Cashflow OS for stockists and C&F agents

Two related but different businesses

A stockist (often called a super stockist or a distributor-stockist in pharma and FMCG) buys stock from the company, owns it, and sells to distributors or retailers in a territory, usually on credit. A C&F agent usually does not own the goods: the company sends stock to the C&F godown, the agent stores it and dispatches against the company's invoices or instructions, and earns a commission or fee.

The paperwork differs. A stockist books purchases and sales and carries receivables. A C&F agent mostly tracks stock received, stock dispatched, stock transfers and claims, often in a separate set of books or a separate company in Tally. Both live and die by stock accuracy. If your work involves inter-state stock movement, our note on GST on stock transfers is worth a read.

Daily pressure points

• "Is it in stock?" asked twenty times a day by salesmen, distributors and the company's area manager.
• Dispatch documents: delivery notes and challans prepared in a hurry and entered in Tally later.
• Reconciliation: the company's statement and your Tally ledger do not match, and someone has to find the bill that is missing on one side.
• Godowns: stock split across locations; see godowns and multi-location stock in Tally.
• Claims and schemes: credit notes from the company that arrive late or not at all.

What Cashflow OS gives a stockist or C&F agent

• Stock on the phone: stock and item summaries synced from Tally, so the answer to "is it in stock?" does not need the PC.
• Delivery notes and receipt notes into Tally: once writing is switched on, the godown can post delivery notes, receipt notes and stock journals from the app through the connector. Tally validates each entry.
• Delivery challans with your branding: logo, letterhead and signature, shared as a PDF on WhatsApp or by email.
• Ledgers and statements: the company's ledger and each distributor's ledger with live balances; statements as a PDF in Tally's format.
• Several companies: if the stockist business and the C&F business are separate Tally companies, both sit in one account and you switch between them.

Reconciling with the company

Most disputes with the principal company come down to a few bills or credit notes. A disciplined monthly routine:

1. Get the company's statement for the month.
2. Open the company's ledger in Cashflow OS for the same dates and export it to Excel.
3. Tick matching entries. Anything on the company's side and missing in yours is usually a credit note or a scheme claim not yet booked; anything on your side and missing in theirs is usually a dispatch they have not recorded.
4. Book the missing items in Tally (from the app, if writing is on) and send the difference list back.

A worked case: the company shows ₹18,42,500 payable by you; your ledger shows ₹18,06,200. The ₹36,300 difference turns out to be two scheme credit notes of ₹21,800 and ₹14,500 that the company has issued and you have not booked. Ten minutes with two exported statements finds it; a week of phone calls often does not.

Roles for the godown team

Roles are per company: owner, admin, accountant, staff and salesperson. Pick a role for the godown in-charge that fits the work he does, give the accountant the accountant role, and remember that salespeople see items and their own customers but not the accounts. Writing into Tally is off until the owner switches it on, and the owner can see the team's activity in the app. The phone app can be locked with fingerprint, face or PIN.

What it will not do

Cashflow OS works on top of TallyPrime and needs the connector running for live data and for posting entries. It does not connect to the principal company's own systems. On plans that include them, e-invoices and e-way bills can be generated for a synced Tally sales voucher. Stock positions are what Tally shows, so godown discipline in Tally remains the foundation: if goods leave the godown without a delivery note in Tally, no app will show the right balance. A simple rule helps here. Nothing moves out of the gate without an entry, whether that entry is made on the godown PC or on a phone at the loading bay. For a C&F agent this is also what protects the fee: the dispatch record is the evidence of work done.