How does a paper khata lose you money?
A register works until something goes wrong. It costs you in three ordinary ways:
- A page gets torn, wet or misread, and a real debt goes with it. You can't chase a debt you can't prove.
- You forget when the udhaar was given. "Kuch mahine pehle" is not a date, and the customer knows it. In your head, old debts get written off long before they're paid.
- Two people write in the same book. The son adds a sale, the father records a payment, and by evening nobody trusts the total.
The shopkeeper isn't being careless here. Paper only holds what you had time to write, exactly as you wrote it.
What changes with a digital khata?
A digital khata keeps a running balance for each customer. It updates every time you record a credit sale or a payment, so you don't add up the book in your head at closing time.
- Every entry gets the date automatically, so you always know since when, and an old debt looks old.
- Everyone at the counter sees the same balance, so the father's and the son's numbers can't drift apart.
- You can see who owes the most and who has owed the longest. That is the list to chase this week.
Does it work without internet?
In a lot of shops the connection is slow or drops often. NexusTill records the sale and the udhaar on the device and syncs when the signal returns, so you never wait for a page to load before you can sell.
How do you move from the register to an app?
You don't need to type in years of history. Start from today's real balances and let the paper go out of use:
- 1Add your regular udhaar customers, each with their current balance as an opening amount. Ten minutes of setup covers the names that matter.
- 2From day one, record new credit sales and payments in the app instead of the book. Keep the register as a backup for a week or two until you trust the new balances.
- 3When a customer pays, record the payment against their name and the balance goes down by itself. You stop crossing out and re-totalling.
- 4After a couple of weeks the app is your ledger. Put the book in a drawer, but don't throw it out yet.
Does a digital khata help you collect?
When you can see who owes what and since when, asking for payment becomes routine and less awkward. You aren't accusing anyone, because you're both looking at the same number. Shops that move udhaar off paper usually find the money was there all along. They just couldn't see it.
Run your shop on NexusTill free for 7 days
You get the full product, with billing, khata and stock, on your own shop's data. No card and no setup fee, so you can see if it fits before you pay.
Written by The NexusTill team.