status.
To view Item Movement Analysis report, select the Item and press
Enter.
To view Item Voucher Analysis report, select the supplier and press
Enter.
To view Purchase Orders Pending report for a specific Item, select
quantity from Purc Orders Pending and press Enter.
To view Sale Orders Pending report for a specific Item, select quantity
from Sales Orders Due and press Enter.
To view Reorder level report for a specific Item, select the item from
Re-order Level and press Enter

Shortfall: Computed as Net Available minus Reorder Level

If the figure turns negative, the quantity is shown as a shortfall recom-
mending for placement of order for the shortfall quantity to maintain re-
order level.
Minimum Order Quantity: Displays Minimum Order Quantity as entered
in the Re-Order Level screen.
Order to be Placed: If Shortfall is less than the Minimum Order
Quantity, Tally proposes Order to be Placed equal to Minimum Order
Qty, else equal to the Shortfall Quantity.

2.3 Multiple Price Levels

In order to maintain price consistency, businesses maintain Price List(s) that ensures accuracy in
invoices as the sale price in invoices are normally carried from the price list.
As a requirement or strategy, a business may have a fixed price for an item for all customer
segments or different pricings for the same item for different customer segments. In some cases,
a business may have quantity slab-wise pricing and/or discount.
To meet the diversified business needs, Tally provides two options to enter the selling price of the
Stock Items.
Standard Price: In case of a single price across all customer segments, the selling price is
entered in Stock Item master.
Multiple Price List: In case of different pricings for different customer segments, a multiple
price list is essential. Each party is linked with the applicable price list for correct billing.

7
 Advanced Inventory

2.4 Reports
2.4.1 Stock Summary
The Stock Summary report gives a comprehensive report of all Stock Groups and items. You
can view the complete listing of all items till the lowest level, i.e., Location and/or Batch. You can
drill down to subsequent level to get finer details. The Stock Summary can be compared with the
Trial Balance report. Considering its importance, the Stock Summary is the lone report that
appears directly in the Gateway of Tally menu.
To view a Stock Summary report:
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Stock Summary
2. Press Alt+F1 to get detailed format
The Stock Summary report is shown below:

Figure 8.5 Stock Summary Screen

By default, the Stock Summary displays closing balances with details of quantity, rate and
value for the Stock Groups or Items.
3. Press F12:Configure and configure the contents of the Report. For example to dis-
play Quantity, Rate, Value, inward and outward and closing balance.

The F12 Configuration screen is shown below:

8
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.6 F12: Configuration screen

After the Configuration is set up, the Stock Summary is as shown below:

Figure 8.7 Stock Summary Report after Configuration

9
 Advanced Inventory

Profitability & Consumption Reporting

In order to view the Gross Profit figures in the previous report (Stock Summary), press F7. The
Value column shows the realized (i.e. Sales) value; Consumption shows Purchase or Production
cost; and Gross Profit displays the excess amount of value over Consumption (loss is shown
with minus symbol prefixed to amount); Percentage shows %-age of Profit over (Sales) value.
Thus you can instantly get the Gross Profit for each Stock Group or Item.
The Stock Summary with profitability and consumption columns is shown below:

Figure 8.8 Stock Summary Report Profitability and Consumption Columns

You can get for a Stock Item the group-wise or Item-wise gross profit earned.

Stock Valuation
By default, the value of stock is computed as per default valuation specified in the Stock Item
master. To value stock on some other method, press Alt+C to get New Column screen. At
method of Stock valuation, select the valuation method. The column details screen is shown
below:

10
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.9 All Valuation Methods screen

For example, if you wish to know the difference in stock when valued by the Default method and
FIFO method, select FIFO in the Method of Stock Valuation field. You will get a comparative
report. The method of Stock valuation selected appears as the column heading.

The Stock Summary showing the comparison with the FIFO method is shown below:

Figure 8.10 Stock Summary showing comparison Default with FIFO

To view Stock valued on all valuation methods, press Alt+N to display the Auto Repeat Columns
screen. Select Stock Valuation Methods in Repeat Using field. The columnar report will display
valuation based on each valuation method.

11
 Advanced Inventory

The Stock Summary with all the valuation methods is shown below:

Figure 8.11 Stock Summary with all valuation methods

Godown wise
In order to view godown-wise break-up for each item in the Stock Summary.
1. Press F12: Configure
2. Set Expand all levels in Detailed Format to Yes
3. Press Alt+F1 to display report in detailed format.

The godown-wise detailed Stock Summary is shown below:

12
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.12 Godown-wise Stock Summary

2.4.2 Movement Analysis

The Movement Analysis reports show those inventory transactions for which accounting trans-
actions have also been recorded.
Example: Transactions such as Goods sent but Bill not raised are not included in the reports.
This report displays the details of stock flow and their effective costs. It also helps to track the
process-wise cost of production.

Stock Group Analysis

To view the Item Movement Analysis for a specific stock group:
This report shows the details of inward and outward transactions for all the stock items of that
group.

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Inventory Books > Movement Analysis >
Stock Group Analysis
2. Select the Group from List of Groups (e.g. Accessories)
3. Press Alt+F1 to get a detailed format.

13
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.13 Movement Analysis

To get report for all the Stock Item, select Primary from List of Groups.

Stock Item Analysis

To display Item Movement Analysis for a specific stock item:
This report screen displays the details of Movement Inward and Movement Outward with the
movement values of the selected stock item.

The report also lists the Transfers Inward/Production and Transfers Outward/ Consumption.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Inventory Books > Movement Analysis >
Stock Item Analysis
2. Select a Stock Item (e.g. USB Pen Drives 64 MB)

14
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.14 Item Movement Analysis

The Effective Rate consists of Basic rate plus additional costs. In order to view the additional
cost details, highlight the voucher type under Movement Inward or Movement Outward and
press Enter. This will display the Item Voucher Analysis for the particular stock item.

Figure 8.15 Item Voucher Analysis

2.4.3 Stock Ageing Analysis

The Ageing Analysis report lists the age-wise break-up of inventory to display the old stocks. Tally
gives its users the flexibility to define their own ageing slabs.
Ageing Analysis helps to list out batch wise items that have already expired or may expire in the
near future. This information helps the management to promptly decide about the action to be
taken for the materials whose value is waning.

15
 Advanced Inventory

To view the Ageing Analysis report

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Inventory Books > Ageing Analysis
2. Select the Group for which ageing analysis is required.
This report is displayed in a columnar format showing Item details, Quantity, value and age-
wise break-up.

Figure 8.16 Stock Ageing Analysis

To display the report for all Stock items.

1. Select Primary from List of Groups
2. Press Hide Amounts button to hide the Value column

16
 Advanced Inventory

Figure 8.17 Stock Ageing Analysis without values

For getting the Item Monthly Summary report, press Enter in the Total
Quantity Column of the Item.
For further drill down to Stock Journals of the Item, press Enter for the
month you want the stock journal.
To define the ageing slab press F6.
To get the value of the stock other than default method, press F7 and
select from All Valuation Method for example Avg.Cost, Avg.Price,
FIFO,etc.,
If you want to view only the Quantity of the Item, press Hide Amount
button or press Alt+A.

