Billing for your mobile and electronics shop in Bihar
A phone worth a month's pay and a charger worth a day's, both on the right bill.
Where the money for a new phone comes from in Bihar
A mobile counter in Bihar sells to people whose money comes from the district's own trade, and the trade decides when they buy.
- Muzaffarpur farmers grow GI-certified Shahi Litchi, and the first air export of it to the UK, in May 2021, was sourced from them.
- Samastipur is a major potato producer with over 20 cold storages for potatoes, and it has many sugar mills and a large jute mill.
- Madhubani painting, now made on paper and cloth for sale, has become a primary source of income for scores of families in the district.
- Patna has long been a major farm hub and trading centre, with grain, sugarcane, sesame and Patna rice among its busiest exports.
From the fan sold in May to the light string sold the week before Dhanteras
The stall's length and the family's box, and the colour that goes first
A shopkeeper setting up a stall for Diwali wants a length cut, and a family wants a box. Both are billed in seconds, each at its own rate. By the first week of Diwali the bills show which colour has gone, so the order for the second week is written for colours and not guessed.
The table fan and the cooler, read apart in last year's hot weeks
In the daily report for the hot weeks, the table fan and the cooler are separate lines. You see which of the two went first and which followed, and you order each in its own lot instead of one guess for both.
The fridge leaves the shop on the day its balance is paid
When the family comes to take the fridge, you open its page and make the balance a second bill under the same name. The model is on both bills, so the one who carries the fridge home also carries the paper for the warranty card.
Fans in the heat, lights at Diwali and a phone worth a month's pay
The goods change with the month: fans, light strings, then phones
In the heat the counter sells table fans and coolers, before Diwali it sells strings of lights, and all year it sells phones and chargers and mends cracked screens. Each month's goods push the last month's to the back of the shelf. The fans that did not sell in July are still there in November, and the lights you ran out of in the first week of Diwali were not on your order.
The charger that stopped in a week, and nothing to show it came from you
A customer comes back after eight days with a charger that has stopped working and says he bought it from you. You sell fifty chargers that look alike, and there is no bill in the notebook with his name. You either replace it and lose, or refuse and lose a customer who tells the whole lane.
The fridge promised for Dhanteras, with half the money paid
In the week before Dhanteras, families come to book a fridge, a washing machine or a television, pay part of the money and promise the rest after Diwali. The promise is a line on a scrap with a first name and a model. With strings of lights and speakers being sold at the same counter, the scrap can easily go in the bin with the cartons.
What a Bihar mobile counter keeps on its phone
Bills on your phone
A bill that gives the Dhanteras fridge, a table fan and a string of lights each their own line, so the family reads what each one cost.
UPI payments
In the Dhanteras crowd at the light-string counter, a customer pays for the strings by scanning the QR on your phone, and the next one steps up without waiting for change.
Credit book (khata)
A page for each family that has paid part of a fridge, with the model, the advance and the balance, so the scrap in the drawer is not needed.
Daily reports
Table fans sold on each day of May and June, and light strings on each day of the week before Dhanteras.
What mobile shop owners in Bihar ask
A customer says the charger he bought stopped working in a week. How do I check it came from me?
Ask him for the bill on his phone. Many chargers on your shelf look alike. The bill names this charger and the day, so you know in a moment it is yours, and you can replace it or say no.
How do I name covers so I find a Dhanteras buyer's cover at once?
Put the model's name first in each cover's name, then the colour. Typing the model brings up its covers, each with its count, so you see which model's sit.
A buyer wants the model name on the bill for the warranty card. Can I do that?
Yes. Put the model in the item's name, and make a GST bill for the buyer who needs one. The name prints on the bill.
Dhanteras, the week Bihar buys for the home
At Dhanteras 2025 Bihar's electronics stores saw strong demand for refrigerators, washing machines, LED TVs and mobile phones, Patna Press reported. A family that buys a fridge and a phone in one week may pay for the fridge in parts, so one page holds both, and the phone does not wait on the fridge.
Traders expected Bihar's Dhanteras 2025 sales to cross Rs 100 crore, of which they estimated Rs 10 crore from electronics, Patna Press reported. Electronics were thus a tenth of what traders hoped for across all goods, and a shop that kept its own daily count can see where it stood in that tenth.