SalevaAdvance orders and deposits: taking them without losing track
A simple system for a small shop that takes orders in advance with a deposit: when to ask for one and how much, a two-copy order slip, keeping deposits out of the day's sales, a daily look at the order book, and fixed rules for changes, cancellations and orders nobody collects.
A woman comes to the counter two days before a wedding in her family. "I gave you Rs 3,000 last week for the gift packs. Twenty of them. Are they ready?" You remember her. You remember the gift packs, roughly. You do not remember whether it was twenty or twenty-five, which wrapping she chose, or whether the Rs 3,000 went into the drawer with that evening's sales. Your assistant thinks she paid Rs 2,000.
Nobody in that conversation is lying. The order simply lived in two memories and a bit of the drawer, and none of them kept it well.
Advance orders are good business. The customer has decided to buy before you have spent anything, and a deposit shows they mean it. Bakeries, sweet shops, tailors, stationers before the school term, gift and decoration shops, and general stores taking bulk orders for an event all run on them. But each advance order is a promise in both directions, and a promise kept from memory goes wrong in small ways. This article is a system for keeping both sides of it straight: the goods, the date and the money.
Decide which orders need a deposit
Not every order deserves a deposit. A deposit is for orders where you take a risk on the customer's behalf.
Ask for one when the order is:
- Made or bought specially. A cake with a name on it, a suit stitched to measure, a printed banner, a product you do not normally stock. If the customer does not come back, you are left with something nobody else wants.
- Large. A quantity well above what you normally sell, such as forty packs of rice for a function. Even if the goods are ordinary, buying that much ties up your cash.
- Far ahead. An order for a date weeks away, when plans can change.
- From someone you do not know. A new customer with a large special order is the classic case of an order that is never collected.
Write your own rule down so it does not change with your mood. For example: "Deposit on anything made to order, and on any order above Rs 5,000." That is an example. Set the amount from what you would lose if the order were left with you.
Work out how much to ask for
The deposit should cover what you would lose if the customer disappeared. That is usually the cost of the goods you must buy or make specially, not the full selling price.
A simple way to set it:
| Kind of order | What you risk | Example deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary stock, ordered in bulk | Little, you can sell it to others | 10 to 20 percent, or none for regulars |
| A product you buy in specially | The cost of buying it | About half |
| Made to measure or personalised | Materials and your work | Half or more |
| A very large or far-ahead order | Cash tied up for weeks | Half, or the cost of materials, whichever is more |
These are examples, not rules. If a cake order sells for Rs 4,000 and its ingredients and box cost you Rs 1,800, a deposit of Rs 2,000 covers you. If a tailoring order sells for Rs 6,000 and the cloth is the customer's own, the risk is your time, and a smaller deposit may be fair.
Round the deposit to an easy number: Rs 2,000, not Rs 1,850.
Write one slip, keep two copies
Every advance order gets a written slip, at the moment it is taken, with a copy for each side. A receipt book with carbon copies works well. So does a photo of the slip sent to the customer on WhatsApp.
The slip should show:
- An order number that never repeats, written on both copies.
- The customer's name and phone number. The phone number is what lets you call when it is ready, or when they do not come.
- Exactly what was ordered: item, quantity, size, colour, flavour, wording, anything that was agreed. "Gift packs" is not enough. "20 gift packs, red wrap, Rs 300 each" is.
- The total price agreed today.
- The deposit paid, how it was paid, and the balance still due.
- The ready date and the collection date. They are not always the same.
- Your rules in one line: what happens on a change, on a cancellation and if the order is not collected. More on these below.
- Who took the order, in initials.
Read the slip back to the customer before they leave, line by line. It takes a minute and settles most later arguments, because the customer heard the order and agreed to it in front of you.
The quotation maker is useful for a larger order where the customer wants a written price before deciding. When they agree, the order slip carries the same items and the same total. What a good bill should show is covered in the receipts article; an order slip follows the same idea, with the deposit and the balance added.
Keep deposits out of the day's sales
This is the part that quietly spoils the cash count. A deposit is not a sale yet. The goods have not left the shop, and the customer can still change or cancel the order. If the Rs 3,000 goes into the drawer and is counted as today's takings, three things go wrong:
- Today looks better than it was.
- The day the order is collected looks worse, because only the balance comes in.
- If the order is cancelled and the deposit given back, the refund comes out of a drawer that never had a sale to match it.
The fix is to keep deposits as their own pile, in money and on paper.
- One envelope or one small box for advance money, kept apart from the drawer. Each deposit goes in with its order number written on a slip of paper or on the envelope list.
- One page in the order book listing every deposit held: order number, name, amount. The total of that page should always equal the money in the envelope.
