Billing for your cloth and garment shop in Madhya Pradesh
Each size, each saree and each family's account in one place on your phone.
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Six months of waiting at the wholesaler, a print that never matches and a blouse piece away at the embroiderer
Wholesale money that comes back in six months
In January 2026 Indore's textile traders reported payment delays, with money owed to them stretching up to six months and tying up their working capital. A garment shop sits at the end of that chain. You take cloth on credit from the wholesaler, and your own customers take it on credit from you. When both sides are slow, the shop that has the most dated slips in one place is the shop that can still say who owes what.
The second bedcover that does not match the first
A hand block print is never quite the same twice, and the red of one lot is a shade off the red of the next. A family that bought a bedcover in March comes back in October for two cushion covers to go with it. You remember the print, but not which lot it came from, and the customer holds the old piece up against the new one under the shop light.
The blouse piece that is away at the embroiderer
A bridal blouse piece or a dupatta goes out for zari embroidery and stays away for weeks. The customer has paid something, the cloth is not in your shop, and the slip in the drawer says only 'gone for work'. When the family asks on the day before the wedding, you can say it is coming, but you cannot say what is still owed.
Bhopal's zardozi thread and the red and black block prints of Bagh
Two Madhya Pradesh districts are known by what they do to cloth.
- Zari Zardosi is embroidery made with lustrous metallic threads by generations of skilled artisans, and it is Bhopal's One District One Product.
- Bagh print is a hand block print in natural red and black colours, made at Bagh village. It is Dhar district's One District One Product.
Each print lot kept apart, the sent-out piece on two bills, the wholesaler's page opened
Each print lot is its own line, so the matching piece can be found
A family comes back for cushion covers to match the bedcovers it bought in March. You look at its page, see which lot the bedcovers came from, and bring out the cushion cover of that lot, not the October one. The old lot's last pieces are kept for exactly this kind of customer.
Which pieces are out at which embroiderer, and for how many weeks
The cloth is billed on the day the family orders, and the work under the same name when the piece returns. Each blouse piece or dupatta that goes out has a line on the family's page with the day it left. As the wedding comes near, you read down the pieces still out and how many weeks each has been away, and you go to the embroiderer on the day it matters.
The wholesaler's lots set beside your own customers' dated slips
Give each wholesaler a page, and each customer who buys on credit a page too. Set the wholesaler's dated lots beside your own customers' dated slips, and the delay shows on both sides: what you wait to be paid and what you owe him. The talk with the wholesaler is about days that are written, not months that are remembered.
What a Madhya Pradesh cloth shop can lean on
Bills on your phone
The cloth on the day of the order and the embroidery on the day it returns go on two bills under one name.
Orders to suppliers
The Navratri order goes to the maker in August, and what comes in September is noted against it.
Your own online shop
A page of block-printed bedcovers and stoles that a family in another town can look at before the wedding trip.
Daily reports
Today's sales read each evening, so you see on the night itself whether a heavy Navratri day paid enough to meet what the wholesaler is waiting for.
Craft stores in three cities that now share one stock list
What cloth shop owners in Madhya Pradesh ask
Two bedcovers of the same Bagh print came from different lots and the red is not the same. Can I keep them apart?
Yes. Make each lot its own item, with the lot in the name. The stock then shows how many of each lot are left, and a customer who wants a match can be shown the right lot.
A customer asks for a Maheshwari saree. How do I keep the weaver's lot apart from sarees made elsewhere?
Name the weaver's sarees with Maheshwar in the item, and the others with the town they came from. The bill carries the town, so the customer who asks for a Maheshwari saree has the answer in writing, with the bill to show it.
How do I see how much of last year's Navratri-to-Diwali stock sold, and in which weeks?
Open last year's days from Navratri to Diwali and read the kurta lots week by week. The weeks where a lot sold out show the lot to order more of, and the weeks where it barely moved show what to order less of.
Ten sarees go out on approval from two lots and four come back. How do the four go to their own lot?
Let the ten go with a slip in the party's name. Each saree is an item in its own lot, so the counts stay put until the bill is made for the six that stayed.
I buy readymade kurtas from two small makers. How do I know whose lot sold faster?
Name each lot with its maker. The report shows each maker's sales side by side, and at the next order you know whose lot to ask for more.
Maheshwar's weavers and Indore's readymade makers
On 7 October 2026 hundreds of Maheshwar weavers rallied against sarees made elsewhere being sold as Maheshwari, a craft they say is nearly 250 years old. A shop that sells Maheshwari sarees does well to keep each lot as its own item, with the maker's page and the order beside it, so it can say where a piece came from.
Indore has about 1,500 small readymade garment makers, and the Navratri-to-Diwali stretch is their busiest time, around 60 percent of total sales. A shop that buys from them has to place its orders before that stretch begins, because what is not on the shelf in those weeks cannot be sold.