Tally’s GST-Ready Product Release Plan

With just a few weeks left for the roll out of GST, one of the burning questions on your mind as a Tally user is probably, How will Tally support my business to become GST compliant?With this blog post, you will understand Tally & GST product strategy, and how you can smoothly transition into GST with Tally.ERP 9 (now TallyPrime) Release 6.0.

State of readiness of GSTN

As you know, the GST Council has approved the law, and the rules are now being finalised. Finalisation of GSTN APIs and readiness of GSTN are closely tied to the finalisation of GST rules. Until the GSTN foundation is available with the required stability, it is impossible to create a robust and usable GSTN connected product for you.To overcome this dependency, and to help you, our users, be ready for GST, we have formalised a clear GST product roll out plan.Read: Multiple GST Registrations: Know How to Manage Books of Accounts

GST Product Roll Out Plan

Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.0 & Transitioning to GST

Our first major GST release will happen this June. Moving to this release will ensure that you are ready for GST from Day 1. Using this release, you can run all your business operations in compliance with the new GST rules.What are the first steps to be ready for GST?The crucial first steps for GST readiness include:

• Creating GST-compliant transactions
• Verifying invoice-level accuracy
• Maintaining books of accounts
• Making your data visible online on GSTN. This will be new activity for you, and some aspects of it might surprise you. To give you more confidence during this phase, we advise that you follow a two-step approach:
• Use the error-solving capability (also known as triangulation) provided in Tally.ERP 9 to verify the accuracy of your transactions.
• Upload verified transactions to GSTN to minimise any back and forth due to errors.

With Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.0, you can start running your entire business operations to comply with GST rules using the following capabilities:Running your day-to-day business operations

1. Set up all the required tax rates, and maintain GSTIN details of all your suppliers and customers.
2. Ensure that all new transactions are GST-compliant, and print GST-compliant invoices.

Submitting your compliance returns

1. Use Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.0 to verify accuracy of transactions, in accordance with GST rules, before uploading data.
2. Export data into a correctly formatted Microsoft Excel sheet using Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.0.
3. Import this Excel file into the Offline Utility provided by GSTN and generate an output file (in JSON format)
4. Upload this extracted file to the GSTN portal.

Using these capabilities of Release 6.0, you can confidently run business operations in compliance with GST rules from Day 1. After your data is uploaded to GSTN, you have to use the GSTN portal to accept or rectify all purchases and sign your returns.At the time of publishing this article, the format of GSTR 2 form is not yet available on the GSTN Offline Utility. Once the format is available, we will give you updated capabilities with subsequent releases of Tally.ERP 9. With this, you can import your supplier’s GSTN data into Tally.ERP 9 by using the GSTN utility, and fix purchase-related errors. This will help you easily manage the status of tax returns and books, and stay in sync with your GSTN data.

Tally.ERP 9 Release 7.0 and Future Releases

With Tally.ERP 9 Release 7.0, we intend to give you a “connected experience” with the GSTN portal. Our release date and features are dependent on the readiness of stable GSTN APIs, and we continue to work closely with the GSTN council.As greater numbers of businesses move to GST and use GSTN, we can expect more and more features and capabilities to be added to GSTN.We will work closely with the GSTN body to understand the extended capabilities of GSTN APIs beyond its initial shipment, and continue to enrich the experience in Tally.ERP 9. Each future release will focus on better compliance convenience for the diversity of businesses that we serve!

How can you get ready for 6.0?

Now that you understand Tally’s GST strategy, we advise you to upgrade today to the latest version of Tally.ERP 9 Release 5, in case you are not already using it. Ask your Tally Partner for help to upgrade, if required.Start spotting and correcting invoice-level problems using the power of triangulation. This will help you get ready for GST because GST expects invoice-level accuracy as a prerequisite for invoice-matching and subsequently to claim input credit.Get in touch if you need help.