17
 Advanced Inventory

You may define Ageing Style in four different ways.

2.4.4 Stock Query

A Query is a comprehensive report for a selected stock item that displays all related information
including details of other items in the same stock Group/Category in one screen. It also displays
the Godown wise / batch wise detailed stock position, the Last Purchase Cost and Sale Price
and the Name of Customer to whom last sold.

To view a Stock Query Report

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statement of Inventory > Stock Query
2. Select the Item from List of Items (For example: CDROM Jackets)

Figure 8.18 Stock Query screen

3. Press F12: Configure

18
 Advanced Inventory

4. Set Show Related Items of same Group to Yes, for displaying all items under the
same Stock Group.
5. Set Show Remarks of the item to Yes, for displaying the remarks entered in the
Stock Item master.

Figure 8.19 Stock Query — All items of the Group

19
Lesson 3: Administration

Lesson Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to
Understand the commands in Tally Configuration File
Configure Tally for consolidating a Group of Companies
Activate Security Control
Create different types of security levels and define their level of usage
Create different users under appropriate security levels
Activate Tally Audit
Track changes in Ledgers
Track changes in Vouchers
Encrypt a Company data
Decrypt a Company data
Configure Tally for Data Management
Backup & Restore
Rewriting Books
Export & Import of Data
Splitting of Company Data
ODBC

83
 Administration

Introduction
System Administration is a collection of tasks and responsibilities carried out by a System Admin-
istrator to set up the system and keep it in good running order. Similarly the data in Tally needs to
be administered, monitored and explored for usage in other applications.
The topics covered under this section are technically essential and need to be understood in
detail and should be carried out under caution.

3.1 Tally.ini - Tally Configuration File

The Administrator needs to understand the various commands that are or can be mentioned in
this file. All the statements starting with “;” (semicolon) are actually comments mentioned. All the
commands in this file are case insensitive, but space sensitive in the data & file path naming spec-
ifications.

Data
Syntax: Data=[Data path]
You have to specify the data path in the command mentioned above. If a Directory name is only
provided without the path details, Tally then assumes that the Directory has to be created in its
own Application Directory and creates it as if it did not exist. You cannot specify multiple Directory
paths in the configuration file.

TallyLicense
Syntax: TallyLicense : <Type>
This command is required for the Softlock version of Tally. The type of license needs to be
specified here. The current available value for this command is “Connect”.

TallyLock
Syntax: TallyLock= [IP Address or PC Name] or None
This command is applicable for users having a Hardware Lock (Dongle) version of Tally on the
Server where the lock is attached to the parallel port.

Example
Tallylock=localhost
For the client on the network
TallyLock=<IPAddressofthePCwherethelockisattached>or
TallyLock=<nameofthePCwherelockisattached>
TouseTallyinEducationalVersion
TallyLock=None

84
 Administration

Default Companies
Syntax: Default Companies = [Logical Value]
This command helps the Administrator / user to enable or disable the loading of a Company or
Companies with the help of the “Load” command. If this is set to No, all “Load” commands will be
ignored.

Load
Syntax: Load= [Company Number]
The number of the Company to be loaded needs to be specified here. You can give as many
Load statements as you want in the Configuration file. The Companies will be loaded as per the
sequence given. You may omit the initial zeroes in the number, if any,
e.g. if the Company number is 0001 then you may specify Load=1.

User TDL
Syntax: User TDL=[Logical Value]
You can specify the name or path of the TCP(s) (Tally Compliant Product), if any, in the User
TDL field.
Example: TDL= tdlfile.1 [This command should be included if and only if Tally application is cus-
tomised]

Config
Syntax: Config= [Configuration Path]
Tally saves the Tallysav.dat (F12:Configuration settings file) in this path. If you realise that the
settings you had done are not saved, then the path specified in the configuration file for this
command is wrong or non-existent.

Language Path
Syntax:Langpath=[Language Path]
You have to specify the Language path with the command mentioned above. If a Directory name
is provided without the path details, then Tally assumes that the Directory exists in its Application
Directory and creates it as if it did not exist. You cannot specify multiple directory paths in the con-
figuration file.

Color
Syntax: Color= [Logical Value]

85
 Administration

If the value for this command is set to NO, then the Tally screens are shown in grey scale and not
in the default colours of Tally.

Figure 9.1 Tally.ini file

3.2 Consolidation

A business group consisting of constituent companies, requires consolidation of accounts of its

group companies to present its total financial position. The Management or shareholders would
first like to know the performance of the group as a whole followed by the performance of individ-
ual constituent companies.
Tally makes consolidation of final accounts of the group, an easy task. The concept is simple yet
so powerful that you can consolidate the accounts of any number of companies at any time, as
well as keep them separate at the same time.
The information available in the group company is limited to information up to the ledger level.
The voucher level information cannot be pulled from the group company accounts, i.e. vouchers
of a ledger common to all the constituent companies cannot be consolidated & seen in the group
company.

86
 Administration

Consider Acme Corporation and Acme Apparels as constitiuent comapnies of Acme Ltd.
To Create Group Company
To create a Group Company you should select a minimum of two companies.
Steps
The steps to create a group company are outlined here.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally
2. Press Alt + F3 and select the first company Acme Corporation
3. Press Alt + F3 and select the second company Acme Apparels
4. Press Alt + F3 and select Create Group Company
5. Type the name of the Group Company (For Example, Acme Ltd) in the Company
Creation Screen
6. Type other relevant details (Mailing Name, Address, E-Mail, VAT Regn.No, PAN/
Income-Tax No.)
7. In Members field, select the Company you want to group from List of Compa-
nies(For example, Acme Corporation & Acme Apparels can be the Members of
Group Company, Acme Ltd)
8. Press Enter to accept the screen

Consolidated Balance Sheet

You must select the Group Company (Acme Ltd) to view the Consolidated Balance Sheet of
both the companies under it.
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet is displayed with the consolidated details of the accounts of both constituent
companies.
To view the details of Acme Corporation and Acme Apparels companies in the Balance Sheet
report,
1. Press Alt + C and select the first company, Acme Corporation from List of Compa-
nies. Specify details like, From and To dates, Currency and the method of stock valu-
ation.
2. Press Alt + C and select the second company, Acme Apparels from List of Compa-
nies displayed.

87
 Administration

3.3 Security
3.3.1 Security Control
A security control is a control measure. It helps in preventing unauthorised access and usage of
data. Every authorised user would be provided an access to the company data with a unique user
name and password.
The Administrator has the ultimate responsibility to regulate the creation of usres and their
control. The Administrator defines the different levels of usage and creates users under the
appropriate types of usage.
For example, Data Entry level users are restricted to voucher entry alone. They will not be allowed
to access certain financial reports like Profit & Loss A/c, Balance Sheet and Fund Flow state-
ments.

