TallyPrime for Beginners: From Company Creation to Your First GST Invoice

⏱ 3 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

TallyPrime is the accounting software used by most small and medium businesses in India. This guide takes you from a blank installation to a correct GST sales invoice and the GSTR-1 report. Keyboard shortcuts are shown in brackets — Tally is fastest when you barely touch the mouse.

In this article
  1. 1. Create the company
  2. 2. Enable GST
  3. 3. Ledgers you need
  4. 4. Stock items with HSN and GST rate
  5. 5. Record the sales invoice
  6. 6. Check it in the GST reports
  7. Shortcuts worth learning on day one

1. Create the company

  1. From the Gateway, press Alt+K (Company) → Create.
  2. Fill in name, mailing name, address, state (this decides CGST+SGST vs IGST later), PIN code and phone.
  3. Financial year beginning: 1 April of the current year. Books beginning from: the date you start entering.
  4. Accept with Ctrl+A.

2. Enable GST

Press F11 (Features) → set Enable Goods and Services Tax (GST) to Yes. In the GST details screen enter:

  • State and registration type (Regular / Composition)
  • GSTIN
  • Periodicity of GSTR-1 (Monthly or Quarterly under QRMP)
  • E-invoicing and e-way bill applicability, if your turnover crosses the limits
💡 Set GST rates at the highest sensible level — company, then stock group, then item. Tally looks for the rate from the item upwards, so you avoid typing the same rate hundreds of times.

3. Ledgers you need

Gateway → Create → Ledger. Minimum set:

Ledger Under group Notes
Customer name (e.g. Asha Traders) Sundry Debtors Enter their GSTIN and state — this drives IGST vs CGST/SGST
Sales – Local / Sales – Interstate Sales Accounts GST applicability: Applicable; type of supply: Goods
CGST, SGST, IGST (Output) Duties & Taxes Type of duty: GST; tax type: Central / State / Integrated
Round Off Indirect Expenses For paise rounding on invoices
Cash, Bank Cash-in-Hand / Bank Accounts Opening balances here

4. Stock items with HSN and GST rate

Create → Stock Item: name, unit (Nos, Mtr, Kg), HSN/SAC code, GST rate (for example 5% for many fabrics, 3% for imitation jewellery — always confirm the current rate for your HSN), and opening stock if any.

5. Record the sales invoice

  1. Gateway → Vouchers → F8 (Sales). Press Ctrl+H to switch to Item Invoice mode if needed.
  2. Party A/c name: select the customer. Tally fills the place of supply from their state.
  3. Sales ledger: Sales – Local (same state) or Sales – Interstate.
  4. Add items, quantity and rate. Below the items select CGST and SGST (same state) or IGST (other state) — Tally calculates the amounts.
  5. Add Round Off if required, then Ctrl+A to save. Alt+P prints or exports the invoice as PDF.
⚠️ The most common GST error is wrong tax type: charging CGST+SGST to a customer in another state. Always check the customer ledger’s state and GSTIN before the first invoice.

6. Check it in the GST reports

Gateway → Display More Reports → GST Reports → GSTR-1. Your invoice should appear under B2B (customer with GSTIN) or B2C. Anything under Incomplete/Mismatch in information needs fixing — usually a missing HSN, GSTIN or rate.

Shortcuts worth learning on day one

Key Does
F4–F9 Contra, Payment, Receipt, Journal, Sales, Purchase
Alt+C Create a ledger/item from inside a voucher
Ctrl+Enter Alter the master you are on
Alt+G Go To any report
Alt+E Export the current report

Next: export Tally data to Excel for analysis.

Keep reading

Tally & BusyBusy Accounting Software: GST Billing and Reports for Small BusinessesExcel for FinanceExport Tally Data to Excel and Build a Sales Dashboard
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