GST in Tally Prime in Hindi, explained in the order you actually do it. Names of menu items vary by version; the sequence and the settings do not.
Learning this, and which half of it lasts
A whole training industry exists around desktop accounting software, and most syllabuses bundle two things together. Only one of them transfers.
- Learn what a tax invoice must legally carry, before any keystroke. Every field you are later taught to fill exists because of this.
- Learn why place of supply decides the tax head, and that it is compared against your registration state. This single idea explains most tax errors.
- Learn the difference between a tax invoice, a bill of supply, a proforma and a credit note. Using the wrong document is a compliance error, not a style choice.
- Learn the numbering rule — consecutive, unique within the financial year, a cancelled invoice keeping its number — because no software protects you from misunderstanding it.
- Learn what input credit actually depends on: the supplier having filed, not you holding the invoice.
- Only then learn the product: the menus, the voucher types, the shortcuts. This is the easy part and it is also the part that expires with the version.
- Practise on real documents rather than exercises. A month of your own invoices teaches more than a syllabus, because the awkward cases are yours.
If you are learning for an examination, follow the syllabus. If you are learning to do the job, the concepts above are what you will still be using in ten years.
On TallyPrime specifically
TallyPrime reorganised how you move around the product rather than how the accounting works. The go-to search, the ability to change a report's view without leaving it, and the rework of the data-entry screens mean most older instructions give you the right idea and the wrong keystrokes.
So when following a guide written for the previous generation, follow the intent rather than the key sequence: the ledger still needs the same fields, the invoice still needs the same content, and the exceptions list in the GST report is still where the return actually gets fixed.
What is worth checking on any current release is the compliance side rather than the interface — whether your installation is up to date for the return formats and the e-invoicing schema in force. An out-of-date installation does not announce itself; it produces a file the portal rejects, or one it accepts with figures in the wrong column.
Data from the earlier generation migrates, but migration is a one-way step and worth doing from a backup you have verified rather than from the live company data.
The same job, without the setup
In Billixo, the equivalent of everything above is: enter your GSTIN and state once at signup, put the HSN on a product when you create it, and select the customer when you bill.
The tax heads are not ledgers you create — they are derived from the place of supply against your registration state, every time, with no dropdown to get wrong. The GST summaries are a report you download rather than a screen you have to clear.
You can test that claim in about ten minutes on the free plan without installing anything. Start free now, or open the demo.
Keeping both, which is often the right answer
If your accountant works in a desktop ledger and is happy there, you do not have to move them. Plenty of businesses raise invoices in one system and hand a clean summary to a practitioner working in another.
The interface between the two is a file — a GSTR-1 summary, or a CSV of invoices — not a platform commitment. Billixo exports CSV, Excel and JSON, and the export works on the free plan.
Change only the part that is actually costing you evenings.
CGST, SGST and IGST — worked out, not chosen
Whether a sale attracts CGST and SGST or IGST is not a preference. It follows from the place of supply: same state as your registration means the tax splits into central and state halves, a different state means one integrated tax at the combined rate.
That sounds simple and goes wrong constantly, because it is a dropdown in most billing software and a dropdown is something a tired person clicks past. In Billixo the split is derived from the state on the customer record against the state on your registration, and it changes the moment either does.
The consequence of getting it wrong is real: an IGST invoice raised as CGST/SGST has to be credited and reissued, and if the return has already gone in, amended.
HSN and SAC codes, and how many digits you need
Every line on a tax invoice needs an HSN code for goods or a SAC for services. How many digits depends on your aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year — smaller businesses report fewer digits than larger ones, and B2B and B2C invoices are treated differently.
Because the requirement is tied to turnover and has been tightened in stages, the practical answer is to store the fullest code you can against each product once, and let the software report at the level required. A six-digit code can always be truncated; a two-digit one cannot be expanded.
Billixo keeps the code on the product record and carries it onto every line automatically, and its AI HSN lookup will suggest one from a plain description when you genuinely do not know.
Bill scanning, in practice
The single largest time cost in most small businesses is not raising invoices — it is entering purchases. A photograph of a supplier bill goes in and a structured draft comes out: supplier, GSTIN, line items, rates, tax split and total.
You check it. That is the workflow, and it is deliberate: an extraction you did not read is a liability, not a saving. But checking a filled form takes fifteen seconds and typing one takes three minutes, and that difference compounds over a month of purchases.
Who it is built for
Small and mid-sized Indian businesses that are registered under GST and bill regularly. One person doing everything, or a counter with three people billing at once and an accountant who needs the month to close cleanly.
The design assumption throughout is that whoever raises the invoice is busy and is not a tax specialist. So the tax is computed rather than asked for, the compliance fields are populated rather than presented as questions, and the report the accountant wants is a download rather than a request.
Try it free — the free plan needs no card and does not expire.
The price, plainly
Free is ₹0 and stays ₹0. The paid plans are bought for a fixed term, paid once, with no auto-renewal and no card kept on file — when a term ends the account drops back to Free until you decide to buy again.
There is no per-invoice charge, no per-user surprise on the free plan, and no feature that is technically included but practically throttled. What the plan says you get is what you get.
Compare the plans on the home page, or just start free now and look at the ceiling from the inside.
Reliability, backups and getting your data out
Cloud billing software is only as good as its worst day. Two things matter more than any feature list: that your data is backed up somewhere you can reach, and that you can export it in a format something else can read.
Exports here are CSV, Excel and JSON, on every plan including the free one, covering customers, products, invoices and payments. That is the honest test of whether software respects you — not what it promises, but what it lets you take when you leave.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use both?
Yes, and many businesses do. Raise invoices wherever it is fastest and hand your accountant a clean GSTR-1 summary. The hand-off is a file, not a commitment.
Will I lose my data if I move?
No. Export your party and item lists to CSV or Excel, import them in one pass, and carry unpaid invoices as opening balances. Keep the old system readable for a year — most businesses never migrate historic invoices at all.
Why is GST not calculating on my invoice?
Nine times out of ten a master is incomplete: the stock item has no rate or no HSN, the party ledger has no state, or the tax ledgers are not set to the right tax type. Because the most specific setting wins, a rate set at item level will also silently override one set at company level.
Are the invoices valid for GST?
Yes. Every invoice carries the fields Rule 46 requires — GSTIN, HSN/SAC on each line, place of supply, the correct CGST/SGST or IGST split, and a consecutive invoice series that restarts each financial year.
Can I move my existing customers and products in?
Yes. Bulk import from CSV or Excel on any paid plan, and export back out in CSV, Excel or JSON at any time, including on Free. Most people bring their party and item lists across in one pass and carry outstanding invoices as opening balances.
See it working on your own bills
The fastest way to judge billing software is to bill with it. Photograph one supplier invoice, raise one sales invoice, and look at the PDF your customer would receive.
Open the software demo → — free account, no card, about a minute to set up.
More details on the home page → — what it does, what it costs, and where the limits are.
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