Migrating From Tally to Odoo: Masters, Opening Balances, Cut-Over

Short answer: Odoo has no built-in Tally importer, so a Tally migration is an Excel job done in a fixed order. Export from TallyPrime, map ledgers to Odoo’s chart of accounts, import parties as contacts (with GSTIN) and stock items as products (with HSN codes and units). Then load open invoices, stock on hand and an opening trial balance, using clearing accounts so nothing is counted twice. Cut over at a year or tax-period end, and run both systems for one period before retiring Tally.

Still deciding whether to move at all? Read Odoo vs Tally: when an Indian business should move first.

Applies to

• Odoo version: Odoo 19. The same pages exist in the Odoo 20 documentation with small label changes: the Actions menu item reads Import instead of Import records, template buttons drop the word “Import” (for example Template for Invoices), and account codes become optional.
• Edition: the import tool is in both editions; the opening-entry steps use the full Accounting app, which is Enterprise only.
• Source system: TallyPrime, with the Indian - Accounting localisation in Odoo.

Before you start

1. Pick the cut-over date. Odoo’s guide calls the fiscal year end the easiest point, followed by the end of a tax period. For most Indian businesses that means 1 April, or the start of a GST return period.
2. Check the localisation. In Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, the Package field in the Fiscal Localization section should show the Indian package. It can only be changed before any journal entry is posted.
3. Fill in the company. In the Settings app, Companies section, click Update Info and enter the GSTIN and PAN.
4. Rehearse on a test database. Odoo’s documentation is blunt: imports are permanent and can’t be undone.
5. Clean in Tally, not later. Merge duplicate party ledgers, retire dormant ones, and fill in missing GSTINs and HSN codes before exporting.
6. Decide what history moves. Odoo’s method brings balances and open items, not years of vouchers. Keep Tally read-only for history and audits.
7. Choose Excel or a connector. Third-party Tally connectors exist on the Odoo Apps store. If you consider one, test it on your own data, check exactly what it moves and who supports it, and remember that Odoo Online doesn’t accept non-standard apps. This guide uses Odoo’s own import tool.

Step by step

1. Export from TallyPrime. Press Alt+E (Export) and choose Masters. Press C (Configure), set Type of Master to Accounting Masters, pick Excel as the format, and press E to export. Repeat for Inventory Masters. Then open the Trial Balance, Bills Receivable, Bills Payable and Stock Summary reports as at the cut-over date and export each with Ctrl+E.
2. Map ledgers to the chart of accounts. Open Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Chart of Accounts. Where a Tally ledger has an Odoo equivalent, rename and recode the Odoo account rather than deleting it (default accounts are linked to products, contacts and settings). Create or import the rest, with unique codes:
   • Sundry Debtors and Sundry Creditors ledgers aren’t accounts in Odoo. Each party becomes a contact.
   • Bank Accounts ledgers become bank journals, one per bank account.
   • Duties & Taxes ledgers map to the GST accounts the localisation already created.
   • Sales Accounts, Purchase Accounts and Stock-in-hand map to income, expense and stock accounts.
3. Import contacts. In the Contacts app, switch to list view, click the Actions (gear) icon ‣ Import records, and download the template. Fill Name, Tax ID (labelled GSTIN for Indian contacts), GST Treatment (for example Registered Business - Regular or Unregistered Business), address and State. Give each row an External ID such as tally_party_0001 for later files to refer to. Fill the state yourself: the contact form derives it from the GSTIN, but don’t rely on that in an import.
4. Set up units and products. Enable Units of Measure & Packagings in Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, then create Tally’s units in Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Units & Packagings. On each unit, the Indian GST UQC field holds the GST unit quantity code. Import product categories next (they carry Costing Method and Inventory Valuation), then products from Inventory ‣ Products ‣ Products with Product Type Goods, Track Inventory, unit, HSN/SAC Code, Sales Taxes, Purchase Taxes and Cost.
5. Create warehouses for Tally’s godowns in Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Warehouses, or enable Storage Locations in the Inventory settings if a godown becomes a location inside a warehouse.
6. Import open invoices and bills. In Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Invoices, click Actions ‣ Import records ‣ Import Template for Invoices. Add one line per open bill from Tally’s Bills Receivable: Partner (matching a contact exactly), Number (unused, with the same year as the date), Invoice Bill Date, Due Date, a label such as “Opening invoices”, Invoice Lines / Account set to a receivable clearing account, and Invoice Lines / Unit Price as the amount still due. Leave taxes off: importing the total due only stops tax accounts being hit twice. Negative amounts are credit notes, imported under Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Credit Notes. Repeat for bills in Accounting ‣ Vendors ‣ Bills with a payable clearing account. Records arrive as drafts: select them, then Actions ‣ Confirm Entries. Do this before switching on E-Invoicing in the Indian Integration settings: with it on, Odoo 19 marks eligible invoices for sending to the portal when posted, and e-invoiced ones already have IRNs.
7. Import opening stock. With costs set, go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Physical Inventory, click Actions ‣ Import records ‣ Import Template for Inventory Adjustments, and fill Product, Counted, Location (required once locations are enabled) and Lot/Serial Number for tracked items. Click Apply All, enter an Inventory Reason such as “Opening stock” and a Counting Date, then Update Quantities.
8. Import the opening trial balance. In Tally’s Trial Balance, replace the Sundry Debtors total with an AR Clearing account and the Sundry Creditors total with AP Clearing. In Accounting ‣ Accounting ‣ Journal Entries, use Actions ‣ Import records ‣ Import Template for Misc. Operations. Fill Reference, Date and Journal on the first line only, then one line per account with a value in Journal Items/Debit or Journal Items/Credit, never both, never 0.00 or negative. Review the draft and click Post. At a year-end cut-over, agree with your accountant how last year’s result enters equity.
9. Set bank opening balances. On each bank journal’s first statement, set the Starting Balance to the real balance before the first Odoo transaction. With bank synchronisation, delete transactions dated before the trial balance.
10. Close the clearing accounts. AR Clearing and AP Clearing should now be zero. Change their Account Type to Off-Balance Sheet so they drop out of reports.
11. Run one period in parallel. Record the first month in both systems, decide in advance which one files that month’s GST returns, and compare the outputs below before retiring Tally.

