Getting Started With SMS | Tally TDL | Tally Shopper | College Management Software

Getting Started with Short Message Service

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Version: Getting Started with Short Message Service/2.0/August 2010

Contents

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Contents

Lesson 1: Short Message Service in Tally.ERP 9

1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................1

1.1.1 Steps to Configure SMS in Tally.ERP 9...................................................................................................... 2

Lesson 2: Configuring Short Message Service

2.1 Configure Tally.ERP 9 for SMS....................................................................................................................4

2.1.1 Register Mobile Number(s)......................................................................................................................... 4

2.1.2 Enable SMS................................................................................................................................................. 7

2.1.3 Authorise User to SMS................................................................................................................................ 9

2.1.4 Connect Company to Tally.NET ............................................................................................................... 11

2.2 Access Information via SMS........................................................................................................................12

2.3 Change SMS Suffix........................................................................................................................................12

Lesson 3: Natural Query Language ........................................................................................................................... 15

3.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................15

3.1.1 How it works ............................................................................................................................................. 15

3.1.2 Rules ......................................................................................................................................................... 15

3.1.3 Quick Tips ................................................................................................................................................. 16

3.1.4 Natural Query Language for the Business ............................................................................................... 17

3.1.5 Business Vocabulary References .............................................................................................................. 21

3.1.6 Business Vocabulary that is ignored during interaction .......................................................................... 22

3.1.7 Natural Query Language for the System .................................................................................................. 23

Lesson 1: Short Message Service in Tally.ERP 9

1.1 Introduction

Short Message Service is a text communication service component of a mobile communication device. Short messages are exchanged between mobile phones using standardised communication protocols. It is widely used for quick and short communication among mobile phone subscribers. The term SMS is used as a synonym for all types of short text messaging, as well as the user activity.

The availability of business information on the fly without any dependency is the need of the hour for any business owner or a salesman who remains out of office for long hours. Accessing information from anywhere keeps the business owner and the sales man updated and also enables them to take the right decision at an appropriate time thus helping the business owner in contributing towards the positive growth of the business and staying ahead of the competitors.

Using the available spectrum of technologies, gadgets with a combination of simple English language Tally.ERP 9 is enabled to access information from anywhere via the Short Messaging Service. A simple yet convenient solution to get the business information at finger tips while you are on the move without carrying any advanced gadgets or implementing a complex setup.

The authorised users can access information from the respective company by posting a query to extract information using Natural Query Language. Based on the query posted, the system extracts the required information from the respective company connected to Tally.NET and sends back a reply to the authorised users mobile phone in a short span of time.

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Short Message Service in Tally.ERP 9

1.1.1 Steps to Configure SMS in Tally.ERP 9

Configuring Tally.ERP 9 for SMS is simple four step procedure which is detailed in the forthcoming chapter titled Configuring SMS in Tally.ERP 9.

The Four Simple Easy steps to configure SMS are

1. Register Mobile Number(s) : The SMS response/reply is sent to the mobile number of authorised user provided in My Profiles option of the Control Panel. Click K: Control Centre > enter User’s Email ID and Password > click W:My Profile and

enter the required mobile numbers.

2. Enable SMS: Activate the capability to request for information via the SMS F11: Features > click F4: Tally.NET Features or press F4.

3. Authorise User to SMS: Authorise the user to request for information and receive the response accordingly. You can authorise the users in Gateway of Tally > F3: Cmp Info > Security Controls > Users and Passwords and set

Yes to Allow SMS Access.

4. Connect Company to Tally.NET connect the required company to Tally.NET Gateway of Tally > click F4: Connect or press F4.

After having configured the company successfully, you can send the SMS Query to 566779<9>

Where:

<9> is the SMS Suffix or a unique number assigned to the company connected to Tally.NET, the SMS Suffix available are between 0 to 9 based on the connection sequence.

Example: To know the Cash Balance as on 16-Aug-2010

Just Type: Cash Balance as on 16/08/2010

Send to: 5667791

Shortly you will receive an SMS with the following text:

Closing Balance of Ledger Cash for 16-August-2010 15,000 Dr.

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Short Message Service in Tally.ERP 9

The diagram below depicts the SMS functionality in Tally.ERP 9

Figure 1.1 Query Information via Short Message Service

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Lesson 2: Configuring Short Message Service

2.1 Configure Tally.ERP 9 for SMSPrior to accessing the business information via SMS it is essential to configure Tally.ERP 9 which is shown in four simple steps.

