Priya's Equipment Stock

See how many mats are ready for the next class, which blocks are still in the wash tub, and when to order new cushions.

Who this is for

Priya Kulkarni runs a yoga studio on the first floor of a building in Aundh, Pune. Thirty-four mats, twenty bolsters, sixteen blocks, a shelf of cushions that have gone flat. Two assistants, Sunita and Rehana. The moment this lands is 5.40 in the morning, before the six o'clock class, when eleven people are coming and she is counting mats on her fingers in the back storeroom, where there is no signal at all.

How the job is done today

There is a notebook on the shoe rack with a page for each month. Sunita writes the mat count in it when she remembers, which is not most days. Blocks that need washing go into a blue tub, and whether they got washed is a question Priya asks out loud across the hall while a class is settling. Reordering happens when a student complains twice about the same flat cushion. In June she bought twelve straps, and in August she found nine unopened ones sitting behind the bolsters.

The screens, in order

1. Ready now — The first thing she sees at the storeroom door: how many of each thing are ready for the next class.
2. Change a count — Where Sunita taps that she took out nine mats or put back seven, without having to work out a new total.
3. Wash tub — Shows what has been sitting dirty and since when, so nothing quietly stays in the tub for a week.
4. Running low — The short list of things that have dropped under the number Priya set, so buying happens before anyone complains.
5. What changed today — A plain line-by-line of who touched what, so a strange number can be traced back to a person and an hour.

What it keeps track of

• Things in the studio — name of the item, where it sits, how many are ready, how many are in the wash tub, how many are finished with, the number below which Priya wants to be told
• Changes — which item, how many more or fewer, who did it, what time, why, and whether it has reached the studio's main list yet
• People who can change things — name, phone number, whether they can only count or can also set the low numbers and add new items
• Buying — what was ordered, how many, which shop or supplier, what it cost last time, which day it arrived

The one decision that matters

The one thing to get right is what gets saved when there is no signal. One way is to save the total: Sunita's phone remembers thirty mats ready, Priya's remembers twenty-six, and whichever one reaches the studio list last wins, so somebody's counting quietly disappears. The other way is to save only the change: took out nine, put back seven, moved four to the wash tub. Then both phones add their bits when they come back into signal and nothing is lost. Save the change. In a studio two people are always touching the same shelf within the same hour, and the person whose count vanishes is the person who stops using this by next week.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave students out entirely. No booking a mat to a name, no attendance, no fees. The moment equipment is tied to people, Priya needs everyone to open the site before class, and that will not happen at 5.40 in the morning. Leave out photos and prices too. The first version only has to answer one question at the storeroom door: is there enough for this class, and what should I buy this week.

How you would know it worked

One morning Priya orders eight cushions on her own, three weeks before flat cushions become the thing students mention at the door. And the blue tub is empty by Thursday, because Rehana could see that nine blocks had been sitting in it since Monday.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small yoga studio in Pune and I want a website that only my two assistants and I use, where I can see at a glance how many mats, bolsters, blocks, straps and cushions are ready for the next class, how many are in the wash tub, and how many are finished with. The storeroom at the back has no signal, so it has to open and work fully in there and catch up on its own once we walk back into the hall. When Sunita takes out nine mats she should just tap nine, not type a new total, and if she and I are counting the same shelf at the same time neither count should wipe out the other. Let me set a number for each item below which it tells me to buy more, and let me see who changed what today.