Billing for your beauty parlour and cosmetics shop in Silvassa, Daman and Diu
A bride's three visits, the bangles at the front counter and the henna cones before the festival.
A bride who books three visits, and a chair that is full the week before Diwali
The bride books a trial, the wedding morning and a touch-up
A family books the bride's trial two weeks before, the full make-up on the wedding morning and a touch-up for the reception. The touch-up is an extra nobody wrote down. The mother of the bride remembers everything, and your book remembers half. She pays in cash, in UPI and sometimes with a promise, and all three must sit on the same page.
Bangles by the dozen for a wedding party
A family buying for a wedding takes bangles by the dozen, bindis by the packet and henna cones for the whole party, and none of it is in the book as a separate line. The shop knows its takings at the end of the day and not which shelf they came from, and the bangles that went are the ones that run out first.
The hour after the shift lets out
A parlour near the factory lanes is quiet through the day and full in the hour after the shift lets out. Women arrive together in work clothes and want threading or a facial before the bus, the bench fills, and the girls cannot say who came first. A regular who comes after every wage day is a name you know and a page you do not have.
From the wedding trial to the touch-up on the morning after
One page for the bride from the village, the trial and the wedding morning on it
A Varli or Kokna family books the bride's trial at the parlour in Silvassa and asks for the make-up on the wedding morning at the village. Open a page in the bride's name. The trial is a bill on it with the advance written beside it. The wedding-morning visit goes on later as a bill, with the travel to the village as its own item with its own rate, and the balance is what you read out when the family pays.
Threading brings the crowd, the bridal morning brings the money
Set the threading, the facial, the trial, the bridal morning and the touch-up up as items with their own rates. The daily report shows each one's bills and each one's money for the day. A month shows that threading is many small bills, the bridal morning a few large ones and the touch-up the line nobody wrote before, and you set the chair hours by all three.
The bench in the hour after the shift lets out
When the shift lets out, the bench fills in one hour and the girls cannot say who sat first. Bill each woman as she takes the chair. The bills stay in the order they were made, so the girls read who was seated first and nobody argues over a turn.
Tools for a parlour with a bangle counter in front and a chair behind
Your own online shop
A family in a village opens the bridal make-up and henna rates on a phone and forwards them round the family group, so everyone has agreed before the bus to town.
Bills on your phone
A bridal make-up, the henna and the travel to the village as three lines on one bill, sent to the bride's father on WhatsApp.
Low stock warnings
A warning that the henna cones or the hair-colour tubes are nearly out in the wedding months.
Questions parlours and cosmetics shops in Silvassa, Daman and Diu ask
The wedding is in a village, some near and some a long ride away. Can the travel have more than one rate?
Yes. Make one travel item for the near villages and another for the far ones, each with its own rate, and put the right one on the bill beside the make-up.
At a house function, is a hand of henna a different item from the cones I sell at the counter?
Yes. A hand of henna done by you is an item with its own rate and no stock, and a cone sold at the counter is another item with its own count. The travel to the house is a line of its own.
A wedding party takes bangles by the dozen, bindis by the packet and henna cones. Can I see which shelf the day's money came from?
Yes. The dozen of bangles, the packet of bindis and the cone are three items with three units. The daily report puts each on its own line with its own money, so you see whether the day came from the bangle shelf or the henna.
A soap and shampoo factory in the territory and the festivals of Daman
Hindustan Unilever's Amli factory in Dadra and Nagar Haveli began in 1997 making personal care items such as creams and shampoos, and later added hand wash and home-care liquids. A parlour in the territory sells the same kinds of creams and shampoos that are made nearby, in bottles from the same shelf. A parlour keeps such creams on the shelf beside the chair, so the price of the bottle and the price of the service sit on the same bill.
Incredible India says Daman's festivals range from the spectacle of Nariyal Poornima to the dazzling festivities of Diwali. Each of them is a reason for new make-up, henna and a visit to the parlour, and each fills the book a week before the day. A parlour that knows the festival dates in advance can book its chairs and its girls' days off before the rush, and not in the middle of it.