Tax-season expense prep for India SMBs.

What your CA actually wants

A CA preparing your books typically wants three things by mid-April:

1. 01A list of every business expense from the financial year — date, vendor, amount, category.
2. 02The source receipt image or PDF for each, in case ITR scrutiny comes later.
3. 03The whole thing in a format Tally Prime can import directly — because that's the accounting software almost every India CA uses.

That third one is where most receipt-management apps fall down.

The Tally voucher format, explained

A Tally voucher is the structured form Tally Prime expects when importing accounting entries. Each voucher has:

• A voucher type — Payment for outflows, Receipt for inflows, Journal for transfers, Purchase for vendor invoices.
• A date in DD/MM/YYYY format.
• A debit ledger (where the expense is categorized — e.g., “Travel & Conveyance”).
• A credit ledger (where the money came from — e.g., “Cash A/c” or “HDFC Bank A/c”).
• An amount.
• An optional narration with reference details.

When the structure is right, Tally imports the whole batch in one step. When it isn't, you get import errors and start the cleanup loop.

The full year-end workflow

FAQ

Will my CA accept the Starlog Tally export?

Starlog produces voucher-formatted XLSX that Tally Prime imports directly — no CSV cleanup, no manual ledger mapping. Your CA imports the file in one step. That said, every CA configures their ledger structure differently; agree on category-to-ledger naming with them once at the start of the year and the rest is automatic.

Does Starlog handle GST or ITC tracking?

No. Starlog captures receipts and exports Tally vouchers — it's not GST-aware at the line-item level. It doesn't compute ITC eligibility, validate GSTINs, or split out CGST/SGST/IGST. If you need GST-aware reporting baked into the app, look at Tally Prime itself, Zoho Books, or Fyle. Starlog is for the capture-and-handoff piece; your CA or accounting tool handles the GST math.

How is this different from just using a Google Sheet?

A Sheet works until you're capturing 200-500 receipts a year across multiple categories. Then the data-entry cost (typing every store, amount, and date by hand on the day you spend) becomes the friction that breaks the habit. Starlog OCRs the store, amount, and date from the photo, so capture is 5 seconds, not 60. The export is Tally-ready, which a Sheet's CSV is not.

I run two businesses. Do I have to maintain two separate apps?

No. Starlog supports multiple companies in one app — each business gets its own receipts, reports, categories, and Drive folder, with a one-tap switcher. The Tally export runs per-company, so each business's vouchers go to the right CA without cross-contamination.

What if I just want to give my CA the source images and a list?

You can. Starlog also exports a generic ZIP of source images organized by year/month + an XLSX line-item list. If your CA prefers to enter vouchers manually from the source images, that workflow still works — you just lose the time savings the Tally voucher import provides.

When should I start using this for the current financial year?

Any time. If you're mid-year, capture forward-going receipts in Starlog and keep historical receipts wherever they are now. At year-end, run the Tally export for the period you used Starlog and let your CA handle the rest manually.