Lesson 1 of 20

What TallyPrime is: a first lesson

TallyPrime is accounting software. You tell it what happened, one voucher at a time, and it keeps the ledgers and prepares the reports. Learn the order of work and the rest follows.

What the software does

TallyPrime is the business accounting software made by Tally Solutions and widely used by small and medium businesses and accountants in India. It replaces the handwritten journal, ledger and stock register. You record each transaction once, as a voucher. From those vouchers the software prepares, at any moment, the day book, ledgers, trial balance, profit and loss account, balance sheet, stock summary and tax reports. There is no separate "posting" step and no year-end totalling by hand.

What it does not do is think for you. If a rent payment is entered under the wrong ledger, the reports will be wrong, quickly and neatly. So Tally is learned best by someone who knows basic accounting: debit and credit, and what a ledger is. If those are shaky, spend a few evenings on our neighbour site learn.shareyourgroup.com/accountancy first.

The three things you do in Tally

Create masters: the company, its ledgers (accounts), and, if you keep stock, stock items and units. Masters are set up once and added to as needed.
Record vouchers: sales, purchases, receipts, payments, journal entries. This is the daily work.
View reports: to check, to answer questions and to hand figures to the owner or the auditor.

The screen

Gateway of Tally is the home menu in the middle of the screen. Its main groups are Masters (Create, Alter, Chart of Accounts), Transactions (Vouchers, Day Book) and Reports (Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss A/c, Stock Summary, Ratio Analysis, Display More Reports).
The top menu runs across the top with choices that have letter shortcuts: Company (Alt+K), Data (Alt+Y), Exchange (Alt+Z), Go To (Alt+G), Import (Alt+O), Export (Alt+E), Share (Alt+M), Print (Alt+P) and Help (F1).
The right button bar shows the function keys that apply to the screen you are on: F2 for date, F3 for company, and on a voucher screen F4 to F9 for the voucher types.
The bottom bar shows actions such as Quit (Ctrl+Q) and Accept (Ctrl+A).

Moving around

Enter opens or accepts. Esc goes back one step. You cannot damage anything by pressing Esc.
In any menu, typing the highlighted letter of an option selects it.
Go To (Alt+G) is the quickest way anywhere: press Alt+G, start typing "day book" or "balance sheet" or "create ledger", and press Enter. It works from any screen, even in the middle of a voucher.
Ctrl+A saves the screen you are on.

Tally is built for the keyboard. Using the mouse works, but people who do data entry all day rarely touch it. The shortcuts page lists the keys.

The order to learn it in

Create a company.
Understand groups and ledgers, then create ledgers.
Learn the voucher types, and enter each: contra, payment, receipt, journal, purchase and sales.
Add stock items and GST.
Read the reports.
Do the practice exercise: a month of transactions with the answers.

The 30 day learning plan spreads this over a month of short sessions.

Getting the software to practise on

Tally Solutions distributes TallyPrime from its own website, and its help site explains the licence types and the education mode. Download it only from the official site, tallysolutions.com. We do not host the software and cannot advise on licences; for prices and terms, see the company's own pages.

TallyPrime and Tally.ERP 9

TallyPrime is the current product; Tally.ERP 9 is its predecessor, which some offices still run. The accounting ideas are the same, but menus and several shortcut keys differ. These lessons describe TallyPrime. If your office uses the older product, the voucher types and reports will be familiar, but check its own help for keys and menu names.

Questions learners ask

Is TallyPrime difficult to learn?

Not if you know basic accounting. The software follows a simple order: create masters, record vouchers, view reports. Most learners are comfortable with daily entries in two to four weeks of regular practice.

What is Gateway of Tally?

The home menu of TallyPrime, from which you create masters, record vouchers and open reports.

What does Alt+G do in TallyPrime?

It opens Go To, which lets you jump to any report or create a master or voucher from wherever you are.

All lessons

Create a company Groups and ledgers Create ledgers Voucher types Contra voucher Payment voucher Receipt voucher Journal voucher Purchase voucher Sales voucher Debit and credit notes Stock items and units GST set-up GST entries Bank reconciliation Reports Backup and restore Common errors 30 day plan

Shortcut keys Group quiz Practice exercise Glossary

An independent learning site. Tally and TallyPrime are trademarks of Tally Solutions Private Limited. This site is not connected with, approved by or paid by Tally Solutions, and uses none of its logos, screens or course material. Keys and menu paths were checked against Tally's own help site on 12 November 2026; the software changes with each release, so if your screen differs, follow Tally's help (press Ctrl+F1). Tax treatment in the examples is for learning only: ask your accountant.