6 different ways to remotely access Tally

With work from home becoming a new normal, the current Covid-19 situation has made us all aware of the need to access your business data from anywhere. So the need to access Tally online has increased immensely. There are several ways in which this can be done. In this post, we look at 6 different ways to access your Tally license and data from anywhere.

1. Tally Virtual Access
2. Browser Access
3. Remote Access
4. Tally on Mobile App
5. Virtual Private Network (VPN)
6. Teamviewer or similar software

1. Tally Virtual Access

Tally has just authorized the use of Tally in a virtual environment using TVU starting 1st July 2020. With this you can access Tally online from anywhere if you host it on the cloud on any windows based server. This includes access Tally through Windows RDP, Citrix, TSPlus as well as thin clients. Some customized solutions on Linux are also available. This gives amazing flexibility as employees can easily work from home. All that is needed is a Tally ERP 9 license on the server in your office/cloud along with a good internet connection. Data resides in the cloud server itself and so data security is also maintained with users having limited access. The server can be in your office or in a data centre. We will not be going too much in detail on this here as we have a post dedicated to TVU which can be accessed here.

2. Tally Reports Browser Access

Starting with Tally ERP 9 Release 6.6, you have another option to access Tally online with the facility to view Tally ERP 9 reports from any regular web browser which can be running on any device such as mobile, iPad, Mac etc. You can be in any location, within office or outside to access your data. This is being speedily developed further by Tally with more and more features getting added with each release and looks to be probably the best way going forward.

The best part of this method is that its blazing-fast and totally secure as your data resides in your computer in the office. It is possible to drill down up to the voucher level and also download invoices and vouchers. You can also control which user has access and to which report. The option to add your own customized reports is also now available from Tally ERP 9 Release 6.6.1. Another useful feature is the option to open and then download a report in PDF or Excel format, the option for which got added in release 6.6.2.

Setup and Use Browser Access inn Tally

Make sure that your Tally version is at least Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.6. After that, allow your users to view reports from anywhere in security settings. Only users with a valid Tally.NET ID can be allowed to get browser view of Tally reports. Your account ID (the e-mail ID used to activate your license) is a valid Tally.NET ID. Next, you can create Tally.NET IDs for other users requiring to view reports in a browser. Then, you have to click on the connect button to connect your company. That’s it. Done!

The user has to login using his allotted Tally.Net ID and then select the required company, A list of available reports is shown once you log in to the Tally portal. A report with the latest data is fetched and displayed on his screen. You can then drill down to the next levels of the report to get further details till the voucher just like on desktop. It is also possible to change the period of the report as required. You may have to refresh the page to get updated information. This is a very economical way to access Tally from anywhere.

Tally Reports available with Browser Access

3. Remote Access

One of the earliest ways to access Tally online has been using remote access. Tally has an in-built Remote Access feature since the last many years. You can use this remote access feature if you have an active TSS. Using this, it is possible to securely access Tally from anywhere to record new transactions, or simply view reports whilst working from a client’s office or any other remote location. At the remote location, an educational mode Tally installation along with a decent internet connection is all that is needed. In the office, you should have a Tally license with an active TSS and a high-speed internet connection.

With employees working from home, access to the company data from anywhere, these Tally’s remote capabilities become very handy and cost-effective. In the scenario of an employee at a client location requiring to print an invoice or purchase order placed by the client, the work can be done instantly. Noteworthy is the fact that the employee cannot view any financial reports unless he has been given required permissions. On the other hand, management can check the company’s financial reports when away from the office.

Benefits of Tally Remote Access

Complete Security and Control: The administrator has complete control which users can which company along with which features are available to which users. More importantly, Tally data will always be in your computer/cloud. You can also provide view-only access to certain users and full access to others. Whenever a user connects to your company, based on the access permissions provided, he can access the applicable features.

Regular Audits of your Accounts: You can allow your auditor or tax consultant to do a verification of your accounts on an ongoing basis. As a Chartered Accountant, you can use your existing Tally.NET ID to get access to your clients’ data if they you access to their data.

Quick data access: When employees are at clients’ locations, they can view the stock availability and commit delivery dates to the clients, or check the pending receivables from the clients. This ensures availability of the latest details when required the most enabling quick decision making.

How to Setup and Use Remote Access

To access your Tally online using remote access, first, make sure that your TSS is valid. After that, configure your users to become Tally.Net users to allow them to make entries and view reports from anywhere in security settings. Only users with a valid Tally.NET ID will get remote access. The account ID (e-mail ID used to activate your Tally license) is a valid Tally.NET ID. Next, you can create additional Tally.NET IDs for other users requiring remote access. Then, you have to click on the connect button to connect your company. This has to be done for all companies in which remote access is required as well as in your Tally license control centre. You can allow your accountants or auditor who have their own pre-existing Tally.NET IDs to log in remotely also. That’s all that is required.

The user has to login using his allotted Tally.Net ID and then select the required company from the list of available companies if there is more than one. A user can now enter new vouchers, alter existing vouchers or view reports with the exception of a few such as GST reports etc.

4. Tally on Mobile App

This is among the most versatile and user-friendly methods to access Tally from anywhere. It gives you truly mobile and anywhere access anytime and anywhere. You Tally data is available on your mobile at any given point of time. If you wish to check something in the middle of the night when the office is shut, its possible! With this, your data is available offline on your fingertips and that too in a mobile-friendly format. There is no need to learn Tally to use this. There are third-party apps available for this. An added advantage of Tally on mobile apps is that you get beautiful looking reports and a dashboard giving all relevant data neatly presented in a mobile-friendly format.

It is also very cost-effective with prices starting at ₹1800 per mobile per year with various other offers usually running. You can read about Tally on mobile in further detail on our page dedicated to it here.

5. Virtual Private Network (VPN)

One more way to access Tally online is by setting up a VPN. This is another very cost-effective way of securely extending the reach of your Tally across locations. There are two ways to doing this; using a hardware firewall or a software VPN. In this, you have to install a VPN client on the remote computer and can directly connect to your office LAN from wherever you are. Your data resides in the office at all times. This is also a highly secure way of accessing your Tally. An important advantage of using a VPN is that since you are remotely connecting to your LAN, you get full access (subject to the security restrictions configured and the allotted rights) to all resources and data in the office such as other software, word and excel documents etc. Your Tally server can be anywhere; in the office or cloud.

One important mistake made by many IT vendors configuring a VPN for Tally access is that they don’t configure the remote users in the same subnet as the office LAN. Due to this, the remote users can access their Tally data, but not the Tally license. How to configure a VPN is beyond the scope of this post as it requires in-depth IT knowledge and should be done only by qualified IT personnel. A mistake in configuration can render your entire office LAN open to attacks. If you need further assistance to configure VPN, please do not hesitate to contact us.

6. Teamviewer or similar software

This is the simplest of all methods to access Tally online and can be used if there is only one user who will be accessing Tally at a time. That is also the downside. Ony one user can access a PC at a time. So if there are 3 remote users, they will have to access their PCs in the office and not the server directly. So all the PCs have to be kept on all the time. This method is absolutely free if you use software like Anydesk etc. It is very effective if there is a limited or if only a short period usage is required.

In this post, we have tried to include most of the methods commonly used to access Tally online or access tally from anywhere. In case you wish to get further information on anything, you could get in touch with us anytime.