introduction

1 Introduction Tally.ERP 9 is the world's fastest and most powerful concurrent Multi-lingual business Accounting and  Inventory Management software. Tally.ERP 9, designed exclusively to meet the needs of small and medium businesses, is a fully integrated, affordable and highly reliable software. Tally.ERP 9 is easy to buy, quick to install, and easy to learn and use. Tally.ERP 9 is designed to automate and integrate all yourbusiness operations, such as sales, finance, purchasing, inven- tory, and manufacturing. With Tally.ERP 9,accurate, up-todate business information is literally at your fingertips anywhere. The powerful new features and blazing speed and power of Tally.ERP 9 combined with enhanced MIS, Multi-lingual, Data Synchronization and Remote capabilities help you simplify all your business processes easily and cost-effectively. 2.1.1 Salient Features of Tally.ERP 9 ‡       A leading accounting package: The first version of Tally was released in 1988 and, through continuous development, is now recognised as one of the leading accounting packages across the world, with over a quarter million customers.   Tally’s MARKET share is more than 90%. ‡       No accounting codes: Unlike other computerised accounting packages which require numeric  codes, Tally.ERP 9 pioneered the ‘no accounting codes’ concept. Tally.ERP 9 users have the freedom to allocate meaningful names in plain English to their data items in the system.

‡       Complete business solution: Tally.ERP 9 provides a comprehensive solution to the accountingand inventory needs of a business. The package comprises FINANCIAL account- ing,  book-keeping and inventory accounting. It also has various tools to extract, interpret and present data. ‡       Integrated/ Non-integrated accounting and inventory: With Tally.ERP 9, the user is able to choose between accounting and accounting with inventory. If accounting with inventory is opted for, the user can choose whether it should be integrated or not. ‡       Flexible and easy to use: Tally.ERP 9 is very flexible. It mimics the human thought proc- ess, which means that Tally.ERP 9 can adapt to any business need. Tally.ERP 9 users need not change the way their business is run to adapt to the package. ‡       Speed : Tally.ERP 9 provides the capability to generate instant and accurate reports, which assists the management to take timely and correct decisions for the overall productivity and growth of the company. ‡       Power : Tally.ERP 9 allows the user to maintain multiple companies and with unlimited lev- els of classification & grouping capabilities. It also allows drill downfacility from report level to transaction level. ‡       Flexibility : Tally.ERP 9 provides flexiblity to generate instant reports for any given period (month/year) or at any point of time besides providing the facility to toggle between Accounting & Inventory reports of the same company or between companies. ‡       Concurrent multi-lingual capability : Tally.ERP 9 offers you the exclusive capability of maintaining your accounts in any Indian language, viewing them in another language and printing them in yet another Indian language. ‡       Real time processing : Immediate posting & updation of books of accounts as soon as the transactions are entered, thereby facilitating instant statements & Reports. It also faciliaties real-time multi-user environment. ‡       Versatility: Tally.ERP 9 is suitable for a range of organisations, from small grocery stores to large corporations with international locations and operations. ‡       Multi-platform availability: Tally.ERP 9 is available on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and NT. It runs on a single PC or on a network. On a network, it supports access via any            com- bination of platforms. ‡       Online Help :    The Tally.ERP 9 Online Help (Alt+H) provides instant assistance on basic and advanced features or any other relevant topics of Tally.ERP 9. ‡       Tally.NET : is an enabling framework which establishes a connection through which the remote user can access the Client's data without copying / transferring the data. ‡       Remote Access : Tally.ERP 9 provides remote capabilities to access the data from any- where and anytime. ‡       Control Centre : works as an interface between the user and Tally.ERP 9 installed at differ- ent sites and enables the user to centrally configure and administer Site/User belonging to an account. ‡       Support Centre : allows a user to directly post his support queries on the functional and technical aspects of the Product.

‡        Auditor's Edition : Tally.ERP 9 offers a special Auditors' Edition of Tally.ERP 9, which pro- vides auditing and compliance capabilities exclusively for Chartered Accountants.

