Tally System Configuration set up

On installation of Tally, the basic configurations are initially auto set up, called default Configuration, which are needed for almost all organisation in general. So, organisations needing only the basic features may quickly start using Tally, without any need to set up advanced configuration set up. However, gradually, as the organisation embraces Tally deeper, they will gradually need to set up advanced configuration, as per their own requirements.

General Configuration & Company Features set up in Tally Accounting Software

Tally is a packaged accounting software to be used by a large community of users, with different requirements.

Tally provides two main facilities to set up the options to align the system according to users requirements.

• Company Features : The options set are applicable to the specific Company only (click F11:Features at right side button bar)
• General Configuration : The options set are applicable to all the Companies having data stored in same data folder (At Gateway, click F12:Configure button at right side button bar)

Buttons at right side Button Bar

Configuration Options set up in Tally Accounting Software

You may set Configuration Options for Tally through F12:Configuration button. Configuration Options set in any Company, applies also to all other Companies residing in the same data folder.

So, keeping this aspect in mind, while maintaining accounts of several companies (entities) in your computer system, you should pre plan the data directory, whether you should place all Company data in one directory or in different directories, before you create the Company.

Configuration Menu in Tally

Configuration options are available through F12: Configuration button at almost every screen.

• Menu: The Configuration options, invoked at any menu, provides a central access point through Configuration menu, to set any Configuration option, organized in a menu according to the operational tasks.

So, when you click F12:Configure at any Menu, you get the Configuration menu, from where, you may select any Configuration setting option under the relevant Configuration Menu, to get the respective Configuration screen

• Other Places :  The Configuration options, invoked at other places, provide the Configuration screen, showing Configuration option relevant to the task where the option is invoked.

For example, if you click F12:Configuration at Sales Voucher, then you get Sales Voucher configuration screen to set configuration options of Sales Voucher only.

Options set at configuration screen would be applicable to data of all other Companies residing in the same data directory

Configuration set up screen

General Configuration Set Up in Tally Accounting Software

At Gateway, Click F12:Configure button to get Configuration Menu. At Configuration Menu, select General to get General Configuration screen.

Configuration Menu

Country Configuration

To set the features applicable for the selected Country, Under the section Country Details, at the option Use Accounting Terminologies of , select :

• India / SAARC (default) to select the Accounting Principles and Financial Statements as applicable to India
• International to select the International Accounting  Principles and Financial Statements, for other countries

Country Details option set up

Option list of Countries

Ledger Names Styles

In Reports and Documents, normally the Name of Master is printed.

To set the default format for appearance of Account Ledger Name. At the option Default Appearance of Names in Report , select from the list  as follows:

• Name Only : To Display (default) the Name of the Ledger Account
• Alias Only : To Display the First Alias Name of the Ledger Account
• Name (Alias) : To Display the name followed by First Alias in parenthesis of the Account
• Alias (Name) : To Display the Alias Name followed by Name in parenthesis of the Account (where Alias is specified)

This feature is useful to display / print Codes (using Alias names) for Ledger Account.

Names Styles set up options

Accounts Masters Names Styles List

If you are using Accounts Codes through Alias, then you may set Name (Alias) or Alias (Names) as default Name Style so that the Accounts Codes are also printed alongwith Account Names, in all Reports

Date Format

Tally displays Date in 2 formats (also referred as Date Mask), as follows :

• Long Format : Long Format is used in Report Header and Voucher Date (Voucher Entry). The Date is shown in dd-mmm-yyyy format like 25 Jan 2013). The Date part is shown in 1 or 2 digits (e.g, 9, 19 etc).

The Month part shows first 3 letters of the respective Month (e.g Jan), followed by 4 digit Year (e.g 2014). Each Part of the Date is separated by Date Part separator. The Long Format (month shown in  first 3 letters of month name) cannot be changed but its Date Part separator may be changed (explained below).

• Short Format : Short Format is used to show Voucher Date in Display and printed reports. The Date part is shown in 1 or 2 digits (e.g, 9, 19 etc). The Month part shows 1 or 2 digit for Month (e. 4, 12, etc), followed by 4 digit Year (e.g 2013).

Each Part of the Date is separated by Date Part separator. The short Format (Mask) & Date Part separator, may be changed.

Short Date Format List

Setting the Date Format :To set the Short Date Format & Date Part Separator, at F12:Configure>General, at the section Style of Dates (recommended NOT to change the default settings).

