Many small businesses bill in one place and keep accounts in another. The shop runs its billing app or bill book, and its chartered accountant runs Tally. Every month someone carries a folder of bills to the accountant, and every bill is typed in again. The fix is not to change either side but to connect them.
Who wrote this guide
This guide is written by the EZ Solutions team. We build BillDo, a billing app that exports to it, and we build such integrations for other software through our system integration service. The routine here applies to any billing tool that exports properly.
Why re-typing bills into Tally is a problem
Re-typing is slow, but speed is not the main issue. Every typed entry is a chance for a wrong amount, a missed bill or a party posted to the wrong ledger, and those errors surface later in GST returns. The accountant also works a month behind, so the owner never sees up-to-date accounts.
What does an accountant need from billing data?
An accountant needs every transaction as a voucher in Tally: sales and purchases with their tax breakup, receipts and payments, credit notes and debit notes. Each must post to the right party ledger, tax ledger and cash or bank ledger. With that, the accounts software produces the books and the GST returns.
How the export works
Good billing software exports vouchers as an XML file for a chosen date range. The accountant imports the file and every voucher appears in the books. Three things make it work:
- Voucher types match. Sales, purchases, receipts, payments, credit notes, debit notes and journal adjustments each export as their own voucher type.
- Ledgers are mapped once. The billing software’s names for parties, CGST, SGST and IGST per rate, cash, bank, sales, purchase, round-off and discount are matched to the accountant’s Tally ledger names.
- Periods are locked. Once a month is exported and filed, it is locked in the billing software, so nobody changes a bill the accountant has already used.
A monthly close routine for the shop and the accountant
| Step | Who |
|---|---|
| Check that every purchase bill is entered | Shop |
| Export the month's vouchers as an XML file | Shop |
| Import the file and check totals | Accountant |
| File GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B | Accountant |
| Lock the month in the billing software | Shop owner |
GST reports alongside the export
The accountant also checks the month against GST summaries. A GSTR-1 summary with B2B invoices, B2C sales, credit and debit notes, an HSN summary and nil-rated and exempt sales, plus a GSTR-3B style summary, lets them compare the billing side with the books before filing. The GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B glossary entry explains both returns.
How BillDo sends billing data to Tally
BillDo does not try to be accounting software; it gives the accountant what the books need:
- Tally XML export of sales, purchases, receipts, payments, credit notes, debit notes and journal entries for any date range.
- A ledger mapping screen where the accountant renames BillDo’s ledgers to their own names, saved for every later export.
- Financial year lock up to a date, which only the owner can move, with every change logged.
- GST reports including a GSTR-1 summary and a GSTR-3B style summary, exportable as CSV.
The shop bills as usual all month; the accountant imports in minutes instead of typing for days.
When a business needs more than an export
Some businesses run other software alongside the accounts too: an online store, a service app or a custom system. When those also need to reach the accounts, a direct integration posts entries as they happen. That is the kind of work the system integration team takes on.
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