Working as an accountant or Tally operator is more than just being able to use the software; you have to demonstrate a good command of its features, a strong ability to deal with practical situations, and a clear idea of fundamental accounting principles. In this piece, we have documented the ultimate guide to the best Tally interview questions and answers 2025.
This guide provides coverage from fundamental principles to the advanced workings of Tally ERP 9 and Tally Prime. It should cover you if you are looking for Tally interview questions for freshers or are looking for anything at the senior level to provide a quick summary.
Foundational Tally Interview Questions (For Freshers & All)
These are the relevant tally interview questions and answers to create your first foundation. By answering these fundamental Tally interview questions well, you will be demonstrating to your interviewer that this is sufficient evidence that you have a reasonable understanding of the fundamentals.
1. What is Tally?
Answers: Tally is a popular and powerful business management and accounting software. Tally is used for managing financial transactions, inventory, and statutory requirements such as GST / TDS. Tally supports all sizes of businesses, and the software provides sufficient coverage in that it simplifies what is difficult about business in a small or large operation.
2. What are the key features of Tally?
Answer: The key features include:
Accounting - Ledger, voucher, and report management.
Inventory - Stock item, stock group, and godown management.
Statutory compliance - GST, TDS, and other tax computations and report generation.
Payroll - Manage employee records, payroll calculations, and payslip generation.
Data security - Tally Vault and security features on a per-user basis.
Banking - Bank reconciliations and cheque printing.
3. What are the types of vouchers in Tally?
Answer: Tally allows you to record transactions in several different vouchers; the major types are:
Contra (F4) - Used to record bank cash deposits and withdrawals.
Payment (F5) - Records all payments made.
Receipt (F6) - Records the receipts of all funds.
Journal (F7) - Deals with all non-cash transactions, ie, depreciation, adjustments, and year-end entries.
Sales (F8) - Records all sales.
Purchase (F9) - Records all purchases.
Credit note (Ctrl+F8) - Records all sales returns.
Debit note (Ctrl+F9) - Records all purchase returns.
4. Explain the "Golden Rules of Accounting."
Answer: The Golden Rules of Accounting are the basis of double-entry accounting from which Tally operates. They are:
Personal Account - Debit the Receiver, Credit the Giver.
Real Account - Debit What Comes In, Credit What Goes Out.
Nominal Account - Debit all Expenses and Losses, Credit all Incomes and Gains.
5. What are Ledgers and Groups in Tally?
Answer: Ledger is the real account that records all transactions (for example, A/c Cash, A/c Sales, A/c Creditors). A group is a set of ledgers of similar services for reporting and managing accounts in Tally (for example, Sundry Debtors, Bank Accounts).
6. What is the difference between Tally ERP 9 and Tally Prime?
Answer: Tally Prime is the new version, with Tally ERP 9 being the former one. Tally Prime has a more modern interface and is easier to use, with better navigation using a "Go To" feature. The other advantage of Tally Prime is its improved reporting functionality as well as its enhanced multi-tasking. Tally Prime is also a more intuitive keyboard-based experience. This is a common tally prime interview question you may want to look out for.
7. What are the two pre-defined ledgers in Tally?
Answer: The two default ledgers are Cash and Profit & Loss Account. The Cash ledger is automatically created, created within the "Cash-in-hand" group, while the Profit & Loss account is established to be a primary ledger to calculate and report a company's net profit or loss.
Technical and Operational Questions (Intermediate Level)
This set of tally question answers will assess your experience and know-how with the program.
8. How do I pass a journal entry for depreciation?
Answer: The depreciation is a non-cash expense. So we pass that is a Journal voucher (F7).
Dr. Depreciation Account (under Indirect Expenses)
- Cr. Fixed Asset account (Furniture & Fixtures)To know more about how to evaluate and assess the financial health of a company, see our article about How to Analyze A Company’s Balance Sheet.
9. How to enable GST in Tally?
Answer: To enable GST, go to the Gateway of Tally > F11: Features > Statutory & Taxation. Now set "Enable Goods and Services Tax (GST) to "Yes" and complete the GST details. It is important for business in India. For more information on the tax process, you can read our article, GST Filing Process Explained for Beginners.
10. Explain how Tally does bank reconciliation.
Answer: Tally deals with bank reconciliation by displaying entries in the bank ledger, and once you open the Bank Statement, it will show your transactions matched. In Tally, you go to Banking > Bank Reconciliation from the Gateway of Tally. Within Tally, it will match the entries, and you will simply need to manually clear transactions that did not match.
