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Groups in TallyPrime

Groups are a collection of ledgers of the same nature. Account groups are maintained to determine the hierarchy of Ledger Accounts, which is helpful in determining and presenting meaningful and compliant reports. Using groups in TallyPrime, you can generate reports that are meaningful as well as compliant with laws.

At the highest level, accounts are classified into Capital or Revenue – and more specifically into Assets, Liabilities, Income and Expenditure.

TallyPrime provides you with 28 pre-defined Groups. Of these, 15 are Primary Groups and 13 are Sub-Groups. You can also create your own groups, either as Sub-groups or Primary groups. Groups in TallyPrime can be sub-classified to an unlimited level to give a virtual accounting tree. The lowest level would be the Ledger Account. All Voucher entries are passed using ledgers. You can create the required chart of accounts. You can group the Ledger accounts under the required Groups at the time of creating the chart of accounts or you can alter them at any time.

Pre-Defined Groups

There are 28 pre-defined groups in TallyPrime. These groups are a part of the chart of accounts for most organizations. For example, Sales Accounts is a pre-defined group. All sales ledgers can be classified under this group.

Out of the 28 pre-defined groups, 15 are primary groups and 13 are sub-groups. The user can create any number of primary groups and sub-groups.

Out of the 15 primary groups, nice primary groups appear in the balance sheets that are capital in nature and six primary groups appear under Profit & Loss A/c, which are revenue in nature.

The sub-groups that form a part of the balance sheet are:

Note: Primary groups in TallyPrime cannot be deleted.

Default Groups

There are a number of default Groups in TallyPrime that can be used for various accounts.

The details information of Groups accounts are given below.

Capital Account

Groups in TallyPrime created under Capital Account record the Capital and Reserves of the company. The ledgers that belong to Capital Accounts are Share Capital, Partners’ Capital A/c, Proprietor’s Capital Account and so on.

Reserves and Surplus [Retained Earnings]

This contains ledgers like Capital Reserve, General Reserve, Reserve for Depreciation, and so on.

Current Assets

Current Assets record the assets that do not belong either to Bank Accounts or to Cash-in-Hand sub-groups.

• Bank Accounts: Current account, savings account, short term deposit accounts, and so on.
• Cash-in hand: TallyPrime automatically creates Cash A/c in this group. You can open more than one cash account, if needed.

Note: An account under Cash-in-Hand group or Bank Accounts/Bank OCC A/c group is printed as a separate Cash Book in the traditional Cash Book format and does not form part of the Ledger.

• Deposits (Asset): Deposits contain Fixed Deposits, Security Deposits or any deposit made by the company (not received by the company, which is a liability).
• Loans & Advances (Asset): This records all loans given by the company and advances of a non-trading nature (example: advance against salaries) or even for purchase of Fixed Assets. We do not recommend you to open Advances to Suppliers’ account under this Group. For further details, please refer to the section on Common Errors.
• Stock-in-Hand: This group contains accounts like Raw Materials, Work-in-Progress and Finished Goods. The balance control depends on whether you have selected Integrated Account-cum-Inventory option while creating the company. Refer to the Company creation section under the Set Up Your Company topic for more details.
  Let us consider these options:
  • Integrated Accounts with Inventory: This option has a significant effect on the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss A/c. If set to Yes, it brings the stock/inventory balance figures from the inventory records and provides a drill down to the Stock registers from the Balance Sheet. You are not allowed to directly change the closing balance of an account under this group. You are allowed to pass transactions in Inventory records and the account balances are automatically reflected in the Balance Sheet as Closing Stock.
  • Non-integrated Accounts with Inventory: If Integrated Account with the Inventory option is set to No, it ignores the inventory books figures and picks up manually entered closing stock balances from the ledger account created. This provides the facility to maintain accounts separately and inventory separately.
    You are not allowed to pass transactions if your accounts come under this Group. It allows you to hold opening and closing balances only. Since no vouchers can be passed for these accounts, they are the only accounts for which the closing balances can be directly altered (by an authorised user only).

• Sundry Debtors: For customer accounts refer to the common and possible errors in grouping of accounts section.

Current Liabilities

Accounts like Outstanding Liabilities, Statutory Liabilities and other minor liabilities can be created directly under this group. Sub-groups under Current Liabilities are Duties and Taxes, Provisions, and Sundry Creditors.