Register Mobile Number(s)

Enable SMS

Authorise Users to access information

Connect Company to Tally.NET

2.1.1 Register Mobile Number(s)

It is essential to register the mobile number(s) before connecting the company to Tally.NET. You need to provide the mobile numbers in My Profile option which is available in the Control Centre.

To enter the mobile numbers follow the steps shown:

Go to Gateway of Tally or Company Info menu

Click K: Control Centre or press Ctrl + K

The Login As Remote Tally.NET User screen appears

Enter the required E-Mail ID in Your E-Mail ID field

Enter the password in Your Tally.NET Password field

Figure 2.1 Login As Remote Tally.NET User

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Configuring Short Message Service

Press Enter

The Control Centre screen appears as shown

Figure 2.2 Control Centre

Click W: My Profile or press Alt+W

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The My Profile screen appears as shown

Figure 2.3 Change My Profile

Select the required salutation from the list of Salutation displayed

Enter the required name in the Name field.

Type the required mobile number in Mobile No(s) field

Press Enter

Press Enter once again to complete the entry

In case the information is already available, provide the required mobile number(s) only.

To enter multiple mobile numbers, type the required mobile number in the blank field provided and press Enter to move to the next line.

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The My Profile screen appears as shown:

Figure 2.4 Change My Profile

Click Yes or press Y to save the details

Press Esc and return to Gateway of Tally or Company Info menu

2.1.2 Enable SMS

After providing the mobile numbers and prior to connecting the company to Tally.NET, you need to enable the SMS feature and provide a short name for the company.

To enable the SMS feature follow the steps shown:

Go to Gateway of Tally

Click F11: Features or press F11

The Company Features menu appears

Select Tally.NET or press F4

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The Tally.NET Features screen appears as shown:

Figure 2.5 Tally.NET Features

In the SMS Details Access section

Set Yes to Enable SMS Access to avail business information using the Short Message Service.

Provide a short name for the company in SMS Company Name, the company’s short name must not exceed eight characters.

To enable Tally.NET set Security Controls to Yes while creating/altering a company.

In case you have configured Tally.NET earlier, you can continue to retain the existing configurations and enable SMS access.

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The Tally.NET Features screen appears as shown:

Figure 2.6 Tally.NET Features

2.1.3 Authorise User to SMS

The last step involved in configuring SMS for the required company is to enable the respective user(s) to access information via SMS. To enable SMS access for a user(s) follow the steps shown below:

Go to Gateway of Tally

Click F3: Cmp Info or press Alt+F3

The Company Info menu appears

Select Security Control > Users and Passwords

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The List of Users for Company screen appears as shown:

Figure 2.7 List of Users for a Company

Select Tally.NET User from the list of Security List displayed

Enter the required email id of the user in Name of User field

In order to allow the user access business information via SMS set Allow SMS to Yes.

Similarly, the remaining users can be allowed to access business information via SMS.

Select End of List

The above configuration is required for a new setup only.

In case you had configured the user(s) for a company earlier then set Allow SMS to Yes for the required user(s) only.

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The completed List of Users for Company appears as shown:

Figure 2.8 List of Users for a Company

Click Yes or Press Y to accept the configuration

2.1.4 Connect Company to Tally.NET

On completing the above configuration, the user has to connect the required company to Tally.NET in order to access information via SMS. To connect the company to Tally.NET click F4:Connect or press F4 in Gateway of Tally.

On successfully connecting the company to Tally.NET

A message appears in the calculator pane as shown:

Figure 2.9 Connected to Tally.NET

You will receive an E-Mail containing the following details

Company Connect Name: The company’s short name as provided in SMS Company Name field.

SMS Suffix: A unique number allotted to each company. It is added at the end of the service number while sending the SMS request.

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2.2 Access Information via SMSOn successfully completing the setup, the user can extract business information by sending a query via SMS to the specified number from the mobile phone. The system in turn extract the required information and sends back the result to the user’s mobile phone.

To access information via SMS just type the query in your mobile phone and sent it to the specified number as shown:

<Query> to 566779 <9>

Where:

Query: is a business query to extract information from the connected company566779: Common Number to which the short message is sent by the user. <9>: Is the SMS Suffix - a unique number assigned to each Company for a user.

Example 1:To know the closing cash balance on September 30, 2009

In your cellphone type the following

Cash Balance as on 30/09/2009

Send it to 5667791

In a short duration you will receive an SMS with the following text: Closing Balance of Ledger cash as on 30-Sep-2009 is Rs. 2,970.50

2.3 Change SMS SuffixSMS Suffix is a unique identification number allotted to each company when it is connected to Tally.NET. The first company connected to Tally.NET gets the SMS Suffix Number 1 for the respective user. The SMS Suffix increments correspondingly as the number companies connected to Tally.NET increase for that user. The SMS Suffix is limited to nine companies only, i.e., nine companies only can be accessed via SMS for an authorised Tally.NET User.

