Connect Tally and WhatsApp Business API

In short

Connecting TallyPrime to WhatsApp Business API means outstanding invoices are read from Tally, overdue amounts worked out after part payments, and reminders sent on WhatsApp as an image or PDF. SBD built this for a home appliance distributor with thousands of customers on long credit cycles, plus a daily report for each salesperson.

The workflows

What runs between Tally and WhatsApp Business API.

Each line is one automated workflow. An event in one tool, the checks and mapping in between, the action in the other, and the person who hears about it.

1. Overdue worked out after part payments

   When

   The scheduled read of outstanding bills from TallyPrime

   Automation

   • Verify and validate
   • Map and normalise
   • Upsert by key

   Then

   Calculate the overdue amount per bill after part payments, against each customer credit cycle

   And

   • Audit log entry
   • Alert if it fails or goes quiet
   • Review queue if unsure

2. Colour-coded reminders by credit cycle

   When

   A customer falls into the green, amber or red band

   Automation

   • Verify and validate
   • Map and normalise
   • Upsert by key

   Then

   Send the reminder template as an image or multi-page PDF, daily, weekly or monthly by band

   And

   • Audit log entry
   • Alert if it fails or goes quiet
   • Review queue if unsure

3. Daily incentive report per salesperson

   When

   Each working day

   Automation

   • Verify and validate
   • Map and normalise
   • Upsert by key

   Then

   Send each salesperson a report of what their customers owe and the incentive for collecting it

   And

   • Audit log entry
   • Alert if it fails or goes quiet
   • Review queue if unsure

4. No reminders on stale balances

   When

   Tally has not answered since the last run

   Automation

   • Verify and validate
   • Map and normalise
   • Upsert by key

   Then

   Hold reminders and alert the admin instead of sending on old balances

   And

   • Audit log entry
   • Alert if it fails or goes quiet
   • Review queue if unsure

Every record passes through the same stages

1. 1Receive

   Webhook or polling from the source tool, with a signed payload and a replay log.

2. 2Validate

   Required fields present, types right, record key found. Anything else goes to the review queue.

3. 3Map

   Fields translated to the destination schema. Enumerations, currencies and dates normalised.

4. 4Upsert

   Written against the record key, so a retry updates rather than duplicates.

5. 5Confirm

   Outcome logged. Alert if the count goes quiet. Reconciliation run nightly.

Read this first

Why the obvious route breaks.

A one-step Zap connects Tally and WhatsApp Business API in an afternoon. This is what goes wrong once real volume and real edge cases arrive.

• Tally only answers while it is running

  TallyPrime integrations work over XML sent by HTTP to a port such as 9000, and Tally documents two prerequisites: TallyPrime must be running on that port, and at least one company must be loaded. If the machine is off at reminder time, there is no fresh data, and reminders must wait rather than go out on yesterday’s balances.

• Part payments change what is overdue

  A bill can be part paid, and credit cycles of 60 or 90 days differ by customer. Reminding on the invoice total, or on the invoice date alone, chases money already received. The overdue amount has to be calculated per bill after allocations, against each customer’s terms.

• Reminders are business-initiated, so templates rule

  Outside the 24-hour window opened by a customer message, WhatsApp only allows approved template messages. Every reminder format, the image version and the PDF version, is a template submitted and approved before it can be sent.

• Long statements need a document, not a message

  A customer with many open bills does not fit in one text. WhatsApp accepts JPEG or PNG images up to 5 MB and PDF documents up to 100 MB, so short balances go as a colour-coded image and long ones as a multi-page PDF.

What it costs today

The gap, as the team feels it and as the engineer sees it.

What we wire up

The data flows.

1. 01
   When

   The scheduled read of outstanding bills from TallyPrime

   Then

   Calculate the overdue amount per bill after part payments, against each customer credit cycle

2. 02
   When

   A customer falls into the green, amber or red band

   Then

   Send the reminder template as an image or multi-page PDF, daily, weekly or monthly by band

3. 03
   When

   Each working day

   Then

   Send each salesperson a report of what their customers owe and the incentive for collecting it

4. 04
   When

   Tally has not answered since the last run

   Then

   Hold reminders and alert the admin instead of sending on old balances

Data map

What becomes what, and what it is keyed on.

