Tally exports audit data in three practical ways: an XML export of vouchers and masters, an Excel or CSV export of a specific report such as the Day Book or a ledger, and a direct ODBC connection. XML preserves the most structure and is usually the right choice for a full-year audit extract. Excel exports lose the link between a voucher and its underlying ledger entries.
Which export to ask for
Most firms ask the client for “the Tally data” and receive whatever the accountant happens to produce. That is the root of almost every import problem. Ask for a specific export, by name, and say what period it must cover.
| Route | What it gives you | What it loses | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| XML export (Gateway → Display → Day Book → Export, format XML) | Vouchers with their full ledger allocations, plus masters if exported together | Nothing structural, but files get large and may need splitting by quarter | A full-year audit extract. This is the default you should request. |
| Excel / CSV export of a report | A readable table of whatever the report shows | The voucher-to-ledger relationship. A purchase voucher hitting four ledgers becomes four disconnected rows. | A single schedule you want to eyeball — a trial balance, one ledger. |
| ODBC connection | Live query access to the company file | Nothing, but it requires Tally running, the ODBC port open, and client cooperation | Repeat engagements where the client will leave a machine available. |
| Tally Prime “Export All Masters” | Ledgers, groups, stock items, and their attributes | Transactions — masters only | Building the ledger mapping before transaction data arrives. |
Always request masters and vouchers together
A voucher export on its own gives you ledger names as free text. Without the masters you cannot tell whether “Shreeji Traders” and “Shreeji Traders (Mumbai)” are one vendor or two, and you cannot see which group a ledger sits under — so you cannot reliably separate a purchase from an expense from a fixed asset addition.
Ask for both in the same request, exported on the same date. Masters exported a month later than the vouchers will not reconcile, because ledgers get renamed and regrouped between the two.
The three problems that break most imports
- 01Blank or inconsistent ledger namesRows where the ledger column is empty usually mean the voucher was posted against a ledger that has since been deleted or merged, or that the export was cut short. Do not silently drop these rows — they carry real value and their absence will make the extract fail to tie to the trial balance. Identify them, quantify them, and go back to the client with the specific voucher numbers.
- 02Duplicated vendor and customer mastersThe same party entered two or three times with spelling variations is the norm rather than the exception. It matters because it breaks ageing, breaks balance confirmation selection, and hides duplicate payments — the same invoice paid once against each master looks like two legitimate payments. Group masters by PAN or GSTIN where present, and by normalised name where not, then confirm the groupings with the client rather than assuming.
- 03Opening balances that do not tie to last yearCheck the opening trial balance against the prior-year signed financial statements before doing anything else. Differences usually mean entries were passed in the prior period after the accounts were finalised, the company was split or merged in Tally, or a different company file was used. All three change the scope of your work, and all three are much cheaper to discover on day one than in week three.
A request you can send to the client
Sending a precise request saves a week. Something close to this usually works:
- A Day Book export in XML covering 1 April to 31 March, exported in one file or split by quarter if the file exceeds what email allows.
- An export of all masters — ledgers, groups and stock items — taken on the same day as the voucher export.
- The trial balance as at 31 March, in Excel, showing opening balance, debit, credit and closing balance.
- Confirmation of which company file was used, and whether any other company files were maintained during the year.
- The name and contact of whoever maintains Tally, so questions do not go through the partner.
Before you start testing, agree the extract to the trial balance and the trial balance to the prior-year signed accounts. An extract that does not tie is not a population, and every procedure you run on it is unsupported.
This is practical guidance written for audit teams, not an authoritative statement of any standard or statute. Standards, forms and timelines change. Check the current text issued by the ICAI and the relevant authority before relying on anything here in an audit file.
Related resources
- Purchase & AP auditPurchase register audit: what to check before you test anythingWhat a purchase register must contain, the checks that establish it is complete and internally consistent, and the defects that quietly invalidate everything tested on top of it.
- GST & GSTR-2BGSTR-2B vs purchase register: how to investigate differencesThe two documents record different events on different bases. Which differences are structural and expected, how to match the files reliably, and how to work one down to a cause.
- Purchase & AP auditPurchase testing in statutory audit: procedures, samples and exceptionsAgreeing the population, choosing a sample basis that survives review, the procedures that address each assertion, and what to do with what they throw up.
Free tools, no signup
Each one reads a file entirely in your browser — or, for two of them, just answers a few questions — and nothing is ever uploaded.
- Purchase register checkDuplicate payments, round-sum amounts, weekend-dated invoices, incomplete records.
- GSTR-2B reconcilerMatches your purchase register against GSTR-2B — missing invoices either side, amount mismatches.
- Bank reconciliation checkerMatches your cash book against a bank statement — what's outstanding on each side.
- Fixed asset register checkDuplicate asset codes, missing location or useful life, negative net book value.
- Payroll red-flag scannerBank accounts shared across employees, and records missing an ID, PAN or salary.
- CARO applicability checkerAnswer a few questions about the company and see which CARO 2020 clauses likely apply.
- MSME payment delay checkerMSME-flagged invoices paid — or still unpaid — beyond the 45-day Section 22 limit.
- Related-party transaction screenerTransactions above a threshold you set with no approval reference, grouped by counterparty.
- Depreciation useful life checkerCompares a useful life in use against the Schedule II, Part C indicative figure.
- Materiality calculatorOverall and performance materiality against PBT, revenue, assets or equity, with reasoning shown.
- Sample size calculatorStatistical sample size for a test of controls or a substantive test of detail.