Billing for your sweet shop and bakery in Chandigarh
The mixed gift box, the office order paid after Diwali and the milk sweets that must go by night: each on its own bill.
From weighing on the scale and adding in your head to a box written once
The pistachio layer taken out because it is the dearest
The customer asks for the pistachio layer to come out of her box. Weigh the cashews, the almonds and the pistachios as three lines, and taking one out takes only its line off, so she sees what the box costs without it before the lid is closed. The ribbon is a line of its own, which she can decline too.
Dhanteras night's sales read on Dhanteras night, for Diwali eve's batch
Open the day's sales just before closing and see which sweets and which boxes went and which did not. Tomorrow's batch is made from tonight's figures, so the laddu tray that sat all day is not repeated and the barfi that ran out by noon is doubled.
Dhanteras messages that set the tray the day before
Before Dhanteras evening families send the choice of the half-kilo or the one-kilo box in a message. The day before, those messages tell you how many of each box to fill, so the trays are set to the choices and not to a guess. On the evening the counter only hands over.
Tools for a counter that sells by the kilo, by the box and by the piece
Bills on your phone
A festival box built at the counter: the dry fruit weighed layer by layer, the sweets counted by the piece, and the box and the ribbon as two lines more. The family reads the lines on its phone while the lid is still open.
Low stock warnings
Empty gift boxes and ribbons fall with every bill and show as low a few days before Dhanteras, the week when a shop with no boxes is selling loose sweets in paper.
Daily reports
Dhanteras day, Diwali eve and the morning after, side by side and tray by tray, so next year's kaju katli is made to that curve and not to a guess.
Your own online shop
A page listing the half-kilo, one-kilo and two-kilo boxes, shared on WhatsApp in the week before Diwali, so a family compares the sizes at home and sends back one choice. The counter fills the tray.
Why one gift box means four sweets at four kilo rates, and an order that was only a name on a pad
The festival box that mixes dry fruit and sweets, with the dry fruit by weight
A customer asks for a box with a layer of cashews, a layer of almonds and pistachios, and two sweets on top, to be carried to relatives across the tricity. The dry fruit is priced by weight and the sweets by the piece, the box has its own price, and the ribbon is extra. The owner adds all of it in his head, says a total, and she never learns which layer cost what.
Orders booked in October and collected in the last week of the festival
Offices and families book boxes weeks ahead, some by the half kilo and some by two kilos, and the shop must hold the cashew and the pistachio for them while the counter sells the same stock to walk-ins. When the collection day comes, the count the office remembers is not the count the shop remembers. The same office pays after the festival, when the owner has forgotten the first order.
The jalebi pan at dawn, the samosa lot at noon, the laddu tray at dusk
A sweet shop makes in lots: a pan of jalebi in the morning, a tray of samosas before lunch, laddus in the evening, and the bakery side bakes its own through the day. The lot that does not sell by closing becomes tomorrow's problem. The owner counts the trays by eye at night and cannot say how much of each lot he made.
What a Chandigarh sweet shop and bakery asks before it starts
The samosa lot comes out at noon and is sold by the piece. Can the lot be counted down as it sells?
Yes, by the piece. At three o'clock look at how many went since noon. If the noon lot is mostly gone before the evening crowd, fry again; if half is left, leave the pan cold and save the oil.
The day before Dhanteras is the biggest day for boxes. How do I see what sold that day last year before I make this year's lot?
Open the sales of that day. Each sweet and each box is its own item, so the report shows how many of each went, and you set this year's batch to it.
The gift box comes as a half-kilo, a one-kilo and a two-kilo box. Can the box sizes be counted apart from the sweets inside?
Yes. Each box size is an item with its own count. The one-kilo box can run out while the others are full, and you see it before the rush.
A company books many gift boxes in October and wants them in the last week. How do I keep that order apart from the counter's sales?
Open a page in the company's name with the boxes and the day. The counter's sales go on their own bills, so the walk-in count and the company's order never mix. On the day, make the bill from the page.
Record gift-box orders in the tricity, and a raid on sweet shops at Diwali 2018
Before Dhanteras and Diwali 2025, sweet shops and bakeries in Chandigarh's tricity worked round the clock to meet record orders for premium gift boxes and assorted mithai. In those weeks the work is in the boxes, the weighing and the queue, and the written part is what gets left until the festival is over.
In Diwali 2018 Chandigarh's food safety wing raided 50 sweet shops on the city's periphery, with 28 challans for unhygienic conditions and 14 for operating without a licence. A shop that keeps its licence and its day's work in order has little to hide from an inspector, and a clear record of what was made and sold each day sits beside that.