From a hand bahi to software: what changes, and what doesn't
Many shops in Johari Bazaar have kept the same kind of bahi for thirty or fifty years, and it works. The reason to move isn't that the bahi is wrong. It's that a book on a computer adds itself up, finds any party in a second, can't be lost in a fire, and lets a son or daughter at another counter see the same page. Here is what the move looks like, step by step.
1. You don't copy the old books
Nobody types in years of entries. Each party starts with one line: what they owe you, or you owe them, in rupees and in fine gold and silver, as on the day you start. The old bahi stays on the shelf for anything older.
2. Run both for a few weeks
Keep writing the bahi as well for the first few weeks. At the end of each day, check that the two agree. When they have agreed for a fortnight, the people who trusted the bahi will trust the new book, because they've seen it.
3. Set the rates every morning
Bills price from the day's rate board, the same way you price from the rate you write at the top of the page. Each bill keeps the rate it was made at, so changing tomorrow's rate never changes yesterday's bill.
4. What changes at the counter
- Fine weight, making, GST and the total work themselves out as you type the weight, purity and wastage.
- Every party's balance, in metal and money, is up to date the moment the bill is saved.
- Bills print on an A5 slip or A4, with your name and your UPI QR, or go to the customer on their phone.
5. What doesn't change
Your terms, your rates, your customers and the way you deal with them. A good billing book should look like the page you already write on: party, weight, purity, rate. If a screen makes you think, it is the screen that is wrong.
6. Showing the elders
Sit them in front of a practice shop where nothing they press can do harm (ours is open at try.gulabibahi.com). Let them write one bill they wrote yesterday and see the same total. That does more than any explanation.