How to Use Digital Signature in TallyPrime for PDF Documents (2024)

The facility of digital signature in TallyPrime help you digitally sign and authenticate your documents with great ease. It secures your document from tampering, impersonation, and repudiation. This topic covers how to configure and add digital signature on PDF to share with concerned parties via Export, E-mail, WhatsApp and Print.

In your business, you must be sharing documents with your internalstakeholders, auditors, and customers with sign, stamp or letterhead of your organization. Moreover, you may be sharing an Invoice with your customer or Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss A/c with a chartered account for audit purposes. You must be providing Form-16 to your employees with signature and stamp of your organization. Digital signature in TallyPrime provide you with a convenient, efficient, and cost-effective way to share documents with the concerned people, while ensuring authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation of the same. In addition to that, it also avoids impersonation and tampering of the document in transit, as any changes made in the document affect the digitalsignature.

TallyPrime Release 2.1 supports dongle-based digital signature in PDF documents, and you can use the feature while sharing vouchers and reports with concerned parties. All you need is digital signature certificate (DSC) token or dongle issued from a Certifying Authority such aseMudhra,Capricon,Verasys,Safescrypt,Pantasign CA,(n)Code Solutions, andIDSign CA.

Moreover, anyone can use the facility of digital signature in TallyPrime, given that the DSC dongle should be connected to your computer or laptop.

The facility of digital signature in TallyPrime is provided for Export, E-mail, WhatsApp and Print.

Configure Digital Signature

Irrespective of themean of sharing – Export, E-mail, WhatsApp or Print, the process of configuring for digital signature is similar in TallyPrime. Moreover, the configuration is one-time, applicable to all the Companies that you load in TallyPrime. You have a flexibility to change the configuration at any point in time.

To configure for digital signature in TallyPrime, ensure that your digital signature dongle is connected to your system.

While using Export, E-mail, WhatsApp or Print, you can select the document format/printer, as needed, and set the digital signature.

1. Select format/printer, asapplicable.
   1. In case of Export, E-mail, and WhatsApp, press F8 (File Format):
      1. PressF8 (File Format) in case of Export, E-mail, and WhatsApp.
         Alternatively, pressC(Configure), type or selectFile Formatand pressEnter.
      2. List of File Formats:PDF (Read-only document).
         When you selectPDF (Read-only document), digital signature configurations start appearing.
   2. In case of Print, pressF6(Printer) > selectMicrosoft Print to PDFand pressEnter.
      Alternatively, pressC(Configure) > type or selectMicrosoft Print to PDFand pressEnter.
      When you selectMicrosoft Print to PDF, digital signature configurations start appearing.
      TheMicrosoft Print to PDFoption will only be available if you are using TallyPrime on Windows 10 or later versions.
2. Select thedigital signature.
   
   1. InDigital Signature, selectthe signature from theList of Digital Signature Certificates.
   2. Ask before signing:Yes.
      Henceforth, when you export, E-mail, WhatsApp or print a document, TallyPrime will ask before adding digital signature to it.
      Set it asNoif you want to add digital signature to all documents.
   3. Format of Signature:
      1. Only Texttoinclude only digitalsignature.
         
         
      2. Text & Imageto add an image of your Company’s logo, stamp, your handwritten signature, or other such images.
         
         1. Image Path: specify/select the folder path on which the image is stored in your system.
         2. Image File Name: Select the image that you want to add.
         3. Include name of signatory:Yes.
            When you set this asYes, the name of signatory as shown in the image will become a part of the document along with the digital signature and image selected by you.
            

TheE-mail SettingsandPrint Settingsscreensaresimilar with the details of digital signature.

Once youconfigure digital signature, you can start signing the documents digitally and share with the concerned parties for various purposes through Export, E-mail, WhatsApp, or Print, as needed.

Export documents with digital signature

If you want to Export a digitally signed voucher or report, from the voucher or report:

1. PressCtrl+E(Export).
   TheExportSettingsscreen appears with digital signature configured.
2. PressCtrl+Ato save and proceed.
   You can change the digital signature, if you have a different dongle for which digital signature is not configured in TallyPrime.
3. PressE(Send).
   
4. PressY(Yes) to add digital signature in the transaction/report, if you have setAsk before signingtoYes.
   
   If you press N(No), then the PDF will get exported without the digital signature.
   TheEnterUserPinscreenappears,if you are using the digital signature for the first time after loading the Company and the dongle is connected to your computer.
   It is important to note that the appearance of the PIN prompt may vary based on digital signature you are using and the Certifying Authority that has provide you with the same.
5. Enter theUser PINprovided by the Certifying Authority and clickOK.
   
   Once you enterUser PIN, you will not need to enter it again until you close TallyPrime or remove the digital signature dongle from your system.

Clickhere to view sample PDF documents with digital signature.

E-mail documents with digital signature

While sending a voucher or report through E-mail

1. Ensure that in the E-mail Settings screen, the digital signature is configured.
2. PressCtrl+Ato save and proceed.
   You can change the digital signature, if you have a different dongle for which digital signature is not configured in TallyPrime.
3. PressM(E-mail).
   
