Move your udhaar register to an app, step by step

Most shopkeepers who want a digital khata get stuck on the same thought: "I have 200 customers in the register. Who is going to type all that?" The good news is that you do not need the whole history, only what each customer owes today. Here is how to make the move in an evening or two.

1. Close the register on one date

Pick a date, usually the end of a month. On that night, add up each customer's page and write the closing balance in a different colour. From the next morning, new udhaar goes in the app only. Two places for the same udhaar is how mistakes start.

2. Make one clean list

You need three things per customer: name, mobile number, and what they owe. Write it on a fresh page or straight into Excel:

Two tips:

• Add a word to common names, like the street or the shop, so you can tell the three Aslams apart.
• Check mobile numbers with the customer when they next come in. The number is what reminders go to.

3. Put the list in

You have two ways:

• Under 50 customers: add each one on the phone with their opening balance. You can pick the name and number from your phone's contacts instead of typing.
• More than that: fill the list in Excel and import it. Munshi's Bring your data reads the file, understands headings like naam, mobile and baqaya, and shows every row and any problem (a wrong number, the same mobile twice) before it saves anything.

Dealers you owe money to go in the same way, as "you owe them".

4. Check the total

Add up the closing balances in the register. Then look at the total udhaar in the app. They should match to the rupee. If they do not, the difference is usually one customer typed twice or a zero missed. Fix it now, while the register is still in front of you.

5. Tell your customers

Send each customer their balance on WhatsApp, with a short note: "Assalam o alaikum, aap ka hisab ab app mein hai. Aaj tak ka baqaya Rs 4,250 hai." Most customers like this: it is the first time they can see their own balance, and it settles arguments before they start.

6. From tomorrow

• Every udhaar sale is a bill on the customer's name, so the balance updates by itself.
• Every payment is entered when it comes, cash or JazzCash or Easypaisa.
• Set a credit limit for customers who keep going higher, and turn on reminders for balances older than a month. See how to collect udhaar from customers for ways to ask that do not lose the customer.

Keep the old register for a few months, in case someone asks about an old entry.

In Munshi

The udhaar khata app takes opening balances per customer or from an Excel import, keeps every customer's statement, sends WhatsApp and SMS reminders and warns you when someone passes their credit limit. Start free and move one page of the register first to see how it feels.