Tally has been the accounting system of Indian business for decades. Most CAs know it, most accountants were trained on it, and many businesses have ten or fifteen years of data in it. Moving away is a serious decision, and it should be planned like one.
Businesses move for different reasons: they want the owner and staff to work on phones from anywhere, they want billing, stock, purchase and staff in one place, or they want answers without waiting for the accountant to run a report. Whatever the reason, the steps of a good move are the same.
01Decide what you are moving
There are three layers of data in Tally:
- Masters: ledgers (customers, suppliers, expenses, banks), stock items, units, godowns, cost centres, tax details.
- Balances: the closing balance of every ledger and every stock item on a date.
- Transactions: every voucher: sales, purchase, receipt, payment, journal, stock journal.
For most businesses, the right move is masters and balances, plus open items. Transactions stay in Tally for reference.
02Pick the cut-off date
The cleanest date is the start of a financial year, 1 April, after the previous year's books are final. The next choice is the start of a quarter, such as 1 July or 1 October, after that quarter's GST returns are filed.
A mid-month cut-off is possible, but it splits a GST return period between two systems. Avoid it unless there is a strong reason.
03Clean up before you move
A move is a good chance to fix old problems. Before the cut-off:
- Merge duplicate ledgers,
- such as "Tile Trader, Rajkot", "Tile Traders, Rajkot" and "M/s Tile Trader, Rajkot" kept as three ledgers.
- Close dormant ledgers
- with zero balance and no transactions for two years.
- Check GSTINs and states
- on every customer and supplier ledger.
- Clean stock items
- consistent names, units, HSN codes and GST rates.
- Clear suspense and miscellaneous balances
- with your CA.
- Reconcile bank accounts
- up to the cut-off date.
A long-running Tally company often holds far more ledgers than the business uses. If a Ludhiana textile trader has 2,300 ledgers and 1,100 have not been used for three years, moving only the active 1,200 roughly halves the clean-up work.
04What to take across
Customers and suppliers
Name, address, state, GSTIN, phone, email, credit period, and the closing balance on the cut-off date.
Open invoices
For customers and suppliers with balances, take the list of unpaid bills, with bill number, date, amount and amount outstanding. Without this, you know a dealer owes ₹3,40,000 but not which bills make it up, and collection becomes guesswork. Tally's bill-wise details, where they were kept, give you this list.
Stock
Each item with name, unit, HSN, GST rate, selling rate, and quantity and value on the cut-off date, by godown if you have more than one. Count stock on the cut-off date to make sure the Tally figure is real. See stock counting.
Other balances
Cash, each bank account, loans, advances paid and received, GST balances (input credit carried forward, any tax payable), TDS and fixed assets. Your CA should sign off this list before it is entered.
05Getting data out of Tally
Tally can export reports and masters in formats such as Excel and XML. Common reports to export at the cut-off date:
- List of ledgers with balances
- Bill-wise outstanding for customers and suppliers
- Stock summary with quantities and values, by godown
- List of stock items with HSN and GST details
Check every export against Tally's own totals. A spreadsheet that drops 40 rows without warning is a common problem.
06Entering data in the new system
How data goes in depends on the new software. Some take spreadsheets, some need entries by hand, and some vendors do it for you. Ask the vendor exactly what they can bring in, and in what format, before you sign. If only some data can be imported, plan who will type the rest and how long it will take.
07Run a parallel month
For the first month after the cut-off, consider recording key transactions in both systems, or at least comparing the main figures at month end: sales, purchases, GST, customer and supplier totals and stock. Once a month matches, stop using Tally for new entries.
08Keep the old data
Do not delete your Tally data. Keep a full backup in at least two places and keep a working copy you can open. Under the CGST Act, accounts and records are kept for 72 months from the due date of the annual return for the year they relate to, and income-tax law has its own requirements. Your CA will tell you how long to keep each year.
09Tell your CA early
Your CA may file returns and finalise accounts from Tally data. Agree before you move:
- How they will get data from the new system: a login of their own, exports, or reports
- Who will finalise the last year in Tally
- How GST returns for the transition period will be prepared
10What can go wrong
- Balances that do not match
- because entries were made in Tally after the cut-off. Lock the old books.
- Missing open bills,
- so customers are shown wrong balances.
- Stock values that differ
- from the count.
- Staff who keep using Tally
- because it is familiar. Set a date after which no new entries go into it.
11For larger businesses
A company with several branches and Tally data in each should move one branch first, learn from it, and then move the rest. Allow two to three months for the whole move, and assign one person from accounts to own it.
MatruOS brings Tally data across: Tally Link reads straight from TallyPrime, company by company, or you give it an XML or Excel export. Customers and suppliers with GSTIN and opening balances, stock items with HSN and GST rate, and invoices and bills from the day book come across, and you check each record before it goes live. Your Tally data is not changed. See Move from Tally to MatruOS.