SalevaUdhaar khata: how to give credit without losing the money or the customer
Credit is a service your shop sells. Here is how to record it, set sensible limits, ask for payment without friction, and know at a glance what you are owed.
In most neighbourhood shops, credit is not a policy decision. It starts with one regular customer, one afternoon, and it grows until a meaningful share of the shop's working capital is sitting in other people's kitchens.
Giving credit is not the mistake. In many markets a shop that refuses credit loses its best customers to one that does not. The mistake is giving it without records, without limits and without a routine for collection, so that a service you provide turns into a loss you absorb.
This is how to run it properly, in a way that does not make anyone feel accused.
This article is about record-keeping and shop practice, not legal or financial advice. Saleva records what was sold, what was paid and what is still outstanding. It does not calculate interest on an unpaid balance, and it has no setting that would.
Write it down at the moment it happens
The single change that matters more than everything else on this page: record the credit sale at the counter, while the customer is standing there, as a sale.
Not a note on a pad. Not a number in your head. A sale, with the products on it, attached to that person's name, marked unpaid.
This does three things at once:
- Your stock stays correct. The goods left the shop, so they must leave your records.
- The amount becomes a shared fact. The customer saw you enter it. There is nothing to dispute later.
- You can see the total. The number every shopkeeper underestimates is the sum of all outstanding credit. When you can finally see it, you will understand your cash flow better than you did the day before.
In Saleva, a credit sale is a normal sale attached to a customer with the paid amount left short; the balance shows on the customer's page and on an Udhaar screen listing everyone who owes you, oldest first.
Give each customer a limit and a term
"How much credit?" and "for how long?" are two different questions, and a shop needs an answer to both before the awkward conversation, not during it.
A limit is the most you are willing to have outstanding with one person at one time. Set it low for new customers and raise it as they prove reliable. There is nothing insulting about a limit; every business in the world has them, and a customer who reaches theirs is being told the truth rather than refused.
A term is how long a bill can stay unpaid before it is late. Two weeks, a month, "on payday" — whatever matches how your customers are paid. Without a term, no bill is ever formally overdue, so no bill is ever formally collected.
A workable starting point for a small shop:
| Customer type | Limit | Term |
|---|---|---|
| New, unknown | None until a few cash purchases | — |
| Known regular | About one week of their usual spend | 14 days |
| Long-standing, reliable | Two to four weeks of their usual spend | 30 days |
| Business or bulk buyer | Agreed in advance, in writing | Agreed in advance |
Saleva stores a credit limit and a credit-days term on each customer, and warns at checkout when a sale would take someone past their limit. The warning is for you, not the customer; what you do with it is your call.
Make asking routine, not personal
Collection goes wrong when it only happens once the shopkeeper is annoyed. By then the amount is large, the customer feels ambushed, and the relationship takes the damage.
The alternative is boring and effective: a fixed day, every week, when you go through the list and send a short, friendly reminder to everyone whose bill has passed its term. Not a selection of people. Everyone. When reminders are routine, nobody receiving one feels singled out.
A reminder that works is short, states the amount, names the shop, and does not moralise:
Hello Rashid, a reminder from Malik Book Centre: your outstanding balance is Rs 2,450. Thank you.
Send it on whatever your customers actually read, which in most markets is WhatsApp. Saleva's Udhaar screen has a reminder button per customer that opens WhatsApp with that message ready to send, falling back to SMS, and it can remind you once a week to do the round.
Two rules keep this civil:
- Never send a reminder without checking the record first. One reminder sent to someone who already paid costs you more goodwill than ten reminders gain you.
- Always record the payment the moment it arrives, even a partial one. Most complaints about shop credit trace back to a payment the shop forgot to log.
Watch the age of the debt, not just the amount
Two customers each owe you 5,000. One bought last week; the other last spring. Those are not the same situation, and a single total hides the difference.
Ageing simply means grouping what you are owed by how old it is:
- Within term — normal trading, nothing to do.
- Up to 30 days late — a reminder.
- 30 to 90 days late — a conversation, and no more credit until it is cleared.
- Beyond 90 days — decide honestly whether this will ever be paid. Chasing it for another year costs you more in attention than the money is worth.
Most of what a shop eventually writes off spent months visible in the oldest bracket before anyone acted on it. The point of ageing is to force the decision early, when a polite conversation still works.
When to say no
Saying no is a skill, and it is kinder than the alternative of letting someone build a debt they cannot clear.
Refuse credit when:
- The customer is already at their limit and has not paid anything recently.
- The amount asked for is far above their usual purchase.
- You do not know them and have no way to contact them.
- You would be upset rather than inconvenienced if the money never came back.
That last test is the useful one. Never extend credit you cannot afford to lose, because sometimes you will lose it, and a shop that has bet its stock money on one customer's promise is not in a good position to keep trading.
The words matter less than the consistency. "I have reached what I can carry this month" is true, impersonal and does not invite negotiation.
Know what credit is costing you
Money owed to you is money you cannot spend on stock. If 60,000 is out on credit and your usual weekly restocking is 40,000, your shop is effectively running one and a half weeks behind itself. You will feel that as a cash shortage without necessarily connecting it to the khata.
Two figures are worth knowing each month: the total outstanding, and how much of it is past term. If either is growing month over month while sales are flat, credit is quietly expanding and needs tightening before it becomes the shop's main problem.
Questions shopkeepers ask
What does the app do about a balance that stays unpaid?
It keeps showing it, and it tells you how long it has been there. The amount never grows on its own: Saleva does not add interest or a late charge to an outstanding balance. What actually collects money is a limit set before you give credit and a reminder round you do every week, not a penalty added afterwards.
A customer disputes the amount. What now?
Show them the sales, with dates and items. This is exactly why each credit sale should be recorded as a sale rather than a running total: a list of purchases is hard to argue with, while a single number invites suspicion.
Should I stop selling to someone who owes me?
Stop extending more credit, which is different from refusing to serve them. Cash purchases can continue. Cutting someone off entirely usually ends both the relationship and any chance of being paid.
How do I handle customers who pay in small amounts?
Accept them and record every one against the oldest bill first. Partial payment is a customer trying; it is far better than silence, and the habit of paying something is what you want to encourage.
Can staff see who owes money?
That should be your choice. In Saleva you decide what each staff member can see, and many owners let staff sell on credit to approved customers without showing them the full ledger or reports.
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.