Cashflow OS for manufacturers

The money cycle of a small factory

A typical MSME manufacturer buys raw material on 30 to 60 days of credit, converts it over days or weeks, and sells to dealers or distributors who also expect credit. The gap between paying the supplier and collecting from the dealer is the working capital the owner has to fund. A rough example: raw material bought on 30 days, 20 days in production and stock, 45 days given to dealers. Cash is out for about 35 days longer than it is in. Our guide on the working capital cycle shows how to calculate this for your own business.

Tally usually holds purchases, sales, stock journals and GST. The owner, though, spends the day on the floor, with buyers and with suppliers, not at the accounts PC.

Common friction points

• Buying: purchase orders are made in a word processor, sent by email, and the receipt note in Tally is typed later from memory.
• Selling: dealers send orders by WhatsApp; someone copies them into Tally as sales orders.
• Collections: the owner wants to know which dealers are slow but has to ask the accountant each time.
• Stock: the floor manager needs to know what is in stock now, not what was there at last night's backup.

What Cashflow OS covers for a manufacturer

• Purchase orders with your branding: logo, letterhead, signature, and bank and UPI details, shared as a PDF on WhatsApp or by email.
• Vouchers into Tally from the phone: purchase order, receipt note, purchase, sales order, delivery note, sales, stock journal, receipt, payment and more, posted through the connector once the owner switches writing on. Tally validates each entry and a refused one returns with Tally's reason.
• Masters too: create and alter ledgers, stock items, stock groups and categories, units and cost centres.
• Receivables and payables: bill-wise outstanding with ageing on both sides.
• Reports: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, stock and item summaries, expenses and a cashflow forecast, exportable to Excel and PDF.

What it does not do on the shop floor

Cashflow OS works on what is in TallyPrime. It is not a production planning or machine scheduling system, and it does not replace Tally's own manufacturing features. If you record production in Tally through stock journals or manufacturing vouchers, the stock effect appears in the synced reports. If you track production outside Tally, that data stays outside. For many small factories this is the right split: Tally and Cashflow OS for money, stock and orders; the floor run by the supervisor.

Selling through dealers

If you sell through a dealer network, several modules may help. Price lists let you define dealer types such as A, B and C with layered discount rules so rates fill automatically. Field force tools let your sales team record dealer visits with location, notes and photos, follow route plans and see recommended visits. An online catalogue link with photos and display names lets dealers browse your range, with enquiries arriving on WhatsApp. See price list management for dealers for how to structure the tiers.

A month in the life of the owner's phone

Here is how the same numbers serve different moments in a manufacturer's month:

Reports can be run for any financial year or a custom date range spanning several years, which helps when a bank or investor asks for a three-year view. GST views are prepared from Tally data with a JSON download for the portal; the filing itself is done on the GST portal.

Getting started sensibly

1. Install the connector on the PC where TallyPrime runs and link the company by scanning its QR from the app.
2. Use the read-only side first for a week: Home, ledgers, outstanding and reports.
3. Invite the accountant and the purchase person with suitable roles.
4. Switch writing on and test with purchase orders and receipt notes before you allow sales entries.

If you run separate companies in Tally for the factory and a trading arm, both can sit in one account; see managing multiple companies in Tally.