In this guide · 10 sections
- Tally's 28 predefined groups
- Tally group mapping to Schedule III: the full table
- The current-asset and current-liability groups that split
- Sundry Debtors and Sundry Creditors with opposite balances
- Loans (Liability), Bank OD A/c, Secured and Unsecured Loans
- Income and expense groups: Sales, Direct and Indirect
- Suspense A/c, Misc. Expenses (ASSET) and Branch / Divisions
- Custom groups, and a mapping checklist
- FAQs
- Sources
- Tally has 28 predefined groups: 15 primary groups (9 in the Balance Sheet, 6 in Profit & Loss) and 13 sub-groups. Most point to a default Schedule III head — but Schedule III is mapped ledger by ledger, not group by group.
- The groups that most often split across heads: Loans & Advances (Asset) (capital advances, related-party loans, prepaid expenses), Deposits (Asset), Current Liabilities, Duties & Taxes and Provisions.
- Opposite balances in Sundry Debtors and Sundry Creditors are reclassified, not netted. Bank OD A/c goes to short-term borrowings; the part of a secured or unsecured loan due within 12 months goes to current maturities.
- Indirect Incomes is not automatically other income (manufacturing scrap is other operating revenue), and Indirect Expenses feeds four P&L lines: employee benefits, finance costs, depreciation and other expenses.
- Suspense A/c, Misc. Expenses (ASSET) and Branch / Divisions have no Schedule III home — clear, expense or eliminate them. Client-created groups are mapped through the chain of groups above them.
Try SignReady: Map ledgers through the client's Tally groups — only the defaults need a look.
Start freeTally group mapping to Schedule III looks like a one-time job: Sundry Debtors go to trade receivables, Sundry Creditors to trade payables, and the rest follows. It does not. Tally's groups were built for bookkeeping, not for the Division I format, and several of them — Loans & Advances (Asset), Current Liabilities, Duties & Taxes, Indirect Incomes — routinely hold ledgers that belong under three or four different Schedule III heads. This guide maps all 28 of Tally's predefined groups to Division I heads, names the ledgers inside each group that usually need re-mapping, and ends with a checklist. It is part of our Schedule III guide; Ind AS companies follow Division II, which uses different heads.
Tally's 28 predefined groups
Tally's help lists 28 predefined groups: 15 primary groups and 13 sub-groups. Of the primary groups, nine appear in the Balance Sheet and six in the Profit & Loss Account; all 13 sub-groups sit under Balance Sheet primary groups. Predefined groups cannot be deleted, and Tally advises against renaming them. Clients add their own groups under these — "Debtors - Mumbai", "Directors' Loans", "GST Payable" — and those custom groups inherit the nature of the group above them.
| Primary group (15) | Where it appears | Its sub-groups (13) |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Account | Balance Sheet | Reserves & Surplus |
| Loans (Liability) | Balance Sheet | Bank OD A/c, Secured Loans, Unsecured Loans |
| Current Liabilities | Balance Sheet | Duties & Taxes, Provisions, Sundry Creditors |
| Current Assets | Balance Sheet | Bank Accounts, Cash-in-hand, Deposits (Asset), Loans & Advances (Asset), Stock-in-hand, Sundry Debtors |
| Fixed Assets | Balance Sheet | — |
| Investments | Balance Sheet | — |
| Misc. Expenses (ASSET) | Balance Sheet | — |
| Suspense A/c | Balance Sheet | — |
| Branch / Divisions | Balance Sheet | — |
| Sales Accounts, Purchase Accounts, Direct Incomes, Direct Expenses, Indirect Incomes, Indirect Expenses | Profit & Loss | — |
Tally also creates two predefined ledgers: Cash (under Cash-in-hand) and Profit & Loss A/c (under Primary), which carries the accumulated profit or loss and maps to the surplus in reserves and surplus.