Worked example: a hardware trader cutting over on 1 April

Illustrative figures. At the close of 31 March, Tally shows Sundry Debtors of ₹18,40,000 across 212 open bills, Sundry Creditors of ₹9,15,000 across 64 bills, stock of ₹26,30,000 in two godowns, and ₹4,20,000 in the bank.

Import	Lines	Effect
Open invoices	212, total ₹18,40,000	Receivable debited, AR Clearing credited
Open bills	64, total ₹9,15,000	AP Clearing debited, payable credited
Opening stock	Quantity × cost = ₹26,30,000	Matches the inventory line in the trial balance
Trial balance	AR Clearing Dr ₹18,40,000, AP Clearing Cr ₹9,15,000, stock, bank and the rest	Draft entry, reviewed and posted

After posting, receivables stand at ₹18,40,000, payables at ₹9,15,000, and both clearing accounts at zero. April runs in both systems, and its GSTR-1 is filed from Odoo once the totals match.

What you should see

• Odoo’s Balance Sheet at the cut-over date matches Tally’s.
• Aged Receivable and Aged Payable match Tally’s Bills Receivable and Bills Payable, party by party.
• Stock matches Tally’s Stock Summary per godown, and quantity × cost matches the inventory account.
• Each bank journal matches its statement, and both clearing accounts are zero.
• After the parallel month, sales, purchases, GST and closing stock agree between the systems.

Troubleshooting

Receivables are double what Tally shows. The trial balance still carried Sundry Debtors as receivables. Replace them with AR Clearing, and use AR Clearing on the invoice lines.

The import says a partner doesn’t exist. Partner must match a contact’s name exactly. Import contacts first, or refer to them by External ID.

Day and month are swapped. Dates like 01-03-2026 are ambiguous. Use YYYY-MM-DD, set the date format in the CSV Formatting options, or store dates as date cells in Excel.

A contact warns that its state should be different. The state doesn’t match the GSTIN’s first two digits. Click update it on the warning, or correct the State column and re-import with the same External ID.

A clearing account isn’t zero. Tally’s open bills don’t add up to its party balances, often because a receipt or payment was never allocated to a bill. Find the difference in Tally and agree with your accountant how to bring it across.

Stock value doesn’t match the inventory account. Usually missing or wrong product costs. Set Cost before importing the count.

An import went wrong. Filter by creation date to find the imported records, or restore the test database.

Related setup

• How to set up GST in Odoo
• How to set up your chart of accounts in Odoo
• Importing and exporting data in Odoo and common data import mistakes
• Case study: moving a propane distributor’s accounting from QuickBooks into Odoo, a different source system with the same discipline: map the chart first, then migrate.

Official references

• Odoo 19 documentation: Accounting, get started (opening entries)
• Odoo 19 documentation: Export and import data
• Odoo 19 documentation: Chart of accounts
• Odoo 19 documentation: India
• Odoo 19 documentation: Units of measure
• TallyPrime help: Export data and chart of accounts
• Odoo Apps store: third-party Tally connectors

How this guide was checked: menu paths, fields and the opening-entry method come from the Odoo 19 documentation, compared with the Odoo 20 pages in October 2026. The India fields and the e-invoice behaviour were checked in Odoo 19’s India localisation source code, and the Tally steps in TallyPrime’s help. The worked example is illustrative and wasn’t run on a live database.

Moving off Tally and want the cut-over done once, properly? See Odoo migration.