Activating Security Control

The Security Control is activated while creating a new Company or by modifying it. In case of an
existing Company,

Step 1: To Create Security Control for the Company

1. Select the Company for which a security control has to be activated – i.e. Acme Cor-
poration
2. Press Alt + F3 in the Gateway of Tally
3. Select Alter in the Company Info. menu
4. Select Acme Corporation from List of Companies
5. Press Enter until you reach the field Use Security Control
6. Set Use Security Control to Yes
7. Type John in the Name of Administrator field
8. Type AC2004 in the Password and in the Repeat fields
9. A message Forgetting your password will render your data unusable displays
10. Press Enter
11. Set No to the field Use Tally Audit Features?
12. Press Ctrl+A to accept the screen

Name of Administrator & Password field can be

Alphanumeric
Case sensitive
Special Characters not entertained
Maximum of 15 characters
Entries in the Password field will be displayed as asterisks.

88
 Administration

Figure 9.2 Company Alteration screen

Step 2: To verify if the Security Control created for the Company is correct or not
1. Press Alt + F1 to shut the Acme Corporation Company
2. Select Acme Corporation again from the Company Info. Menu
3. The Company Login screen is displayed
4. Type John in the Name of User field and AC2004 in Password (if any) field.

Figure 9.3 Company Login screen

89
 Administration

If you are creating a new company, set the field ‘Use Security Control’ to
Yes at the Company Creation Screen itself.

Security Level
By default, Tally has two types of security levels viz. Owner and Data Entry. A Owner has all the
rights except the creation of Security Control and alteration of the Company details. Data Entry
uses the basic facilities of Owner with some restrictions as specified by the user or by default.
Besides these, a user can create any number of usages by using basic facilities of Owner with
stipulated restrictions.

Example
Acme Corporation proposes to restrict its Accounts Department users from altering Accounts
Masters while allowing them to use all the other options.

To Create a Type of Usage:

1. Select Acme Corporation by typing Name of user as John and Password as
AC2004
2. Press Alt + F3 in Gateway of Tally
3. Select Security Control in the Company info. screen
4. Select Types of Security in the Security Control screen
5. Press Down arrow key at the Data Entry field to move the cursor to the next field
6. Type Accounts and press Enter
7. Press Enter in the Use Basic Facilities of field
8. Press Enter in the Days allowed for Back Dated vouchers field
9. Press Enter in the Cut-off date for Back Dated vouchers field
10. Select Alter from Type of Access in the Disallow the following Facilities column
11. Select Accounts Masters from List of Reports
12. Select End of List from Type of Access
13. Press Enter to move to the Allow the following Facilities column
14. Select End of List from Type of Access
15. Press Enter to move to the Security Levels screen

90
 Administration

The Security Levels screen is displayed as shown below.

Figure 9.4 Security Level Definition screen

Figure 9.5 Security Levels screen

16. Press Ctrl+A to accept the screen.

Besides altering, the following are the other types of access that can be restricted while creating /
altering a type of usage:

91
 Administration

Figure 9.6 Other Types of Access Screen

Besides Accounts Masters, the following are some of the reports for which access can be
restricted.

Figure 9.7 Other Reports for Access Screen

92
 Administration

Users and Passwords

Throgh this field option, you can assign a name and password for an user under appropriate type
of usage.

Example: Let us assume that the Accounts Department has a Manager, a Cashier and an
Accountant. A Manager has full rights but others but is not allowed to alter the Accounts Masters.

To create Users and their passwords:

1. Select Acme Corporation by typing Name of user as John and Password as
AC2004
2. Press Alt + F3 in Gateway of Tally
3. Select Security Control in the Company Info. screen
4. Select Users and Passwords in the Security Control screen
5. Enter the following details for List of users in the Company dialog window.

Name of User Password( if any) Security Level

Acct Manager Am Owner
Accountant Acc Accounts
Cashier Cr Accounts

Figure 9.8 List of Users for Company

6. Press Enter to accept the screen.

93
 Administration

Logging in as a User
1. Press Alt + F1 to shut the Company.
2. Select Select Company in the Company Info. screen
3. Select Acme Corporation from List of Companies in the Select Company screen
4. Press Enter to move to the Company Login screen
5. Type Accountant in the Name of User field and Acc in the Password (if any) field.

As the users of Accounts Department are restricted from altering the Accounts Masters, the Alter
option under Accounts info > Ledgers screen is deactivated.

Figure 9.9 Accounts Info Menu

3.3.2 Tally Audit

All businesses periodically audit their books of accounts personally or through the auditor. This
check is to ensure correctness and to monitor the entries.
Tally Audit is a checking tool available to the Administrator. Through this feature, ledgers and
vouchers are checked and accepted periodically. A periodical checking leads to tracking of unau-
thorised changes to the accepted entries.
For example, if a user makes a few material changes in an accepted voucher after Tally Audit,.
this change is listed with the user’s name with entry and alterations done. However changes to
narration and reference will not be considered as material changes, whereas change in the
amount allotted or change in the name of the ledger will attract attention of the Tally Audit feature.
Tally Auditt feature should be enabled while creating the Company and its Security levels. Only a
user designated as an Auditor or the Administrator can view the audit list and act upon it. Tally
tracks all changes made to vouchers that are more than 30 days old. Therefore changes to

94
 Administration

vouchers that are less than 30 days old are not reported. This is to allow adequate time to correct
mistakes. A change includes insertion of new transactions or accounts.
An Auditor can use this facility by logging in as an Administrator. The advantage of this feature is
that the physical presence of the auditor is not required. The Auditor can perform his tasks period-
ically, yet can track the changes made after the last audit. A regular backup is required after every
backup to track the changes made if any.

To Activate Tally Audit

1. Select Acme Corporation and login throgh the administrative user name & password
2. Press Alt + F3 from Gateway of Tally
3. Select Alter from Company Info menu
4. Select Acme Corporation from the drop-down List of Companies displayed
5. Press Enter untill you reach the field Use Tally Audit Features?
6. Set Yes to Use Tally Audit Features
7. Press Ctrl + A to accept the screen

Figure 9.10 Company Alteration screen - Tally Audit

Audit of Ledgers
The audit of the ledgers involves checking them for opening balance brought forward & any inten-
tional changes after checking.
To Audit Ledgers

95
 Administration

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statements of Accounts > Tally Audit > Ledg-
ers
2. Highlight the ledger name that is to be audited
3. Press Enter to drill-down further to view the Voucher level information to correct the
ledger if any
4. If there are any corrections to be done, correct necessary entries and accept the
screen, else, press Ctrl + A
5. Press F7 button on the button bar to accept the changes.

Tally Audit Listing Screen is displayed as shown below.

Figure 9.11 Tally Audit listing - Ledgers

After accepting a ledger, it will not be shown in the list of new / modified
ledgers. Press Alt + F7 to accept all ledgers at a time.
Press F6 to bring back all the ledgers irrespective of acceptance.
Since Tally Audit allots ID number for every ledger, it is easy to track it even
it is changed/modified.

96
 Administration

Audit of Vouchers
The audit of vouchers involves checking its accuracy and other necessary details.