2.1.2 Functional Features of Tally.ERP 9 BASIC ACCOUNTING BASIC INVENTORY Complete book-keeping Stock categories Books, registers and statements of accounts Stock query by STOCK group, or STOCK cate- gory General ledgers Multiple godowns Accounts receivable and accounts payable Stock transfers to godowns and branches Flexible voucher numbering Multiple stock valuation methods Flexible classification of account heads Batch-wise/ Lot-wise, includingexpiry date handling Panoramic view Alternate units of measure and tail units. Drill-down display Tracking through receipt notes/ delivery notes/ rejections inwards/ rejections out- wards Database reporting Additional costs incurred on purchase Voucher and cheque printing Movement/ Profitability analysis Party- wise/ Item-wise/ Stock Group-wise Columnar reports Customisable sales invoices using price lists with multiple prices Bank reconciliation Sales and purchase order processing ADVANCED ACCOUNTING ADVANCED INVENTORY Multiple companies Stock items classified as raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods Multi-currency Bill of Material with auto-adjustment of stocks Multiple FINANCIAL years Job-working concepts, including sub-con- tracting Comparison of data using multi-columnar reporting. Additional cost of manufacturingwith notional value and percentage Memo vouchers CENVAT support Post-dated vouchers Reorder levels User-defined voucher types Stock ageing analysis Sales and purchase extracts Batch related STOCK reports Cash flow statement Point of Sale (POS) Daily balances and transaction values/Interest calculations Excise/ VAT/ Central Sales Tax (CST)/ Tax Collected at Source(TCS) related Inventory transactions and reports Percentage-based reporting Ratio analysis Value Added Tax (VAT) Service Tax (ST) Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) Tax Collected at Source (TCS) Excise Payroll

2.1.3 Technology Advantages ‡       Simple and rapid installation: Tally.ERP 9 has a simple, menu-driven installation proce- dure. The user can install the program files on any drive if the hard disk has partitions. The user can alsospecify the name and directory location of the program files. Tally.ERP 9 uses minimum hard disk space in the local drive. Its installation on the local disk takes just a few seconds. ‡       Unlimited multi-user support: A multi-user version of Tally.ERP 9 can be installed on a network,having any number of computers with different operating systems such as Win 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP and Linux. ‡       Internal backup/ restore: Tally.ERP 9 has an in-built, user-friendly ‘backup and restore’ option. Ithelps the user to take a backup of one or more companies or all companies, in a single directory, in the local hard disk, or in any external media. ‡       Data reliability: Tally.ERP 9 offers reliable data. It uses a flexi-field, flexi-length, self- indexed, weighted file structure for an extremely compact and fast database. Tally.ERP 9 is robust and even if there is a power failure or the computer is incorrectly shut down, data is not lost. Tally.ERP 9uses  signalling quality data integrity checks, at regular levels, to ensure the complete reliability of data. ‡       User-defined security levels: Tally.ERP 9 offers high levels of security. Users can define multiple levels of security according to their requirements. Every authorised user in the company can have an individual password, with rights to use specific features only. The user with the administrator level password will have full access and can set controls for other users. ‡       Data security: Tally.ERP 9’s data integrity checks ensure that there are no external changes to the data. Tally.ERP 9 also uses a binary encoding format of storage to prevent devious grouping of information. ‡       Tally audit: The Tally.ERP 9 audit feature provides the user with administrator rights and the capability to check the entries made by the authorised users and alter these entries, if necessary. Once the entries are audited, Tally.ERP 9 displays the altered entries, if any, along with the nameof the user, who has altered the entry, and the date and time of the alteration. ‡        TallyVault: Tally.ERP 9 offers a data encryption option called TallyVault. Without the valid TallyVault password, the data cannot be accessed. Tally.ERP 9 follows the DES (Data Encryption Standard) encryption method to safeguard the data. ‡        Removal of data into a separate company: Tally.ERP 9 allows users to maintain a com- pany for any number of FINANCIAL years. Once the books of accounts have been completed for the earlier financial years, the user can split the company data into multiple companies as per financial periods required. Tally.ERP 9 also has a feature to split company data. The user can specify the date from which the company has to be split and Tally.ERP 9 will split the company to form two companies as  per periods specified. Once the data has been split, the closing balance of the first period (first company) becomes the opening balance for the next period (second company). ‡        Multi-directory for company management: The user can create multiple directories to store data. The data stored in these directories can be accessed directly in Tally.ERP 9, by specifying the path. ‡        Import/ Export of data: Any transaction can be exported and imported to other software after suitably altering the current structures to accept the Tally.ERP 9 data structure. Data can also be imported to Tally.ERP 9 by writing a TDL program. The data which is to be exported from Tally.ERP 9 can be in XML, HTML or ASCII format. ‡        Tally.ERP 9 Synchronization: Synchronization is the process of exchanging Tally.ERP 9 data between two or more locations. This process enables a branch office to send its data to the head office, over the Internet or a private network. ‡        Graphical analysis of data: Tally.ERP 9 provides graphical analysis of data which helps the user to perform deeper analysis. The user can generate graphical analysis reports such as Sales register, Purchase register, Ledgers, FUNDS flow, Cash flow, Stock Item registers and so on. This helps the management to quickly judge performance and be better pre- pared for difficult times. ‡        ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) compliance: It allows other programs to use data from Tally.ERP 9, directly. Thus, any program such as MS-Excel or Oracle, which is ODBC compliant, can use data from Tally.ERP 9. Data connectivity is dynamic, which means that any update in Tally.ERP 9 is reflected in real time in other  ODBC compliant software. The user can also extract data from Tally.ERP 9 and design his/ her own report formats in other ODBC compliant software. #                    Protocol support: Tally.ERP 9 provides protocol support for HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, ODBC  and raw sockets with data interchange formats such as XML, HTML with XML islands, SOAP and related formats. Protocol refers to a mechanism by which information (data) can be put into or taken fromTally.ERP 9. Formats refer to the standard for informa- tion to be generated from Tally.ERP 9 or from other applications which can exchange data with Tally.ERP 9. ‡        Direct web browser access: While working on Tally.ERP 9, the user can directly log on to the Tally website, provided he/ she has access to the Internet. The website lists details of all the facilitiesoffered by Tally.ERP 9. The user can also download the latest release of Tally.ERP 9 as and when it is available. The Tally website also offers Tally Chat, by which a user can communicate with a Tally representative and get required information. ‡       Ability to preview and publish reports and documents on the Internet: Companies which want to publish reports and price lists on their website can do so directly from Tally.ERP 9. ‡       E-mail Facility: Tally.ERP 9 facilitates the mailing of any Tally.ERP 9 report or document. ‡       Multilingual capability: Tally is the world's first accounting and inventory software with multilingualcapability. Currently, Tally.ERP 9’s multilingual capability extends to 12 lan- guages which includenine Indian languages (Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Mar- athi, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali), Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia. Tally.ERP 9 enables you to enter data in one language and have it transliterated into different lan- guages. Youcan generate invoices, purchase orders or delivery notes in the language of your choice after entering data for the same in any of the nine specified languages. Also, the phonetic keyboard allows you to spell the term phonetically based on how it sounds and Tally.ERP 9 displays the data in the language selected after transliteration. ‡       Point of Sale (POS) : POS is an acronym for Point of sale. Point of Sale can be a retail out- let, a check out counter ina shop, or any other location where a sales transaction takes place. It is a computorised cash register which adds up the sales totals, calcutates the bal- ance to be returned to buyer and automatically adjusts the inventory level to reflect the quantity sold. The equipment required for POS to work effectively are cash registers, card readers, bar-code scanners and so on.

