How do I do bookkeeping for a small business, in Excel or Tally?
Record every sale, purchase, expense and bank movement as it happens, and reconcile with your bank statement each week; the habit matters more than the tool. In Excel, keep one sheet per register: sales (date, invoice number, customer, amount, GST), purchases and expenses, bank, and stock if you sell goods, with a monthly summary that adds them up. It works for a handful of transactions but cannot file GST returns or catch errors. In TallyPrime, press Alt+K to create the company, set up ledgers (bank, sales, purchases, expenses, GST) and enter each transaction as a voucher; it prepares GST returns, e-invoices and e-way bills, and costs Rs 750 a month or Rs 22,500 for a lifetime single-PC licence, plus 18% GST. Zoho Books, in the browser, has a free plan and paid plans from Rs 749 a month billed yearly. Run a separate business bank account, keep every bill, and give your CA clean books monthly, not once a year.
Tally's own step-by-step help on the first thing you do in TallyPrime: create the company with its financial year, address and features, before creating ledgers and recording vouchers.
A free, patient course on double-entry bookkeeping: accounts, debits and credits, the general ledger and how transactions roll up into financial statements.
Tally's own price page for TallyPrime, the accounting software most Indian CAs already use. Silver for one PC is Rs 750 a month, Rs 8,100 for 12 months, or Rs 22,500 for a lifetime licence, all plus 18% GST.
Accounting software made in India with GST invoicing; it produces the profit and loss statement from your entries. There is a free plan for solopreneurs and micro businesses, and Standard is Rs 749 a month billed annually (Rs 899 monthly).
When your spreadsheet starts breaking (you are chasing invoices, guessing at GST, or dreading month-end) Zoho Books is the most sensible first move for an early Indian startup. The free plan is genuinely free for businesses under the turnover threshold and already handles GST invoicing, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and 50+ reports, so you can start at zero cost and upgrade only when you outgrow it. It is cloud-first and India-built, which matters if you are building outside the big startup hubs and want your accountant to log in from anywhere.