Setup
1. Gateway of Tally->F12 :Configure->Voucher Entry
2. Set Show Cost Centre Details to No
3. Set Show Inventory Details to Yes
4. Set Show Bill- wise Details to Yes

To Audit vouchers:
1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Display > Statements of Accounts > Tally Audit >
Vouchers
2. Press Alt + F2 to change the period and type 1/4/2008 in the From and 30/4/2008 in
the To fields
3. Press Alt + F1 to display List of New/Modified Vouchers
4. Press F12:Configure
5. Set Show Entered/Altered by to Yes

Figure 9.12 Tally Audit Listing - Vouchers

97
 Administration

To accept vouchers one by one, press F7

To accept all vouchers at one go, press Alt + F7
An accepted voucher/s will be removed from the list displayed. Please
make sure to check the voucher to be audited while selecting it as there is
no key to bring back the accepted voucher/s.

Tracking Changes
Tally audit highlights if any accepted vouchers modified / deleted.
In this case, assume that two Sales Vouchers are accepted by Accountant.
The Voucher Nos are 1 &2 entered by Unknown. Then list appears after acceptance as shown
below:

Figure 9.13 Tally Audit Listing - Accepted Vouchers

98
 Administration

The two vouchers are removed after acceptance from the Tally Audit Listing as shown
above.

In order to distinguish the modified vouchers from the new vouchers, Tally shows them in italics
font along with Altered by username and On Date.
If the Accountant has changed the amount in the Payment Vr 2 from 800 to 900, it is displayed in
Italics as shown with the username.

Figure 9.14 Tally Audit Listing - Altered Vouchers

3.3.3 Tally Vault

Businesses may need to maintain confidentiality and secrecy of their financial data. Especially,
the information concerned with Finance and Taxation. Tally vault is one of the most secured
means of the information storage. While Tally vaulting a company, data is stored in an encrypted
format. The Name of the company is also displayed in the encrypted mode so as to have a better
privacy. The company data where this option is exercised is left untouched and instead a new
company is created with the Tally Vaulted data. Operations on Tally Vault data will be slower by at
least 40%.

Vaulting a Company Data

To Vault a Company Data:
1. Select Acme Corporation

99
 Administration

2. Press Alt+F3 in Gateway of Tally

3. Select Change TallyVault in the Company Info. screen
4. Type Accorp in the New Password field
5. Type Accorp in the Repeat New Password field

Figure 9.15 Change TallyVault screen

6. Press Y or Enter to accept the screen

The encrypted company data is created as a new Company. A message is shown with the
company number on completion of encryption. Remembering the number shown in this message
will help access the encrypted / vaulted company data.
Press Alt + F1 to shut the original data. Tally will keep the original data also in the storage. Users
will have the right to decide whether to keep or remove it. Removing the original data from storage
is advisable.
To access the vaulted company, select the company by identifying the number allotted to it i.e.
10001 ( for example)

Figure 9.16 List of Companies

1. Type the TallyVault password.

100
 Administration

Figure 9.17 TallyVault Password screen

If the company has the security control feature enabled, then Company Login screen will follow
the Vault screen.

Decrypting encrypted Company Data

1. Select the Tallyvaulted company and type vault password.
2. Press Alt + F3 in Gateway of Tally
3. Select Change Tally Vault in the Company Info. screen
4. Select Acme Corporation from List of Companies
5. Type the existing password in the Current Password field
6. Type the new password in the New Password field
7. Repeat the new password at the Repeat New Password field

Change TallyVault screen will be displayed as shown below prompting for the user’s reply for
decryption.

101
 Administration

Figure 9.18 Change TallyVault Decrypt Screen

8. Press Any key to give the consent and proceed further

9. Press Y or Enter to accept the screen

The decrypted data is created as a new company. A message along with new company number is
shown on completion of decryption.
Press Alt + F1 to shut the encrypted data. Tally will keep the encrypted data also in the storage. It
is better to keep any one of these data at a time. Unless this may lead to confusion in updating
books.

3.4 Data Management

Data Administration has assumed its own importance in the smooth sailing of any business. The
Administrator has to remember that working speed of Tally reduces not on the volume of transac-
tions but on the volume of masters such as Account Groups, Account Ledgers, Bills, Cost Catego-
ries, Cost Centres, Currency, Stock Groups, Stock Items, Stock Categories, Godowns, Batches,
Price Lists, Budgets, Tracking Numbers, Orders etc. Each of the masters or features when
enabled will add another dimension to already existing data.
The Administrator should minimize the use of each of the above mentioned masters. Lesser the
number of masters created and features enabled will make sure Tally works in a much faster way.

102
 Administration

3.4.1 Backup & Restore

Data once lost cannot be reproduced. To address this concern, a backup data has to be main-
tained. Hence creating data backup on a day to day basis is strongly recommended.
The possible storage media on which data backup can be taken directly and stored are Floppy
disks, Pen drives, CDR, CDRW, Hard disks, Network drives, Tape drives etc. Of the storage
mediums mentioned above, Floppy disks are not dependable, hence should not be used unless
there is no other medium available. Typically while taking data backup, you should not overwrite
the recent backup taken.
Tally has a flexible backup mechanism where in you can take a backup of the data from virtually
any storage medium into any other medium.

Taking a Backup
1. Press Alt + F3 from Gateway of Tally
2. Select Backup from the Company Info. Menu

The Backup Screen is displayed as shown below.

Figure 9.19 Backup Companies on Disk screen

While restoring the backed up data, great care should be exercised.

103
 Administration

In Backup screen, Source field is followed by Destination field. In the case

of Restore screen, Destination field is followed by the Source field.

Tally automatically places the folder name in Source to where the earlier
backup was taken. Hence, you may unknowingly restore the old data. Care
should be taken and the correct path should be typed in Source field.

The Restore Screen is displayed as shown.

Figure 9.20 Restore companies on Disk

104
 Administration

3.4.2 Export & Import of Data

Export of Data
The export of data is required by the companies to carry Tally’s data into other systems like
spreadsheets and databases or to send as an attachment by email.
Data can be exported from Tally in four different formats, namely,
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
SDF (Standard Data Format)
XML (Extensible Markup Language)

ASCII
The data in this format in every line is separated by a Comma. This format is readable by
Microsoft Excel directly, especially when the extension of the file is .CSV (Comma Separated Val-
ues).For example, if you export Trial Balance from Tally in a file viz., Trialbal.CSV; you will see the
Excel icon allotted for this file when you list the file in Windows File browser. The data in this file
will also be a in readable format for all text editing applications like Notepad, WordPad, email
programs etc.

Example:,In the Trial Balance report,

1. Press Alt + E
2. Keep the Langauge to Default ( All Languages)
3. Change the file format to ASCII
4. Change the output file name extension to Trialbal.CSV
5. Press Enter in all the other fields

105
 Administration

Figure 9.21 Exporting Trial Balance

Figure 9.22 Exported Trial Balance

The Exported file Trialbal.csv can be found in the directory where Tally is
installed.