11. What are Cost Centers and Cost Categories?
Answer:
Cost Centers are organizational units to which costs can be allocated (e.g., departments, projects, employees).
Cost Categories are typically a logical group of cost centers (e.g., "Projects" could be a category with "Project A" and "Project B" as cost centers).
12. How do you manage inventory on Tally?
Answer: Tally allows you to manage inventory by using Stock Groups (e.g., "Consumer Electronics"), Stock Items (e.g., "Laptop"), and Godowns (storage locations). This functionality ensures stock levels, movements, and valuations can be tracked accurately.
13. What is the purpose of a "Zero Value" transaction in Tally?
Answer: A Zero-Value entry is a transaction where the Actual Quantity is different than the Billed Quantity. An example of this would be free samples or offers where the goods are still moved, but without the invoice.
14. Explain Tally's security control features.
Answer: Tally offers excellent security due to user-level access controls. You could create as many users as you like, using possibly different roles (e.g., Data Entry Operator, Manager) and allocate what each user could see, create, alter, or delete, thus ensuring data integrity and confidentiality.
Advanced Tally Interview Questions (For Experienced Professionals)
These advanced questions and answers will help you become a master at Tally.
15. How do we handle TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) in Tally?
Answer: For TDS treatment, you need to enable TDS in the F11 features menu. You require a TDS ledger, the nature of payment, party ledgers for TDS deduction, etc. Tally will automatically calculate and provide you with TDS reports.
16. What is Tally Vault? What is it used for?
Answer: Tally Vault is a security functionality that encrypts the company data. With this step, there is an added layer of security that makes it impossible for unauthorized users to access the data without the Tally Vault password.
17. Are you able to export it from Tally to other formats?
Answer: You can export data from any report in Tally with Alt+E Export. Data can be exported in a variety of formats (Excel, PDF, JPEG, XML, ASCII).
18. What is a Reversing Journal?
Answer: It is a unique financial `journal' entry type that gets reversed automatically on a certain date. This journal type is typically used to adjust accruals or prepaid expenses at the end of an accounting period.
19. What is Tally Audit?
Answer: Tally Audit allows administrators to view and monitor changes made to ledgers and vouchers by other users. Tally Audit records who has created, updated, and/or deleted a voucher. It is a great tool for internal controls and tracking errors.
20. How are multi-currency transactions recorded in Tally?
Answer: There is support for multi-currency transactions. You will need to activate it from F11, create your ledgers in foreign currency, and specify the exchange rate, and Tally will record currency gains and losses.
Key Tally Shortcuts (Practical Knowledge)
By learning these shortcuts, you are demonstrating efficiency and mastery of the software. This is an example of a standard Tally Question which could be answered in a hands-on round.
21. What is the shortcut for the Contra voucher?
Answer: F4
22. What is the shortcut for a Payment voucher?
Answer: F5
23. What is the shortcut for the Receipt voucher?
Answer: F6
24. What is the shortcut for Journal voucher?
Answer: F7
25. What is the shortcut for the Sales voucher?
Answer: F8
26. What is the shortcut for the Purchase voucher?
Answer: F9
27. How do you select a company in Tally Prime?
Answer: Alt+F3
28. How do you duplicate a voucher?
Answer: Alt+2
29. How do you delete a voucher or a master?
Answer: Alt+D
30. What is the shortcut to change the date in Tally?
Answer: F2
31. How do you repeat the narration from the previous voucher?
Answer: Ctrl+R
32. What is the shortcut to change from Item Invoice to Accounting Invoice mode?
Answer: Ctrl+V
33. What is the shortcut to select a company?
Answer: Alt+F3
34. What is the shortcut to select accounting features?
Answer: F11
35. What is the shortcut to open the Company Information menu?
Answer: Alt+K (in Tally Prime) or Alt+F3 (in Tally ERP 9)
36. How do you view a detailed report?
Answer: Alt+F1
37. How do you create a new master from a voucher entry screen?
Answer: Alt+C
38. What is the shortcut for viewing Stock Summary?
Answer: Ctrl+S
39. How do you export a report in Tally?
Answer: Alt+E
40. What is the shortcut to shut a company?
Answer: Ctrl+F3
Conclusion
Hopefully, you can work through these Tally interview questions and answers to build your confidence and show you know what you are talking about. You have prepared for both the technical and behavioral aspects of the interview by familiarizing yourself with Tally and rudimentary accounting concepts. Remember to practice the shortcuts and also be prepared when discussing Tally in the wider financial landscape. To further enhance your skills and career prospects, consider enrolling in a comprehensive program like our Diploma in Accounting and Taxation course. Good luck!
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