- At closing time, count the drawer and the envelope separately. The drawer matches the day's sales as usual. The envelope matches the deposit list.
If you would rather bank deposits than keep them in an envelope, the same rule applies: the deposit list is a separate list, and the money is not part of the day's takings. The routine in closing the day works unchanged once deposits are kept out of it.
A deposit belongs to the order until the order is collected. Until then, it is held for the customer, not earned by the shop.
Look at the order book every morning
An order book that is only opened when a customer walks in is a list of surprises. Five minutes each morning turns it into a plan.
Keep open orders on one page or one list, sorted by collection date, and each morning check three things:
- What is due today and tomorrow. Is it ready? Is everything for it in stock?
- What needs buying or making this week. Special orders need lead time. If the supplier comes on Thursday and an order is due on Friday, it must go on Wednesday's purchase list.
- What is late. Any order past its collection date gets a phone call today.
When an order is ready, tell the customer. A short message on WhatsApp is enough: the order number, "ready for collection", and the balance due. Customers who know the exact balance before they arrive bring the right money.
Store ready orders together, each labelled with the order number and the customer's name.
When the customer collects
Collection is where the deposit finally becomes part of a sale. Do it the same way every time.
- Find the slip by order number, or by name and phone.
- Check the goods against the slip with the customer before they pay. This is the moment to catch a wrong colour or a missing pack, not after they get home.
- Ring up the full sale at the agreed total, exactly as you would any sale.
- Take the deposit out of the envelope and add it to the payment. The customer pays only the balance. The drawer now holds the full sale amount, and the envelope list loses one line.
- Mark the order collected on the order page, with the date.
If the customer cannot pay the balance and you agree to let them owe it, that remaining amount is ordinary udhaar, and it is recorded on their account the same way as any credit sale. The udhaar khata article covers limits and reminders. Decide before handing over the goods, not at the door with the parcel already in their hands.
Changes, cancellations and orders nobody collects
These are the three situations that cause arguments, and each needs a rule you decide once and print on the slip.
Changes. Before you have started work or bought anything, a change is free: write it on both copies of the slip, with the new total and the new balance. After you have started, the customer pays for whatever cannot be used. Never accept a change by phone without writing it down and telling the customer the new total.
Cancellations. Be clear what happens to the deposit. A common fair rule is: cancelled before you have bought or made anything, the deposit comes back in full. Cancelled after, you keep the part that covers what you spent, and return the rest. Whatever you choose, tell the customer when they pay, not when they cancel.
Orders nobody collects. Set a time limit, for example thirty days after the collection date. Before that date, call twice. After it, the goods are yours to sell, and the slip says so. What happens to the deposit is your rule to set and to write down; many shops keep the part that covers the goods and the work, and return or offer a credit for the rest if the customer comes back. Check what applies where you trade.
Whatever happens, record it. A cancelled order is crossed off with the date and the amount returned. An uncollected order is marked with what you did with the goods and the deposit. The envelope list must always match the open orders and nothing else.
Questions shopkeepers ask
Should I take a deposit from my regular customers too?
For special or large orders, yes, at least a small one. It is not about trust. A deposit makes the order real for both sides, and regulars understand that. For an ordinary order of goods you already stock, many shops skip the deposit for people they know, and that is a reasonable choice.
Can I use the deposit money to buy the materials for the order?
Many shops do, and it is often the reason for asking. If you do, write it on the deposit page, for example "Rs 1,800 used for ingredients, order 214". Then the envelope and the list still agree, and you know exactly how much you would have to return if the order were cancelled.
What if the price of the goods goes up before collection?
The price on the slip is the price you agreed. For orders far ahead, say on the slip how long the price holds, for example "price fixed for 15 days". If you must change it after that, tell the customer before you buy or make anything, so they can decide.
How do I take advance orders on WhatsApp?
The same way, with the slip as a message. Write out the order, the total, the deposit and the dates, send it, and ask the customer to reply "OK". Check that any deposit sent by transfer has reached your own account before you start work. The WhatsApp orders article covers keeping messages from turning into chaos.
My assistant takes orders when I am away. How do I keep control?
Give them the slip book and the rules, not discretion. Every order goes on a slip, every deposit goes in the envelope and on the list, and any order above an amount you set waits for your approval. Check the order page and the envelope together each evening.
Saleva keeps each customer's purchases, payments and balance on their own page, so the phone number on the order slip is already the customer's account. When an order is collected, you ring it up as a sale to that customer and enter what they pay. If any of the balance is left unpaid, it becomes their udhaar, with a Remind button that opens a polite WhatsApp message.
Try this in Saleva
Saleva is a free Android point-of-sale app for small shops: selling, stock, customer dues, staff and an online shop page. Selling works with no internet at all.