Tally group mapping to Schedule III: the full table
The third column is where a ledger in that group usually goes. The fourth column is where the work is: the ledgers that commonly belong somewhere else.
| Tally group | Under | Default Schedule III head (Division I) | Ledgers that commonly need re-mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Account | Primary | Share capital | Share application money pending allotment (its own face line; any refundable part goes to other current liabilities) |
| Reserves & Surplus | Capital Account | Reserves and surplus | "Reserve" ledgers that are really provisions — for depreciation or doubtful debts — are deducted from the asset |
| Loans (Liability) | Primary | Long-term borrowings | Ledgers placed directly here with no sub-group: decide secured / unsecured and long / short-term for each |
| Secured Loans | Loans (Liability) | Long-term borrowings — term loans (secured) | Principal due within 12 months → current maturities (short-term borrowings); interest accrued → other current liabilities |
| Unsecured Loans | Loans (Liability) | Long-term borrowings — loans from related parties / others | Director or inter-corporate loans repayable on demand → short-term borrowings |
| Bank OD A/c | Loans (Liability) | Short-term borrowings — loans repayable on demand from banks | A cash credit account in debit at year end → balances with banks |
| Current Liabilities | Primary | Other current liabilities | Outstanding expenses for services received in the normal course → trade payables; salary and other employee dues, reimbursable expenses, creditors for capital goods → other payables |
| Duties & Taxes | Current Liabilities | Other current liabilities — statutory dues | GST input credit, TDS receivable (debit balances) → short-term loans and advances or other current assets; income-tax provision → short-term provisions |
| Provisions | Current Liabilities | Short-term provisions | Provision for depreciation → accumulated depreciation in the PPE note; non-current gratuity / leave → long-term provisions; provision for doubtful debts → deducted from receivables |
| Sundry Creditors | Current Liabilities | Trade payables (MSME / others) | Debit balances → advances to suppliers; creditors for capital goods → other current liabilities |
| Current Assets | Primary | Other current assets | Ledgers placed directly here — classify each by nature |
| Bank Accounts | Current Assets | Cash and cash equivalents — balances with banks | Credit balances (overdrawn accounts) → short-term borrowings; deposits with original maturity over three months → other bank balances; margin money and unpaid dividend accounts shown separately |
| Cash-in-hand | Current Assets | Cash and cash equivalents — cash on hand | A credit balance is an error, not a liability |
| Deposits (Asset) | Current Assets | Depends on the deposit | Security deposits → other non-current assets (security deposits) unless due within 12 months; bank deposits → cash equivalents, other bank balances or other non-current assets by maturity |
| Loans & Advances (Asset) | Current Assets | Short-term loans and advances | Capital advances → long-term loans and advances; loans to directors and related parties shown separately; prepaid expenses → short-term loans and advances (the Guidance Note treats them as advances recoverable in cash or kind) or other current assets, applied consistently |
| Stock-in-hand | Current Assets | Inventories | Split into raw materials, work-in-progress, finished goods, stock-in-trade, stores and spares, loose tools; goods in transit shown separately |
| Sundry Debtors | Current Assets | Trade receivables | Credit balances → advances from customers (other current liabilities); amounts not receivable within the operating cycle → long-term trade receivables (other non-current assets) |
| Fixed Assets | Primary | Property, plant and equipment | Software and licences → intangible assets; CWIP ledgers → capital work-in-progress; capital advances → long-term loans and advances |
| Investments | Primary | Non-current / current investments | Long-term bank deposits (Tally's own help suggests this group for them) → cash and bank balances or other non-current assets |
| Misc. Expenses (ASSET) | Primary | None — normally nil | Preliminary and pre-operative expenses → expensed (AS 26), unless part of the cost of a fixed asset under AS 10 |
| Suspense A/c | Primary | None | Clear before mapping |
| Branch / Divisions | Primary | None for inter-branch balances | Should net to nil on merger; balances with affiliates or subsidiaries → receivables, payables or loans to related parties |
| Sales Accounts | Primary | Revenue from operations — sale of products / services | GST collected (revenue is net of GST); scrap sales → other operating revenues |
| Direct Incomes | Primary | Revenue from operations — other operating revenues | Job-work or service income → sale of services |
| Indirect Incomes | Primary | Other income | Sale of manufacturing scrap → other operating revenues |
| Purchase Accounts | Primary | Purchases of stock-in-trade / cost of materials consumed | Capital items booked as purchases → PPE |
| Direct Expenses | Primary | Cost of materials consumed / other expenses | Factory wages → employee benefits expense; power and fuel, freight inward by nature |
| Indirect Expenses | Primary | Other expenses | Salaries, PF, staff welfare → employee benefits; interest and loan processing charges → finance costs; depreciation → depreciation and amortisation |
SignReady places each ledger through its Tally group — including groups the client created, read from a detailed trial balance — lists only the ledgers it placed by default or guessed from the name, and remembers your choice for the client every year, even when a ledger is renamed.
