Comparison · checked 29 Oct 2026
Stay on Excel and Tally while you run one small project and a few people do everything: TallyPrime Silver costs ₹22,500 for a lifetime licence plus GST, every CA knows it, and it files GST and TDS returns. Switch when the work between the files starts to slip: demands raised late, interest not charged, the RERA account rebuilt each quarter, broker brokerage argued over. LoftRay replaces the spreadsheets, not your CA’s Tally; it exports vouchers to Tally.
Facts about Excel and Tally come from Microsoft and Tally Solutions’s own public pages, listed under Sources, read on.
The short answer
It depends on what you need the software to do. Here is the honest split.
Side by side
“Stronger here” marks the side we think is ahead on each row. Where the other product is ahead, we say so.
| Topic | Excel and Tally | LoftRay |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | TallyPrime Silver: ₹750 a month, ₹8,100 a year or ₹22,500 lifetime; Gold (multi-user): ₹67,500 lifetime. All plus 18% GST.Stronger here | ₹1,50,000 per project a year on the cloud, plus GST, with every user included. Your own server is quoted. |
| GST and TDS returns | TallyPrime files GST, makes e-invoices and e-way bills, handles TDS and TCS.Stronger here | Records GST and TDS on transactions and exports to Tally. No return filing yet. |
| Who knows it | Every CA; Tally reports nearly 2.7 million businesses.Stronger here | Your team learns it during setup. |
| Inventory and bookings | An Excel sheet, kept up to date by hand. | Unit catalogue, holds, cost sheets with discount approval, bookings.Stronger here |
| Demands and interest | Excel formulas per buyer; interest worked out by hand. | Demands from certified stages; interest from your approved rule; ageing every day.Stronger here |
| RERA designated account | A spreadsheet, usually your CA’s. | Cash classified as it arrives; withdrawals with approval; quarterly packs.Stronger here |
| Contractor RA bills | Tally says TallyPrime “does not natively automate” RA bill calculation; partner add-ons fill the gap. | Work orders, measurements and RA bills with retention.Stronger here |
| Approvals | None in Excel; sign-offs happen on paper or chat. | Approval chains with delegation on discounts, refunds, POs, RA bills and withdrawals.Stronger here |
| Audit trail | Spreadsheets can be edited by anyone with the file. | Append-only audit log that no one can edit or delete.Stronger here |
| Real-estate features | Tally has a real-estate ERP page listing bookings and payment schedules, without saying which are built in or partner add-ons. | Built for builders: land and JDA through to handover.Stronger here |
The licence is the small part. The cost of Excel and Tally is the work between them: someone re-keys bookings into demand sheets, chases receipts against bank statements, and rebuilds the RERA account each quarter. When that person is away, nobody knows who is overdue.
Sources
Each page below was read on . Products change: if something here is out of date, write to us and we will correct it.
Questions
For one small project, yes. Tally handles accounts and returns well. The strain shows in the work Excel does: demands, interest, broker brokerage and the RERA designated account, which are rebuilt by hand and have no approvals or audit trail.
No. LoftRay exports vouchers to Tally as XML and imports from it, using a ledger mapping agreed with your CA during setup.
Keep reading
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