• Duties & Taxes: Duties & Taxes contain all tax accounts like GST, VAT, CENVAT, Excise, Sales and other trade taxes and the total liability (or asset in case of advances paid) and the break-up of individual items.
• Provisions: Accounts like Provision for Taxation, Provision for Depreciation, and so on are recorded under Provisions.
• Sundry Creditors: For trade creditors, refer to the common and possible errors in grouping of accounts section.

Investments

Group your investment accounts like Investment in Shares, Bonds, Govt. securities, long term Bank deposit accounts and so on. This allows you to view the total investments made by the company.

Loans (Liability)

Loans that a company has borrowed, typically long-terms loans.

• Bank OD Accounts [Bank OCC Accounts]: TallyPrime provides you with distinct types of Bank Accounts.
• Bank OCC A/c: This is used to record the company’s overdraft accounts with banks; for example, Bill Discounted A/c’s and Hypothecation A/c’s etc.

Note: An account under Bank OCC A/c group is printed as a separate Cash Book in the traditional Cash Book format and does not form part of the ledger.

• Secured Loans: Term loans or other long/medium term loans, which are obtained against security of some asset does not verify the existence of the security. Typical accounts are Debentures, Term Loans, and so on.
• Unsecured Loans: Loans obtained without any security.
  Example: Loans from Directors/partners or outside parties.

Suspense Account

In modern accounting, many large corporations use a Suspense Ledger to track the money paid or recovered, the nature of which is not yet known. The most common example is money paid for Traveling Advance whose details will be known only upon submission of the Travelling Allowance bill. Some companies may prefer to open such accounts under Suspense Account.

• Loans and Advances (Asset) group: The Suspense Account is a Balance Sheet item. Any expense account even if it has ‘suspense’ in its name, it should be opened under Revenue group like Indirect Expenses and not under Suspense Account group.

Miscellaneous Expenses (Asset)

This group is typically used for legal disclosure requirements such as Schedule VI of the Indian Companies Act. It should hold incorporation and pre-operative expenses. Companies would write off a permissible portion of the account every year. A balance remains to an extent that cannot be written off in Profit & Loss Account. TallyPrime does not show loss, carried forward in the Profit & Loss Account, under this group. The Profit & Loss Account balance is displayed separately in the Balance Sheet.

Branch/Divisions

This maintains ledger accounts of all your company’s branches, divisions, affiliates, sister concerns, subsidiaries, and so on. TallyPrime permits Sales and Purchase transactions to take place with accounts opened here. Remember, these are their accounts in your books and not their books of accounts. Just treat them as any other party account. If you wish to maintain the books of a branch/division on your computer, you must open a separate company. TallyPrime allows maintenance of multiple company accounts.

Sales Account

You can classify your sales accounts based on Tax slabs or type of sales. This also becomes a simple mechanism for preparation of Tax returns.

For example:

• Domestic Sales
• Export Sales

Now under Domestic Sales open the following ledgers:

• Sales (10%)
• Sales (5%)
• Sales (exempt)

You can even open an account as Sales Returns under the group Domestic Sales to view your net sales after returns (or the returns may be directly passed through Journal against the specific Sales account).

Note: Do not create customer accounts under this group. For more details, refer to the common and possible errors in grouping of accounts section.

Purchase Account

This is similar to sales accounts, except for the type of transactions.

Direct Income [Income Direct]

These are non-trade income accounts that affect Gross Profit. All trade income accounts fall under Sales Accounts. You may also use this group for accounts like Servicing, Contract Charges that follow sales of equipment.

For a professional services company, you may not use Sales Account group at all. Instead, open accounts like Professional Fees under this group.

Indirect Income [Income Indirect]

These are miscellaneous non-sale income accounts; for example, Rent Received and Interest Received.

Direct Expenses [Expenses Direct]

These are Manufacturing or direct trading expenses. These accounts determine the Gross Profit of the company.

Indirect Expenses [Expenses Indirect]

This group includes all administrative, selling or non-direct expenses.

Profit & Loss A/c is a reserved primary account in TallyPrime. You can use this account to pass adjustment entries through journal vouchers. For example, transfer of profit or loss account to Capital or Reserve account.

