Every business needs to place its accounting and finances at a level of priority. That’s why all businesses need to keep accurate accounts.
If the information is entered wrongly, especially with a computer software, then the accounts will definitely go wrong. Remember the GIGO rule: put garbage in and you get garbage out. You can’t blame your computer!
Tally.ERP 9 is here to help you avoid those errors. As one of the powerful accounting software today, it is a very simple tool that is worth its raves.
This is a beginner level introduction to Tally ERP 9. It’ll teach you how to use Tally ERP 9 in plain and simple language, explaining into details some of the outstanding features of this package.
What is Tally ERP 9?
Tally ERP 9 is an Enterprise Resource Planning software that provides enterprise solutions such as accounting, inventory management, tax management, payroll etc.
Tally ERP 9 is said to be the world’s fastest and most powerful concurrent Multi-lingual enterprise software designed exclusively to meet the needs of both small and medium-sized businesses.
Starting Tally ERP 9
In order to use software, you first of all need to get it ready for use by starting or launching the program.
Below are the three ways you can successfully launch Tally ERP 9 to get it ready for use.
- Using the Desktop icon: Double-click the desktop shortcut that Tally created during installation.
- Using the Windows Taskbar: I think this is the fastest way to launch Tally ERP 9. All it takes is to click its icon on the Windows taskbar, as shown in the picture below – but first, you have to place it there yourself. To do that just, drag the icon and place it on the windows taskbar.
Pin Tally Icon to Taskbar
Windows can make tasks easier for you by keeping your favorite icons near at hand. You can pin your Tally.ERP 9 to the taskbar as was done here. To do that, click and drag the icon from the desktop over on to the taskbar. A pin to taskbar tooltip appears, place the icon right there to pin it to the taskbar.
- Using the start menu: You can also launch Tally.ERP 9 from the start menu. In windows 7, go to Start→ERP 9. If the Program isn’t listed in the start menu, go to All Programs→Tally.ERP 9→Tally.ERP 9. In Windows 8, point the cursor at the screen’s upper corner to display the Charms menu, click start, and then click Tally.ERP 9 icon on the screen’s right. In Windows 10, click the windows logo on the lower left corner of your computer screen, locate and launch the program from the list of installed programs.
What happens when Tally ERP 9 is successfully launched?
The first time you launch the software, you’re greeted by the Tally.ERP 9 Startup page, which gives you the options to license the software, log in as a remote Tally.NET user, or work in Educational Mode.
The first two options are for advanced tally users. The third option (Work in Educational Mode) is for educational use only. And as a learner, that’s all you need.
To launch Tally.ERP 9 in Educational Mode, press W followed by the Enter key on your keyboard. Alternatively, Double-click the Work in Educational Mode option to move on to the next page (Gateway of Tally).
NOTE: The Educational mode allows you to learn and use Tally.ERP 9 without buying a license, but with some restrictions. For example, you will not be able to enter transactions for all days in a month. Though, this should not be a problem at all if you are a learner.
Gateway of Tally – introduction
This is the entrance to the palace yard – where the magic begins.
The Gateway of Tally is a user interface that give users the power to perform tasks such as creating a company, working on an existing company or Login as Remote User.
Looking at the interface of Gateway of Tally, it is not always the same base on whether a company is selected or not. When a Company is selected, Gateway of Tally has a different menu to the one displayed when there isn’t any company selected .
With a selected company, tally displays a menu for both accounting features as well as inventory features. But when a company isn’t selected, Gateway of Tally gives you a menu that will either help you select an existing company or create a new one.
Gateway of Tally also looks like the picture below when it has a company selected.
Now let’s break this down.
Looking at the interface, Gateway of Tally is divided into several sections. It is imperative to address each one of these sections one after the other.
Tally Top button panel
The first section of tally I want to talk about is the top button panel.
This panel contains a lot of buttons which all have functions they perform (their labels clearly says what they do).
But not all these buttons are active at the moment. The inactive buttons include Print, Export, E-mail, and Upload.
These buttons are tools design to work with accounting information and reports which are not present at this stage. That is why these buttons are inactive.
The remaining active buttons include:
Tally Shop:This will take you to a marketplace where you can get add-ons for your specific needs. Tally Add-ons allows you to extend Tally ERP 9 functionality. As you work with this package, you’ll soon discover that there are certain functions that cannot be done with the inbuilt features. For instance, once your vouchers and invoices are deleted, there’s no feature in tally to restore those items unless you go to Tally Shop where you can get an add-on for this particular purpose.
Language:It is said that Tally ERP 9 is the best when it comes to multi-lingual capability. It offers you the exclusive capability of maintaining your accounts in several languages of your choice. To enable language support in Tally.ERP 9, first of all, you have to configure it (this will soon be covered in a new article)
Control Centre:This feature works as an interface between the user and Tally.ERP 9 installed at different sites and allows the user to centrally configure and administer user belongings to an account. The Control Center has features such as manage licenses, central configuration, manage company profile, manage accounts, change passwords, and job and recruitments and Activity History.
Support Center:Another really good feature of the Tally ERP 9 software is its product support center where you can get faster help and support. Here, a user can directly send his support queries on both the functional and technical aspects of the software to the support center. This feature makes it easy and convenient for users to reach out to Tally.ERP 9 support theme and their service partners for any product assistance and support.
Help:Yet, another awesome good resource for discovering new features and troubleshooting is Tally’s online help system. It provides instant assistance on basic and advanced features or any other relevant topics about Tally.ERP 9.
Gateway of Tally Explained
In this section, the Gateway of Tally occupied a greater portion of the screen with a thin line that divides it into two.
The first section of the Gateway of Tally shows the following information:
- Current Period: indicates the accounting period of the selected company.
- Current date: indicates the date of the last voucher entry for the selected company.
- List of Selected Companies: Under the list of selected companies, there are two columns (Name of Company and Date of Last Entry). The Name of Company column displays the list of all loaded companies with the name of the open or selected companies in bold. And the Date of Last Entry column displays the date that the last voucher was entered for the selected company.
Now on the other section of the Gateway of Tally contains the main window that provides functionality like creating accounting masters and importing master information, creating vouchers and importing transaction information, and viewing and printing financial reports using the information provided in the masters and transactions.
Tally right button panel
The tally right button panel provides the following functionality:
- F1: Select Cmp – Use to select a company
- F1: Shut Cmp – Use to close a company
- F2: Date – Use to change the current date
- F2: Period – Use to change the accounting period of the selected company.
- F3: Company – Use to select a different company
- F3: Company Info – Use to access the information menu of the selected company.
- F11: Features – Use to access, activate and deactivate the features of a selected company
- F12: Configure – Use to access the configuration settings of a selected company.
Tip: When selecting or loading a company, companies with the same name cannot be loaded at the same time. The already loaded company have to be shut down first in order to load the other company.
All the feature discussed above are very important for noobs in Tally ERP 9 to understand. Getting this fare idea of Tally will add a great deal in speeding up the learning process.
