Tracking customer pending payments in TallyPrime helps businesses monitor who owes money, how much is due and whether payments are overdue, enabling better cash flow control. According to a 2024 Atradius B2B payment survey, Indian businesses wait an average of 34 days beyond the invoice due date to collect payment, while 5% of Business-to-Business (B2B) invoices are never recovered.
Delayed collections can create working capital pressure, while unrecorded supplier invoices or uninvoiced sales can distort financial records. Managing these gaps starts with the right setup in TallyPrime.
How to set up bill-wise tracking in TallyPrime
Bill-wise tracking in TallyPrime is enabled at the customer ledger level. Once enabled, every credit sale can be linked to a specific invoice, making it easier to track outstanding amounts and due dates.
- Go to Gateway of Tally > Alter > Ledger and select the customer ledger.
- Set Maintain balances bill-by-bill to Yes.
- Set a credit period, if applicable (for example, 30 days). TallyPrime will calculate the due date for subsequent credit sales.
- When recording a credit sale, enter a bill reference. Use New Ref to create a new bill reference or Agst Ref to adjust an existing outstanding bill.
Important: Credit transactions recorded before bill-wise tracking was enabled will appear as On Account entries. They will not be linked to specific invoices unless they are manually allocated.
How do you read outstanding reports for customer payments in TallyPrime?
Customer payment outstanding reports in TallyPrime show who owes money, how much is pending, when payment is due and how long an invoice has been overdue. Once bill-wise tracking is enabled, navigate to Gateway of Tally > Display More Reports > Statements of Accounts > Outstanding to access the following reports:
|
Report |
What it shows |
|
Ledger Outstandings |
All pending bills for a single customer, with amounts, due dates and overdue days. |
|
Group Outstandings |
Pending amounts across all customers in the Sundry Debtors group, in one view. |
|
Bills Receivable |
Every unpaid invoice across all customers, sortable by due date or overdue days. |
|
Nett Pending Receivables |
Net position after adjusting advances received against outstanding bills. |
Each report displays three key fields: Pending Amount, Due Date (invoice date plus the credit period) and Overdue By Days. The overdue count updates automatically based on the report date.
How can pending bills reports help close documentation gaps?
Pending bills reports help identify transactions in which goods have moved, but the related purchase or sales invoice has not been recorded. In TallyPrime, these reports are available under Gateway of Tally > Display More Reports > Analysis & Verification > Data Analysis > Pending Documents.
|
Report |
What it reveals |
|
Pending Purchase Bills Summary |
Goods received during the analysis year but supplier invoices not yet booked. Useful for identifying accrual gaps before finalising accounts. |
|
Pending Sales Bills |
Delivery notes raised for customers but sales invoices not yet generated. Any entry here means revenue recognition is incomplete. |
For the Pending Purchase Bills Summary, select a party name and press Enter to view the date, tracking number, pending quantity, rate and due date for each unresolved receipt note. Use F2 to change the period and Alt+F1 to switch to detailed mode. Press F12 to configure the display of actual versus billed quantities, location details or batch details.
The Pending Sales Bills report works similarly for the sales side. If delivery notes appear without a corresponding sales invoice, revenue recognition remains incomplete for that period. To mark selected vouchers as verified or audited, use Alt+V (Verify) or Alt+F9 (Verify) in the verification of vouchers report.
How can ageing analysis help prioritise collections?
Ageing analysis helps prioritise collections by categorising outstanding bills according to how long they have been unpaid. This allows businesses to focus first on receivables with a higher risk of delayed recovery.
TallyPrime provides default ageing slabs of 0-45 days, 45-90 days, 90-180 days and over 180 days. To set custom slabs that match your credit policy, press F6 (Ageing Periods) within the Bills Receivable report.
Two ageing methods are available:
- Ageing by bill date: Counts from the invoice creation date and shows how long the money has been outstanding.
- Ageing by due date: Counts from the expiry of the credit period and is useful for businesses with variable credit terms across customers.
For MSME suppliers, TallyPrime can also track the 45-day MSME credit period separately, making it easier to identify buyer accounts approaching the Section 43B(h) deadline.
How can you send payment reminders directly from the outstanding report?
TallyPrime lets you send payment reminders directly from outstanding reports, helping reduce the time between identifying an overdue bill and following up with the customer.
Via email
From the Bills Receivable report, press Ctrl+M to open the email window. TallyPrime uses OAuth 2.0 to connect to Gmail or Yahoo and does not store your email password. You can send reminders to a single address, multiple addresses or all ledgers in one operation. The email includes outstanding bill details and due dates as an attachment.
Via WhatsApp
From TallyPrime Release 4.0 onwards, reminder letters and outstanding reports can be sent directly to a customer's WhatsApp number through the official WhatsApp Business API. Messages can include a payment link, QR code and Pay Now button, allowing customers to view the invoice and make payment without leaving WhatsApp. Bulk reminders can also be sent to multiple customers in a single operation.
How do you handle part payments and settle specific bills in TallyPrime?
TallyPrime handles partial payments through bill allocation, allowing receipts to be applied to specific invoices rather than only to the overall customer ledger balance.
When recording a receipt, use Agst Ref to allocate the payment against selected outstanding invoices. This ensures that overdue bills, pending amounts and ageing reports remain accurate.
A single sale can also be split across multiple bill references at the time of invoicing. For example, if a customer agrees to pay ₹5,00,000 in 30 days, ₹3,00,000 in 60 days and ₹2,00,000 in 90 days, each bill reference can be assigned its own due date. The ageing report then tracks each outstanding amount separately.
For businesses that charge interest on overdue balances, interest calculation rates can be configured at the party ledger level and TallyPrime will automatically calculate the accrued interest.
Conclusion
Tracking customer pending payments at the invoice level helps businesses identify overdue receivables early, prioritise collections and reduce the risk of bad debts. The key is not just knowing how much is outstanding, but knowing which invoices are due, overdue or require immediate follow-up.
By combining bill-wise tracking, ageing analysis, outstanding reports and built-in payment reminders, TallyPrime helps businesses turn receivables data into timely collection action. For businesses looking to shorten collection cycles and improve cash flow visibility, enabling bill-wise tracking and reviewing Bills Receivable reports regularly is a practical place to start. More information is available at tallysolutions.com.