Field-level mapping is agreed in the blueprint and written into the runbook. Two-way rows carry loop protection so a write from the sync never re-triggers the sync.

In every build

What you get with the sync, whichever pair.

Security and your data

Where the data goes, and who holds the keys.

Accounts

Every platform account is created in your name. We work through managed access you can revoke.

Credentials

Stored encrypted in the orchestration layer. Scoped per connection. Rotated on handover.

Data in transit

TLS everywhere. Webhooks verified by signature before anything is processed.

Data at rest

Only what the sync needs. No copies of your customer data on our machines.

AI steps

Where an integration uses a model, it is through a business API that does not train on your data.

Retention

Run logs kept 90 days by default, adjustable. Payloads redacted of card and ID numbers.

Agreements

DPA and NDA on request. Regional rules covered in our privacy policy.

Keys and sensitive data

How API keys, tokens and personal data are handled.

• Keys live in a vault, never in code

  API keys and tokens are stored in the orchestration layer's encrypted credential store or the platform's secret manager. None are written into workflows, repos, spreadsheets or chat.

• One credential per connection

  Each integration gets its own key, scoped to the objects and actions it needs. A lead sync cannot read invoices. Revoking one key stops one thing.

• Service accounts, not personal logins

  Connections use a dedicated service user in your account, so nothing breaks when a person leaves and nothing runs under someone's name.

• Two-factor on every account

  Every platform account we set up has two-factor authentication on, with recovery codes handed to you, not kept by us.

• Rotation on handover and on request

  Keys are rotated when the build is handed over, when anyone with access leaves, and at any time you ask.

• Secrets never reach the logs

  Audit logs redact tokens, card numbers, government IDs and anything you flag as sensitive before a line is written.

• Webhooks verified before processing

  Inbound calls are checked against the sending tool's signature. Unsigned or stale payloads are dropped and counted.

• Access you can see and revoke

  Our access is through managed roles in your accounts. You can list it, limit it, and remove it in one click without touching the build.

Engineering decisions

Decided before the first workflow is written.

• Rate limits and backoff

  Every API has a ceiling. Calls are batched, queued and retried with increasing delays so a busy hour does not become a failed one.

• Backfill and pagination

  The first run has to load history, not just new events. Backfills page through the source in order, resume after interruption, and never double-write.

• Out-of-order and duplicate events

  Webhooks arrive twice and out of sequence. Each event carries a version or timestamp, and older versions never overwrite newer state.

• Schema changes

  A renamed field or a new dropdown value is the most common silent failure. Payloads are validated against a contract, and a mismatch stops the run and raises a flag.

• Time zones, currencies, units

  Dates are stored in UTC and shown local. Money carries its currency. Quantities carry their unit. Conversions happen once, in the map step.

• Sandbox first

  Builds run against sandbox or test accounts with seeded data before they touch production. Go-live is a switch, not a rewrite.

• Versioned and reversible

  Workflows and code are version-controlled. A release can be rolled back in minutes without losing the records processed since.

• API deprecations watched

  Tools retire API versions on a schedule. We track the dates for every connection in the runbook and upgrade before the cut-off.

• Cost per run known

  Each workflow has a cost per execution, including any model calls, logged alongside the run. You see the bill before it arrives.

• Metrics, not just errors

  Runs per hour, records in and out, exception rate and latency are charted. Trends show a problem before an alert does.

Questions

What people ask about this pair.

Related

• +

  Tally and Airtable

  Tally stays the book of record. Your team finally gets to see what is in it without asking.

• +

  WhatsApp and Airtable

  Reach customers where they reply, with the conversation logged against the record.

• +

  WhatsApp Business API and Zoho Books

  The invoice raised where the accountant expects it, and everyone who moves the order told on WhatsApp.

• Solution

  Finance and accounting

  Every workflow we automate for this kind of team.