Let me tell you a short story of a shop owner named Ahtesham and his customer Haider. Residing in the same society, both have known each other for years. Both Ahtesham and Haider were honest and happened to be trustworthy.
Haider was on good terms with Ahtesham and also Ahtesham’s regular customer. Haider used to buy each and every routine products and services like rashion, easyload, etc from Ahtesham all month, and would make the payment altogether at the start of the next month. Since there was a long list of transactions, they both used to write down details of all transactions in their own respective Khata Registers.
About one day, Haider visited Ahtesham’s shop. He bought whatever he wanted and as always, asked Ahtesham to write it in the register. Coincidently, Ahtesham was really busy with other customers so he told Haider that he would note it down some time later. Ahtesham, later that day, noted Haider’s udhaar details in his register.
Then days passed Haider kept on buying from Ahtesham. The next month arrived, Haider came to the shop to clear all the outstanding dues for the previous month. As they began tallying their hisaab-kitaab, there was a mismatch of amount in the khata of that day which made Haider really furious.
Here Ahtesham was in a complicated situation because deep down he wasn’t sure about his own hisaab and couldn’t remember it as it was more than 15 days old. Haider, on the other hand, was getting angrier because he goes through this hassle every other month. The complexity of the situation got Ahtesham into thinking whether to trust Haider or his own Khata.
If Ahtesham drops the argument, he might lose some money and if he trusts his own Khata, he might end up losing a loyal customer like Haider.
This story is about one customer but talking to Ahtesham made me realize that he comes across a number of such Haider each day. They do business with each other because of the trust established between them and this trust should never be lost.
So, for the shop owners to keep this trust alive there’s a strong need for transparency where both parties get notified as soon as a new transaction takes place or both the parties have access to each other’s register of hisaab-kitaab.
This is one of the business owners key issues we are trying to solve. Small shop owners sell goods on credit, lose their Khata register, lose their money, and then start again from sqaure one.
To cater to this problem, we came up with Udhaar App – a simple solution to the age old “Udhaar Recovery”.
About Udhaar App
Udhaar is a free application for personal and commercial use. It helps you manage credit (Udhaar) with customers and suppliers directly through your smartphone.
Udhaar app is an online ledger (like an online khata or journal) to record your outstanding debt, and send auto reminders to customers to increase collection and cash flow.