Tola, Lal, Ratti Billing: How Jewellery Software Works

A jewellery bill is a short chain of calculations: weight, rate, making charge, wastage, stone, tax. Each link is simple, but staff under pressure at a busy counter make mistakes in the chain. This guide walks through how a gold bill is built and where software removes the risk, using made-up round numbers only for explanation.

Step 1: weigh and record the item

Every ornament has three weights worth recording: gross weight on the scale, the weight of stones or other non-metal parts, and the net metal weight, which is gross minus stone. The net weight is what the gold rate is applied to. Software stores these against a tag, so the cashier scans the tag instead of retyping the weight. This alone removes most typing errors.

Your shop may speak in tola, aana and lal while the scale may read grams, or the other way round. A good system accepts either and shows both on the screen so nobody has to convert in their head. The exact relationship between these units is set during configuration to match how your shop counts and is checked against your own scale, rather than assumed.

Step 2: apply the day's rate

The shop enters the gold and silver rate for the day, by purity. Software does not decide the rate; it takes what you enter. Because the rate is saved with the bill, you can explain a price three months later if a customer asks. It also prevents the common problem where a staff member quotes the morning's rate after it has changed.

Step 3: add making charge and wastage

These are where shops differ most. Common methods include:

• A percentage of the metal value.
• A fixed amount per gram or per tola.
• A fixed amount per piece.
• Wastage added as extra weight, as a percentage of net weight.

The software lets you choose the method per category and still change it for one item or one customer. The bill can show making and wastage as separate lines, or merge them into one if you prefer not to show the split. What matters is that two salespeople reach the same total for the same item.

Step 4: stones, discount and tax

Stone value is added as a separate line, either entered by the shop or taken from the tag. Discounts are usually given on making charge, not on metal, and the system can restrict discounts to that line and limit how much a junior staff member may give without the owner's approval.

VAT is added at 13% on whichever parts your accountant has told you are taxable. The correct treatment of metal value versus making charge is a tax question that should be confirmed with your accountant or the Inland Revenue Department, and then set once in the software so it is applied the same way each time.

Step 5: old gold exchange

If the customer brings old ornaments, the bill takes a negative line. The shop records the weight received, tests purity, applies the agreed deduction and credits the resulting value against the new purchase. The record stays attached to the customer, so a later dispute can be answered from the screen instead of memory.

A worked example in words

Line	What is entered	What the software does
Net weight	From the tag	Shows tola and gram together
Rate	Entered that morning	Multiplies by net weight
Making charge	Category rule	Adds as percentage or per tola
Stone	From the tag	Adds as a separate line
Old gold	Weight and test	Deducts credit value
VAT	Rule set once	Adds 13% on taxable lines

Why the order of the sums matters

Two shops can sell the same ornament and quote different totals simply because they apply charges in a different order. Suppose wastage is added to the weight first and the making charge is then taken as a percentage of the new metal value. Another shop takes the making charge on the original value and adds wastage afterwards. Neither is wrong, but your shop must choose one and every staff member must follow it. A good system lets you define the order once, shows it on the screen as a short breakdown and refuses to produce a different answer when a different person uses it.

This matters most for regular customers. A family that buys every Dashain and wedding season notices when two visits give different logic. Consistency is a quiet way to build trust, and it protects the staff from being accused of favouritism.

Returns, repairs and changes

Not every bill ends the story. Customers bring pieces back to be resized, polished, or exchanged for another design. Each case needs a rule: is the making charge refunded, is wastage charged again, does the old bill number stay linked? Software records the link between the original sale and the later change, so staff do not have to search through registers to find what was charged before.

Checking the result

When you start using any system, run it in parallel with your calculator for a week. For every bill, compare the totals. Differences almost always come from a misunderstanding of a rule, such as whether wastage applies before or after the making charge, and are fixed by adjusting one setting. After a week of matching totals you can trust it.

Next step

If you would like to see your own sample bill produced on screen, see our jewellery shop software and send us a photo of a typical bill on WhatsApp. If your shop also deals in wholesale to other jewellers, a general inventory management system shows how stock and suppliers are tracked more broadly.

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