What is tally?
Tally is popularly known as accounting software for small and medium businesses.
It does all the functions of accounting that a particularly midsized business
has. This is the view of most of the persons who know about Tally.
But Tally does much more than that.
Tally is not just accounting software. After the release of ERP
version of Tally, the capability and functioning of Tally is much more widened
and extended to a great extent.
For example you know that you can
maintain
Employees information in Tally?
Right from his/her name to
everything about duties, work, profile, groups and so on. This is could be a
great feature if a business has a number of employees working in the business.
This was just one example and
there are hundreds of examples we can give you about Tally like the one above.
So exactly what is Tally?
Now along with the introduction
of GST (Goods
and Services Tax) in India, Tally will be used by more people than
before.
The reason for this is for most
of the general public, Tally is a go to software for accounting and that is
because of the simplicity of the Tally
in itself.
Why we were asking this question,
“What is Tally?” You want to know
whether it is accounting software
and whether you
can successfully do your work in Tally.
For your ease, I have
broken down the whole explanation into different parts.
What is Tally?
Well, Tally is a complete Enterprise Resource planning
system with an excellent grip in accounting features.
Although it has many more core
features that a business requires but its hold in accounting is truly
commendable. Therefore Tally is known more for accounting rather than
any other of its features.
If I have to mention a single
software for a business need even if the business is just starting out, Tally
is the one which I would recommend.
The reason for this
recommendation is because Tally does all the things that a business at a time of starting up requires.
And, not just business, but you
can use Tally for your personal accounting also.
For example, let’s say, you are a
salaried person and have investments in shares, mutual funds and some other
real estate investments.
Ø
You can easily pass entries for your monthly
salaries. – Receipt
Entry
Ø
Easily pass the entries for Stock Market and
Mutual Fund Investments (along with capital gains) – Stock Market Entries
Ø
You can also pass entries for investments in
Real Estate. – Normal
Payment Entry
And the best thing is that you do not have to
prepare Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss Account or any of the
reports because they are automatically prepared while you are passing the entries.
Now let’s say for an example, if
you are starting up a business of a general store, what would you require?
Ø Accounting
Ø Billing
Ø Sales and
profit analysis
Ø Banking
Ø Inventory
Ø Taxation (GST,
VAT, TDS, TCS)
I have brainstormed the needs of a newly opened general
store which are all covered by Tally.
There are even more functions than this like Audit, Payroll,
Manufacturing and so on which if needed can be used.
This was just an example of a general store and almost any
business which requires software for its functioning; Tally can be a best fit.
I will now take you to a mesmerizing journey through the
core features of Tally and will also explain some of the core features of
Tally.
You can learn about the features and uses or you can simply
go and start
learning Tally for free since now, you know the basic meaning of Tally.
Learn How to Use Tally:
Core Features of Tally
I’ve discussed some of the very
core features or you can say some of the important functionality of Tally here.
The features are listed without giving any specific rank to them.
I am sure you will like the detailed listing of some of the
amazing features of Tally.
This is like an introductory guide for a first time reader
if you have not heard about Tally before or just heard a little bit about
Tally.
Accounting in Tally
Of course, accounting is the main function of Tally and
that is what it is known for.
The first word that comes in the mind of a person when
hearing about Tally is accounting.
Accounting is a basic function
of Tally and most people do not ever use any other functions other than
accounting in Tally. At the most they will use Inventory management and some of
the Taxation features.
Accounts book
Because many people do not exactly know how to use those
features and in many cases they do not even require them.
If we particularly talk about accounting, Tally has
segmented it further in 6 different functions. They are:
Ø Contra (Only
for cash and bank related entries)
Ø Payment (For
payment entries)
Ø Receipt (For
receipt entries)
Ø Journal (For
entries which doesn’t include cash or bank and for closing entries)
Ø Sales (For
sales billing)
Ø Purchases (For
purchase billing)
Ø Credit Note and
Debit Notes (For Sales Return, Purchase Return and Discount Entries)
There are many more functions
related to accounting like Manufacturing Journal , Reverse Journal, Delivery Notes, Receipt Notes. Memos and so on
which helps in performing accounting entries in an easy way.
Let’s go to billing!
Billing in Tally
Billing is an
inevitable part of any business and it’s care is duly taken by Tally.
Actually billing is included in Accounting feature discussed
above but it has somewhat a separate function rather than accounting.
The best thing in Tally is that when you create a billing
entry you do not have to create again an accounting entry for that bill.
This reduces redundancy in entering a big amount of data.
So if you are having a shop and you do billing from Tally,
you or your accountant do not have to again perform accounting for the same
bills as it already done by you.
I’ve discussed the above technique in detail in another
article.