2.1.4 Payroll Tally.ERP 9 Payroll is integrated with Accounting and benefits the user by simplifying Payroll processing and accounting. Tally.ERP 9 Payroll enables users to set up and implement salary structures, ranging from simple to complex, as per the organisation’s requirements. The user can also align and automate payroll processes and directly integrate them with main stream account- ing applications.  Tally.ERP 9Payroll also supports configurable formats for payslip printing; flexible salary/wage, attendance, leave and overtime registers; gratuity and expat reports. 2.1.5 Data Migration Capability Tally.ERP 9 has the ideal solution for those who have their data in Tally 7.2 and now want to use Tally.ERP 9. Tally.ERP 9 provides a migration tool which helps the user to migrate the data easily to the latestversion and continue with day-to-day transactions. Tally 6.3 users can also use the migration tool which will rewrite the version to Tally 7.2 and then migrate the data to Tally.ERP 9. Tally 8.1 users and Tally 9 Release 2.14 users can rewrite the version of their data to Tally.ERP 9.

2.1.6 Features pertaining to Duties and Taxes ‡        The all-new package provides statutory reporting capability for VAT (Value Added Tax), CompositeVAT, CST (Central Sales Tax), TDS (Tax Deducted at Source), ST (Service tax), TCS (Tax Collected at Source), FBT (Fringe Benefit Tax). ‡        State-specific statutory VAT returns and Annexures ‡        Various CST related reports ‡        Returns and challans for Service Tax ‡        TCS enabled with e-TCS capability, with facility for printing certificates/ challans ‡        Composition Monthly VAT Return ‡        Quarterly Return – Form II, in the case of Excise Dealer ‡        Periodic FBT Challans and Returns