While querying for information, when the user does not provide the SMS Suffix the system assumes that you are querying with the company having SMS Suffix 1 and responds accordingly.

Assuming that you have a number of companies connected to Tally.NET for querying information and you needs to query the information from the 7th company frequently, then you will have to send the query to specified number suffixed with 7 which may be a little cumbersome. Instead Tally.ERP 9 provides you the flexibility to change the SMS Suffix to a desired number.

When a single company is connected the SMS Suffix is defaulted to 1.

Provide SMS Suffix when more than a Single Company is connected

SMS Suffix are limited to a maximum of nine companies. The SMS Suffix can be any number between 1 to 9.

When 0 or 1 is suffixed the SMS queries data from the company having the SMS Suffix as 1.

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To change the SMS Suffix for the required company follow the steps shown:

Go to Company Info menu

Select Login as Remote User

The Login As Remote Tally.NET User screen appears

Enter the Administrators E-mail ID in Your E-Mail Id field.

Enter the required password in Your Tally.NET Password field.

Figure 2.10 Login As Remote Tally.NET User

Press Enter

The List of Remote Companies screen appears as shown

Figure 2.11 List of Remote Companies

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In the set of Online Companies displayed

Select the required company

Click C: Chg SMS Suffix

The Change SMS Suffix screen appears as shown

Figure 2.12 Change SMS Suffix

Type 1 in the New Suffix field

The List of Remote Companies screen appears as shown:

Figure 2.13 Changed SMS Suffix

The SMS Suffix can also be changed from your mobile phone by typing Change <Present Suffix> <New Suffix>

Example : Change 7 1 and send it to 5667790

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Lesson 3: Natural Query Language

3.1 IntroductionNatural Query Langauge is an interface between the user and company connected to Tally.NET. It uses plain simple English to query and extract information while you are away from the business location. In short Natural Query Language is the way of communicating naturally following the grammar or syntax of the respective language or the way communication happens between two people.

To query information from the connected company, the user needs to type the required words using the mobile phone and send it to the number provided. The system is designed to extract information from the respective company connected and sends back the information to the requestors mobile.

3.1.1 How it works

Tally.ERP 9 understands your query which is in the form of Natural Query Language. It has a set of defined rules and uses plain simple English to communicate. When a user requests for information using via SMS. Tally.ERP 9 receives the query and converts it to an understandable format which inturn extracts the required information from the connected company and responds back to the respective user with information in readable format.

3.1.2 Rules

To use SMS Suport you need to follow the set of rules shown below:

The Natural Query Language is capable of delivering a single value for a given query, It will not deliver multiple values as the results delivered need to be within limit of characters specified for SMS. You cannot request for a list of pending bills as it may exceeds the specified limit.

Short message serive response is defaulted to the previous object. Most objects in Tally.ERP 9 are enabled for access via Natural Query Language Interface. While querying for Company details without any specification, the system defaults the query to a selected Company. On further querying for address, the system defaults it to the company address and returns the Company Address to the requestor mobile. E.g.: The previous query requested for party balance followed by another query for the address. The system returns an SMS with Party Address.

While querying the user must provide correct name of the master. Adding master type pre-fix would help Natural Query Language Interface to understand the query better.

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Natural Language

Consider a situation where a company has Sundry Creditor Ledger named Ajay Kumar and another cost centre/employee named Ajay Kumar. When a query is posted, Natural Query Langauge Interface finds it difficult to handle the request. By default, the system tries to deliver the best match or information encountered first. To overcome this prefix Master Type (Ledger) to Ajay Kumar in order to differenciate between the employee/cost centre and Ledger.

When a user queries for Ajay Kumar the system tries to find and lists all matching objects such as Ajay, Ajay Malik, Ajay Kumar, Kumar, Kumar Krishnan etc. This can be avoided by enclosing Ajay Kumar withih double quotes which makes it specific to deliver.

Link Masters like Bills, Batches, Orders etc. contain numbers as part of their names. This causes ambiguity and the query may yield multiple results. To deliver accurate results all link masters must be prefixed with the link master type. Example: "Bill 0001 Pending Amount", Batch 01234 Expiry Date etc.

When two masters/objects are queried the system considers them as primary and second-ary returning cross values. E.g.: Closing Balance of Ledger Expenses for Cost Centre Mumbai Branch, the system currently supports Cost Centre/Ledger and vice versa as cross masters.

