Billing for your beauty parlour and cosmetics shop in Goa
A facial, a jar of face cream and a regular's discount on the same bill, and a bride's date in writing.
From a drawer shared with the kitchen to a bill made in a courtyard
A parlour's takings counted from its own bills, with the house's money left out
Make every bill, at the chair or at the rack, on the phone. At night open today's sales and read what the parlour earned. Whatever is taken from the drawer for the house has no bill, so it does not enter the parlour's figure, and the month's takings are the sum of the days.
Jhumkas by the pair and bangles by the dozen counted like goods
Make a pair of jhumkas an item sold by the pair, bangles an item sold by the dozen and each necklace design an item by the piece. Every sale takes from its own count, and the rack is known by the numbers on the phone, not by looking at the hooks. When a necklace design sells out, the next order to the supplier names the design and not only the rack.
The creams used at the house, taken off the bag's count
At each house the creams and colours used come off the bag's count, so by evening you know what to fill before the next one. Nobody has to remember at the gate what was done for whom. The bag that goes home is already counted, and the next function starts from the count and not from a shopping trip.
Why a Goa home parlour cannot say what it earned, which jhumkas left the rack or what the bag used at a house function
A parlour in the front room, and a drawer that is also the kitchen money
Many parlours are run from the front room of a family house, with the kitchen behind. The cash for a threading and a facial goes into the same drawer as the money for the vegetables and the school fees. At the end of the month the owner cannot say what the parlour earned, because the drawer has been emptied for the household a dozen times. When her sister asks what the parlour paid for the cream she uses, the owner has to guess, and the drawer cannot help.
A rack of jhumkas and bangles by the door, sold by the pair and the dozen
By the door of the parlour hangs a rack of oxidised jhumkas, necklaces and bangles. A pair of jhumkas has one price, a necklace another, bangles go by the dozen. Women pick them up while waiting for their turn in the chair, pay in coins and leave. No one counts the rack, and a pair that is missing is noticed only when a customer asks for it. The jhumkas that hang nearest the door are the ones that go first, and the rack is rearranged without a note of what left.
A function in the courtyard, and the head of the family who pays at the end
A family asks the parlour's owner to come to the house for a function. She does the hair and the faces of five women in a back room while the family goes on with the function around her. The head of the family pays at the end, in the courtyard, with the family standing about, and the owner packs up her things in the same minute that she is paid.
Tools for a parlour that sells chair time and a shelf of creams
Bills on your phone
A threading, a pair of jhumkas from the rack by the door and a dozen bangles on one bill for the woman in the chair: three lines at three rates, ready before she has tried the bangles on.
UPI payments
The QR code shown at the jhumka rack when a pair sells, and the design that sold comes off the count the same minute.
Daily reports
Today's sales that are the parlour's alone, read at night apart from whatever was taken from the drawer for the house.
What a Goa parlour owner asks before starting
My sister's cream stands on the parlour shelf. How do I keep it out of the count?
Count only the creams you bought for the parlour as items. Her tubs are not items, so they never show on a bill or in the count.
The pair of jhumkas nearest the door sells and its hook is empty. Which pair do I hang next?
Each design of jhumkas is an item with a count. A sale takes one pair off that design, and the phone shows which designs still have pairs, so you hang the next from the list and not from memory.
After a house function my bag of creams and colours is half empty. How do I count it back before the next one?
Keep the bag as a stock of its own, apart from the shelf in the front room, with a count for each cream and colour. The bills made at the house have already taken what was used, so the bag's count is what should be left in it. Fill it from the shelf, and the shelf shows what to order.
Salons that were few in the 1990s and a festival of adornments
A Diwali shopping festival at the Don Bosco Oratory in Panjim sells ethnic wear and adornments such as oxidized bangles, necklaces and jhumkas. A shop that takes a stall at such a festival can keep it as a second place in the same account.
Gomantak Times reports that salons were few and far between in Goa in the late 1990s, when Neomi's Salon opened in Miramar on 8 June 1997. Now a parlour keeps its customers' pages on a phone, and a regular's visits are read from her page.