A credit book for stationery and copy shops

How credit works in a stationery shop

Most of the year is steady, then school opens and the shop fills up. A parent hands over the list: ten exercise books, a pencil case, crayons, folders, a geometry set. The total is high, so they ask to pay at the end of the month. One family may be buying for two or three children.

The credit that runs all year is printing and photocopying. Teachers copy worksheets for their class, students print homework, and some schools pay for the whole term at once. If the small amounts are not written each day, nobody can work out the bill at the end of term.

What usually goes wrong

• Mixed-up lists: which child’s list was bought, and which items are still to come, gets confused.
• Copy tabs: lines like “20 pages, 15 pages, 40 pages” are impossible to total at the end of term.
• School or teacher? Who pays for the class copies? Without a record, it turns into an argument.
• Season stock: the supplier’s bill for back-to-school stock falls due in the very month parents have not paid yet.

Setting up a stationery book in Baki Fast

1. Add each family as a customer and put the children’s names in the customer note.
2. Record the school list with item lines: “10 × exercise book × 0.80”, “1 × pencil case × 4.50”. Parents see exactly what they bought.
3. If the list is large, split it with instalments, for example September, October and November. Each part gets its own due date and reminder.
4. Open an account for each teacher, and make the school its own customer for work the school pays for. Write copies as “120 pages × 0.05”.
5. Add your wholesale supplier as a supplier with a due date, so you can see when you owe what.

A message for parents

To show parents a plan before they agree, use the installment calculator. For other wordings see payment reminder message examples.

At the end of term, send the school or teacher account as a PDF statement. An item-by-item list makes it much easier for the school office to approve payment.