Checking Tally outstanding on your phone

What outstanding means in Tally

When a party ledger is set to maintain balances bill by bill, every sales invoice creates a bill reference, and every receipt is matched against one or more bills. Tally can then show which bills are still unpaid, how much of each, and how old they are. That is bill-wise outstanding. Without bill-wise details, you only know the party's total balance, not which bills it is made of. The bill-wise details guide explains the setup.

What the owner should look at

• Total receivables and how it compares with last month.
• Ageing: how much is 0–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days old.
• Top ten overdue parties by amount.
• Payables due this week, to plan payments against expected collections.

A short worked example: receivables of ₹38 lakh look fine until ageing shows ₹9 lakh of it is over 90 days with six parties. That ₹9 lakh is where the next week's calls should go. The ageing analysis guide explains how to read the buckets.

What the salesperson should look at

Before visiting a dealer, a salesperson should know:

• The dealer's total outstanding and how much is overdue.
• Which bills are oldest, with numbers and dates, to discuss specifically.
• Any recent payment, so they thank the dealer rather than ask again.

Salespeople should see only their own customers' outstanding, not the whole company's list.

Getting Tally outstanding onto the phone

The options are the same as for any remote Tally access: remote desktop into the office PC and open the outstanding reports in Tally, ask someone in the office to send a PDF, or use a sync app that keeps a copy of Tally's bill-wise data online. For quick, frequent checks by several people, a sync app is the practical choice; see remote desktop vs sync app.

Make sure the numbers are right

Outstanding on any screen is only as good as the entries in Tally:

• Receipts must be matched against bills (Agst Ref), not left as On Account, or old bills keep looking unpaid.
• Credit notes for returns and discounts should be adjusted against the bills they relate to.
• Advances should be recorded as advances and adjusted when the bill is made.
• Opening bills carried forward from last year should be entered bill by bill.

If outstanding on the phone looks wrong, the fix is almost always in how entries were made in Tally.

Payables deserve the same attention

Outstanding is not only about customers. Bill-wise payables show what you owe each supplier and when it falls due. Checking them alongside receivables helps you plan the week: if ₹6 lakh of supplier bills fall due on Friday and you expect ₹4 lakh in collections by Thursday, you know on Monday that you either need to push two specific customers or ask one supplier for a few days. For bills owed to micro and small enterprises registered under Udyam, payment timelines also have tax consequences; the MSME 45-day payment rule guide explains this. This is general information, not tax advice.

Turning outstanding into collections

1. Every Monday, list parties with bills over 30 days.
2. Share a statement on WhatsApp with the overdue bills mentioned in the message.
3. Assign follow-up calls to the salesperson for each party.
4. Record what each party promised, and check on the promised date.
5. Hold new orders for parties beyond your credit policy until the owner approves.

A five-minute daily habit

Owners who control outstanding well usually have a short daily routine rather than a monthly drive. Each morning: look at yesterday's receipts, check whether any promised payment did not arrive, glance at the top overdue parties, and send two or three reminders. Five minutes on the phone each day replaces a stressful week at month end, and customers learn that you notice.

Outstanding on the phone with Cashflow OS

Cashflow OS syncs your Tally companies through a connector on the Tally PC and shows bill-wise receivables and payables with ageing on the phone and web. Tap a party to see its bills and ledger, then share a statement on WhatsApp. Salespeople see their own customers only, and orders from frontline staff can be set to need approval. See outstanding receivables.