Invoice app for hardware wholesalers: send quotes and track what contractors owe

Send quotes and invoices to contractors, see who paid and remind those still owing.

Who it's for

You run a hardware and sanitary shop in a wholesale market, selling pipes, fittings, paint and hand tools to contractors and small builders. There is you, a munshi at the counter, two salesmen and a delivery boy. Most of what leaves the shop goes on udhaar. The problem bites at month end, when three contractors swear they have already paid and your register says something else.

The problem today

Right now a salesman writes rates on a parchi and sends a photo on WhatsApp. If the contractor agrees, the munshi makes a bill from the bill book and notes the udhaar in the register. By the time the goods go out, nobody remembers what rate we quoted, so we make the same quote twice or sell below what we should. At recovery time I turn pages to work out who owes what, and the register does not tell me how old the udhaar is. Some bills sit unpaid for months because nobody followed up. When a cheque bounces, I hear it from the bank instead of from my own records.

What the app does, screen by screen

1. Quote maker — Lets a salesman pick items and rates for a contractor and send the quote to him on WhatsApp while he is still asking.
2. Bill screen — Lets the munshi turn an accepted quote into a proper bill with the contractor's name, items, rates and the amount due.
3. Payment entry — Lets the munshi record cash, a bank transfer or a cheque against a bill so the balance drops the same day the money comes in.
4. Contractor ledger — Shows the owner and the munshi one contractor's full story: bills made, payments received and the balance still standing.
5. Who owes what — Shows the owner every contractor with outstanding udhaar, oldest first, with a WhatsApp button beside each name to send a polite reminder.
6. Rate list — Keeps the selling rates in one place, changed only by the owner, so every salesman quotes the same price.
7. Contractor's own view — Lets a contractor sign in and see his quotes, bills and balance without ringing the shop.

Who uses it and what it keeps track of

• Contractors — Name, firm, phone number, market or area, credit limit and the balance standing. The owner and counter staff see all of them; a contractor sees only his own.
• Items and rates — Item name, size or pack, unit, selling rate and whether it is lying in the shop. Salesmen can see the rate, only the owner can change it.
• Quotes and bills — Which contractor, which items, rates, total, date, who made it, and whether it is still a quote, an unpaid bill or settled. A salesman sees what he made, the owner sees everything.
• Payments received — Amount, date, whether it was cash, a transfer or a cheque, the cheque number and when it should clear, and which bill it was put against. The munshi enters it, the owner sees all of it.

What it changes for the business

Quotes go out while the contractor is still deciding, so fewer orders drift to the shop next door. One rate list means salesmen stop giving away margin to keep a buyer happy. Nobody argues about what was paid, because every payment sits against a bill with a date on it. At recovery time you open one screen instead of turning register pages, and old udhaar gets chased before it goes cold. Cheques stop slipping your mind, because you can see which ones are still to clear.

The one decision that matters

The decision is what the app does when a contractor crosses his credit limit. One way is a soft warning: the screen turns red, the salesman makes the bill anyway. The other is a hard stop: no new bill until you approve it from your phone. Go with the hard stop. The pressure at the counter is real, the contractor is standing there with his labour waiting, and a salesman will not say no to a regular buyer. If the app says no and only you can say yes, the limit finally means something. Keep the approval to a single tap, otherwise your staff will start writing bills outside the app and you are back to the register.

What to build first, and what can wait

Build quotes, bills, payments and the who-owes-what screen first. That is the whole recovery problem in one go. Leave stock quantities, purchase bills from your own suppliers, salesman commission and sales tax returns for later. The contractor's own sign-in can also wait; to start with, just send him the quote and the bill on WhatsApp. Once your munshi trusts the balance in the app more than the register, add the rest.

How BooDoo builds it

You describe the shop, the udhaar and the recovery list in your own words, and BooDoo builds it. You get a real database with sign-in, so the owner sees every balance while a salesman sees only the quotes he made and a contractor sees only his own account. The same request gives a website on its own address and an Android app you can publish under your own Google Play account, which suits salesmen who work off a phone. WhatsApp buttons open a chat with the contractor straight from the reminder screen. Later you change anything by describing the change.

How you'll know it works

The oldest udhaar on your recovery screen keeps getting younger. And at month end no contractor rings up to argue about a payment, because he is looking at the same balance you are.

Build it

Paste this in and it gets built.

I have a hardware and sanitary wholesale shop and I sell mostly on udhaar to contractors, so I want a website where my salesmen make a quote by picking items from my rate list and send it to the contractor on WhatsApp, and when he agrees the munshi turns that quote into a bill. Each contractor should have a ledger showing his bills, the cash, transfers and cheques he has paid, and the balance still standing, with a credit limit so a new bill needs my approval once he crosses it. Give me one screen that lists everyone who owes money, oldest first, with a WhatsApp button to remind them. Only I should be able to change rates, and salesmen should see just their own quotes. An Android app for the salesmen too.