I’m Mahendra Rana.
If you’ve spent time around Tally, accounting systems, or practical business automation in India, chances are you’ve crossed paths with my work—through TallyNine, through training material, through problem-solving posts, or quietly through systems running in the background.
This page isn’t a résumé.
It’s a map of how deep accounting practice, technology, and long-term thinking converge.
Where It Started: Accounts Before Computers
My foundation was never software. It was accounts.
I studied and worked across Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Karnataka, completing my education the traditional way—textbooks, ledgers, and practice. During college, I worked through Shukla & Grewal cover to cover, not as theory but as muscle memory. That discipline shaped how I still think about systems today.
In 1992, I saw a computer for the first time.
I didn’t know what a CPU was. I didn’t know what software could do. But I saw something important early: Tally wasn’t just a tool—it was leverage.
I learned it the hard way. Late nights. Early mornings. On a 386 machine that cost more than my annual income. I wasn’t trained formally. I experimented, broke things, fixed them, and repeated the cycle until accounting and Tally became instinctive.
That instinct never left.
Real Work, Real Consequences
By my early professional years, I was already handling real books of accounts, real businesses, real pressure. I worked as a senior accountant, ran freelance accounting work, and trained others—at a time when people who understood both accounts and computers were rare.
Then life did what life does.
The 2001 Gujarat earthquake wiped out stability overnight. I found myself in debt, unemployed, and restarting from zero. No safety net. No shortcuts.
That period looked unproductive from the outside—cyber cafés, long hours online, learning things without knowing why. But in hindsight, it gave me three unfair advantages:
- Speed (typing, execution, iteration)
- Systems thinking (web, software, automation)
- Comfort with technology before it was fashionable
Those years compounded later.
The Turning Point: Choosing Growth Over Comfort
In 2005, I deliberately chose a lower-paying job with higher learning potential. It turned out to be the right call.
Within months, I was leading accounts. Within a year, I was General Manager. More importantly, I learned how accounting systems behave inside real factories, real supply chains, real management environments.
That experience taught me a permanent lesson:
Money follows competence. Not the other way around.
TallyNine: Giving Before Monetizing
In 2007–08, I started TallyNine.com.
I started TallyNine.com to help people struggling with real accounting and compliance issue and I enjoyed helping people to learn accounting and Tally. I wrote many help articles including a detailed, step-by-step guide on handling TDS entries in Tally, which went on to attract hundreds of practitioner discussions over the years
There was no business plan. No funnel. No SEO playbook. Just a simple intent: help people struggling with Tally and accounting—freely, clearly, practically.
I answered real problems. I didn’t simplify reality. I respected users’ intelligence.
What happened next surprised even me.
The more I helped without expectation, the more opportunities came back—training work, consulting, software projects, long-term credibility. TallyNine didn’t just generate income; it created trust capital, which compounds far longer than money.
Tally helped me clear debt.
Tally gave me financial stability.
Teaching Tally gave me leverage.
From User to Builder
By 2008, I was running an authorized Tally sales and service partnership. By then, I was no longer just “using” software—I was thinking about how software should behave.
Over the years, I worked across industries, SMBs, and MNC environments. I trained non-commerce graduates to run full accounting departments. I designed systems that reduced errors not by training harder—but by designing better workflows.
Accounting became second nature. Debugging balance sheets felt no different from debugging code.
That overlap mattered later.
Bizmitra: Accounting Logic, Rebuilt for the Cloud
In 2017, without a formal coding background and coming from a pure accounting profession, I started my own software company.
That decision wasn’t romantic. It was inevitable.
I had seen the same problems repeat for decades:
- Fragmented systems
- Remote branches working blind
- Tally treated as isolated, not integrated
- Compliance handled reactively, not structurally
Bizmitra was built to fix that.
Not as a “replacement for Tally”, but as a front-end intelligence layer—mobile-first, cloud-native, compliance-aware, and deeply respectful of accounting fundamentals.
Today, Bizmitra:
- Handles GST, VAT, e-Invoicing, and e-Way Bills
- Syncs seamlessly with Tally across locations
- Works for businesses with or without Tally
- Runs in India and multiple GCC countries
- Is designed for real accountants, not demo environments
Every feature exists because I personally lived the pain it solves.
The Vision Going Forward
I’m not interested in building “another app”.
The long-term goal is clear:
- Build globally usable accounting infrastructure
- Designed from Indian compliance depth
- Delivered with global-grade engineering discipline
Tally shaped my thinking.
Accounting trained my judgment.
Software is now the multiplier.
If there’s one principle that runs through everything I’ve done, it’s this:
Learn relentlessly.
Build systems, not shortcuts.
Help first. Monetization follows.
That belief has survived debt, disruption, and decades of change.