Date set up options

At the field Style of Short Date, select the desired Format from the list

• Date Part Separator : Normally hyphen (-) is used as Date Part Separator. At Separator used in Short date, you may type other characters (like  Front Slash (/), Hyphen (-). Dot (.) etc), to separate each part of the Date.
• Short date Format 
• dd-mm-yyyy : 1/2 Digit Date, 1/2 Digit Month, 4 digit Year
• mm-dd-yyyy : 1/2  Digit Month, 1/2 Digit Date, 4 digit Year
• yyyy-mm-dd : 4 digit Year, 1/2 Month, 1/2 Digit Date

The Year part is always shown in 4 digits (yyyy Format).

dd-mm-yyyy format Separator (-)

The results of various Formats and separators are shown  

The Date is shown in Long Format (dd-mmm-yyyy, month shown in 3 first 3 letters of month name) only in Reports Headers & Vouchers, while in Reports, the transaction Dates are shown in short Format (month shown in 2 digits) only. 

At General Configuration, you may set the Date Mask & Date Separator for Date Format, as follows:

• Date Separator for Long Format (but not Date Mask)
• Date Mask & Date Separator for Short Format

The default Date Format set cannot be changed during entry or in Report.

Number Format

You may set the default options for formatting of Numbers . At GoT>F12:Configure>General, under the section Configuration of Number , set as follows:

• Decimal Separator : At the option Decimal Character to  use , Set the character to be used as decimal separator (to separate the mantissa and decimal part of a number). The default Decimal Separator is ( . dot), which you may change (e.g  – hyphen).
• Thousands Separator : At the option Thousands Separator to use , Set the character to be used as Thousands  separator (to separate the position parts of a number). The default Decimal Separator is (, comma), which you may change.
• Negative Amount Sign : At the option Put Sign before Currency / Unit Symbols
  • Set Yes to show the negative sign before the negative value (e.g (-10))
  • Set No to show the Negative sign after the value (e.g .  (10-)).

However, for positive values, no sign symbol is shown.

• Amount Format : For better readability, figures are normally delimited by comma (e.g 32,734.59). Tally provides 2 types of Formatting, to represent figures of One Lac (100000) & above. To set the Amount Format, at the option Show Numbers in Millions,
• Lacs Formatting : Set No to express in Lacs (e.g 12,34,56,789; 1,23,456 etc). In India, traditionally Lacs format is widely used to represent figures in Rs One Lac & above .
• Millions  Formatting : Set Yes to express in Million format (e.g 123,456,789). Millions format is widely used  Western Countries and by Foreign / Multinational Companies. 

You may set the Lakhs / Millions setting as per your choice. Do not change the other default settings.

After you change any configuration under Style of Dates or Configuration of Numbers, you have to reload Tally.ERP 9 to make the changes effective.

Alert Beeps

Tally invokes various alert messages (e.g error encountered, non-permitted values entered etc to draw attention of the user), with beep sound. You may activate / disable the Alert Beep as follows.

At GoT>F12:Configure>General, under the section Other Options, at the optionEnable Sound Notification on Alert  

• Set Yes (default) to raise a beep sound at Alert Messages
• Set No to show Alert Messages without any beep sound

Alert Beep & Info panel option set up

Info panel

To always display the Information Panel at the bottom part, in all screens, set Yes at Always show Info Panel. To keep the Info Panel hidden (to make more space in main screen), set No.

Other options of General Configuration screen, are explained at relevant places.

Company Features

At Gateway of Tally (GoT), click F11:Features button to get Company Features Menu.

Company Features Menu

At Tally Menu : Like F12:Configuration, when you click F11:Features at any Tally Menu, you get Company Features menu, providing central access point to set up any Company Features option.

At Other places : If you invoke F11:Features at any place other than  Tally Menu. You get the Company Features set up option relevant to that task only. For example, if you Click F11: Features at Ledger creation screen, you get Accounting features set up screen only

Options set through F11:Features are applicable to specific Company only.

Accounting Features Set Up : At  Company Features Menu, select Accounting Features to get Accounting Features screen. The options of Accounting Features are explained at relevant places

Accounting Features screen

Keywords for Name Search

By this option, you set the method of searching the items from list of Table.

At Apply keyword filter to list of items,  set Yes to reduce the List for Tables to the extent of the matching keywords entered by user and select the required details from the reduced List of Tables based on the search keywords provided (for Company name, Ledger name, Item name etc.). Set No to type the full Name for selection

Having set Yes at Apply keyword filter to list of items, at Apply for All Columns, you may further set to Yes, to make search and reduce the List of Tables based on all columns displayed in the List of Table. If set it to No, it will search only in the first column of the Table.

Click here to see PDF