Tally reports across financial years

How Tally handles years

An Indian business's financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. In TallyPrime, a company is created with a starting date and keeps adding vouchers year after year. Closing balances of balance sheet ledgers (parties, bank, assets, liabilities) flow into the next year automatically; income and expense ledgers start each year fresh, with the year's profit moving to capital or reserves. You do not need to "close" the year in Tally to start entering the new one.

Changing the period

Every report in Tally is shown for a current period. To see last year's figures, change the period to 1 April to 31 March of that year. To see a single quarter or a festive season, set those dates. Two practical points:

• Changing the period affects what the report shows, not the data.
• Check the period at the top of every report before reading or sharing it. Many wrong conclusions come from a report left on an old period.

Comparing years side by side

Tally reports such as the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet can show more than one period in columns, which is the quickest way to compare this year with last year. A useful set of comparisons for an owner:

Always compare the same months. Comparing seven months of this year with twelve of last year is a common error. The guide to reading a P&L helps interpret what you see.

Ranges that cross 31 March

Sometimes you need a period like 1 January to 30 June, crossing two financial years: a customer's ledger for a dispute, sales for a festival season that straddles March, or a bank's loan review. For balance sheet items, such as a party ledger, a range across years works naturally because the balance carries forward. For income and expense items, remember that the books reset at 1 April; a P&L for January to June combines the end of one year and the start of the next, which is fine for analysis but not a statutory statement.

When data gets too large: splitting

After many years of heavy entries, a company's data can grow large and slow. TallyPrime offers an option to split company data by period, creating separate companies for earlier and later years, with the later one starting from the split date's balances. Splitting has trade-offs: reports across the split need both companies, and bill-wise history before the split is no longer in the new company. Take a full backup first and consult whoever supports your Tally installation.

Locking past years

Old years should not change silently. Once a year's accounts are audited and its returns filed, treat it as closed. Restrict who can enter or alter vouchers dated in that year, and if a genuine correction is needed, make it with your CA's knowledge and a clear narration. This protects the comparisons you make later, and keeps your books consistent with what was filed.

Checks before relying on old-year numbers

• Were audit adjustments for that year actually posted in Tally?
• Do closing stock values match what was finally filed?
• Were later entries back-dated into a closed year by mistake? Compare the trial balance with the audited one.
• Are any vouchers in the old year altered after GST returns were filed? Those need care.

Multi-year views with Cashflow OS

Cashflow OS lets you choose any financial year and also custom date ranges that span several financial years, using the data synced from Tally. Home screens compare today, the month or the year with the period before, and reports such as P&L, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance and Day Book export to Excel and PDF for deeper comparison. See financial reports and reports in Excel and PDF.