It’s also the foundation on which Bizmitra—and what comes next—is being built.
Your blog is awersum!
I am a newbie as far as tally is concerned – have lots of money byaking incorrect/surplus payments due to improper accounts. I am sure that I will be a perminant resident at ur blog! Probally I will set it as my home page!!
As of now I am setting up my tally – various ledgers, stock groups and stock item. Once I am ready I will be posting my queries. Kindly help!
Dear sir,
can u plz give me an example of cash service tax transactions in tally 9.
Dear Mahendrasinh Rana, thank you for sharing your accounting experience with us through this blog. I have searched your site tallynine.com and I think it is good source of not only young and fresh accountant but all those who are doing professional accounting work. Keep it up.
Vinodji,
Thanks for your valuable feedback.
Am new to tallyerp9 and want to set it up in the hotel I work in?
Sorry Sirji I forgot to mention My Serial No 7xxxxxxx
Thanks Akash,
I will check it and will let you know the solution at the earliest
How to print icici new cheque book date format
Thanks
Ours is a Non-IATA Private Limited Travel Agency. Being the owner of the company, I would like to learn everything in accounts to control day to day transactions. As ours is a small organization & accountant keeps on changing, I cannot take risk of non accountancy. Also want to tell you that we have another Proprietorship firm & the total cost to CA becomes very high for our small size company. As there are less margins in Travel Trade, it is essential for me to save cost if the income is not increasing to that level. Currently we are using Excel accounting software which is a basic package, we want to a higher level so that time is saved. Please guide. Thanks.
sir i am accountant in a company, due to mistak my closing stock balance figure came to debit side in profit n loss coount in tally erp 9. plz help me my contact no is 7428110352. i am not expert in tally but little bit i know. plz help me.
Please give details for tally TDL course
Hello Sunil,
Course is in the form of Image/Text Chapters you will get a user id/password to access your course upon completion of the online order and payment.
This is a web based course you can access it online, anytime from anywhere you read the chapters and write your codes as per the chapters and projects.
Yes, there are practical projects like real life commercial invoice customization reports etc. You save your code in the Dropbox for our review If you are unable to understand anything or need assistance we will connect through TeamViewer and will resolve the issue and explain you the same.
It takes a lot of practice to learn a coding language the more you code the more you will become expert You have to clear online assessment and assignments you will get many projects for practice with our support if you perform well We are unable to offer any support for student’s own personal projects or out of the course projects. That is an extra chargeable service.
We are a full-time developer and so we upload the course chapters as and when we get time Currently up to Invoice customization, basic reporting and basic excel import projects are done.
Starting from August we will be uploading more complex projects you can look the course which is currently uploaded at http://www.tallynine.com/my-course Course fees is Rs. 6299 ( As on Date) and it is a lifetime access
iam not an accountant but likes to learn the tally
ur experience has helped me and given me an interest to learn the tally
Like to learn TDL to develop complex report generation as wel as upload in data from different format…..
But I don’t have knowledge of programming. But I am bit pro efficient in excel complex report generation. So is that possible to learn TDL…
Awaiting for your revert on my mail…
Hello Shailesh,
Course is in the form of Image/Text Chapters you will get a user id/password to access your course upon completion of the online order and payment.
This is a web based course you can access it online, anytime from anywhere you read the chapters and write your codes as per the chapters and projects.
Yes, there are practical projects like real life commercial invoice customization reports etc. You save your code in the Dropbox for our review If you are unable to understand anything or need assistance we will connect through TeamViewer and will resolve the issue and explain you the same.
It takes a lot of practice to learn a coding language the more you code the more you will become expert You have to clear online assessment and assignments you will get many projects for practice with our support if you perform well We are unable to offer any support for student’s own personal projects or out of the course projects. That is an extra chargeable service.
We are a full-time developer and so we upload the course chapters as and when we get time Currently up to Invoice customization, basic reporting and basic excel import projects are done.
you can look the course which is currently uploaded at http://www.tallynine.com/my-course Course fees is Rs. 6999 and it is a lifetime access
To join the course hit the url http://www.bitly.com/tdljoin
add the course to cart and complete the checkout
Namaskar
I was looking for you
I use tally erp9, on imac using crossover , I use it only to go through the books, not to work on tally hence its under education mode, i put the usb with the backup and press r to restore , the destiination is c:\tally.ERP\data
Source d:\, e:\, f:\, g:\
none get accepted it gives me a message : “no back up exists in this path”
what could be the problem ? this has happened before, but I was able to solve it – but i am not able to do it now
Thank you for providing detailed info about yourself. it really help lot of accountant and motivate them.
Thanks Again
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What Difference Between Monthly tdl Course (1299) and Tdl couse (6299)
good post