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For preparing financials, which is better: excel or tally?

Learner (Digital Assistant) (70 Points)

27 May 2016

Hi all,

I had purchased a licensed copy of Tally ERP 9 for the purpose of maintaining my books of accounts. But I see that the person who handed my Tally backup to, blatantly discarded the backup after noting the main a/c heads, and proceeded to prepare the financials using Excel. I want to know if this is an industry-wide practice, or the person I hired does not know accounting?

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9 Replies

Manish Jain (Chartered Accountant) (119 Points)
Replied 27 May 2016

Tally helps you record each and every transaction, thereby using the transaction data to create a set of financial statements. It is technically not feasible to record the transactions in Excel. However, it is simple to use Excel for preparation of Financial Statements, as it is in a predefined format in Tally and might require some changes. It's not that the person does not know accounting. It's just that Tally and Excel each have their specific roles to serve and the person you hired understands it.

Anshul Mittal (Freelancing) (741 Points)
Replied 27 May 2016

Manish covered the most you need to know, still i'll add on.

Tally is exclusively made for the purpose of accounting, you won't need to focus or think about many basic accounting function as Taaly already cover them, for eg. you enter a voucher,

Tally will automatically update your Balance Sheet, P&L a/c, Cash flow, it will also produce ratios, and will help you by providing information like no. of Vouchers, Also Tally is manageable, you can change Periods, Date, and vouchers type while auditing or going through the accounts as per your need,

If you are using Tally for the first time it maybe a bit difficult for you But for that too Tally provides Modules that are easily available (Just Google it)

HOWEVER When it comes to prepare FS, there is nothing like Excel. Reason being, you can custom, Format your FS as per your need and liking. and doing that is very simple as TALLY9 onwards provide option to Export DATA in excel, once it's done all you have to do is "Formatting". (you can also export Data from Tally7.2 by using a indirect method i.e. Export>> HTML>> open it>> copy all>> paste in excel).

So it's completely on your needs and preferences.

Learner (Digital Assistant) (70 Points)
Replied 29 May 2016

Originally posted by : Manish Jain
	Tally helps you record each and every transaction, thereby using the transaction data to create a set of financial statements. It is technically not feasible to record the transactions in Excel. However, it is simple to use Excel for preparation of Financial Statements, as it is in a predefined format in Tally and might require some changes. It's not that the person does not know accounting. It's just that Tally and Excel each have their specific roles to serve and the person you hired understands it.

After hiring the person, I handed over to him Tally data backup for the financial years from FY 2010-11 to 2014-15. When I asked him to return the backup, I had presumed that he will give me a backup updated to the very last entry, after which the work is ready to be handed over to the auditor for his statutory attestation. But what I received by way of backup was a hotch-potch of entries in Tally where the balance sheet for none of the years matched. It is clear to me that he had used Excel for the years. He also collected from me the username/password for Tally. I now realize that he must have needed it to record the closing bank/cash balances across the years in Excel.

He was throwing dust in my eyes all along, while pretending to pose that he was busy posting final JV entries.

Even further, I was given financial statements for all years except FY 2011-12, The person also collected from me the balance sheet for this year giving the reason that the document prepared by him was not as per Schedule VI and that he wanted to modify it. I handed the document to him on 14.03.2016. In response, the person wrote: "Hi, I am happy to inform you that the work on the Financials has started and it shall be done asap. Regards". Till date, that is, 29.05.2016, I have not received the financials for FY 2011-12. (I have the complete thread of correspondence I have had with this person., including the "work" done by him in Tally.)

In short, I consider this person not only incompetent, but a blot on the profession of Chartered Accountancy. The sooner such bad apples are plucked by the scruff of the neck and thrown in the gutter, the better it shall be for us clients of CA practitioners.

A disillusioned client of a CA "professional".

1 Like

Anshul Mittal (Freelancing) (741 Points)
Replied 30 May 2016

Dear Sir,

You will always find exceptions in field of work, there are many good ones and we can't deny from bad ones either.

if what you are saying is correct then you can take some steps against him like Mail your problem along with Details of that CA to ICAI helpline or you can give a written complaint against such person to the Local office of ICAI.

Manish Jain (Chartered Accountant) (119 Points)
Replied 30 May 2016

Totally agree with Anshul Mittal.

Learner (Digital Assistant) (70 Points)
Replied 30 May 2016

Originally posted by : Manish Jain
	Totally agree with Anshul Mittal.

Hello Manish and Anshul,

Thank you for your suggestions. Ideally, I would like to see this "CA" stripped off his certification to practice.

Rahul (CA) (65 Points)
Replied 28 December 2017

Video on how to import from excel to tally

https://activeation.com/51qs

V P Narasimhan (Accounts Manager) (791 Points)
Replied 13 January 2018

For your information, any report can be exported to Excel from Tally and present the way in which you want. I use to reconcile BRS, S Crs.Drs everything in Excel. You may find difficult at the first time. If you keep on working on the same it will be easy & interesting.