Billing for your restaurant or food stall in Madhya Pradesh
Plates, pieces and bowls on one bill, and the late-night count already done.
Indore's traders and Jabalpur's railway and factory families at the table
Two Madhya Pradesh districts bring their own kind of customer to a restaurant table.
- Indore is called a commercial capital, and soyabean is a kharif crop grown in most of the district.
- Jabalpur is home to the Gun Carriage Factory and the headquarters of West Central Railway; Bhedaghat nearby is known for its marble rocks.
A batch made at five that has to last till two in the morning
The stall that sets up when the jewellers shut
Indore's Sarafa Chaat-Chowpatty has about 225 food shops that set up after 8 pm, once the jewellery shops close, and stay open till 2 am. A stall in a lane like this has no lunch rush to learn from. The whole day's selling is pressed into the night, and the kees, the fillings and the batter must all be ready before the first customer walks up the lane.
One order, three units
A customer orders kees by the plate, two kachoris on the side and a bowl of rabri to finish. That is a plate, a piece and a bowl in one order, with three rates and three sets of hands working at once. At the end of the night the total on the slate and the total in the cash box differ, and the stall owner is the only one still awake to find out why.
The two o'clock count, done by the one who is most tired
At closing the cash box holds notes, coins and a heap of UPI scans on a phone. The owner counts them while the cook washes the pots. If the day's plates were never added up, tomorrow's batch is decided by how the night felt, and not by how many plates actually went.
Last Friday's plates at five o'clock, and kees, kachori and rabri on one bill
Last Friday's plates in front of you when you start the batch
Open the daily report at five o'clock and look at the same night of last week: how many plates of kees, how many kachoris, how many bowls of rabri. You make today's batch to that number, with a little more if it is a holiday. By one in the morning there is less left in the pot, and less is thrown away.
Malpua with rabri, sold as a pair, is one item
If a plate of malpua always goes with a bowl of rabri, make the pair an item with its own rate, and the cook calls it out as one. The bill reads like the order, and the stock of malpua and of rabri each goes down by the right amount. Nobody adds two rates at midnight.
The eight o'clock to two o'clock night, and the hour each dish ran out
The Chowpatty opens at eight, once the jewellers close, and the last bowl is served at two. Each bill carries its time, so on Saturday you read the hour each dish finished. Kees gone at midnight and kees that lasts to two need different batches.
Tools for a late-night food counter in Madhya Pradesh
Bills on your phone
A plate of kees, two kachoris and a bowl of rabri on a single bill, made as the cook calls it out.
The whole shop in one place
The corn for the kees, the potatoes, the oil and the supplier's order on one phone, written after the last bowl at two.
Daily reports
Plates, pieces and bowls of every dish for each night, kept so a Friday can be read against the Friday before.
Orders to suppliers
Potatoes, corn and oil for the kees and the kachori are ordered from the phone the moment the cart is shut at two in the morning, so the supplier has the list before the market opens.
What restaurant and stall owners in Madhya Pradesh ask
The corn for the bhutte ka kees is bought fresh each evening. How do I count the cobs against the bowls?
Enter the cobs when you buy them, and each bowl sold takes its cobs off the count. At two in the morning the cobs left are the cobs wasted, or the cobs you can use for tomorrow's first bowls.
A customer orders a plate of kees and two kachoris on the side. Can both go on one bill?
Yes. Kees is an item sold by the plate and kachori an item sold by the piece. One bill carries both, with the total worked out.
On days when meat dishes cannot be sold, my cooks make more kachori. How do I know how many?
Open the day before in the daily report and read how many kachoris went out. Make the next batch to that number.
I sell bhutte ka kees and kachori, which the lane calls its own, and some Chinese-style dishes. Can the report show the two kinds apart?
Yes. Each dish is its own item, so the report lists the lane's own dishes and the others on separate lines. You read the two side by side at the end of the night.
What the Sarafa lane says is its own, and the days the meat stalls shut
Indore's Sarafa Association says bhutte ka kees, peas and green gram kachori, garadu, malpua and rabri are the Chowpatty's identity, and wants Chinese-origin dishes removed. A stall that serves these keeps each as its own item with its own rate, so the list on the phone matches the list on the board.
In 2025 Indore's mayor banned meat sale on Ganesh Chaturthi, Dol Gyaras, Anant Chaturdashi and during the Jain Paryushan festival. A restaurant that serves meat sees those days in its report as days with no meat dishes at all, and can see how much the vegetable dishes sold instead.