Nikhil's Wedding Payments

Find out which couples have paid their booking advance and who still owes money, without ringing Nikhil in the middle of a shoot.

Who this is for

Nikhil Waghmare shoots weddings out of a two-room office in Dharampeth, Nagpur. Thirty-eight bookings this season, two second shooters, one editor who barely leaves the desk. It is a Tuesday in December. Nikhil is on a sangeet floor in Raipur with the phone on silent, and the office line is ringing because a bride's father wants to know whether the second instalment reached.

How the job is done today

Everything lives in a green ledger notebook in the office drawer and in Nikhil's own WhatsApp. A father sends fifty thousand by UPI at eleven at night, screenshots it, and that screenshot is the only record anyone has. The notebook says things like Sharma, 12 Dec, 25k adv, and the rest is memory. When Nikhil is out shooting, nobody in the office can answer a money question, so every caller is told someone will ring back. Last season one couple was chased for an amount they had already sent, and one album went out of the door with forty thousand still pending.

The screens, in order

1. All weddings — Shows every booked wedding with the amount still to come, so the first thing anyone sees is who owes money.
2. One wedding — Holds a single couple's whole money story in one place, from the agreed price down to the last payment received.
3. Money received — Lets whoever is at the desk write down a payment the moment it lands, with the screenshot attached.
4. New booking — Sets up a wedding when it is confirmed, with the date, the price agreed and what that price covers.
5. Extras added — Records the things agreed after booking, like a drone day or a second album, so the total stays honest.
6. Still to collect — Lists everyone with a pending amount, so someone can spend twenty minutes on the phone and clear the oldest ones.

What it keeps track of

• Weddings — couple's names, the town, the wedding date, phone number of the person who books, the package agreed, the price agreed, who from our side is handling it
• Payments — which wedding, how much came, which day it came, by UPI or cash or bank transfer, who at our end received it, the screenshot
• Extras — which wedding, what was added, how much it adds, which day it was agreed
• Our people — name, phone number, whether they are allowed to write down a payment

The one decision that matters

Either the balance is a number someone types and edits, or the balance is only ever the agreed price plus extras minus the payments written down. Typing it is faster on the day and much worse a month later, because a new person cannot tell whether the number in front of them is arithmetic or somebody's guess. Let the app do the subtraction and never allow the figure to be edited directly. If an amount is wrong, the fix is to correct the payment line that is wrong, and the balance moves on its own. That way the number a nervous new employee reads out on the phone is the same number Nikhil would have reached.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out messages that go to the couple on their own. A reminder sent to a bride's family for money they already paid does more damage than no reminder at all, and the first version has not yet earned that trust. Leave out shoot expenses, staff payments and tax invoices too. This app answers one question, and it should answer it so plainly that nobody hunts for the notebook.

How you would know it worked

A bride's father rings on a Tuesday afternoon. The person at the desk, who joined last Monday, gives the exact figure paid and the exact figure pending before the call is a minute old. Nikhil, on a shoot in Raipur, never learns the call happened.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I shoot weddings in Nagpur and I need a phone app for my office so anyone sitting at my desk can tell a client what they have paid and what is still left. Let me add a wedding with the couple's names, the date, the package price, and anything extra we agree later like a drone or a second album. When money comes in by UPI or cash I want to note the amount, the date, how it came and attach the screenshot, and the app should work out the balance itself so nobody ever types a balance by hand. Give me one list of all weddings with what is still due, and let me open any wedding and see every payment in order. It has to be simple enough that someone joining on Monday can use it with nobody there to explain it.