The current-asset and current-liability groups that split
Loans & Advances (Asset) is the group that most often hides three or four Schedule III heads. Here is how one illustrative group of ₹16,95,000 splits:
| Ledger in Loans & Advances (Asset) | ₹ | Schedule III head |
|---|---|---|
| Advance to machinery supplier | 6,00,000 | Long-term loans and advances — capital advances |
| Rent deposit (three-year lease) | 3,50,000 | Other non-current assets — security deposits |
| Loan to director, repayable on demand | 3,00,000 | Short-term loans and advances — related parties |
| Advances to raw-material suppliers | 2,40,000 | Short-term loans and advances — others |
| Prepaid insurance | 1,20,000 | Other current assets (or short-term loans and advances, see below) |
| Staff advances | 85,000 | Short-term loans and advances — others |
| Total | 16,95,000 | Spread over four heads |
Three points behind that table. ICAI's Guidance Note says capital advances are non-current irrespective of when the asset is expected, and are not part of capital work-in-progress. Since the 2021 amendment, security deposits are a separate line under other non-current assets, not long-term loans and advances. And the director's loan repayable on demand also goes into the additional regulatory information table for loans to promoters, directors, KMPs and related parties. Prepaid expenses are a presentation choice: the Guidance Note lists them among loans and advances, while many companies show them under other current assets. Pick one and use it for both years. More in loans and advances under Schedule III.
Current Liabilities, Duties & Taxes and Provisions need the same treatment. The Guidance Note limits trade payables to amounts due for goods purchased or services received in the normal course of business; dues for PPE, statutory dues and interest are "others" and go to other current liabilities. Statutory dues — GST, TDS, PF, ESI — are other payables. Debit balances in Duties & Taxes (input credit, TDS receivable) are assets; do not set one tax off against another (TDS receivable against GST payable, for example); GST input credit reduces output GST only to the extent it is used in the return. Tally's own help gives "Provision for Depreciation" as an example ledger for the Provisions group — in Schedule III that is accumulated depreciation, deducted in the PPE note. See other current liabilities under Schedule III for the line-by-line format.
Sundry Debtors and Sundry Creditors with opposite balances
A credit balance in a debtor ledger is an advance from a customer; a debit balance in a creditor ledger is an advance to a supplier. Map each one to its own head instead of letting it reduce the group total:
| Ledger | Tally group | Balance (₹) | Schedule III head |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customers with debit balances | Sundry Debtors | 42,80,000 Dr | Trade receivables |
| Customers with credit balances | Sundry Debtors | 3,10,000 Cr | Other current liabilities — advances from customers |
| Suppliers with credit balances | Sundry Creditors | 27,60,000 Cr | Trade payables — MSME / others |
| Suppliers with debit balances | Sundry Creditors | 1,90,000 Dr | Short-term loans and advances — advances to suppliers |
| Capital goods supplier | Sundry Creditors | 4,50,000 Cr | Other current liabilities — creditors for capital goods |
Netting the group would show trade receivables of ₹39,70,000 instead of ₹42,80,000 — and the ageing schedule would not agree with the figure on the face. To see these balances at all, export a ledger-level trial balance: a group-level view, or a group set to show net balances, hides them. The steps are in how to export a trial balance from Tally.
