The difference between bill-wise and FIFO receivables in Tally is how the same receipt is allocated across open bills: bill-wise lets you point the money at chosen invoices, FIFO always clears the oldest bill first. On the phone that choice is a basis toggle on the Payments report, bill wise vs fifo receivables as two readings of the same vouchers. A Guwahati FMCG owner at Fancy Bazaar has Sharma Kirana on INV-1042 of 3 April at ₹40,000, INV-1098 of 18 April at ₹35,000, INV-1156 of 2 May at ₹25,000, then a ₹50,000 receipt on 10 May. Bill-wise can put that ₹50,000 on the May bill because of a scheme deadline. FIFO puts ₹40,000 on April 3rd and ₹10,000 on April 18th, and May stays fully open. PDF and Excel export sit behind a chooser sheet. Party search is a search box. You type a name.
Key Highlights
- The Payments report on the phone has a basis toggle: Bill-wise or FIFO
- Three Sharma bills at ₹40,000, ₹35,000 and ₹25,000 plus one ₹50,000 receipt is enough to see the two readings diverge
- PDF and Excel export sit behind a chooser sheet. Every exported file goes through the phone's share sheet
In This Article
- What is the difference between bill-wise and FIFO receivables in Tally?
- Three Sharma bills and one ₹50,000 receipt
- Bill wise vs fifo receivables when Sharma picks a bill
- Opening the Payments report on the phone
- Export, share, and the outstanding lump
- What this toggle does not change
- When the CA and Sharma disagree about May
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between bill-wise and FIFO receivables in Tally?
Bill-wise receivables let the receipt point at specific bills. FIFO receivables take the same receipt and clear the oldest open bill first, then the next, until the money is used up. The invoices do not change. The allocation does. That is the whole difference, and it is why Sharma can WhatsApp "May wali bill clear kar do" and FIFO will still leave May open.
| Bill-wise | FIFO | |
|---|---|---|
| How the receipt is applied | You (or the party) point it at chosen bills | Oldest open bill first, then the next |
| Sharma's ₹50,000 on 10 May | Can clear INV-1156 (May) plus part of another | Clears INV-1042 (3 April) fully, then ₹10,000 off INV-1098 |
| May scheme bill | Can be closed on purpose | Stays fully open until older bills are gone |
| What the books still hold | The same three invoices and one receipt | The same three invoices and one receipt |
| Phone control | Payments report, basis toggle on Bill-wise | Payments report, basis toggle on FIFO |
Keep the table nearby when someone in the office says the outstanding "should match" the party's WhatsApp and then spends an afternoon re-allocating receipts by hand. The daily checklist for Tally reports still opens Outstanding first. This toggle is how you read the receipts under that lump.
Three Sharma bills and one ₹50,000 receipt
Sharma Kirana of Fancy Bazaar, 30-day terms:
- INV-1042, 3 April, ₹40,000
- INV-1098, 18 April, ₹35,000
- INV-1156, 2 May, ₹25,000
Total open ₹1,00,000. On 10 May he pays ₹50,000. Outstanding after the receipt is ₹50,000 either way. The outstanding receivables report still shows a lump. Ageing still ages whatever remains. The fight is which bills the ₹50,000 sat on.
FIFO, oldest first. ₹40,000 closes INV-1042. ₹10,000 comes off INV-1098, leaving ₹25,000. INV-1156 stays ₹25,000. Remaining: April 18th ₹25,000 plus May ₹25,000.
Bill-wise, Sharma's instruction. "May wali scheme bill clear kar do, baaki April pe laga do." ₹25,000 closes INV-1156. ₹25,000 comes off INV-1042, leaving ₹15,000. INV-1098 stays ₹35,000. Remaining: April 3rd ₹15,000 plus April 18th ₹35,000.
Same ₹50,000. Same three bills. Two leftover shapes. The May scheme refund, if it needed a closed invoice, only works on the bill-wise sitting.
Bill wise vs fifo receivables when Sharma picks a bill
Bill wise vs fifo receivables is a reading of receipts, not a second set of books. Tally already holds the vouchers. The toggle changes which open bill the receipt is shown against.
Sharma knows his May bill because the scheme window closes on the 12th. FIFO does not know about the scheme. FIFO knows 3 April is older than 2 May. If the accountant left the company on FIFO and the owner promised Sharma the May clearance, the WhatsApp at 9:40, "bhai, May clear nahi hua," is this toggle, not a missing voucher.
The other direction hurts too. An owner who lives on bill-wise can keep a 90-day April bill alive by always pointing fresh money at the new invoice. FIFO would have killed April first. That is why some CAs prefer FIFO for ageing honesty, and why some distributors prefer bill-wise because the retailer names the bill on the call. The phone lets you switch the basis and look.
Ageing, on set your own ageing slabs, then colours whatever is still open. FIFO leftover April 18th plus May will age differently from bill-wise leftover April 3rd plus April 18th. The slabs did not change. The remaining bills did.