106
 Administration

HTML
Data in this format appears just as shown in Tally’s reports, with the colours & the formatting
almost intact. Data in this format is used to upload on the websites or can be sent as an attach-
ment to clients / suppliers. You can use Microsoft Excel also to view the report / data generated in
this format.

XML
An XML output has an XML envelope and is formatted with XML tags to enable importing of data
into other systems. The destination system would need a little re-formatting of XSLT (XML Style
Sheets) (beyond the purview of this document) based on the Tally Styles and can then import the
data. However, an another Tally application can import the XML data directly using the Import
option without any re-formatting.
Being the short form of Extensible Mark-up Language, XML is an extension of HTML.But the
data is capable of being imported by other XML compatible systems. Using XML, Tally enables
you to exchange information even with non-Tally applications. Therefore a Tally invoice in XML
format can be imported by another Tally application system without difficulty thereby reducing the
data entry time and subsequent errors if any. This language is fast emerging as the de-facto
standard for information exchange all over the world and with it Tally gives you the means to col-
laborate with others and share information like never before.

Import of Data
Import of data will cover only import of data in Tally’s importable format and not data from other
systems. Tally can import Master & Transaction data in XML format.

Import of Masters
While importing masters in Tally, three types of treatment are given to the data being imported.
Combine Opening Balances: This option is required when data is imported from different
branches and the opening balances of the masters need to be consolidated. This option can also
be selected if the opening balances of all the masters existing in Tally are Zero, hence they will be
overwritten by the balances in the data being imported.

Ignore duplicates: This option needs to be selected when new masters are being imported along
with the masters already existing in Tally.

Modify with new Data: This option is selected when the opening balances existing in Tally
require to be overwritten to that existing in the data being imported.

107
 Administration

However not all data that is exportable is importable back in Tally. Only
Masters & transactions can be imported back in Tally, that too only in XML
format.

Import of Transactions
While importing transactions, the existing transactions can not be altered by default, hence addi-
tional treatment as existing while import of masters is not provided. The format permissible while
importing transactions is XML .

Splitting of Company Data

A business can maintain data in Tally for year after year to get reports spanning over multiple
years, i.e. period-less accounting. This eliminates the need to carry balances from previous year
to New Year and repeat the same as and when any modification is carried out in previous year’s
data.
However, a business may not prefer to keep previous years data. Once all tax assessments are
completed, a business need not refer to the old data. It keeps the current year or just preceding
year’s data. Keeping all the data in a central data file poses danger of exposure to previous year’s
data, but also causes system overload reducing the working speed in case the data volume is
substantial.
Tally allows splitting a company’s data into two financial periods, thus in effect creates two new
companies with data for two periods while keeping the original company data intact.

To split data in Tally

1. Go to Gateway of Tally > Alt + F3
2. Press P (Select SPlit Company Data)
3. In Split Company Data screen, select the Company name from the drop-down list of
Companies displayed
4. Type 1-09-2008 in the Split from field

108
 Administration

Figure 9.23 Split Company screen

5. Press Enter to accept the screen

Splitting may take some time; a progress bar is displayed as the operation
is being carried out.

Confirmation to Split

Figure 9.24 Split Company Confirmation screen

109
 Administration

6. Type Yes at the Split? Yes or No to confirm splitting of company data.

Splitting will take some time depending on the volume of data present in the company, a progress
bar is displayed while the the operation is being carried out.
Finally, two new companies will be created retaining the original. Date of Splitting the company is
suffixed for identification.

Now, if you wish to delete the original company or the first split company, you can do so by
pressing Alt + D in alteration mode. But make sure to take multiple Backups before doing so.

If you find errors while splitting the data, it may be due to a feature that was
enabled and later on disabled. Features like Tally Audit, Bank Reconcilia-
tion, Cost Centres, Godowns if were enabled and later disabled after some
data entry may give rise to problems while splitting the data. In case of
errors, contact Tally Solutions, or your dealer for help.

3.4.3 ODBC ( Only for Microsoft -Windows)

ODBC is an abbreviation for the Open Database Connectivity API (Application Program Inter-
face), a set of functions that provide access to a client-server Relational Database Management
System [ RDBMS ], desktop database files, text files, and Excel worksheet files through ODBC
drivers. ODBC is most commonly used to connect to client/server databases, such as Microsoft
SQL Server, ORACLE, Visual FoxPro etc.

Create Profit & Loss A/c using ODBC

ODBC can be used to pull data from Tally to ODBC compatible software like MS Excel, MS Word
etc. The applications can be
Create documents in MS Word picking data from Tally. e.g Mailing Labels, Invitations,
Reminder Letters etc.
Create Profit & Loss A/c in MS Excel using data from Tally.

To Use ODBC in Tally, MS Office should be installed with MS Query

Module enabled. To pull data from Tally, the bottom portion of the Tally
screen should show ODBCServer in the portion where Calculator is dis-
played. This may not be visible in case another instance of the same
Tally.EXE runs separately.

110
 Administration

Create Profit & Loss A/c in MS Excel using data from Tally and refresh data whenever there
is a change in Tally Data.
1. Launch Tally and Select Acme Corporation
2. Open an Excel Workbook
3. Select Data > Import External Data > New Data Base Query

Figure 9.25 Database Query

4. Select Tally ODBC from Data Source screen and press OK

Figure 9.26 Choose Data Source screen

5. Select Ledger from Query Wizard to get data from all ledger masters created in Acme
Corporation.

111
 Administration

Figure 9.27 Query Wizard — Choose Columns screen

6. Double click Ledger and Select ‘$_Closing Balance’, ‘$Name’, ‘$Parent’ one by one
and arrange them in the following order in ‘Columns in your query’ and press next:
(This is to capture relevant information from each ledger)

Figure 9.28 Query Wizard - Choose Columns Screen

7. Select ‘$_ClosingBalance’ and set is Not Null as condition and press Next. This will
filter ledgers that have closing balance other than zero.

112
 Administration

Figure 9.29 Query Wizard — Filter Data screen

8. Select ‘$Parent’ and ‘$Name’ one by one to arrange captured ledgers in their groups
and names’ order. And press Next.

Figure 9.30 Query Wizard — Sort Order

9. The following screen will appear wherein check whether Return Data to Microsoft
Excel is marked and press Finish

113
 Administration

Figure 9.31 Query Wizard — Finish screen

10. If data is to be saved in any other cell except A1, click that cell or leave it as such and
then press OK.

Figure 9.32 Import Data Screen

11. After data gets captured from Tally, rename the sheet as Data.

114
 Administration

Figure 9.33 Data in Excel

12. Select next sheet and name it as ‘P&L Acc’. Create format of Profit & Loss A/c as
desired and capture name of ledgers and their balances by referring cell address from
‘Data’ sheet.

115
 Administration

Figure 9.34 Profit & Loss Account in Excel

13. Before saving the file, tick Refresh data on file open by selecting Data > Import
External Data > Data Range Properties. Save the file with name ‘P&L Acc’.

