A credit book for haberdashery and sewing supply shops
A haberdashery’s credit is made of dozens of small items, and its best customers are usually local tailors. With Baki Fast you write each purchase item by item, settle tailors’ accounts weekly and follow larger seasonal orders in instalments.
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How credit works in a haberdashery
Hundreds of small things leave the counter every day: buttons, zips, thread, elastic, lace, interfacing. One by one, the amounts are tiny. But tailors, dressmakers and alteration shops buy something nearly every day and pay weekly or monthly.
The seasons are clear too. Before festivals and holidays, alteration work doubles and so do tailors’ purchases. In wedding season, families buy lace, fabric and trimmings for outfits and pay over several months.
What usually goes wrong
- Too many small items: “3 zips, 2 reels of thread, 1 metre of elastic” does not fit on one line, and the total gets lost.
- The apprentice buys: often the tailor’s helper does the shopping, and the tailor has no idea what was taken until the bill comes.
- Sold by the metre: lace and ribbon are sold by length, and working out 2.5 metres × price in your head leads to mistakes.
- Seasonal instalments: which month was paid and which is left becomes impossible to follow on paper.
Setting up a haberdashery book in Baki Fast
- Add tailors, dressmakers and regular customers as customers.
- Write purchases with item lines: “3 × zip 20 cm × 0.60”, “2.5 × lace (metre) × 2.40”. Decimal lengths work and the total is calculated for you.
- When the apprentice buys, send the tailor the note after the entry, so they see every purchase as it happens.
- Give tailors’ accounts a one-week due date, so late accounts show on their own list.
- Write a large wedding or festival order as one credit entry and split it into monthly instalments.
- Add your wholesaler as a supplier, so the debt for season stock and your payments sit in the same book.
A weekly message for a tailor
Hello Amina, this is Thread & Button. Your workshop’s supplies this week come to 214; the item-by-item list is attached. If you can drop by on Saturday, we can close the week. Thank you!
Send the statement as an A4 PDF or print it as a 58 mm slip with Print Fast. Tailors keep the slip in their workshop folder, which makes checking at the end of the week easy. See account statements.
Questions
Are tiny amounts really worth writing down?
Yes, because a tailor’s small purchases add up to a serious sum in a week. An entry with item lines takes seconds and saves an argument at the end of the week.
How do I record something sold by the metre?
In the item line, enter the metres as the quantity, for example 2.5, and the price per metre as the unit price. The line total is worked out for you.
Is it hard to switch from a paper book?
No: write each customer’s current balance as one entry and carry on in Baki Fast. For a step-by-step start, read how to keep a credit book.