Khata — customers who pay later — User Guide

What the Khata is for

Nearly every restaurant has regulars who eat now and settle later — at the end of the week, or at the end of the month. Until now that was a notebook by the till.

The trouble with the notebook is not the credit. It is that the notebook is not the till. If you ring the sale up as paid, your books show money that is not in the drawer. If you do not ring it up at all, your stock, your reports and your tax figures are all wrong — and the debt is one lost notebook away from being uncollectable.

With the Khata switched on, a credit sale is a real sale: it completes, it prints, its ingredients come out of stock and it is counted in the day's takings. It is simply not paid for yet, and what is unpaid is written against a named customer you can ring.

Your takings for the day will be higher than the cash in the drawer by exactly what went on the Khata. That is correct — and the Sales, Cash Flow and Khata reports all say so, so nobody has to guess.

Switching it on

Settings → Modules → Khata

Settings → Modules → Khata — customer credit book. Turn it on and save.

A Khata entry appears in the sidebar under Customers, carrying what is currently outstanding, and a Khata toggle appears on the till's Complete screen.

Leave it off and nothing changes anywhere: no toggle at the till, no sidebar entry, and no report.

Putting a bill on somebody's Khata

POS Terminal → Complete → Khata

Ring the order up as you always do — dine-in, takeaway or delivery, it makes no difference — and tap Complete.

In the payment window, turn on Khata — pay later.

Search for the customer by name or phone. Anyone who already owes you money is listed first, with their balance beside their name, so you can say "you still have 4,300 outstanding" before adding to it. Tap them and their details fill themselves in.

If they are new, just type their name and phone number. They are saved to Customers automatically when the order completes — you never have to type them in anywhere else.

If they are handing over part of the money now, enter that amount as a normal payment. Whatever is left is what goes on the book; leave it at zero for the whole bill on credit.

The box above the button shows the three figures out loud: what is being paid now, what is going on the Khata, and what they will owe in total. Then tap Complete on Khata.

1 Ring the order up and tap Complete.
2 Turn on Khata — pay later.
3 Pick the customer, or type a new name and phone number.
4 Enter anything they are paying now, or leave it at zero.
5 Tap Complete on Khata.

Putting a bill on the book needs the same permission as giving a discount, so a cashier you have not trusted with discounts cannot give credit either.

From the Order Tab, for a table

POS Terminal → Order Tab → Complete → Khata

A dine-in table is usually not settled from the cart at all. The order went to the kitchen long ago, the guests have eaten, and somebody closes it out from the Order Tab — so the Khata is on that screen too, and works the same way.

Open the Order Tab, find the table and tap Complete. The window that opens shows what is due, the discount if you agreed one at the table, the tip, and underneath them the same Khata — pay later toggle.

Turn it on and pick the customer, exactly as at the till: anyone who already owes is listed first with their balance beside their name. If they are paying part of it now, type that amount in Paying now; leave it empty and the whole bill goes on the book.

The button then reads Complete on Khata. The table is freed, the receipt prints, and what was left unpaid is on that customer's book before the next order is rung up.

1 Open the Order Tab and tap Complete on the table.
2 Turn on Khata — pay later.
3 Pick the customer, or type a new name and phone number.
4 Enter anything they are paying now, or leave it empty.
5 Tap Complete on Khata.

A bill already settled, and a delivery going out cash-on-delivery, never show the toggle — there is nothing left to put on a book in either case.

Seeing who owes what

Customers → Khata

Khata, in the sidebar under Customers, is the list: everybody with something on the book, heaviest debt first.

Each row shows their phone number — tap it to open WhatsApp — how long the money has been owed, and the balance. Anything owed for more than a month is marked in red.

The three figures across the top are what is outstanding altogether, how many customers owe it, and what you have collected against the book today.

One customer's book

Customers → Khata → (a customer)

Open a customer and you get their whole book: every bill that went on it and every payment that came off it, newest first, with the running balance after each line.

That is what answers "how did it get to 4,300?" — the lines are there in order, with the order number, who put it on and when.

Nothing on a Khata is ever edited or deleted. A mistake is corrected with another line, which is exactly why both sides can trust it.

Taking a payment

Customers → Khata → (a customer) → Add Payment

Open the customer and tap Add Payment.

The window shows four things before you save anything: the Date, their Previous Balance, the Paid Amount as you type it, and the Remaining Balance it will leave. Read them out — the person handing the money over is owed the same numbers you are looking at.

Choose the Payment Method — Cash, Card or Bank — and, if you keep more than one account, which account the money went into.

There is an "All of it" button beside the amount for a customer settling in full, and you can back-date a payment that was handed over on a day you did not enter it.

Saving it reduces their balance and puts the money into your accounts and your open till session, exactly as a payment at the counter does.

1 Open the customer from the Khata list.
2 Tap Add Payment.
3 Check the date, and type what they are handing over.
4 Choose Cash, Card or Bank.
5 Tap Add Payment — their balance drops by that amount.

You cannot take more than they owe. Typing 5,000 against a 4,000 balance records 4,000 and settles the book — a customer in credit is not something the software can spend.

Writing a debt off, or correcting one

Customers → Khata → (a customer) → Adjust by hand

Adjust by hand, on a customer's Khata, is for a correction rather than a payment — a bill entered twice, an amount agreed off, or a debt you have decided you will never collect.

It is the owner's alone, and it asks for a reason, because it is the one action that changes what somebody owes without money moving.

A negative amount takes money off what they owe; a positive one adds to it. Either way it goes on the book as its own line with your name against it.

What the reports say

Reports → Khata

Reports → Khata is the one built for it: what went out on credit in the period, what came back, what is outstanding right now, and how old the money is — under a week, under a month, over sixty days.

That ageing is the part worth reading. A debt at ninety days is a different problem from one at nine, and it tells you who to ring first.

The Sales report now separates Collected from On the Khata (unpaid), and lists Khata as its own line in Sales by Payment Method so the table still adds up to the revenue above it.

Cash Flow stays honest about money: a credit sale puts nothing in it, and names what was sold on credit so you can reconcile the two screens. A Khata payment appears as money in on the day it actually arrives.

A limit for one customer

A customer can be given a credit limit. Once they are past it, their name is flagged on the Khata list and at the till when you pick them.

It is a warning, never a refusal. Turning a regular away at the counter over a rounding error costs more than the debt, so the software shows the number and leaves the decision to the person standing there.