Figure 9.35 External Data Range Properties screen

116
 Administration

3.4.4 SQL server within Tally

Structured Query Language command (Select) can be issued within Tally for the tables exposed
by Tally to ODBC. This facility acts as a powerful query for Tally. If you wish to find a ledger with a
keyword anywhere in the name, then it is not possible to find it other than with the SQL command,
especially if the ledger does not have any opening balance not any transaction against it. This can
be used as a good auditing tool while auditing accounts.
The syntax of the Select command is as follows
Select {Method Names} from {Table Name} [Where {condition}] [order by {Expression}]

The table names and methods can be procured from tables as shown in
the ODBC interface of MS Excel or MS Word etc.

Sr. No Name Particulars

1 Ledger Ledger Master
2 Groups Group Master
3 StockItem Item Master
4 StockGroup Stock Group Master
5 Godown/Location Godown/Location Master
6 CompanyVouchers Vouchers for the current day
Some sample queries are
Select * from Ledger
Select $Name, $Parent, $ClosingBalance from Ledger order by $Parent
Select $Name from Ledger where $Name contains “Acme”
Select $Name from ODBCTABLES

117
Lesson 4: Data Synchronisation

Lesson Objectives
On completion of this lesson, you will be familiar with
Synchronizing using TallyLink Server
Synchronizing using IP Address
Configuring for Sychronization
Synchronizing Back-dated Vouchers

118
 Data Synchronisation

4.1 Introduction to Tally Data Synchronization

A number of businesses in the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) segment operate in
more than two locations. There is a need to update accounting and inventory information at all
locations to ensure that the business runs efficiently and successfully.

The frequency of data update depends on three important factors:

The volume of data generated across each location.
The need for having the latest updates readily available at each location.
The resources and cost involved in the update.

Data Synchronization refers to a process wherein data is replicated between two or more loca-
tions. It enables the branch offices to send data to the head office and vice versa, over the Internet
or a private network. Data Synchronization is a two-way process; i.e., all the data of masters and
transactions from the Client company (Branch) are copied to the Server (Head Office) and all the
similar data from the Server are copied to the Client.

Data Synchronization can be done by using either one of the following:

1. Tally.Net Server
2. A private network

Tally.Net Server allows data synchronisation through dedicated tally server with defined IP
available on a predefined port. In case of private network being used, data is synchronized using
the customer's own IP address.
The computer where Data Synchronization is initiated is termed as the Client and could have a
Single-User Tally License. The computer which has the data that is to be synchronized with the
Client's data is the Server and it must have a Multi-User License.

Advantages of Data Synchronisation

The highlights of Tally Data Synchronization are:
Simple, efficient and cost effective mechanism.
Simple installation and set-up.
Simultaneous update of data at both Server and Client.
Single click to update data.
Synchronization using TallyLink Server or a private network environment.
Synchronization over the Internet using a low bandwidth dial-up connection.
Adaptable to an occasionally connected environment.

119
 Data Synchronisation

4.1.1 System Requirements

The following set-up is recommended for efficient Data Synchronization.
Server
Hardware Set-up
Software Set-up
Internet Connectivity
Pentium IV and above, 512 MB RAM. Hard
disk space dependent on the data to be
stored.
Operating System: Windows 2000/2003/NT/
XP
An Internet connection via a cable modem or a
leased line would be ideal. A dial-up connec-
tion will also serve the purpose.

Client
Hardware Set-up
Software Set-up
Internet Connectivity
Pentium IV and above, 128
MB RAM.Hard disk space
dependant on the data to
be stored.
Operating System: Win-
dows 98/2000/2003/ME/
NT/XP
Internet connection at the
Client-end could be dial-
up, as connection is
required only when data
has to be synchronized

4.1.2 Precautions
1. Ensure that the same set of features are activated in F11: Features for both the companies at
the Client and Server.
2. Do not alter Accounting or Inventory masters. If altered, it will be updated as a new master dur-
ing synchronization. For example, the accounting master 'Rent' having one transaction for Rs.
2500/- is altered in the Client to 'Building Rent'. A new entry is made for Rs. 2000/-. After syn-
chronizing the data, in the Client, the ledger will be 'Building Rent' for Rs. 4500/- while in the
Server it will be updated as 'Rent' Rs. 2500/- and 'Building Rent' Rs. 2000/-. Thus, wherever
masters have been altered, the correction needs to be made manually in the Server and Client
systems.
3. Do not delete any vouchers using ALT+D. Instead, cancel the vouchers using ALT+X, which
ensures that the voucher remains in the system. Another option is to identify and delete the
voucher from both the Server and Client systems.
4. Do not use a back-up of company created and restore it at the other location for synchroniza-
tion. The data will not be synchronized as the GUID (Global Unique Identifier) of both the com-
panies will be the same.

120
 Data Synchronisation

4.2 Data Synchronization using Tally.NET

The Tally.Net server is used as a medium to transmit data between the Client and Server during
synchronization. Tally.Net Server is available on a public IP at a predefined port. In the latest
framework, to Synchronize data across server and client, it is essential to register and connect to
Tally.NET at Server (Tallygold / TallySilver) end.

The Synchronization process using Tally.NET Server involves the following steps:
Configure Server for Synchronization
Configure Client for Synchronization
Create Sync Rule on Client
Configure Tally.NET Features on Server
Register the Server Company on Tally.NET
Connect the Server Company to Tally.NET
Handshake Process from Client
Activate/Enable Sync Rule on Server

Data Sychronization in this document is illustrated using the example of a company, Acme Corpo-
ration which is the head office and its branch office, Acme Manufacturing Ltd., based in two
different locations.

Figure 4.1 Tally.ini file for Server Computer

121
 Data Synchronisation

Step 1: Configure Server for Synchronization

Edit the Tally.ini file in the Server Computer, add the following lines
1. ClientServer = Server and ServerPort = 9009, as shown. Indicating the system sta-
tus as server and specifying the port number.

Figure 4.2 Server Computer - Tally.ini file

2. Press Crtl+S to save the changes made to Tally.ini file.

Sync Configuration on Server:

Go to Gateway of Tally > F12:Configure > Connectivity > Sync Configuration
1. Set the option Ignore Clients modified Voucher Type Masters to No
2. Set the option Enable Sync Logging to Yes
3. Set the option Truncate previous log before Syncing to Yes

122
 Data Synchronisation

4. Enter your Tally Serial No. in the TallyLink Id field

Figure 4.3 Server Computer - F12: Tally Sync Configuration screen

5. Press Enter to save the details

Ignore Client’s modofied Voucher Type Masters is set to No, so that

modifications made on the Client to Voucher Type Masters are updated
on the Server.
Enable Sync Logging is set to Yes, to generate a Log file which con-
tains synchronised vouchers and is saved in the Tally folder.
Truncate previous log before Syncing is set to Yes, to allow the pre-
vious log file to be overwritten by the current log.
TallyLinkid: Enter the required link ID in this field. This is a user defined
ID and cannot be changed once defined and registered with Tally
Server. It is case sensitive. Ideally, Tally Serial Number is used as the
LinkID.

