Upgrading from Tally.ERP 9 to TallyPrime: what changes and how to move

Tally describes TallyPrime as the newer product that replaced Tally.ERP 9. Your Tally.ERP 9 won’t stop working: Tally says it is not being discontinued. What has stopped is TSS renewal on Tally.ERP 9, which ended for all customers from 16 August 2026. To keep getting updates and the services that come with TSS, the route Tally gives is to move to TallyPrime and renew TSS there.

Tally sums up the difference as redesigned navigation, easier search and reporting, and features added in later releases. Among those it lists TallyDrive cloud backup, importing ledgers and transactions from Excel, enhanced bank reconciliation, online access to reports and data, and sharing invoices and reports on WhatsApp. Shortcuts were redesigned too, so some Tally.ERP 9 key combinations have changed; the on-screen button bar and shortcut list show the current ones, and Go To (Alt+G) is the quick way into screens such as Create Voucher.

TallyPrime uses the same licensing system as Tally.ERP 9, so you don’t start again with a new licence. You install TallyPrime, choose Reactivate Existing License, sign in with your Tally.NET ID and password, and select your Tally.ERP 9 licence from the list.

Tally says Tally.ERP 9 customers with a valid TSS on or after 9 November 2020 are eligible for a free upgrade to TallyPrime, and get the TallyPrime release available on their TSS expiry date; renewing TSS brings you to the latest release. If your TSS lapsed before that date, Tally points you to a paid upgrade. Tally’s help also notes that a valid TSS is required to migrate to the latest release, so check your TSS status before you plan the move.

Take a backup first. Tally recommends it, and the migration screen offers to back up your company before it starts. Keep that backup untouched: once data has been migrated to TallyPrime it can’t be opened in Tally.ERP 9 again, so the backup is your only way back.

You don’t have to remove Tally.ERP 9. Tally’s instructions are to install TallyPrime in a separate folder, after which you can use both. Tally also suggests running the migration outside business hours, having at least 4 GB of RAM, and, for very large data, splitting the company and migrating only the current financial year. If your data is corrupted, you’ll be asked to repair it in the older version before migrating.

Tally’s migration guide for Tally.ERP 9 is written for Release 5.0 and later, so check which release you’re on. Older Tally 5.4, 6.3 and 7.2 data has its own migration path.

In TallyPrime, open Alt+Y (Data) and choose Migrate, or press F1 (Help), then Troubleshooting and Migrate, and select the company. You can back up to a local drive or to TallyDrive, choose how voucher numbers are retained, and allow work to continue in the old version while migration runs; entries saved there are carried across when it completes. If it takes long, you can stop and resume later from the same point.

Your original company is kept, and the data moves into a new company with a 6-digit number. A Migration Summary Report then shows the counts of masters and vouchers migrated and any exceptions.

Before you start entering new transactions, Tally recommends comparing the Statistics report with that summary, resolving any exceptions (Alt+X on the summary), and importing any vouchers or masters you created in the old data after the backup, by exporting them to XML.

If you use add-ons or custom reports built in TDL, Tally says it worked on backward compatibility so existing TDLs run in TallyPrime, and compiled files work without being recompiled. Some things changed, though: the top toolbar was reworked so existing custom toolbar buttons fail to load, a custom button fails if its shortcut key is already taken, and several menus were re-engineered.

Tally’s advice is to test every customization thoroughly and to consult your Tally partner to confirm compatibility with the latest release. Do this on a copy of your data before you move the live company.

Powercomputers has been a Tally partner in Tanzania since 2004. We install TallyPrime on your computers or on our cloud server, configure your licence, features and data, handle TSS renewals, and customize Tally features, reports and invoice formats to match how you work.

Once you’re on TallyPrime, we offer free practical training, basic or advanced, in-house at our office, on-site at your premises or remotely, so your team learns the new screens, and day-to-day support after that. Book a free demo and we’ll look at your current Tally.ERP 9 setup with you before anything changes.