How to move from Tally to 399Apps: a step-by-step migration guide
Short answer
To move from Tally to 399Apps, export your masters (ledgers, parties and stock items), opening balances and outstanding invoices from TallyPrime to Excel/CSV, clean the sheets, then import them into Nidhi Books and reconcile against your Tally trial balance. Pick a clean cut-over date — usually a month or quarter start — and run both systems in parallel for one cycle before going fully live. Guided onboarding support is available for larger datasets.
Updated 2026-07-09 · 399Apps · General GST information, not tax advice
How to migrate from Tally to 399Apps: step by step
You migrate by exporting your data out of Tally and importing it into Nidhi Books — there is no automatic one-click pull from a Tally file, so a tidy export and a clear cut-over date keep your books clean. Guided onboarding support is available if your dataset is large or complex.
- 1
Pick a cut-over date and back up Tally
Choose a clean cut-over date — the start of a month or, ideally, a financial quarter or year — so you do not split a tax period across two systems. Take a full backup of your Tally company data first (Gateway of Tally → F3 / Company → Backup) so your existing records stay safe whatever happens.
- 2
Export your masters from Tally to Excel
From TallyPrime, export your ledger masters, party (customer and supplier) details with GSTIN and state, and your stock-item list. Use Display More Reports → List of Accounts / Stock Summary and export each to Excel or CSV. These become the contact and item masters in Nidhi Books.
- 3
Export opening balances and outstanding invoices
Export your Trial Balance as on the cut-over date for opening balances, and your Bills Receivable and Bills Payable (Outstanding statements) so unpaid customer and supplier invoices carry over. These let Nidhi Books open with the same balances your CA signed off in Tally.
- 4
Clean and standardise the exported sheets
Open each export and tidy it: one row per record, consistent GSTIN and state formatting, valid HSN/SAC codes, and no merged cells or sub-totals left over from Tally’s report layout. Clean data here is the single biggest factor in a smooth import.
- 5
Set up your 399Apps account and company profile
Create your 399Apps account, add Nidhi Books, and enter your company GSTIN, state, financial-year start and invoice numbering series so GST invoices and GSTR exports are correct from day one. Add team members — there is no per-user charge, so everyone who used Tally can have their own login.
- 6
Import your masters and opening balances
Bring your cleaned customer, supplier and item masters into Nidhi Books, then enter or import opening balances and the outstanding invoice list as on your cut-over date. For larger or more complex datasets, email [email protected] and the team will help scope and run the import with you.
- 7
Reconcile, run in parallel, then go live
Check that the trial balance and outstanding totals in Nidhi Books match Tally on the cut-over date. Raise your new invoices in 399Apps from that date, keep Tally read-only as an archive, and once a full GST period reconciles cleanly, switch over completely.
Why move from Tally to the cloud
Tally (Tally.ERP 9 and TallyPrime) is a capable desktop accounting package, but it is tied to the machine it is installed on. To work from home, a second branch or a phone you need add-ons, a remote-desktop setup, or a synced data file — and the licence plus annual TSS renewal is a recurring cost per installation.
399Apps runs in any browser, so your books are reachable from any device with no per-user licence. For a small business that has outgrown a single Tally machine — added a second location, a remote accountant, or a team that all needs access — moving to cloud accounting removes the “whose computer has the latest data” problem and the per-seat cost of scaling Tally.
What carries over — and what to leave behind
A practical migration moves the data you need to keep operating and stay compliant, not every historical voucher. Carry over your current masters and balances; keep older history in your Tally backup as an archive.
- • Carry over: customer and supplier masters (with GSTIN and state), stock-item list with HSN/SAC, opening balances as on the cut-over date, and outstanding receivables and payables.
- • Optional: a few months of recent transactions if you want continuity in reports — but this is rarely necessary if your opening balances are correct.
- • Leave behind (as an archive): years of historical vouchers, closed financial years, and Tally-specific configurations. Keep your Tally backup so you can always look them up.
- • Re-create in 399Apps, do not import: your invoice numbering series, GST rates and tax settings, and user logins — these are quick to set up correctly and should not be force-fitted from Tally.
How long does a Tally-to-399Apps migration take
For a typical small business, the data work is a few hours to a day or two: most of the time goes into cleaning the exported sheets, not the import itself. A clean master list and an accurate trial balance on the cut-over date are what make it fast.
The safe approach is to import masters and opening balances, then run 399Apps alongside Tally for one GST period (a month, or a quarter under QRMP). Once that period reconciles, you retire Tally for daily use. Larger or messier datasets take longer — that is exactly when guided onboarding support pays off.
Common Tally migration mistakes to avoid
Most migration pain comes from data hygiene and timing, not the software. Avoiding these keeps your first GST return after the move clean:
- • Cutting over mid-period: starting on the 14th of a month splits one GST return across Tally and 399Apps. Cut over on a period boundary instead.
- • Importing dirty exports: merged cells, sub-total rows and inconsistent GSTIN/state formatting from a Tally report layout will break an import. Flatten and standardise first.
- • Skipping the trial-balance reconciliation: if you do not confirm opening balances match Tally on the cut-over date, every later report inherits the gap.
- • Deleting Tally too early: keep it read-only as an archive until at least one full GST period has reconciled in 399Apps.
- • Not setting GST and numbering before the first invoice: configure GSTIN, tax rates and your invoice series in Nidhi Books before you raise bill number one.
After you migrate: Tally vs 399Apps day to day
Once you are live, the daily experience changes in a few concrete ways. You bill and reconcile in a browser from any device, your whole team has a login at no extra cost, and GST work stays in one place: Nidhi Books raises GST-compliant invoices with HSN/SAC and place-of-supply handling, tracks TDS, and exports GSTR-1 (B2B, B2C, credit/debit notes and HSN summary) and the GSTR-3B outward-supplies summary as CA-friendly CSV. Tally remains a strong fit for businesses that rely on its advanced manufacturing, payroll, or fully offline workflows — so weigh those needs before you fully retire it.
How 399Apps helps
Nidhi Books (by 399Apps) is cloud GST accounting from ₹399/month with unlimited users (prices exclude GST) — GST invoicing, GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B exports, TDS and audit-grade CSV exports, reachable from any browser. Migration from Tally is a guided Excel/CSV import of your masters and balances — it is assisted, not one-click. For larger datasets, write to [email protected] and the team will scope and run it with you.
Migrate from Tally to 399Apps — frequently asked questions
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GST billing, returns & e-invoicing — done automatically
Nidhi Books raises GST-compliant invoices and prepares GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B exports, with unlimited users from ₹399/month for your first app (+₹99/month per add-on, prices exclude GST). Free for 14 days.