Cashflow OS for wholesalers

What makes wholesale different

A wholesaler sits between the manufacturer or distributor and the retailer. Compared with a distributor, there is usually no fixed territory and no company scheme structure; the business wins on rate, availability and credit. Typical features of the trade:

• A busy counter, often in a market lane, with walk-in retailers and regular phone orders.
• Rates that vary by buyer, by quantity and by how fast the buyer pays.
• Large credit books: many small parties, each with a running balance.
• Fast stock movement and frequent buying, so purchase payables matter as much as sales.

Most wholesalers already run TallyPrime for billing and GST. The pressure is on how quickly the owner can answer questions away from the billing PC.

The leaks in a wholesale book

Rates: when the rate lives in the owner's head, staff guess. A ₹2 difference per unit on 5,000 units is ₹10,000 that never shows up as a mistake; it just shows up as low margin. Read more in pricing strategy for traders.

Credit: a party that pays ₹50,000 a month but buys ₹60,000 adds ₹10,000 of udhaar every month. Without bill-wise ageing nobody notices until the balance is too large to recover easily.

Statements: buyers dispute balances. If producing a statement means waiting for the accountant, the dispute drags and payment waits with it.

How Cashflow OS fits a wholesale counter

• Party ledgers with live balances synced from Tally, searchable on the phone.
• Statements as a PDF in Tally's format or a Hindi हिसाब page, shared on WhatsApp straight from the party screen.
• Bill-wise outstanding and ageing for receivables and payables, so you see both who owes you and whom you owe.
• Price lists with dealer types such as A, B and C and layered discount rules that fill rates automatically, if you switch the module on.
• Entries from the phone: receipts, payments, sales and more can be created from the app and posted into Tally through the connector, once the owner turns writing on.

A worked example: the Monday call list

Say the owner checks receivables ageing on Monday morning and sees:

The call order writes itself: Verma first (old money, small current buying), then Gupta for the 60-plus bill, then a reminder to Sharma. Each call can be followed by the party statement on WhatsApp. Our guide to ageing analysis explains how to read the buckets.

Giving staff the right access

Roles are set per company: owner, admin, accountant, staff and salesperson. A counter helper can be given staff access, the accountant gets the accountant role, and a salesperson sees items and their own customers only. The owner can see the team's activity. The app can be locked with fingerprint, face or PIN, which matters when phones are shared at the counter.

If you run two firms, for example a proprietorship and a partnership, both Tally companies can sit in one account and you switch between them.

Setting a credit discipline that staff can follow

Software only helps if there is a rule to follow. A workable rule set for a wholesale counter fits on one page:

1. A limit per party. Base it on what the buyer has actually paid in the last few months, not on what he buys. A buyer who has paid around ₹40,000 a month can reasonably carry ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 of open bills; beyond that, new goods go against payment.
2. A day limit. Decide the number of days after which a bill is overdue, say 30, and treat anything past it as a reason to talk before the next sale.
3. One person who says no. Counter staff should not be the ones refusing credit to a regular. Give them a simple answer: the owner will call you.
4. A weekly review. Ten minutes with the ageing view every Monday, as in the example above.

Because the ledger and ageing are on the owner's phone, the counter can call and get a yes or no in a minute instead of holding the buyer while someone opens Tally. The guide on asking customers for payment has wording that keeps the relationship intact.

Watching the buying side too

Wholesalers usually buy on credit as well, and a good supplier relationship is worth protecting. Payables with bill-wise ageing show which supplier bills are due this week, so payments go out in order instead of to whoever calls loudest. Purchase and payment vouchers can be created from the app once writing is switched on, and Tally checks each one. Comparing the receivables and payables totals side by side each week is a quick way to see whether the business is funding its customers out of its suppliers' patience.