Sales orders to Tally

Why sales orders are worth recording properly

A sales order is the promise between booking and billing. Distributors, manufacturers and showrooms use it to know what has been committed before stock is dispatched. When orders live on paper, three things go wrong: they are retyped with errors, they are retyped late, and nobody can see pending orders against stock. Tally has good sales order processing; see sales order processing in Tally. The missing piece is getting the order into Tally from where it is taken.

Where an order can start

• A field visit: the salesperson checks in at the dealer's shop and books the order there.
• A wishlist: in a showroom, the items a customer liked, with quantities and notes, become the order when the customer decides.
• A quotation: a quotation from the documents module converts into a sales order or a Tally sales invoice.
• Directly: from the counter or the office, on the phone or the web app.

In each case the order carries lines and GST and is posted to Tally as a sales order voucher.

Rates and GST on the order

If the price lists module is on, dealer types such as A, B and C with layered discount rules fill the rate for that customer, so the salesperson does not guess. GST is worked out from the item and the party's state. For example, 20 units at ₹1,250 for a dealer in your state, with 18% GST on the item, gives a taxable value of ₹25,000, CGST ₹2,250 and SGST ₹2,250, a total of ₹29,500. The same order for a dealer in another state shows IGST ₹4,500 instead. Rates and HSN come from your Tally item masters, so keep those correct. This is general information, not tax advice.

Approval for frontline orders

Orders from frontline staff can be set to need approval before they go to Tally. That gives the owner or a manager a moment to check a new customer, an unusual quantity or a dealer who is well past his credit period. A practical rule many owners use: approve automatically in your head anything routine, and look closely at orders from customers with bills over 60 days. Bill-wise outstanding is on the same phone, so the check takes seconds.

A worked example: from shop counter to Tally

If an item in the order did not exist in that Tally company, Tally would refuse the entry and the app would show Tally's reason, so it can be corrected and resent.

Tips

• Set up price lists before the first order. Wrong rates are the most common complaint about field orders.
• Map salespeople to their customers. The salesperson role sees items and their own customers.
• Keep approval on for the first few weeks.
• Check pending orders in Tally daily so that booked orders turn into dispatches. See sales order vs purchase order if your team mixes them up.
• Use visit notes for anything that does not belong in the order: a complaint, a competitor's scheme, a request.
• Agree a cut-off time. Orders approved before, say, 4 pm are dispatched next morning; later ones the day after. A clear rule stops salespeople promising what the godown cannot deliver.

A final point: once orders arrive in Tally the same hour they are taken, the pending sales orders report in Tally becomes a real picture of committed demand. Comparing it with stock each morning tells the purchase team what to reorder before an item runs out, instead of after a dealer complains.

What it does not do

• It does not post to Tally until the owner switches writing on, and only while the connector is running with Tally open.
• It does not bypass Tally's validation.
• It does not dispatch goods; billing and dispatch follow your usual process. An e-way bill, if needed, is made later against the Tally sales invoice.