3.1.3 Quick Tips

Remove the SMS signature from your mobile phone. The signature is appended to the end of the message sent and makes it difficuly for Natural Query Language Interface to under-stand.

While referring to a Masters it is essential to prefix the Master Type. E.g.: Ledger Cash.

Use the full names rather than partial names which result in wrong information E.g.: Que-rying for ABC & Co rather than ABC may provide wrong or inadequate information.

What you see is what you get (WYSWYG). Information you see is also the possible source of information in Tally.ERP 9. E.g.: You see the ledger address in Ledger Master screen, similarly you see the Return on Investment in Ratio Analysis report. While querying it is essential to use the exact names that you see as these titles or prompts return a value. Even though vocabulary is growing to support similar names, sometimes the Natural Lan-guage Interface may not understand what you had asked for.

Be straight! Do not use words that are not necessary. Ask Tally.ERP 9 what it has or what it knows. When the information you are querying is not forming a part of the data then Natural Query Language Interface will not be able answer the query posted.

Ask Cannot Ask

Working Capital Value of Working Capital

Ledger Kotak Bank AddressClosing Balance/Account Number

Kotak Bank Statement

Purchase orders today

Sales bills yet to make today

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Natural Language

For an easy understanding of queries using Natural Query Language on various areas of the product we have broadly classified them into the following categories:

Business

System

3.1.4 Natural Query Language for the Business

The set of commands displayed in the table are illustrated as an example only to get you started on the SMS feature. You can try them out from your mobile phone initially and once you get to know how it works, you can completely adopt the Natural Query Language to extract information from the connected company.

This set of commands from your mobile phone will return the appropriate of the respective ledger or the report.

Cancelled vouchers today

Sales Vouchers Today

Vouchers statistics today

Todays ReceivablesPayables (As two separate Queries)

Todays Receivables and Payable Amount

Quick RatioCurrent Ratio (As two separate Queries)

Quick Ratio, Current Ratio

Aravind Kumar Debit Closing Debit transactions of Arvind Kumar

Word Possible Aliases Works for Objects

Values Delivered

Receivables

Receipt Outstanding

Receivables

Receivable

Bills Receivables

Bills Receivable

Bill Receivable

Bill Receivables

Ledger Returns a receivable value for the specified ledger for a defined period or date.

Group Returns a receivable value for the specified group for a defined period or date

Company Returns a receivable value for the defined period or date for a selected company

Ask Cannot Ask

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Natural Language

Payables

Rcpt Outstanding

Rcpt OS

Receipt OS

Receipts

Receipt

Payables

Payable

Bills Payables

Bills Payable

Bill Payable

Bill Payables

Payment Outstanding

Pymt Outstanding

Pymt OS

Payment OS

Payment

Payments

Ledger

Returns a payable value for the specified Ledger for a defined period or date.

Group

Returns a payable value for the specified Group for a defined period or date.

Company

Returns a payable value for the defined period or date of the selected company

Outstanding

Total Outstanding

Outstanding Total

Outstanding Bills

Bills Outstanding

Bill Outstanding

Ledger Returns a outstanding value for the defined period or date for a Ledger

Company Returns a outstanding value for the defined period or date of the selected company.

Bank Receipts

Bank Receipt

Bank Rcpt

Bank Rcpts

Bank Debit Total

Bank Debit Totals

Bank Dr Total

Bank Debit

Bank Debits

Ledger Returns the Debit Transaction total for a specified Ledger for the defined period or date.

Group Returns the Debit Transaction total for a specified Group or Bank group for the defined period or date.

Company Returns the Debit Transaction total for a given Ledger, Group OR Bank group in case of company for the defined period or date.


Values Delivered

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Natural Language

Bank Payments

Bank Pymt

Bank Payment

Bank Pymts

Bank Credit Total

Bank Credit Totals

Bank Cr Total

Bank Credit

Bank Credits

Ledger

Returns the credit transaction total for the specified Ledger for a defined period or date.

Group

Returns the credit transaction total for the specified Group or Bank group for a defined period or date.

Company Returms the credit transaction total for the given Ledger, Group OR Bank group in case of company for the defined period or date.

Cash Receipts

Cash Receipts

Cash Receipt

Cash Rcpt

Cash Rcpts

Cash Debit Total

Cash Debit Totals

Cash Dr Total

Cash Debit

Cash Debits

Ledger Returns the debit transaction total for specified Leger for a defined period or date

Group Returns the debit transaction total for specified group for a defined period or date

Company Returns the debit transaction total for given Leger, Group or Cash group in case of company for the defined period or date

Cash Payments

Cash Payments

Cash Pymt

Cash Payment

Cash Pymts

Cash Credit Total

Cash Credit Totals

Cash Cr Total

Cash Credit

Cash Credits

Ledger Returns the credit transaction total for the specified Ledger for a defined period or date

Group Returns the credit transaction total for the specified Group for a defined period or date

Company Return the credit transaction total for the given Ledger, Group OR Cash group in case of company for the defined period or date.

