Activate Company Features [F11]

The different features of a company can be selected or modified by F11 button. This button is available in almost all screens of Tally as you might wish to modify it as your requirements change. The Company Features screen is reproduced below:



Unlike Configuration [F12], Company Features is specific to the current company only. Therefore, each company may have different features active. For example, a company in your group may need multi-currency whereas another company may not. Configuration options, on the other hand, affect all companies maintained in the same DATA directory and setting configuration for one company will affect other companies in that data directory.

Please note that certain features like multi-currency and multi-locations, once set to Yes, cannot be modified if the feature has been used. However, other features like Cost Centres and Bill-wise details can be modified even if they are used. If you reset the option after having used the feature in transactions, it is advisable to rewrite the company by using [CTRL+[ALT]+[R].

The two features - Cost centres and Bill-wise details- must be activated here for them to be available for ledger accounts. Each ledger account can then individually be set for the feature as required. For example, the options will become available for both 'A & Co' (a Debtor A/c) and 'Rent' (an Indirect Expenses A/c). You would want Bill-wise details but not Cost Centres for A & Co and vice-versa for Rent. Further details on these features are mentioned under Ledger.

Company Information Menu

The Company Information menu appears as:



The Company Information menu comprises of:

Select Company
To Select or load a company

Shut Company
To Shut a company

Create Company
To Create a company

Alter
To Alter a company

Change TallyVault
To secure the data by providing a TallyVault password.

Backup
To take a backup of the company data

Restore
To restore a data backup

Gateway of Tally of an "Accounts-with-Inventory" Company

The Gateway of Tally menu of an Accounts-with-Inventory company appears as:



The Gateway of Tally screen is separated into four sections, – Title Area, Main Area (Ctrl + M), Calculator Area (Ctrl + N)and the Button Bar.

Main Area
The left-hand side of the Main Area gives information of

Current Period – this is the currently loaded or selected company's accounting period.

Current Date – this is the date of the last Voucher Entry of the selected company (this is NOT the calendar date).

List of Selected Companies – This displays the name of the loaded or selected company.

Masters – for creation of Accounting Masters and Inventory Masters and Importing Master information.

Transactions / Vouchers - for creation of Accounting Vouchers and Inventory Vouchers and Importing transaction information.

Reports – for viewing and printing financial and inventory reports using the information given in Masters and Transactions.

Button Bar
The Button Bar area on this screen, displays the following buttons (keys):

Help (Alt + H) – to access Tally's online context-sensitive help

F1: Select Cmp – to select a company

F1: Shut Cmp – to shut or close the company

F2: Period – to change the period

F3: Cmp Info – to access the Company Information Menu

F11: Features – to access the Company features for a company

F12:Configure – to access the configuration settings to manage the information put into Tally.

Note: You cannot load more than one company at one time. The loaded or selected company will be shut first and then the other company is loaded.

Important:
1. Use the buttons on the right-hand side of the screen to Explore the Potential of Tally.
2. Press [Enter] wherever the cursor is placed to know the Depth of Tally!

Gateway of Tally of an "Accounts Only" Company

The Gateway of Tally menu of an Accounts Only company appears as:



The Gateway of Tally screen is separated into four sections, – Title Area, Main Area (Ctrl + M), Calculator Area (Ctrl + N) and the Button Bar.

Main Area
The left-hand side of the Main Area gives information of

Current Period – this is the currently loaded or selected company's accounting period.

Current Date – this is the date of the last Voucher Entry of the selected company (this is NOT the calendar date).

List of Selected Companies – This displays the name of the loaded or selected company.

Masters – for creation of Accounting Masters and Importing Master information

Transactions / Vouchers - for creation of Accounting Vouchers and Importing transaction information

Reports – for viewing and printing financial reports using the information given in Masters and Transactions.

Button Bar
The Button Bar area on this screen, displays the following buttons (keys):

Help (Alt + H) – to access Tally's online context-sensitive help

F1: Select Cmp – to select a company

F1: Shut Cmp – to shut or close the company

F2: Period – to change the period

F3: Cmp Info – to access the Company Information Menu

F11: Features – to access the Company features for a company

F12:Configure – to access the configuration settings to manage the information put into Tally.

