Billing for your sweet shop and bakery in Bihar
Tilkut in winter, thekua at Chhath and the cake on Saturday, each on a shelf that changes with the month.
What a Bihar sweet counter keeps on its phone
Bills on your phone
A bill that adds tilkut by the quarter kilo, thekua by the piece and a slab of cake, each at its own rate, in the season that sells it.
Daily reports
Kilos of thekua and tilkut sold on each day of the Chhath and Sankranti weeks, kept for the year.
Low stock warnings
A warning when the wheat flour for thekua or the sesame for tilkut is nearly out in the weeks before the festival.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the family that takes thekua and tilkut on credit for a gathering and pays after, each day's order dated.
Sugar, sesame and makhana: what goes into a Bihar sweet
Most of what goes into a Bihar sweet is grown in a district with its own trade, and the sweet maker hears about the crop from the sack.
- Darbhanga is famous for its trade in fish, mango and makhana.
- Samastipur has many sugar mills, and it is also a major potato producer with over 20 cold storages for potatoes.
- In East Champaran, agriculture is the main income, and rice and sugar cane are major crops.
- Patna has long been a major trading centre, and sesame is among its most active exports, along with grain and sugarcane.
A shelf that changes with the month, written down as it changes
A new item added when the season starts, and its sales kept apart
When tilkut season opens, add it as an item with its rate for a quarter kilo and a kilo. When thekua is wanted, add that. Each has its own line in the day's count, so at the season's end you can see exactly what each sold, and the board above the counter can be repainted from what is on your phone.
Thekua by the kilo for a family and by the piece for a child
Make thekua two items, one by the kilo for the family that is distributing it and one by the piece for the child who comes with a coin. The bill shows which was sold and the report keeps a line for each, so you read at night what the families took and what the children took that day.
The next kadhai decided from the count of the last one
At the end of the day the count shows how many kilos of thekua and how much tilkut finished before closing. Next morning you fry the number of kadhai-fuls that matches, and the week before Chhath you read last year's days to decide the size of each batch.
Tilkut in winter, thekua at Chhath and a sesame truck that is late
A shelf that changes with the month
Tilkut comes in the cold months, thekua is wanted in Chhath week, laddus sell all year, and the board above the counter is a painted list that was right in some other month. A customer asks for tilkut in March, another for thekua two days after Chhath, and each time you explain that it is not made now, or that the price on the board is last year's.
Thekua comes out of the kadhai in a batch of fixed size
Thekua is fried in ghee in a big kadhai and the batch has a fixed size. You cannot fry seven kilos, only ten or twenty, so the decision is made in kadhai-fuls. If the batch is too large, the thekua of the last tray goes soft, and if it is too small, the family that came at six goes home with nothing and tells the lane.
A tin of ghee in the morning, half a tin at night
Ghee goes into the thekua, the laddu and the fried sweets, and a tin that is full in the morning is half empty at night. Nobody knows how many kilos of sweets that half tin made, and the shop learns the tin is finished only when the kadhai is already hot.
What sweet shop and bakery owners in Bihar ask
Tilkut sells in the cold months only. How do I add it for the season and see its sales on their own?
Add it as an item when the season starts. Its sales have their own line in the day's report, and next year you can read that line before the season begins.
Thekua comes out of the kadhai faster than I count it into trays. How do I record the batch?
Put the count in when the tray is filled. Until then the pieces still in the kadhai are not on the count, so the phone may show fewer than lie on the counter for a few minutes. Bills go through all the same.
Two families want thekua on the same Chhath morning and the kadhai takes ten or twenty kilos. How do I see what I have promised?
Bill each family's thekua with its kilos and the day. The kilos billed for that morning add up in the day's count, so you see whether the second family tips you into another kadhai-ful before you light the fire.
The tilkut batch needs sesame and jaggery together. When the truck is late, which one tells me whether to light the kadhai?
Look at both lines in your store count. Whichever is shorter decides the batch, and the other is not the one to worry about. Write the supplier's order for it while the store still has some.
Ramna Road's sweet shops at Makar Sankranti
Buyers throng Gaya's Ramna Road sweet shops for tilkut at Makar Sankranti, and a shop owner said the sesame is freshly procured from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. So the sesame for a festival sweet in Bihar may travel from another state, and the shop must order it before the crowd comes.
India's national portal lists tilkut from Gaya, made of roasted sesame seeds and jaggery, as a traditional festival sweet in its ODOP product listing. A Gaya shop that makes it for Makar Sankranti sells a sweet that already has a place on a national list.