Loans (Liability), Bank OD A/c, Secured and Unsecured Loans
Tally's sub-group tells you whether a loan is secured; it does not tell you whether it is long-term. Schedule III classifies on the current / non-current test, so each loan is split on its repayment terms:
| Ledger (group) | Balance 31.3.2026 (₹) | Long-term borrowings | Short-term borrowings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term loan — bank (Secured Loans) | 24,00,000 | 16,80,000 | 7,20,000 (current maturities) |
| Vehicle loan (Secured Loans) | 4,50,000 | 3,00,000 | 1,50,000 (current maturities) |
| Cash credit (Bank OD A/c) | 38,00,000 | — | 38,00,000 (loans repayable on demand — banks, secured) |
| Loan from director, no repayment terms (Unsecured Loans) | 10,00,000 | — | 10,00,000 (loans from related parties) |
The current maturities are the principal falling due in the next twelve months from the repayment schedule — not twelve times the EMI, which includes interest. A director's loan with a written agreement that the company need not repay for more than twelve months stays long-term; without one, it is repayable on demand. The full format is in current maturities of long term borrowings.
Income and expense groups: Sales, Direct and Indirect
Tally's "Direct" / "Indirect" split drives the gross profit in Tally's own P&L. Schedule III has no gross profit line, so for mapping only the nature of each ledger matters.
- Sales Accounts → revenue from operations. Revenue is shown net of GST, so a GST ledger accidentally placed under Sales has to come out.
- Indirect Incomes → mostly other income: interest, dividends, profit on sale of PPE, rent from a property let out temporarily. But the Guidance Note treats sale of manufacturing scrap as other operating revenue — so a "Scrap Sales" ledger under Indirect Incomes needs re-mapping. More in revenue from operations under Schedule III.
- Purchase Accounts → purchases of stock-in-trade for traders, or cost of materials consumed (with opening and closing stock) for manufacturers.
- Direct Expenses → by nature: wages to employee benefits expense, power and fuel and job-work charges to other expenses (or cost of materials where they form part of it).
- Indirect Expenses → four lines, not one. Salaries, PF and staff welfare to employee benefits expense; interest and other borrowing costs (processing, commitment and guarantee charges) to finance costs; depreciation to depreciation and amortisation; the rest to other expenses — with any item above 1% of revenue from operations or ₹1,00,000, whichever is higher, shown separately, and audit fees split by service.
Suspense A/c, Misc. Expenses (ASSET) and Branch / Divisions
- Suspense A/c. Tally intends it for amounts whose purpose is not yet clear. Schedule III has no suspense line. Get the balance cleared or explained before mapping; parking it in other current assets or liabilities hides an unexplained difference in the signed accounts.
- Misc. Expenses (ASSET). Tally's help describes this group as being for preliminary and pre-operative expenses written off over time — a practice from before AS 26. AS 26 requires start-up costs, including the legal and secretarial costs of establishing the company, to be expensed when incurred, unless they form part of the cost of a fixed asset under AS 10. For a company the group should normally be nil; an old balance needs to be examined, not mapped to other assets. An accumulated loss is not in this group — it is the debit balance of the Profit & Loss A/c and goes to the surplus as a negative figure.
- Branch / Divisions. Inter-branch and head-office accounts should cancel out when branch books are merged; a residual balance is a reconciliation item, not an asset or liability. Balances with a subsidiary or affiliate kept here are real related-party receivables, payables or loans.
