Billing for your organic store and chakki in Punjab
Old basmati and new, a family's own flour blend and the winter gur, each on its own line on your phone.
Fields and dairies behind a Punjab organic shelf
The wheat and the ghee on an organic shelf in Punjab come from fields and dairies the districts know.
- Irrigated (borewell) fields in Sangrur follow a rice-wheat farming system, according to the PAU Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
- Patiala district makes vanaspati ghee, power cables, bicycles and dairy products; large units such as HUL and Bunge are at Rajpura.
From the crop year on the sack to the blend a family asks for by name
Old and new basmati as two items, with the crop year in the name
Make old basmati and new basmati two items, each with its own rate and its own count. The helper who scoops sees the name on the screen, and the bill takes the right rate. When the old sack is empty, the count says so, and you know what to ask your farmer for.
A blend with the customer's name, made once and found again
Make each blend an item, named after the family that asked for it, with its own rate by the kilo. The next time she comes, you open her page and the blend is the last thing on it. Another helper on the machine reads the same name and grinds the same flour. A blend that a family has taken for a year is a customer you are unlikely to lose.
Each lot of fresh gur noted on the day it arrives, with its own rate
The soft first lot of gur has a rate and the later lot has a lower one. At night you can see how much of each is left, and you stop asking a price for the old block that belongs to the new one. A family that bought the soft gur last week can be told why this week's block costs less.
Tools that fit a basmati, blend and gur counter in Punjab
Godown stock
The sacks of old and new basmati stored at the back, counted beside the jars and bags on the shelf at the front.
Bills on your phone
A bill with a kilo of a family's own blend, a kilo of old basmati and a block of fresh gur, each on its own line.
Daily reports
Kilos of old basmati, new basmati and gur for each day, so the weeks when the new crop arrives can be set beside the weeks when the old runs out.
_Jaggery_Gud_Punjab_India.jpg){kind=link}
Why a Punjab organic store cannot tell old basmati from new, or a blend from the last one
A sack of last year's basmati beside this year's, and one scoop for both
Rice kept for a year or two is sold at a higher rate than the crop that came this autumn. The two sacks stand next to each other with the same scoop, and the customer cannot tell them apart. When the helper picks the wrong one, or you quote the old rate for the new rice, the loss is only found when a sack is empty.
A customer's own blend of wheat, chana and jowar
Some families want a flour of their own: seven parts wheat, two of chana and one of jowar, ground together. You write the proportions on a slip with her name and hope you find the slip next month. If a different helper is on the machine, the blend is a little different, and the customer notices at the first roti.
The soft first lot of gur at the best rate, and the hard block that costs less
In the cold months gur comes from the farmer soft and fresh, and the first lot sells at the best rate of the year. A few weeks later the same gur is a hard block that sells for less. Nobody writes the day each lot came, so a customer who asks whether the gur is fresh gets a guess, and the rate for the old lot is set by looking at the block.
A farmers' market group that kept its stall bills with its online stock
Questions a Punjab organic store owner asks
Two helpers grind the same blend. Can the rate include the milling?
Yes. Make the blend one item and put the milling in its rate by the kilo. Whoever grinds, the bill carries the same rate for the same weight, so the customer never pays more because of who stood at the mill.
How does the bill show which crop year of basmati she paid the higher rate for?
Put the crop year in the item's name, like Basmati, last year's crop, each with its own rate. The bill prints the name you wrote, so she sees which rice carries which rate.
A family changes its blend a little each season. Do I keep the old one?
Yes. Each grain in the blend is a line with its weight, so the blend is a list of grains and kilos that can be ground again exactly. When the family says go back to the old mix, you read out the grains and the weights and grind the same.
Jalandhar's Sunday organic mandi
Jalandhar's weekly organic mandi, started by the agriculture department in November 2023, runs on Sundays 12 to 2 pm at Kheti Bhawan, Ladowali Road, selling vegetables, jaggery, pulses and mustard oil. A weekday organic shop holds what a Sunday mandi cannot: a count of jaggery, pulses and mustard oil that is there on a Tuesday.
Only farmers certified by the agriculture department may sell at Jalandhar's organic mandi, and a committee of farmers decides the prices. A shop that buys from a farmer can keep a page for him, with each lot he brought and what was paid.