Billing and udhaar for every shop in Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam
Four regions that do not touch, and one phone that shows every counter's bill, udhaar and stock.
.jpg){kind=link}
Yanam's coir and Mahe's pepper: what the outer regions of Puducherry grow and make
Yanam and Mahe are two of the four regions, and each lives off its own land and its own small industries.
- In Yanam, farmers grow paddy, coconut, groundnut and pulses, and fishing and rearing animals are important side incomes.
- Coir making and handicrafts are the small and medium industries of Yanam.
- Mahe is described as one of Puducherry's growing trade and commerce centres, with small, cottage and medium industries.
- Mahe's fertile land suits paddy, coconut, black pepper, tapioca and banana, and coir making and handicrafts are important local industries.
Where a Puducherry owner loses count: four regions with no shared wall
The shop in Puducherry, the godown in Karaikal, a cousin's counter in Mahe
Puducherry is not one block of land. Its four regions lie far from each other, each with its own road, and an owner who trades in more than one is always standing somewhere other than his stock. The carton that is in one region is not in the others, and the one he needs is always in the other.
The family paid by the week from a cottage workshop
A family that works in a small cottage workshop is paid at the end of each week, a little at a time and never on quite the same day. The shop sells it rice on Monday and sees the money on a Saturday that may move. The notebook has a name and a figure and no word of when the week ends.
The boy sent from the small workshop with half a list
Small workshops send a boy for what they need, and the shop writes it down as the boy says it. At the month's end the workshop owner says the boy took less. The boy has left for the day, and the line in the notebook has an item and a figure but no name beside it.
.jpg){kind=link}
_(37484004552).jpg){kind=link}
From the Karaikal godown to the Mahe counter, in one evening look
Every region's count on one phone before you shut the shutters
Put the Puducherry shop, the Karaikal counter and the Mahe branch under one account. In the evening open the phone and read what is left at each place. Where a count looks short, the bills that sold the item are there to read.
The workshop's order under the workshop's name
Open one page in the workshop's name and make a bill for whatever the boy takes. Send it on WhatsApp to the owner's phone as the boy leaves the shop. At month end both of you read the same list, and the boy's memory is no longer the only record.
Which place got the carton yesterday
A carton sent to Mahe has not reached the shelf until you note it there. If Mahe's carton is the one still waiting, that is the one call the owner makes in the evening, and he asks the boy only what the page cannot say, such as why one shelf was bare.
What helps a shop that has a counter in one region and a godown in another
Many shops, one owner
The Puducherry shop, the Karaikal counter and the Mahe branch under one owner's login, each keeping its own bills.
Godown stock
A lot sent from the Puducherry godown to the Karaikal shop noted at both ends, so a short carton on the road between the regions shows as a gap.
Credit book (khata)
A page for each workshop that sends a boy for goods, with each errand's items dated, so the owner and the shop read one list.
Daily reports
Karaikal's day opened beside Mahe's, so the evening look at the phone shows which region's shelf is thin.
What a Puducherry shop owner with a branch in Karaikal or Mahe asks first
A lot for the Mahe counter arrives a day late by road. What does Mahe's count show meanwhile?
Nothing for that lot, so the shelf there still reads short. Until the lot reaches the shelf, do not promise Mahe customers what it holds.
The workshop sends a different boy each week. Who signs for the goods?
Nobody has to. The bill goes to the owner's WhatsApp with the day and the items, whichever boy came. The owner reads what each week's boy took, and the boy only has to carry the goods.
A Karaikal shop sells most in crop weeks, a Mahe shop in trade weeks. How do I read them fairly?
In Karaikal the crop weeks bring the families in; in Mahe the trade weeks do. Open each shop's sales in its own busy and quiet weeks, and each reads as a good season of its own.
Farm, boat and factory: who walks into a shop in the Puducherry regions
Most people in the Puducherry region farm, rear animals or fish for a living, while the educated work in industries and service jobs. A shop near the sea sells to fishing families as well, whose money comes with each catch and not on a fixed day.
Karaikal's farms grow paddy, cotton, groundnut, banana, vegetables and pulses, helped by the river that flows through the region. A shop in Karaikal sells to the families who grow them, and its busy weeks follow the crops that are being sown, cut or sold.
Polagam is the area set aside as Karaikal's industrial hub, alongside several small cottage industries. Small units like these are customers of the shops around them, and they send for goods in small lots, again and again, through the month.