Common and Possible Errors in Grouping and Account Classification

Debtor/Creditor classification

Accounts of parties with whom your company is trading should be opened under any of the following groups in TallyPrime (or sub-groups under them):

• Sundry Debtors
• Sundry Creditors
• Branch/Divisions

Sales and Purchase account groups are meant for revenue accounts and are reflected in the Profit & Loss A/c. If you open party accounts under these groups, it becomes difficult to pass sales or purchase voucher transactions.

For example, in a sales voucher transaction entry, you must debit an account, which can be sundry debtor, branch/division or even a sundry creditor. Moreover, other facilities like bill-wise allocation and tracking will not be available unless the accounts belong to one of these groups in TallyPrime.

Opening two accounts for a same party

TallyPrime classifies debtors, creditors and branch/divisions for convenience. This helps you in the process of keeping the accounts of a particular group together during display and analysis. Thus you can pass both sales and purchase entries for a party account placed under Sundry Debtors. Use the classification depending on the most natural group for the party.

For example, parties from whom you buy frequently can be placed under Sundry Creditors, as that is the natural place to look for their account. TallyPrime does not restrict the accounts from having obverse balances. Thus, a Sundry Debtor can have a credit balance depending on the state of his account.

Therefore, you need not open two accounts for the same party – one under Sundry Debtors and another under Sundry Creditors. TallyPrime restricts opening of two identical ledger accounts. In such cases, you may decide to circumvent by marking one account as “A & Co – S/Dr” and another “A & Co – S/Cr”. This will allow you to have two accounts of the same party under two groups, but you will lose the advantage of analyzing net position at a single instance. It is always better to maintain a single account to obtain best benefits.

Expenditure items are entered under Liabilities group. For example, the expenditure item Rates & Taxes under the group Duties & Taxes.

The group Duties and Taxes is specifically meant to handle taxation liabilities of your company. Rates & Taxes and other statutory expenses should be placed under Indirect Expenses.

Simply adhering to the reserved groups may be sufficient for many organizations. For greater diversity, TallyPrime allows you to create your own groups, either as sub-groups or primary groups. Groups can be sub-classified to practically an unlimited level, giving you a virtual accounting tree. At the lowest level, of course, it would be the ledger account.

Note: While it is necessary to assign every ledger to a group/sub-group, it is not essential to have your own sub-classification of accounts; you may simply use the reserved groups for grouping your ledger accounts.

Create, Alter, Delete Account Groups

You can create a single group or multiple groups in TallyPrime and configure the details as per your requirement. You can also view, alter, or delete these groups in TallyPrime, as needed.

In this section

• Create account groups one-by-one
• View account groups one-by-one
• Alter a Group
• Create Multiple Groups in one-go
• Alter Multiple Groups
• Delete a Group

Create account groups one-by-one

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Create Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Create > type or select Group and press Enter.
2. Enter the Name of the group.
3. Enter the Alias name, if required.
4. In the field Under, from the List of Groups displayed, select the parent group under which the group has to be classified; for example, Indirect Expenses.
   

   Note: Groups can be created under the group Primary, if required.

   The Group Creation screen appears.
   
5. Press Ctrl+A to save, as in other masters.

Note: A new group created under primary will not be reflected in reports until you pass masters/transactions for that group.

View account groups one-by-one

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter.
2. Select the name of the group required from the List of Groups displayed.
   The Group Alteration (Secondary) screen appears.
   

Alter a Group

The details entered in a group can be modified, if required.

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Alter Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Alter > type or select Group and press Enter.
   The Group Alteration screen appears.
2. Select the name of the group required from the List of Groups displayed.
3. Make the necessary changes in the Group Alteration screen.
4. Press Ctrl+A to save, as always.

Create Multiple Groups in one-go

You can create, edit or delete multiple groups in TallyPrime.

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter. 
2. Press Alt+H (Multi-Masters) > select Multi Create.
3. Select the group category in the field Under Group.
4. Enter the Name of Group. The screen appears as shown below:
   
5. Select All Items in the field Under Group to create multiple groups of different categories.
   

   Note: You can add any number of sub-groups to an already created or selected group. The sub-groups inherits the characteristics of the parent groups.

A new group created under primary will not be reflected in reports until you pass masters/transactions for that group.

Alter Multiple Groups in TallyPrime

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter. 
2. Press Alt+H (Multi-Masters) > select Multi Alter screen appears as shown below:
   
3. Change the details as required and press Ctrl+A to save changes.

Delete a Group

Groups in TallyPrime can be deleted from the alteration screen. It is important to note that you cannot delete groups from the Multiple Group Alteration screen.