4. PressY(Yes) to add digital signature in the transaction/report, if you have setAsk before signingtoYes.
   If you pressN(No), then the PDF will be sent without the digital signature.
   TheEnterUser Pinscreenappears.
5. Enter theUser PINprovided by the Certifying Authority and clickOK.
   Once you enterUser PIN, you will not need to enter it again until you close TallyPrime.

Click here to view sample PDF documents with digital signature.

WhatsApp documents with digital signature

While sending a voucher or report through WhatsApp

1. Ensure that in the WhatsApp Settings screen, the digital signature is configured.
2. PressCtrl+Ato save and proceed.
   You can change the digital signature, if you have a different dongle for which digital signature is not configured in TallyPrime.
3. Press W (WhatsApp).
4. PressY(Yes) to add digital signature in the transaction/report, if you have setAsk before signingtoYes.
   If you pressN(No), then the PDF will be sent without the digital signature.
   TheEnterUser Pinscreenappears.
5. Enter theUser PINprovided by the Certifying Authority and clickOK.
   Once you enterUser PIN, you will not need to enter it again until you close TallyPrime.

Save document to PDF while printing

If you want to save the digitally signed document as PDF,from the voucher or report:

1. PressCtrl+P(Print).
   ThePrinter Settingsscreen appears with digital signature configured.
2. PressCtrl+Ato save and proceed.
   You can change the digital signature, if you have a different dongle for which digital signature is not configured in TallyPrime.
3. ConfigureMicrosoft Print to PDF, as required and clickOK.
   
4. PressP(Print).
   
5. PressY(Yes) to add digital signature in the transaction/report, if you have setAsk before signingtoYes.
   If you pressN(No), then the PDF will be saved without the digital signature.
   TheEnterUser Pinscreen appears.
6. Enter theUser PINprovided by the Certifying Authority and clickOK.
   Once you enterUser PIN, you will not need to enter it again until you close TallyPrime.

Click hereto view a sample PDF documents with digital signature.

PDF Documents with Digital Signature

Irrespective of the mean – Export, E-mail, or Save to PDF – through which you share PDF documents with the concerned parties, TallyPrime allows you to add digital signature to vouchers and reports, including the multi-account reports.

Voucher with digital signature

You may want to share an authenticated copy of an Invoice with your customer or a copy of finalised purchase order with your vendor. In such case, you can export, e-mail, or save documents to PDF with digital signature.

A sample voucher with the digital signature appears as shown below.

The digital signature gets added with date and timestamp above the labelAuthorised Signatory.

Reports with digital signature

You may want to share Balance Sheet or Profit & Loss A/c with your chartered accountant or may want to share Form-16 with your employees.

In reports, digital signature will be displayed along with theYours Faithfullysign-off.

If the reports do not have a sign-off, then the digital signature gets added at the end of the report as show below.

Add Digital Signature toEach VoucherinMulti-VoucherReports

If you want to shareConfirmation of Accountswith your chartered accountant or sales invoices created for a specific party over a period with digital signature, then you can do so with digital signature on each voucher in the report.

1. PressAlt+E(Export)>Others> pressEnter> type or selectMulti-Voucherand pressEnter.
   TheExportscreen appears.
   Note: Press Ctrl+Mfor E-mail orAlt+Pfor Print, as needed, and then proceed to the next steps.
2. PressCto configure export of Multi-Voucher report for a ledger and period.
   To know how to do it, refer to theMulti-Voucher/Invoice for a select partysection in thePrint, Export, or E-mail Multi-Account Reportstopic.
3. PressF8andconfigure for digital signature, if you have not configured already.
4. PressE(Send).
   
   

Subsequently, the multi-voucher report with digital signature on each voucher will get exported as a single PDF.

Validate Digital Signature

Youmay receive documents with digital signature such as an invoice from your supplier with digital signature. If you are a chartered accountant, then you may receive documents for audit from your client.In such cases, you can verify the digital signature on thedocument.

Moreover, if you have exported a PDF document with a newdigitalsignature, then you may want to verify the digital signature before sending it to the concerned party.

Tamperingor altering a document impacts digital signature. For instance, if you split the digitally signed PDF of a transaction or report into multiple pages, then the digital signature added on it becomes invalid.

Some PDF readers validate the digital signature when you open. However, the experience may vary, based on the PDF reader you are using.

To validate digital signature in a PDF document:

1. Open the PDF document and clickon the digital signature.
   You can seeSignature Validation Status.
   If the document was tampered, then the signature wouldshowINVALID.
2. ClickSignature Properties.
   TheSignature Propertieswindow appears as shown below.
   After verifyingthe information in theSignature Propertieswindow, clickClose.
   
3. Afterverifyingthe information in theSignature Propertieswindow, clickClose.

Note: The process of verifying digital signature may vary based on the PDF reader you are using.