Billing for your toy shop in Uttar Pradesh
Balloons by the dozen and a pedal car on the same bill, with the date on it.
Last year's festival days, read before this year's order
The tricycles that stayed for months and the pichkaris left after Holi are counted
After the festival, open the counts of what is still in the shop: the tricycles and scooters that have sat for months and the pichkaris left after Holi. Those are the numbers to carry into the next order, small for the toys that stayed and larger for the ones that went in a day.
The school's accountant gets a GST bill he can file
The school's order goes on a GST bill, with the tax worked out on each toy, so the school's accountant has what he needs. The same bill is the school's record of the prize lot, and it is shared on WhatsApp with the school's office.
What is still on the way from each hand before Holi
Before Holi the colour sets come from one hand, the wooden toys from a maker and the tricycles from a family. Keep what you ordered from each of them, and what has reached the shop, in one list on the phone. In the week before Holi you know which lot is still on the way, and you do not order twice for the same gap on the shelf.
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A pedal car bought for Diwali is still in the shop at Holi
Festival toys that sit through the wrong season
A toy shop in Uttar Pradesh lives by three dates. Pichkaris and colour sets go before Holi, dolls and small figures before Janmashtami, and crackers, games and gift boxes before Diwali. You buy for the season weeks ahead and pay the wholesaler before a single child has walked in. If you order too many tricycles or scooters, they stand in the shop for months, and the money stays tied up in them. If you order too few, the buyers go to the next shop.
A pedal cycle for the youngest, and the caps nobody wrote down
A child holds up a whistle, a balloon, a small car and a bat, and her father adds a pedal cycle for the youngest. Everything is said aloud and added in the head, and the rush does not wait. Sometimes a small item goes out unnoticed. At night the count of balloons and caps is not what you sold, because nobody wrote them down, and you do not know what to order.
The school's prize lot and a bill nobody will accept
Before the annual day a school sends for a big lot of prize toys. A wedding hall wants return gifts for the guests, and a company wants gifts for its staff. All of them ask for a proper bill, and some ask for GST on it. A chit in your own handwriting does not satisfy the school's accountant, and you lose the order to the bigger shop in town that has printed bills.
From Ghaziabad's factories to Azamgarh's potters: where UP's toy shops trade
Toys sell in every district, and the people of each one earn their living in their own way. Some of them:
- Ghaziabad is an important place for industry in Uttar Pradesh. In 2017-18 it had 1,987 registered industrial units employing 89,780 people.
- Nizamabad town in Azamgarh is famed for its black pottery with engraved silver motifs, a One District One Product craft with a GI tag.
- Sitapur is known for its traditional wool carpets, called dari, woven on traditional looms. It is the district's One District One Product.
- Moradabad is called Brass City, Peetal Nagri. It is famous for a huge export of brass handicrafts to North America and Europe.
Small things on one bill: what a toy counter in UP needs
Bills on your phone
A dozen balloons, a whistle, a toy car and a scooter on one bill, each at its own rate, sent to the parent on WhatsApp.
Daily reports
The sales of every Holi, Janmashtami and Diwali day kept on their own lines, so next year's order starts from them.
Orders to suppliers
Your orders to the town wholesaler and to the toy makers, with what has come and what has not.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the family that buys the festival toys now and pays after the harvest or the Diwali bonus.
GST bills
A GST bill for the school's prize lot or the wedding hall's return gifts, with every item and its rate.
What toy shop owners in UP ask about pichkaris, handmade toys and gift lots
Pichkaris and colour sets sell only in the weeks before Holi. Can I see each day's count?
Yes. Each pichkari and colour set is its own item, and the daily report keeps every day separately. After Holi you can see which day was the busiest and how many were left unsold.
A remote-control car is sold with its cells, and a customer asks for spare cells. Can the cells be a separate item?
Yes. Make the cells an item with their own rate and count, and add them to the car's bill as a second line. The car and the cells come off their own counts, and the evening report shows how many cells went that day.
A wedding hall wants return gifts in bulk. Can I make one bill for the whole lot?
Yes. Put all the gifts on one GST bill with their rates and send it on WhatsApp. If the hall pays later, keep the bill on a page of its own until it does.
Where UP's toys are made, from Varanasi to Noida
Seasonal toys such as tricycles, scooters, pedal cars and religious figurines are made in Meerut, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Mathura, with artisan incomes tied to Janmashtami, Diwali and Holi. The same three festivals set the busy weeks of the shop that sells them, and the weeks when stock sits.
Noida's Toy Park, on 100 acres in Sector 33, drew land buying for toy factories with Rs 410.13 crore of planned investment and 6,157 permanent jobs. A toy shop in Uttar Pradesh may one day buy from makers much nearer home, and a list of orders per maker will matter more.