Billing for your cloth and garment shop in Chandigarh
The suit length cut in metres, the exchange a week later and the wedding that takes a month: one bill at a time.
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Why a suit length is three rates on one slip, and the sale board makes it worse
A suit length is three goods with three rates
A woman asks for a salwar suit in the unstitched form: two and a half metres for the kameez, two for the salwar, and a dupatta from another shelf. The kameez cloth is priced by the metre, the dupatta by the piece, and the slip is added up on the back of a card while she is still choosing colours. If she changes the dupatta, the whole slip is worked out again, and the shop behind her waits.
The exchange that comes back a week later without a bill
A customer who took a kurta last week comes back to change the size and cannot find her slip. The owner remembers her face but not the day, and not whether the rate was the full one or the one on the sale board. The board went up for three days in the festive weeks and came down again, and nothing was written about which bills fell under it.
A winter lot that arrives in one week, and the first cold morning that empties the middle sizes
The cartons of woollens come in a single week in the autumn: cardigans, shawls and jackets, each in many sizes, stacked in the loft above the shop. On the first cold morning customers ask for the middle sizes, which go in a day, while the biggest and smallest sit untouched. The owner climbs the stairs to count, and he counts the same cartons twice.
Tools for a counter that sells by the metre and by the piece
Bills on your phone
A dupatta cut from the roll for one customer's suit is a line with its own metres, under the kameez cloth and the salwar cloth, and the three lengths reach her tailor in the next lane as one message.
Low stock warnings
The cardigan in the middle size shows as nearly gone on the first cold morning, while the last pieces are still on the hanger by the door.
Daily reports
The three days the sale board stood outside the door, read beside the three days before, show whether the board brought new people or only cut the rate for those already coming.
Orders to suppliers
The woollen cartons all land in one autumn week. Send the cardigan order in one go, ask for more of the middle sizes than the small ones, and note each carton against it as it is opened.
Credit book (khata)
A school sends a teacher to buy cloth for its annual-day costumes and pays after the function. The page is in the school's name, and each trip's metres are lines on it, so its clerk sees what every trip took.
From the metre-rate slip to a bill the tailor can read
The slip that used to walk to the cash counter is gone
In a big shop the salesman shows the cloth, writes a slip, and the customer carries it across the floor to the one cashier. Make the bill at the counter where the cloth is shown, with the kameez cloth, the salwar cloth and the dupatta as three lines in metres. The customer pays on the spot, and the queue in front of the cashier's glass never forms.
The kurta brought back in another size, settled from her own bill
A customer from another sector brings back a kurta that did not fit and wants the next size. Her bill on her phone shows the day and what she paid, so the swap is settled from her own paper and not from the helper's memory. The new size goes out on a fresh bill, and the first one stays as the record of that day.
The winter lot entered in one afternoon, size by size
When the cartons of cardigans, shawls and jackets arrive in a single week, enter each piece by size with its rate. Every sale takes one off its size, so by the second cold week you can see that the middle sizes are nearly gone and the extra-large ones have not moved. The order for the next lot follows the sizes.
What a Chandigarh cloth shop asks before it starts
A customer bought a phulkari dupatta last week and wants the same length for her sister. Where do I find what was cut?
Open her page or look up the day's sales. The bill lists the dupatta with its metres, and the same bill is on her WhatsApp.
The sale board stood outside for three days. How do I know it brought more people than an ordinary three days?
Open the sales of those days and of the three days before. The count of bills shows whether more people came, and the amounts show whether each of them spent less.
In the first cold week my cardigans go in a day and the sizes run out unevenly. Can I see which sizes remain without climbing to the loft?
Yes. Each size is its own item with its own count, so the phone shows what is left on the hanger and what is in the loft.
My tailor takes lining and buttons on account and stitches for my customers. Can his page hold both?
Yes. Everything he takes goes on his page as a dated bill, and you can read the total with him when you settle.
Festive weeks in the tricity's cloth shops, and the Sector 35 lucky draw
Before Diwali 2025 the traders' associations of Chandigarh's tricity said the festive mood lifted sales, apparel among them. At a cloth shop that lift is felt at one place, the cutting table, where one salesman measures and cuts while three more customers wait their turn for the same roll.
Chandigarh's Sector 35-C market, a favourite for jewellery, utensils and clothes, ran a Diwali 2024 'Mega Shopping Bonanza' that gave a lucky-draw coupon on buys above Rs 4,000. A coupon by the bill total means the bill has to carry the total, plainly, the moment the customer pays.