Master Name and Alias both must be unique in Tally.ERP.Those shifting from other software to Tally.ERP find this to grasp. Here are some common issues faced while migrating data from other softwares into Tally.ERP

Automobile Industry
In Automobile Industries, the Part Numbers are unique but the Stock-Item Name i.e. Part-Name may be duplicate. Example :-

Part Number   Part Name
1001             O-Ring
1002             O-Ring

Solution
To import such Master data into Tally, a work-around is to concatenate the “Name – PartNumber” as shown below :-

Part Number      Part Name
1001             O-Ring - 1001
1002             O-Ring - 1002

However, there are lot many other things that need to be taken care-of else you may spend lot of pulling your hair. Consider the following Stock Item Names :-

Part Name
Oil Can 1.5 Ltrs
Oil Can 15 ltrs

Are the aforesaid two Stock Items same ? No. The first is “1.5 ltrs” can whereas the second is “15 ltrs“. However, Tally ERP considers both as same. Try creating the above two Stock Items in Tally.ERP and you get message “Duplicate Entry” while trying to enter the second item.

In brief, there are several characters like dot (.), hash (-) , spaces which are ignored by Tally.ERP in Master Names and Alias. This is applicable to all Masters including Stock Item Masters.