TallyPrime and SFTP / Flat Files integration

What moves between them

TallyPrime vouchers (purchase, sales, payment, receipt) and ledger entries flow outbound to the SFTP server as CSV or fixed-width files at regular intervals tied to your business cycle. Stock items and account masters can also be exported. Inbound files from your trading partner or cloud system are polled from the SFTP server, mapped to TallyPrime ledgers and vouchers using a per-partner configuration, and imported into TallyPrime. The direction of each record type is configurable per flow.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector maintains a local agent connection to TallyPrime on port 9000 and uses the company name and optional credentials from your TallyPrime Settings to authenticate with the desktop application. It periodically exports vouchers and masters from TallyPrime using date range filters, converts them to the CSV or fixed-width format your SFTP partner expects, and uploads the files to their inbound folder using SSH key or password authentication. On the inbound side, ml-connector polls the SFTP server for new files in the agreed inbound directory, parses them according to your per-partner mapping (column order, format, field names), transforms them into TallyPrime XML Import Data envelopes, and posts them back to the local TallyPrime API. Since TallyPrime is single-user and has no idempotency keys, ml-connector tracks which files and vouchers have been processed to avoid duplicate imports. SFTP acknowledgment files can be generated and placed in the acks folder to confirm receipt to your partner. Retries and a full audit trail on every exchange ensure no data is lost if a file transfer fails.

A real-world example

A mid-sized distributor in India runs TallyPrime for accounting and inventory and ships orders to a network of regional resellers. Each reseller submits a daily CSV file with their stock requests and payments. Before the integration, the finance team manually downloaded each reseller CSV, read the columns into a spreadsheet, and re-entered the orders and payments as purchase vouchers in TallyPrime every morning. With TallyPrime and SFTP / Flat Files connected, each reseller file is automatically parsed and imported as TallyPrime vouchers overnight, and TallyPrime's daily ledger extract is automatically exported and posted to the reseller portal as a CSV. The order-to-ledger loop closes without manual data entry, and the reseller sees current account status the next business day.

What you can do

• •Export TallyPrime purchase vouchers, sales vouchers, and payments as CSV or fixed-width files to your SFTP trading partner on a daily or weekly schedule.
• •Import inbound CSV or fixed-width files from your SFTP server and create corresponding TallyPrime vouchers without manual re-entry.
• •Map SFTP file columns to TallyPrime ledgers, groups, and stock items using a per-partner configuration.
• •Authenticate SFTP servers with SSH key or username/password, and handle TallyPrime local API credentials and company name.
• •Track processed files and vouchers to prevent duplicate imports, and generate SFTP acknowledgment files to confirm receipt to your trading partner.

Questions

Does ml-connector run the TallyPrime local agent, or do I need to set it up myself?

You need to run the local agent yourself on the same machine or LAN as your TallyPrime instance. The agent connects to TallyPrime port 9000, which you must manually enable in TallyPrime Advanced Configuration. ml-connector connects to the agent and orchestrates the XML API calls from the cloud. The agent keeps the connection secure and local.

Can the same SFTP file be imported more than once into TallyPrime?

ml-connector tracks file names and their last-seen content hash to prevent duplicate imports. If the same file is resubmitted with identical content, it is skipped. If the file is updated with new lines or changes, ml-connector detects the change and imports only the new or modified records according to your mapping rules.

What file formats does SFTP / Flat Files support?

CSV, fixed-width text, XML, and EDI formats (X12, EDIFACT) are all supported. Your per-partner configuration specifies the format, column layout, and field names. ml-connector transforms between TallyPrime XML and your chosen file format automatically based on the integration setup.