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Alter Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Alter > type or select Group and press Enter.
2. Select the group from the List of Groups.
3. Press Alt+D.
4. Click Yes to confirm deletion.

Note: A group cannot be deleted if:

The group has sub-groups.

The group has ledgers classified under it.

The group is a predefined master.

View Edit Log for Groups in TallyPrime 

You may be making a few changes in groups or accounting groups in TallyPrime such changing the behavior of the group to a sub-ledger or starting or stopping to use it for taxes or discounts. Edit Log captures all the activities that you perform in a Group. To view the Edit Log for a group:

1. Open the Group.
   1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Chart of Accounts and press Enter > select Group and press Enter. 
      Alternatively, press Alt+G (Go To) > Alter Master > Type or select Group and press Enter.
   2. Type or select the name of the Group and press Enter.
      The Group Alteration screen appears.
      If you drill-down on a deleted Group from Chart of Accounts, then the Edit Log report opens.
2. Press Alt+Q (Edit Log). 
   Alternatively, press Ctrl+O (Related Reports) > Edit Log and press Enter.
   The Edit Log report displays Version, Activity, Username, and Date & Time.
   
   Refer to Activities Tracked Under Edit Log to know more.
3. Select the version and press Enter. 
   The Differences Between Edit Log Versions screen appears.
   
   You can view the details of changes made in the selected version of the group as compared to its previous version.
   TallyPrime highlights the changes made in the group as compared to its previous version in red text.
   Similarly, you can drill down to any version and view the comparison between the version and its previous one.
   

   Note: You will not be able to drill down on the Resaved version as there are no data of changes between the versions. 

   To know more about the report, refer to Differences Between Edit Log Versions.
4. Configure the report to compare the versions, as needed.
   1. Press F12 (Configure) and: 
   2. Show altered values only: Yes. 
      Subsequently, only the values that you have changed in the group will be highlighted in red text.
      For instance, if you have changed Name of the group, then you will be able to view that. 
      Set it as No, if you do not want to view those values. 
   3. Show configuration-based value (such as Yes/No, or change from blank to Not Applicable/Primary): Yes. 
      Subsequently, you will be able to view the difference in the configurations of both the versions.
      For instance, if you have set Method to allocate when used in purchase invoice from Not Applicable to Appropriate by Value, then the report will display the same. 
      Set it as No, if you do not want to view the difference in the configurations of both the versions.
   4. Show internal fields updated by the application: No. 
      As a result of an activity, TallyPrime may update a few internal fields in the application.
      Set is as Yes, if you want to view such fields in the report.
      
      After configuring as shown above, a sample report appears as shown below.
      

Manage Groups in Multiple Companies

You can manage groups in multiple companies by copying masters.

Copying masters in groups from multiple companies helps to:

• Maintain the same group structure and ledgers for businesses with subsidiaries or branches.
• Maintain uniformity of reports in all companies.
• Consolidate accounts across branches.
• Avoid re-creating masters in other companies.

In this section

• Copy a Single Group
• Copy Multiple Groups

Copy a Single Group

When copying a group from one company to another, the source company (from where the master has to be copied) and the destination company (to which the master has to be copied) have to be selected.

1. Gateway of Tally > Press Alt+K (Company)> Select > Source Company.
2. Gateway of Tally > Press Alt+K (Company)> Select > Destination Company.
3. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Alter Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Alter > type or select Group and press Enter.
4. Select a group from the List of Groups.
5. Press F3 (Company) to switch over to the destination company.
6. Press Ctrl+A to save, as always.

Note: If the parent of the group does not exist, you will not be able to accept the screen without selecting a parent in the destination company.

Copy Multiple Groups

1. Gateway of Tally > Press Alt+K (Company)> Select > Source Company.
2. Gateway of Tally > Press Alt+K (Company)> Select > Destination Company.
3. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Chart of Accounts > Group > and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Alter > type or select Group and press Enter.
4. Press Alt+H (Multi-Masters) > select Multi Alter and Press Enter.
5. Select a group or All Items from the list.
6. Press F3 (Company) to switch over to the destination company.
7. As always, press Ctrl+A to save.

Note: Copying masters is possible only if the books of accounts are maintained on the same computer.

You can copy other masters like ledgers, cost categories, and cost centres either single or multiple in the same way.

Note: The alternative to transferring information between companies is to use the options exporting or importing data.