Step 2: Configure Client for Synchronization

Edit the Tally.ini file in the Client Computer, add the following line

123
 Data Synchronisation

1. ClientServer = Client

Figure 4.4 Tally.ini file-Client Computer

2. Press Crtl+S to save the changes to Tally.ini file

Sync Configuration on Client

Go to Gateway of Tally > F12:Configure > Connectivity > Sync Configuration
1. Set the option Ignore Servers modified Voucher Type Masters to No
2. Enter your Tally Serial No. in the TallyLink Id field

124
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.5 Client computer - F12: Tally Sync Configuration screen

3. Press Enter to save the details.

Step 3: Create Sync Rule on Client

Select the Company for which the data needs to be synchronized on the client computer
Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization > Client Rules > Create

1. Enter Sync with HO in the Name of Rule field

2. Set Use Tally.NET Server to Yes
3. Enter the Link Id in the TallyLink Id field, which is already selected
4. Synchronize is selected in Type of Rule field by default, enter Acme Corporation in
the Company Name on Server field
5. Select Yes for Synchronize Altered Transactions
6. Select Yes for Sync over slow connection

125
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.6 Client Rule Creation screen

7. Press Enter to save the Client Rule screen

The Company Name on server should be same as the Connect Name

given for the Server Company.

Step 4: Configure Tally.NET Features on Server

Go to Gateway of Tally > F11:Company Features > F4: Tally.NET Features on the server
computer

1. Enter Acme Corporation in the Connect Name field

2. Enter the Contact Person Name and Contact Number in the respective fields
3. Set the option Allow to Connect Company to Yes
4. Set the option Connect on Load to Yes
5. Select 85681 as SMS Short Code

126
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.7 Tally.NET Features - Server Company

6. Accept to save

Connect Name: The user can specify any Connect Name for the com-
pany to be connected, as per his requirements. This should be same as
the name given in the client company.
Allow to Connect Company: This option allows the user to enable the
company to get connected for remote access.
Connect on Load: This options allows the company to get connected
by default when the company is loaded.
SMS Short Code: Based on the Short codes, the request will be served
from the Company Moble Access.

127
 Data Synchronisation

It is mandatory to enable Security Controls in Company Creation master

for Tally.NET features to be available in Tally. If Security Controls feature is
not enabled, go to Company Alteration (Alt+F3) screen and enable the
same for proceeding further.

Step 5: Register the Server Company on Tally.NET

Go to Gateway of Tally > Alt+N: Tally.NET> Register Company on the server computer
1. Highlight the Company to be registered for Tally.NET services using arrow keys from
the list of Companies.
2. Select the Company by pressing Spacebar as shown.

Figure 4.8 Tally.NET Registration screen - Server Company

3. Press Ctrl+A to register the Company

128
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.9 Registration Response Status Message screen

4. Press Esc to proceed.

Step 6: Connect the Server Company to Tally.NET Server

Go to Gateway of Tally > Alt+N: Tally.NET> Connect Company on the server computer
1. Highlight the Company to be connected for Synchronization using Tally.NET Server
using arrow keys from the List of Companies.
2. Select the Company by pressing Spacebar as shown.

129
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.10 Tally.NET Connect Company screen

3. Press Ctrl+A to Connect the Company

130
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.11 Company Connection status message

On Successful connection, the Connection Status is displayed in the Calculator panel

Step 7: Hand Shake Process from Client

Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization > Synchronize

131
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.12 Handshake Process from Client

The Synchronization status is displayed in the Calculator panel.

Step 8: Activate/Enable Sync Rule on Server

Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization > Server Rules > Activate
1. Select the required rule from the List of Rules based on the Client Company Name
as shown

132
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.13 Server Rule Selection screen

2. Press Enter to select the Rule

3. In the Server Rule Activation screen,
Set Is Active to Yes to activate the Rule
Select Yes for Synchronize Altered Transactions

Figure 4.14 Server Rule Alteration screen

You can continue using the Synchronization once Server rule is activated. Post data Sync, server
displays the status in the calculator panel as shown.

133
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.15 Sync success message on Server

4.3 Synchronization — Private Network

Customers having their own IP address and a high bandwidth can synchronize data without
routing it through the TallyLink Server.
4.3.1 Configuring for Synchronization
Server Configuration
Step 1: Same as when done using the TallyLink Server.
Step 2: F12:Configuration
Go to Gateway of Tally > F12: Configure > Connectivity > Sync Configuration

134
 Data Synchronisation

The F12:Configuration screen appears as shown below:

Figure 4.16 Sync Configuration Screen on Server

Ensure that Use TallyLink is set to No (this option is set to No by default).

Client Configuration
Step 1: Same as when done using the TallyLink Server.
Step 2: F12:Configuration
The Sync Configuration screen appears as shown below:

Figure 4.17 Sync Configuration Screen on Client

Ensure that Use TallyLink is set to No (this option is set to No by default).

4.3.2 Procedure for Synchronization

Create Client Rule on the Client system. This is a one-time set-up required to initiate synchroni-
zation.
Select the company you wish to synchronize on the client computer
Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization > Client Rules > Create

The Client Rule Creation screen appears as shown below:

135
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.18 Client Rule Creation Screen

Name of Field Action / Description

Name of Rule Give a name for the Client Rule. E.g.
Sync with HO.
Use TallyLinkServer? This field will be skipped, when a per-
sonal IP address is being used.

136
 Data Synchronisation

Server URL Give the IP Address/Machine name of

the Server along with the port number.
E.g. 127.0.0.1 : 12450
I P Address Port Number
To find the URL when using Windows 98
and above,
Start > Run > type ‘cmd’ > type ‘ipconfig’
If using Windows 95, follow this option
Start > Run > type ‘cmd’ > type ‘winipcfg
If you are using a web page as a pass-
through for synchronization, you can
specify the page URL. For example, you
can specify 192.168.1.64/tallysync.asp
as the Server URL.
(Please read the section on Pass-
Through page for further information)
Secure Server This option allows you to specify
whether the Server is listening in secure
mode. (Refer Security Issues:https to be
used instead of http for synchronization)
When we use https, we necessarily need
to have a pass-through page in between
the Server and the Client. Please read
the section on Pass-Through page for
further details.
User Name If required
Password If required
Use Compression Set this option to Yes to compress the
data for faster synchronization. This also
enhances security of data during syn-
chronization.
Type of Rule Choose Synchronize
Company Name on Server Specify the company name available on
the Server to which the vouchers from
Client will be synchronized; in this case,
Acme Corporation.
Synchronize Altered Transac- Set this option to Yes if you want altered
tions? transactions to get synchronized.
Sync over slow connection? By setting this option to Yes, the syn-
chronization will be carried out for one
packet (of 25 vouchers) at a time.
Company GUID on Server Displays the GUID and name of the
company on Client that requested the
synchronization.