Opening the Payments report on the phone
Reports, then the Payments view, then the basis toggle: Bill-wise or FIFO. That is the control. Party search is a search box. Type Sharma. There is no picker and no multi-select.
This Financial Year on the Reports screen includes a Payments total, tappable into its register, among ten register totals. That band is this year's running figure. The Payments report with the basis toggle is where you read how those receipts sat on bills. The This Year's sales, purchases, receipts and payments post is the band. This post is the toggle.
Most action reports have no date filter. Ageing is always as of today. Daybook has Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days and Custom. If you need the 10 May voucher in a list of the day, that is Daybook. The basis toggle is still Bill-wise or FIFO on Payments.
Access to the Reports tab is permission-controlled per team member. A member without that permission does not see reports at all, including this one. There is no salesman filter on the report. Godown is its own report.
Export, share, and the outstanding lump
PDF and Excel export exist for Payments, behind a chooser sheet. Every exported PDF or Excel goes through the phone's share sheet, where you pick WhatsApp, or email, or Drive. The CA who wants to see how the ₹50,000 sat can take the Excel. Sharma who wants a statement still gets the party-page send, on sharing a ledger statement.
Outstanding after either allocation is ₹50,000. The lump does not argue. The aging report in Tally and receivables ageing on the phone then age the bills that remain. Payment behaviour, on which customers pay late, still says Sharma takes 47 days. None of those screens is the toggle. They consume what the toggle left open.
Bank details on a statement print from the company's default bank. They appear in reminder text only when there is no payment link. That is a statement fact, not a Payments-report fact.
What this toggle does not change
It does not create a receipt. Someone still records the ₹50,000 in Tally. It does not change Sharma's terms. Thirty days is thirty days. It does not edit ageing slabs. It does not send WhatsApp. It does not filter by salesman.
It does not make the Balance Sheet foot. When the synced books do not foot, the Balance Sheet shows a Difference row, and that is a Tally job on the desktop. Switching Bill-wise to FIFO will not clear it.
The cash and bank position is whether the ₹50,000 is actually in the bank. Payments is how that ₹50,000 sat on Sharma's bills. Read both before you tell Sharma the May bill is done.
When the CA and Sharma disagree about May
The second of the month, the CA WhatsApps: "Sharma ki May bill abhi open kyun hai." FIFO has been on. INV-1156 of 2 May is still ₹25,000 because the ₹50,000 of 10 May killed INV-1042 first. Sharma is equally sure May is cleared, because that is what he asked for on the call. Both are looking at the same Tally bills. They are reading different bases.
The owner flips the Payments report to Bill-wise, sees how the receipt would have sat if someone had pointed it at May, flips back to FIFO, and forwards the Excel from the share sheet so the CA can see the oldest-first sitting. He does not retype three invoices into a WhatsApp. He does not promise Sharma a clearance the basis will not show.
If they decide May should have been cleared, that is a voucher job in Tally: re-allocate the receipt on the desktop, wait for the sync, open Payments again. The toggle showed the disagreement. It did not rewrite the receipt. Ageing on the phone will then colour whatever bills remain, as of today, on the slabs that company already set.
Takkada is a Tally-integrated receivables and auto-reconciliation app for Indian distributors, with 0% MDR UPI collection and WhatsApp dispatch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the difference between bill-wise and FIFO receivables in Tally?
A: Bill-wise receivables let a receipt point at specific bills. FIFO receivables apply the same receipt to the oldest open bill first, then the next. On the phone the Payments report has a basis toggle for Bill-wise or FIFO. The invoices stay the same. The allocation changes.
Q: How does bill wise vs fifo receivables look on three bills and one part payment?
A: Sharma Kirana has bills of 40,000, 35,000 and 25,000 rupees and pays 50,000. FIFO closes the 40,000 bill and takes 10,000 off the next. Bill-wise can close the 25,000 May bill first if Sharma names it. Outstanding is 50,000 rupees either way. The remaining bills differ.
Q: Where is the Bill-wise or FIFO toggle on the phone?
A: On the Payments report. Open Reports, then Payments, then the basis toggle. Party search is a search box. You type a name. PDF and Excel export sit behind a chooser sheet, and every exported file goes through the phone's share sheet.
Q: Does switching to FIFO change my Tally outstanding total?
A: The outstanding lump stays the same for the same receipts and invoices. What changes is which open bills the receipt is shown against. Ageing then colours the bills that remain. Payment behaviour still reports how many days the party takes.
Q: Can I filter the Payments report by salesman?
A: No. There is no salesman filter and no godown filter on this report. Party search is a search box. Access to the Reports tab is permission-controlled per team member, and a member without that permission does not see reports at all.
Q: Can I export the Payments report from Tally to Excel on the phone?
A: Yes. Payments offers a PDF and Excel chooser. Every exported PDF or Excel goes through the phone's share sheet, where you pick WhatsApp, email or Drive. A party's ledger statement is a different send, from the party page, the bills page, or the ageing report.
Takkada is a Tally-integrated receivables and auto-reconciliation app for Indian distributors, with 0% MDR UPI collection and WhatsApp dispatch. Book a free demo.