Billing for your stationery and book shop in Uttar Pradesh
The school's book list, the copies by the dozen and the school's account, written once.
The school book list that arrives with a whole class behind it
The book list that comes with a whole class behind it
When the session opens, children arrive with a list from school. It has the textbooks of that class, a set of copies, a geometry box, covers and labels. The next child in the queue has the same list, but his school asks for one different book, and the child after him a different one again. The queue is long and every list is nearly alike, so the one book that differs is easy to miss.
A school and a coaching class that pay when the fees come in
A school takes prize books, registers and chalk. A coaching class takes copies and pens for its students every few weeks. Both settle when their own fees come in, which may be after a month or two. Their entries are in the notebook beside the daily sales, and you cannot tell what is due from what is only a day old.
Second-hand books that have no tag and no list
Students sell back last year's books and buy next year's. The same title comes in three conditions, and no two copies are quite alike. A used book has no price on it, and the edition changes every few years, so a buyer who asks for the Class 9 maths book may mean any one of them.
From a class's list to the evening count of copies and pens
The one book not on the shelf is a second bill tomorrow, under the same name
When one book on a class list is not on the shelf, bill the books that are there and let the family go. The missing book comes in tomorrow. Make its bill when the family returns, under the same name, and the two bills sit together on the family's page.
Prize books for the annual day, counted by title before the order goes
Before the annual day a school wants prize books: one title for the best reader, another for sport. Each title is an item with its own count. You see which you hold, and the ones you lack go to the supplier in one order.
Covers and labels set out by class before the session opens
Before the session opens, last year's class lists say which classes buy covers and labels and how many. Set them out by class on the counter, and the count of each tells you whether the drawer will last the first week. A class whose covers are short is known before its parents come.
Where UP's schoolchildren's parents work: flour mills, saddlery and brass
Children go to school in every district, and a few are known for the work their parents do:
- Jaunpur's economy depends mainly on agriculture because it has no heavy industry. About 85 industrial units, such as a flour mill, run at Satahariya.
- Kanpur has a long saddlery trade from colonial times. Today it is the only independent centre making leather saddlery for global markets.
- Moradabad is called Brass City, Peetal Nagri. It is famous for a huge export of brass handicrafts to North America and Europe.
- Nizamabad town in Azamgarh is famed for its black pottery with engraved silver motifs, a One District One Product craft with a GI tag.
Copies, pens and textbooks: what a UP stationery counter asks of a phone
Bills on your phone
Class six's textbooks, a geometry box and brown paper covers on one bill, so the parent can tick his list against it.
Credit book (khata)
A page for each school and coaching class, with the registers and prize books that went and the day each one went.
Daily reports
Copies, pens and textbooks counted by the day, so the new-session weeks and the exam weeks can be read apart.
Orders to suppliers
The June order for textbooks and copies, made from last June's sales and kept with its day.
Offers for regular customers
An offer for the students of the coaching class who buy their copies and pens at your shop all year.
Your own online shop
A page with your class-wise book lists, so a parent in the next village can see what the shop has before he comes.
What UP stationery and book shop owners ask about school lists, second-hand books and school accounts
Each school gives a different book list. Do I need to enter every book again each year?
Enter each book once as an item. A list is only a set of those items, so for a new year you add the new editions and bill the rest from what is already there.
A student sells me last year's book. What do I write down about it?
Put the edition in the used copy's name, such as 'Class 9 maths, older edition, used'. The older edition is then never sold as the new one, and a buyer who asks for it is answered at once.
A coaching class buys copies and pens for its students and pays later. Where do I keep that?
Give the class a page. Each lot of copies and pens goes on it with the day, and when the class pays the amount is written against the same page.
Which weeks sell the most copies, the exam weeks or the new-session weeks?
The daily report keeps each day, so you can open both sets of weeks and look. You then order to what sold, not to what you remember.
A publisher brings out a new edition at a new rate. How do I keep the old copies at the old rate?
Make the new edition a new item with its own rate. The old edition stays as it was, with its own stock. Bills made earlier keep the rate they were made at.
Paper made in Saharanpur, books sold in Aminabad
Handmade paper and eco-friendly stationery are made in clusters across Saharanpur, Meerut and Lucknow, employing about 5,000 to 6,000 workers, many of them women.
Second-hand books also sell in Lucknow's Aminabad Market, among household goods and clothing, and a student looking for last year's textbook can find it there. A bookshop that buys back used books meets that lane with the edition and the condition it has written down.