Configure Advanced Options for Groups

You can configure additional group information such as:

• Sub-ledger creation of groups
• Nett debit/credit balances for reporting
• Used for Calculations
• Method to allocate purchase invoice

In this section

• Advanced configurations
• Button options in Group Creation Screen

Advanced configurations

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Create Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
2. Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Create > type or select Group and press Enter.
3. Configure the group, as needed.
   1. Press F12 (Configure).
   2. Show more configurations: Yes. 
      This will enable you to view all the configurations provided for the group.
      
   3. Set the configurations to Yes or No, as needed.
   4. Press Ctrl+A to save the settings.
      A sample group creation screen with advanced options appears as shown below.
      

Group Creation screen and associated configurations

1. Enter a Name for the group.
2. Enter a Group Category.
   If a group is created under Primary, then you must select from asset, expenses, income or liability.
3. Select the Nature of Group.
4. Configure the group, as needed.
   1. Group behaves like sub-ledger: Yes.
      Thereafter, the group acts as a sub ledger.
      • When the option Group behaves like sub-ledger is set to Yes, the ledgers grouped under the same are not displayed in detailed mode, as shown below.
        
      • When the option Group behaves like sub-ledger is set to No, all the ledgers that are grouped are displayed in the detailed mode, as shown below.
        
   2. Nett Debit/Credit Balances for Reporting: Yes.
      This displays net debit or credit balance in the report (whichever is higher).
   3. Used for Calculation (e.g. taxes, discounts): Yes, if ledgers under this group have percentages for discounts or taxes to be used in invoice entry.
      This is displayed while passing voucher in invoice mode and for automatic calculations.
   4. Select Method to Allocate when used in Purchase Invoice from the List of Allocation Methods to allocate the expense of the item in the ratio of the quantity or value.
   5. Set/Alter GST Details: Yes.
      This will allow you to provide GST details at group level.
   6. Set Position Index in Report to decide where this group will be displayed in report.
5. Press Ctrl+A to save.

Group Behaves as a Sub-Ledger

When the option Group behaves like Sub-Ledger is set to Yes for a certain group, the group behaves like a controlling account for the ledgers under it. This also means that only the net balance and not individual ledger balances will be displayed in the reports.

Note: This is useful for groups such as Sundry Debtors and Sundry Creditors (which are pre-set to Yes), which can have a large number of ledgers under them, and can be exploded during display to show ledger balances.

In this section

• Set the group to act as a sub-ledger
• View the group in the Reports

Set the group to act as a sub-ledger

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > Alter Master > type or select Group and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Alter > type or select Group and press Enter.
2. Set the option Group behaves like a Sub-Ledger to Yes, as shown below:
   
3. Press Ctrl+A to save, as always.

View the group in the Reports

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Trial Balance and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Display More Reports > Trial Balance. 
2. Press F12 (Configure) > set Expand all levels in detailed format to Yes in the Configuration screen, as shown below:
   
3. Press Ctrl+A to save, as always.
   After configuration, a sample Trial Balance report appears as shown below.
   

Similarly, setting Group behave like sub-ledger to No will show all ledger under that group in the report.  

Displaying Group Summary

The group summary statement shows the closing balances of the accounts of a selected group for a specified period up to the current date. The default view is that of sub-groups within a group.

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Group Summary and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Display More Reports > Accounts Books > Group Summary and press Enter.
2. Select group Indirect Expenses, and press Enter.
   A sample Group Summary report appears as show below.
   

Displaying Group Vouchers

Group Vouchers is a list of all vouchers having at least one ledger account entry belonging to the selected group. This statement is useful when you want to list all transactions for a particular group.

1. Press Alt+G (Go To) > type or select Group Vouchers and press Enter.
   Alternatively, Gateway of Tally > Display More Reports > Accounts Books > Group Vouchers and press Enter.
2. Select Group Name e.g. Current Assets and Press Enter.
   
   A sample Group Vouchers report appears as show below.
   
3. Press F2 (Period) to change the period, if required.
   As a result, the Group Vouchers report with the changed Period appears as shown below.
   

Including post-dated transactions

To include the values of the post-dated transactions in the Group Vouchers report:

• Press Alt+F8 (Include Post-dated).
  The voucher number of these transactions will have the prefix (Post-Dated), and the Period of the report will automatically include the date of the post-dated transaction.
  

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