BalanceSheet BSheet

BalSheet

Returns the Balance Sheet Debit/Credit total for a defined period or date.


Values Delivered

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Natural Language

Natural Query Language Function

Closing Balance of <Ledger>

Returns the closing balance of the respective ledger

Closing Balance of Sales Returns the closing balance of Sales Ledger

Sales Returns the closing balance of Sales Ledger

Receivables

Bills Receivables

Returns the Amount Receivables

Payables

Bills Payables

Returns the Amount Payables

Outstanding Returns the outstanding amounts

Nett Loss Dipslays the Nett Loss

Profit Returns the Profit

Turnover Returns the tunover

Diff in opening bal Returns teh amount of opening balance

Stock value

Closing stock value

Stock closing value

Returns the Stock Value

Closing stock quantity

Stock closing quantity, Closing stock qty

Stock closing qty

Returns the closing stock value

VAT

VAT payable

VAT to pay

Returns the VAT Payable amount

Purchases

Sales

Returns the closing balance of Sales and Purchases respectively

Ratio

Quick ratio

Current ratio

Equity ratio

Debit ratio

Operating cost

Return on investment

ROI

Return on invest

Return the respective values for the words sent by SMS

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Natural Language

3.1.5 Business Vocabulary References

The table below shows the words and possible aliases used that can be used while querying information using SMS

Masters

Return on working capital

Return on wkg capital

Return on working cap Return on wkg Cap

Inventory turnover

Returns the Working Capital value

Net available stock

Nett available stock

Returns the Net Available Stock value

Phone number of <Ledger> Return the phone number provided for the respective ledger

Mobile Number of <Ledger> Return the phone number provided for the respective ledger

Account number of <Bank Ledger>

Returns the account number of the respective bank ledger

PAN Number/ Income Tax Number <Ledger>

Returns the PAN Number / Income Tax Number of respective ledger.

Closing balance of Cost Centre Branch Office for Ledger Fixed Costs

Returns the closing balance of the Cost Centre, Branch Office for the respective ledger

Word Possible Aliases

Ledger Ledgers

Group Groups

Cost Centre Cost Centres, Cost Centers, Cost Center

Cost Category Cost Categories

Godown Godowns

Stock Group Stock Groups

Stock Category Stock Category

Stock Item Item, Stock Items

Currency Currencies

Unit Units

Budget Budgets

Natural Query Language Function

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Natural Language

Link Masters

Business Vocabulary Reference (Object Specific Values)

3.1.6 Business Vocabulary that is ignored during interaction

In the business vocabulary certain words will be ignored when a valid meaning is not found in the data. The table below shows the set of word that are ignored while querying information from your mobile.

Word Possible Aliases

Bill Bills

Batch Batches

Tracking Number Tracking Numbers

Order Order

Word Possible Aliases Works for Objects Values Delivered

Name Works for most objects

Name of the object specified

Address Company, Ledger, Employee

Address list separated with space

Closing Balance Balance, Cl Bal Most Objects Closing Balance as on given date

About Amount Account Amt An

And Are As At Be

Been By Can Company Could

Display Does Far For Get

Give Has Have Hello Hi

How I In Is Many

Me Month Much My No

Nos Of On Or Pl

Please Pls Plz Provide Qty

Quantity Regard Regards Reply Should

Show SMS So Tally Tell

Than Thank Thanks The They

Thx Total Using Value Values

Want Was What Whats What’s

When Why Will With Would

Year You

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Natural Language

3.1.7 Natural Query Language for the System

The system commands are reserved word that are used exclusively to communicate with the system or reset the context of queries. These commands will not allow the user to extract any information from the connected company.

Natural Query Language

Functions

Hello

Hi

Tally

U There

You there

Are you there

it checks for availability of connection with Tally.NET or the availability of a respective company.

User

User Name

Who am I

Returns the name of the authorised user.

Company

Cmp

Database

Name

Returns the name of the company

Thank you

Thanks

Bye

Reciprocates accordingly

List Returns the list of online companies that you are authorised to access

Full List Emails a list of online and offline companies that you are authorised to access

Reset/* Resets the context of earlier queries

Context/* Returns the context of the previous set of queries.

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Documents

Getting Started With SMS | Tally TDL | Tally Shopper | College Management Software