Cashflow OS for retailers

How a retail shop runs on Tally

Most retail shops that use TallyPrime bill at the counter, keep stock item-wise and sell mostly for cash or UPI, with a smaller group of regular customers on credit. Purchases come from a handful of wholesalers or distributors, often on 15 to 45 days of credit.

The owner's routine is familiar: open the shop, watch the counter, check the cash at night, pay suppliers when bills fall due and restock what is running low. Larger shops add a second counter, a few staff and sometimes a second branch.

Where retail owners lose time and money

• Not knowing the day's position until someone runs the Day Book on the Tally PC.
• Udhaar in two places: partly in Tally, partly in a notebook. The two never agree.
• Supplier dues remembered only when the supplier calls.
• Slow-moving stock that ties up cash on the shelf. See inventory turnover and dead stock for how to spot it.

What Cashflow OS gives a retailer

Cashflow OS runs on top of TallyPrime through a small Windows connector on the shop PC. You get:

• Home screen: sales, purchases, receipts, payments, cash and bank for today, this month or the year, against the period before.
• Party ledgers and statements: the regular customer's balance, shared as a PDF or a Hindi हिसाब page on WhatsApp.
• Payables: bill-wise outstanding to suppliers with ageing, so you can plan payments.
• Reports: Day Book, cash and bank book, stock summaries, expenses and Profit & Loss, exportable to Excel and PDF.

Selling tools a shop can switch on

Add-ons are switched on per company, so a shop uses only what it needs:

• Barcodes and labels: a barcode per item or per piece, printed on a thermal printer or A4, and scanned with the phone camera.
• Item photos and display names: show customers a friendly name instead of Tally's internal code.
• Online catalogue: a link customers can browse without installing anything; enquiries come to you on WhatsApp.
• Online store: a hosted shop at shop.cashflowos.in built from your Tally items, with guest checkout. Payment goes through your own payment gateway, or cash on delivery or agreed terms. Our guide on online stores for local retailers discusses when this is worth it.

A simple evening routine

1. Open Home and compare today's sales with the same period before.
2. Check cash and bank balances against what is physically in the drawer.
3. Open receivables and send statements to two or three regular customers who are overdue.
4. Look at payables due this week so supplier cheques are ready.
5. Glance at stock summaries for fast-moving items before placing tomorrow's order.

Five minutes on the phone replaces the half hour at the Tally PC after closing.

Handling regular customers on credit

Most shops have a short list of regulars who settle weekly or monthly: offices, nearby businesses, families who have bought from you for years. The trouble starts when their balances live partly in Tally and partly in a notebook at the counter. The fix is to put every credit sale against the customer's ledger in Tally and stop the notebook.

Once that is done, each customer's balance is visible on the phone with the bills that make it up. When a customer asks what he owes, you open his ledger and share the statement on WhatsApp in his language: the PDF in Tally's format or the Hindi हिसाब page. A small worked case: a regular buys ₹3,200, ₹1,850 and ₹4,600 over a month and pays ₹5,000 in between. The statement shows ₹4,650 still due against the three bills, with dates, and there is nothing to argue about.

For the supply side, check which supplier bills fall due in the coming week before you place new orders. Paying on time is often what earns you better rates or a longer credit period next season.

Keeping the shop's books safe

Tally stays the books of record. Writing into Tally from the app is off until the owner switches it on for the company, and staff can be given limited roles. The app can be locked with fingerprint, face or PIN, and the owner can see what the team has been doing in the app.