137
 Data Synchronisation

Name of Field Action / Description

Current TID Displays the voucher ID of the last
voucher of the remote company that was
successfully saved in the current com-
pany (of course, as a part of the sync
process).
Altered TID Displays the Alter ID of the last voucher
of the remote company that was suc-
cessfully saved in the current company
(of course, as a part of the sync proc-
ess).
Is Active This field indicates whether the client
rule is activated on the server. It cannot
be edited.

The other steps for synchronization on the Client and Server Computer are similar to Synchroni-
zation using TallyLink Server.
To view the details of the activation, go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization
> Server Rules > Alter. Select the rule from a drop-down list.
The Server Rules Activation screen appears as shown below in Figure 4.19.

Figure 4.19 Server Rule Activation Screen

138
 Data Synchronisation

Figure below shows the number of vouchers and masters. There is a mismatch between statistics
of Client and Server as synchronization has not been done. Once the data is synchronised, the
Statement of Statistics would appear as shown in Figure 4.20.

Figure 4.20 Screen Before Synchronization

139
 Data Synchronisation

Figure 4.21 Screen after Synchronization

4.3.3 Security Issues

Since data is not encrypted by default during synchronization, you can enhance security by using
https in the pass-through web page.

4.3.4 Web page as a pass-through

A web page is specified as a pass-through in the following circumstances.
When a Web Server and Tally Server reside on the same machine which connects to the
Internet and only Port 80 (Default port for the Internet) is made available for security rea-
sons. In this scenario, run Tally on a specific port (say 9090) and develop a web page
which redirects all responses to this port.
When it is not desirable to have Tally outside the firewall, a web pass-through page can
then be used to connect to the Tally Server within the firewall.
When users do not want to reveal the real path to the Tally Server, a pass-through page
can be used to direct to a virtual directory.

4.3.5 Troubleshooting
Error messages on Server when using IP Address

140

Error Messages
<LINEERROR> Could not
set ‘SVCurrent Company’
to <server company>
</LINEERROR>
Socket Error
Error messages on Client when using IP address
Error Messages
Failed to Post to: http://
ipaddress:tallyport/
Tally Server reported pos-
sible problems during
Sync
Tally.imp file in the Tally folder contains details of all the vouchers syn-
chronized and also the errors (if any) which occurred during synchroniza-
tion.
Cause
Occurs if the company is not
loaded on the server
Occurs if Client connectivity
is broken during synchroni-
zation
Cause
Occurs if Tally Client is not
able to access Tally Server
Occurs if the connectivity is
broken during synchroniza-
tion
Data Synchronisation
Solution
Load the company from
Gateway of Tally on the
server
Check connectivity and
ensure that Tally Client is
running
Solution
1. Check connectivity
2. Check whether Tally
Server is running (Open
your web browser and type
in the address bar, http://
serveripaddress:tallyport/.
You will get an HTML/XML
response)
1. Check connectivity
2. Check whether Tally
Server is running (Open
your web browser and type
in the address bar, http://
serveripaddress:tallyport/.
You will get an HTML/XML
response)
141
 Data Synchronisation

4.4 Principle of ‘Synchronization in Tally’

Tally ensures that all masters required to save a transaction are moved along with the transaction.
This includes Ledgers, Groups, Stock Items, Units of Measures, Currencies and so on. This
essentially makes synchronization both a user-friendly operation and error free.
After the first instance of synchronization, alterations in source transactions are reflected in sub-
sequent synchronization.
The Server Company maintains the Current Transaction ID (Current TID) and Altered Transaction
ID (Altered TID) values of Client company in its Server Rule. Similarly, the Client company
maintains the Current TID and Altered TID values of the Server company in its Client Rule.
When synchronization begins, the Client sends its previous Current TID and Altered TID values of
the Server as per its Rule to the Server and the Server checks whether the Current TID and
Altered TID are the latest as per its data. If not, the Server will respond with all vouchers having
the Current TID/Altered TID greater than incoming Rule values. These vouchers will be imported
into the Client. Thus, the synchronization will be complete and all data on the Client are updated
on the Server and vice-versa.

The Current TID of a voucher is generated when a new voucher is entered

and does not change when the voucher is altered. The Current TID is used
by Tally to determine if any new transactions have been created at the
remote end since the last synchronization.
The Altered TID of a voucher is generated each time the voucher is altered
or re-accepted. The Altered TID value is dynamic and is used by Tally to
determine if any transactions have been altered at the remote end since the
last synchronization.

4.5 Synchronizing back-dated vouchers

Tally maintains Current TID and Altered TID of the Client company along with the Server/Client
Rules. Synchronizing back-dated vouchers would mean updating these IDs in the Server
company.
The problem of updating these IDs are compounded if you have set up synchronization between
companies having a large amount of data.
The initial synchronization can take a long time over the Internet.
The Client computer is also likely to display an out of memory error.
Besides, if you do the synchronization in the middle of the year, the masters without any transac-
tions in them will not be synchronized.

In such cases, there are two options available to proceed with synchronization.
Option 1: Export data of the source company (in XML format) to a disk file and import the same
into the target company. Perform the following steps to ensure a proper update of Remote IDs in
the corresponding rules.

142
 Data Synchronisation

When the Client sends data to the Server:

1. Create a Client Rule.
2. Select Synchronize on Client which creates the corresponding Server Rule.
3. Activate the Server Rule.
4. DO NOT synchronize again. Instead export all masters (in XML format) from the Client to the
disk file.
5. Export all vouchers (in XML format) from the Client to the disk file.
6. Import the masters into the Server from the disk file.
7. Import the transactions into the Server from the disk file.
8. The Current TID and Altered TID of the last imported voucher are updated in the Server Rule.
9. Subsequent Current TIDs and Altered TIDs would be incremental.
10.If you wish to synchronize over a LAN or Internet, you can send one packet of 25 transactions
at a time by selecting Sync over slow connection in the Client Rule. This will avoid out of
memory errors.

When the Client retrieves data from the Server:

1. Create a Client Rule.
2. Select Synchronize on Client which creates a corresponding Server Rule on the Server.
3. Activate the Server Rule.
4. DO NOT synchronize again. Instead export all masters (in XML format) from the Server to the
disk file.
5. Export all transactions (in XML format) from the Server to the disk file.
6. Import the masters into Client.
7. Import the transactions into the Client from the disk file. Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of
Data > Synchronization > Client Rules > Import Initial
Option 2: When substantial data exist at both Client and Server, you have the option to update
the Server and Client by creating a snapshot file at the source and importing them to the destina-
tion computer.

The process to update the Server is as follows:

1. Create the Client Rule.
2. Choose Synchronize to activate the option Export/ Import Snapshot.
3. Export the snapshot at Client. Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data > Synchronization >
Client Rules > Alter.
4. Choose the rule from a drop-down list and click Export Snapshot on the button bar.
5. Copy the snapshot file to a CD.
6. Activate the Server Rule.
7. Import the snapshot file from the CD at the Server. Go to Gateway of Tally > Import of Data >
Synchronization > Server Rules > Alter
8. Choose the rule from a drop-down list and click Import Snapshot on the button bar.
The process has to be reversed to update the Client.

143