Billing for your beauty parlour or cosmetic shop in Maharashtra
A facial, a lipstick and a bindi on one bill, and the regular lady's monthly page.
Tools for the chair, the counter and the shelf of shades
Bills on your phone
Threading, a facial and a face cream as three lines, so the parlour drawer and the book finish the day with the same total.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the lady who comes for her eyebrows and hair each month, with the work done named under each visit's date.
Offers for regular customers
An offer waiting for a bridal party that has booked with you before, when the next family wedding comes round.
Low stock warnings
A warning on the shade every bride asks for first, before the wedding fortnight begins.
Orders to suppliers
An order to the distributor you trust, with the shades and counts written so the same distributor is named on every order.
The bridal week, the monthly regular and the shade that sells out
The distributor's order before Makar Sankranti, written with the shelf in front of you
A month before the haldi-kumkum gatherings, stand at the shelf with the phone and write the order for bindi packets, bangle boxes and kajal. What is left on the shelf sits beside what you ask for, so you do not order what you already have, and the distributor's boy does not stand waiting for you to count.
"The same as last time" and you know what that was
The lady who says she wants the same as before is not asking you to remember. Her page shows what she had last visit, the day she had it and what she paid, so you start the work at once and she sees you know her.
The shade that sold out, noticed before the customer asks
Keep each shade of lipstick and each colour of nail polish as its own item with a level. When a shade falls to its level, you see it on your phone and order it with the name of the distributor you bought it from before.
Why a Maharashtra beauty parlour is booked for the wedding fortnight and short of one lipstick shade
Kumkum by the pinch, a bindi pack and a bangle set before the Sankranti gathering
Before Makar Sankranti women come for kumkum by the pinch, a pack of bindis and a bangle set for the haldi-kumkum gathering, and some stay for threading. The services are priced by the job and the goods by the piece, and you write all of it on one line in a hurry. In the evening the cash drawer and the book give two different totals.
The wedding fortnight, the Sankranti kumkum and then nothing
The wedding season fills the chairs from morning till late night, with bridal makeup, mehendi and bangles to match. At Makar Sankranti the shop sells kumkum and haldi for the gatherings of women. After the rush there are weeks when the chair is empty. You cannot plan what to stock for the next rush, because you cannot see what sold in the last one.
A shelf of shades and the doubt over what is genuine
A cosmetic shop carries many shades of lipstick, kajal and nail colour, each with a batch and a date. Customers come asking for one shade, and by the time you look it is gone. Others ask if the cream is the real one. You buy from a distributor you know, but without a record of what came from whom, you have only your word.
Where Maharashtra's chemicals, wages and customers are
A Maharashtra beauty shop draws its customers and its stock from places like these:
- Thane is third in Maharashtra for industry, and it makes chemicals, medicines, plastic and iron goods and powerloom fabrics.
- Pune district makes trucks, scooters, motorcycles and rickshaws and has 7 sugar factories, so it has many working households.
- Nashik is a major hub for onion and pomegranate farming, as well as grapes and wine.
Questions Maharashtra beauty parlour and cosmetic shop owners ask
Can a customer order bangles from my online shop and collect them before Makar Sankranti?
Yes. An order from your own online shop reaches your phone. You see it, set the bangles aside, and bill them when she comes to collect.
Two mehendi artists work the wedding week and the family asks which did which hands. Can the bill say so?
Yes. Name each design in the item with the artist's name, so the bill lists hands by artist. The day's report shows how many of each artist's designs were done.
Two distributors sent the same shade and a customer doubts one lot. Can I tell which is which?
Yes. Make the two lots two items, one for each distributor, each with its own rate and count. The bill names the item, so the lot she bought is on her bill, and the lot on the shelf is the one the phone shows.
An officer walks in to look at my creams. What should I have ready?
Open the shelf count first, since an officer looks at what is on the shelf. Then the distributors' dated orders, then the bills of the lots sold.
The wedding fortnight is over and some lipstick shades did not sell. Which do I stop ordering?
The shelf count shows each shade on its own line. The shades still full after the fortnight are the ones to leave off the next order.
The 2026 drive against fake cosmetics
In June 2026 Maharashtra's FDA seized fake, adulterated and misleading beauty products worth Rs 34.61 lakh across the state, including Rs 29.45 lakh of cosmetics in Karad, Satara. A shop owner who can show where each lot came from is in a better position when the officers visit.
On 24 June 2026 FDA officials seized suspected counterfeit Cetaphil cleanser from a retailer in Pune's Shivajinagar, part of a statewide drive against fake cosmetics and medicines. Customers who read about it now ask at the counter whether the cream is genuine.