Bills and udhaar for every Rajasthan shop, on one phone
Market day, wedding season or a slow summer afternoon, the bill and the udhaar are written once.
What a Rajasthan counter gets back by evening
The day counted twice, at the afternoon shutter and at night
Many Rajasthan shops close in the hottest hours and reopen in the evening. The phone shows what the shop sold by the time the shutter comes down, and again at night, so the cash in the drawer is checked twice and a mistake from the morning is not carried into the evening.
Selling to the small shops of the dhanis
A shop in the town that supplies smaller shops in the hamlets treats them as a business side of its own. They apply to buy on credit, their orders are kept apart from the counter's, and you see who has taken what and what is due.
The festival calendar, from last year's own days
Sankranti kites, Teej ghewar and the wedding months each sell hardest in their own days. The daily report keeps those days, so a year later you open them and see what went, how much and when, and you stock for the festival from your own numbers.
A bazaar that fills by morning and a hamlet that pays at harvest
Market day packs a week into one morning
In a Rajasthan town the weekly market, a wedding week or a festival can bring in more people in a morning than the shop sees in a slow week. The shutter often comes down in the afternoon heat and goes up again in the evening. Bills are written on slips in a hurry, and half the evening goes in finding out which slip is missing.
Families from the dhanis settle after the crop
Much of the trade comes from scattered hamlets, the dhanis, whose families buy through the season and pay when the crop is sold. The shop hands over cloth, grain, utensils or medicine on a promise, and months later the amount lives in the memory of two people. Asking for it plainly is hard when no page shows what was taken and on which day.
Sankranti kites and Teej sweets come in a rush
Makar Sankranti fills the rooftops with kites and the shops with string, sweets and sesame. Teej brings ghewar and new clothes. Each lasts only a few days, the goods are bought well before, and what is left after the last day sits on the shelf until next year. Nobody has a free hand at the counter to note what went and what stayed.
Six districts and what their shops hear about
Rajasthan is a state of many trades, and a shop hears about each one from the people who come in to buy.
- Alwar's famous sweet is the milk cake, Alwar ka mawa, and it is sold at Tripolia Market and in the markets near Hope Circus.
- Nagaur has a huge trade in dried red chillies, and its cattle fair is held every November.
- Udaipur is renowned for miniature paintings and marble carvings, and it has the Shilpgram craft village.
- In Sikar, the Rajasthan Foundation lists dal, edible oil, cattle feed, granite tiles and PVC pipes among the local industry opportunities.
- The HPCL refinery complex at Pachpadra in Barmer will process 9 million tonnes of crude a year, and had about 35,000 workers engaged by February 2023.
- Ajmer's mineral-based industries include feldspar grinding, asbestos cement pipes, cement, marble, granite and salt production.
Tools for a shop whose customers live far apart
Bills on your phone
Market-day bills made in a few taps, one after another, with no slip left lying under the scale.
Credit book (khata)
A page for each dhani family with every item taken dated, kept until the crop money comes.
Your own online shop
A page of your goods to post in the family and village groups before the wedding months.
Online orders
Wedding and festival lists that arrive from other cities, gathered in one place and ready to pack.
Questions a Rajasthan shop owner asks before starting
I buy for Teej and Sankranti months ahead. How do I know what is left of last year's festival stock?
The stock shows what is still on your shelf, item by item. The daily report keeps what sold on each festival day, so before you order again you read both and buy the difference.
Teej and Sankranti goods sell for only a week each. Can I count them apart from the rest?
Yes. Each festival item has its own count and its own place in the report, so the kites and the ghewar show their sales apart from the daily goods.
Tourists fill the lanes for part of the year and the town is quiet for the rest. Can I compare the two?
Yes. The daily report keeps every day, so you open a busy week and a quiet week side by side and see how much of each item went, instead of remembering it.
My customers pay in cash, by UPI or, after the harvest, in a lump. Can one bill show all three?
Yes. A sale can be paid part in cash, part by UPI, and part left on the family's page. The bill shows what was paid and what was left, so each family can see it at once.
Jaipur's lanes and Jodhpur's workshops
Johari Bazaar is Jaipur's hub for gemstone jewellery, and Tripolia Bazaar is known for lac bangles and textiles. A counter in lanes like these sells one kind of ware in many designs, so every bangle, stone and cloth is an item of its own.
Jaipur is known for block printing, blue pottery and gemstone jewellery. Sitapura Industrial Area is an export zone with wooden article makers and textile units. A shop that buys from such makers keeps its own list of what it ordered and what has come.
Jodhpur is a major hub for carved wooden furniture, wrought iron and handicrafts, with a handicraft special economic zone at Boranada. Furniture and iron are sold in few pieces at high prices, so each sale is counted, billed and followed up with care.