Custom groups, and a mapping checklist
Most client files have their own groups: "Debtors - Delhi" under Sundry Debtors, "Directors' Loans" under Unsecured Loans, "Statutory Dues" under Current Liabilities. Map them through the chain: the predefined group at the top gives the default, the custom group's name often hints at the real head, and the ledger's terms settle it. When the client moves a ledger to another group between years or between TB versions, the comparative may have been shown elsewhere last year — regroup it and say so in the notes.
- Export a ledger-level trial balance for the full year, both years, with the group chain visible.
- Confirm the TB balances and Suspense A/c is cleared.
- Map by group first, then go through every group in the "split" list: Loans & Advances (Asset), Deposits (Asset), Current Liabilities, Duties & Taxes, Provisions, Indirect Incomes, Indirect Expenses.
- Pull out debit creditors, credit debtors, debit cash credit accounts and credit bank accounts.
- Split every loan into long-term and current maturities from the repayment schedule.
- Move capital advances to long-term loans and advances and security deposits to other non-current assets.
- Check Misc. Expenses (ASSET) and Branch / Divisions are nil or explained.
- Look at every ledger that changed group since last year, and map the previous year the same way.
- Keep the mapping on file — next year starts from it.
Try SignReady: Mapping is remembered for the client, so next year starts mapped.
Start freeFrequently asked questions
Where does Bank OD A/c from Tally go in Schedule III?
Under short-term borrowings, as loans repayable on demand from banks, split secured / unsecured with the nature of security. If a cash credit account is in debit at the year end, it is a balance with a bank and goes to cash and cash equivalents instead.
Is Tally's Loans & Advances (Asset) the same as loans and advances in Schedule III?
No. The Tally group usually maps to short-term loans and advances, but it often also holds capital advances (long-term loans and advances), security deposits (other non-current assets since 2021) and prepaid expenses (short-term loans and advances or other current assets, by the company's policy). Map each ledger by its nature and terms.
How is a debit balance in Duties & Taxes shown in the balance sheet?
GST input credit, TDS receivable and similar debit balances are assets — commonly shown under short-term loans and advances (balances with government authorities) or other current assets. Credit balances such as GST and TDS payable are statutory dues under other current liabilities. Do not net one tax against another, such as TDS receivable against GST payable.
Do Indirect Incomes in Tally go to other income under Schedule III?
Mostly, but not always. Interest, dividends and profit on sale of PPE are other income. Income from the company's operating activities — for example, sale of manufacturing scrap — is other operating revenue under revenue from operations, even when Tally holds it under Indirect Incomes.
What do I do with a balance in Suspense A/c at the year end?
Schedule III has no suspense head. Find out what the balance is and pass the correcting entries before the accounts are drafted. A balance parked in other current assets or liabilities is an unexplained difference in the signed accounts.
Sources
- TallyPrime Help — Ledgers and Groups in TallyPrime (predefined groups and their descriptions)
- Tally.ERP 9 Help — Pre-defined Groups (28 groups: 15 primary, 13 sub-groups)
- Companies Act, 2013 — Schedule III, Division I, Part I notes A–S and Part II note 5 (India Code, amended text)
- Schedule III amendment — G.S.R. 207(E), 24 March 2021 (Gazette)
- ICAI — Guidance Note on Division I – Non Ind AS Schedule III to the Companies Act, 2013 (Revised January 2022), paras 6.4, 8.4.1, 8.6.3, 8.7.3, 8.7.6, 8.8.4, 8.8.6, 9.1.6, 9.1.8–9.1.9 and 9.5.5
- ICAI — AS 26 Intangible Assets, paragraph 56
In SignReady, ledgers are mapped through the client's Tally groups, regrouped ledgers are flagged against last year, and the draft Balance Sheet, P&L and notes come out as an editable Excel with previous-year figures — then FinalCheck compares key figures with the TB. First 3 finalisations free.
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Version history: 23 Oct 2026 — first published.