Note: You cannot load more than one company at one time. The loaded or selected company will be shut first and then the other company is loaded.

Create a Company

Gateway of Tally > Company Info. > Create






The screen for India/Asia

Company Information

The very first time you start Tally, you would require to 'create' a company. 'Create Company' simply means giving basic information about the company whose books of accounts Tally is to maintain for you. Tally is smart, but it does need an introduction to your company. The initial screen would appear like this:



The Gateway of Tally screen is separated into four sections, – Title Area, Main Area (Ctrl + M), Calculator Area (Ctrl + N) and the Button Bar.

The screen elements of the Gateway of Tally screen is explained below:

Top Area
Top Area contains Version number, Release details (every time a new release of Tally is made, it is identified with a different release name like Release 3.14) and Current Date (the date configured in the computer). The name of the day, date, month and year is displayed in DD, MM, YYYY format on the left-hand side.

Tally logo is displayed at the centre of the Top Area.

The Product type (Tally Gold, Tally Silver, Tally Bronze or Educational) and Tally Serial Number appears on the upper-right corner. The software serial number is usually a unique number (taken directly from the TallyLock connected to the USB / Parallel port of the system). System time (the time configured in the computer) appears on the upper-right corner in Hour: Seconds: Minutes (HH/MM/SS) format.

Minimize Button
The Minimize button performs the standard Windows Operating Systems function (Windows 95 onwards), allowing you to minimize Tally and work on other applications. To restore Tally, click on the Tally icon on the taskbar.

Main Area (Gateway of Tally)
Main Area is separated into two areas:

Left-hand side area

Right-hand side area

The left-hand side area in Main Area provides information of Current Period, Current Date and List of Selected Companies (Name of the company and the date of last entry details).

The right-hand side area in the Main Area screen displays the Company Information menu (to select your instructions to Tally) > Select a Company, Create a Company, Backup a Company or Restore a Company.

Hot Keys
Hot keys are the text that are capitalized and are red in colour on all the menu screens. Typing any of the Hot Keys in the Company Info Screen will either take you to that particular screen or it may display the sub - menu’s within that Option.

Calculator Area
Press [Ctrl + N] to activate the calculator functionality. Calculator Area is used for calculator functions. Any type of Independent calculation can be done using calculator to get quick answers.

Button Bar
The buttons are designed to make the work easier and faster. These buttons vary from one screen to another based on the screen functionality. The buttons appear on the right hand side of the Tally screen. Only buttons relevant to the current screen will be active and the inactive buttons are greyed. These buttons are enabled with the short cut keys (like F1, F2 and so on). You can either click on these buttons or you can press the shortcut keys to access.)

On this screen, Tally displays the following buttons (keys):

Help (Alt + H) – to access Tally's online context-sensitive help (This feature is not available for Tally on RHEL)

Web Browser (Alt + W) – to access the Web Browser directly from Tally!

F1: Select Cmp – to access data from other data directories either on the local system or through the network.

F12: Configure – to access the configuration settings to manage the information put into Tally. Here, access the General Configuration to set country specific defaults. Use it before creating a company.

Note:
* Use the buttons on the right-hand side of the screen to explore the Potential of Tally.
* Press [Enter] wherever the cursor is placed in Gateway of Tally Menu’s and sub menu’s to know the Depth of Tally.

Buttons with a character or function key underlined means you have to press underlined character or the function key along with SHIFT key.

Buttons with a character or function key double underlined means you have to press character or the function key along with CTRL key.

F1: Press the shortcut function key to select a company

F1: Press SHIFT+F1 to shut a company

F8: Press CTRL+F8 to select the Credit Note voucher

Ctrl+M: Press Ctrl + M to access the Gateway of Tally.

Ctrl+N: Press Ctrl + N to access the Calculator/ODBC Server frame

Additional Information
The Tally Clock
While Tally processes data, you will see a clock on the screen indicating that you should wait until it disappears before performing the next action.