Cable and wire: billing by metre when you buy by coil
Cable is bought in coils of ninety or a hundred metres and sold in whatever length the customer needs. Busy handles this with alternate units and conversion, so a coil is received as one unit and issued in metres with stock reducing accurately.
Part coils remain in stock as balance length rather than disappearing, which is the single most common source of stock mismatch in an electrical shop.
For heavy cable sold by weight, variable conversion allows actual weight to be captured at the transaction while stock is maintained in metres.
- Coil to metre conversion with balance length retained
- Weight-based billing for armoured and heavy cable
- Size, core and grade as part of the item hierarchy
- Multiple selling units with separate rates per unit
List price, discount structure and rate revisions
Most electrical brands publish a list price and sell through a discount structure. We configure Busy so items carry list price and each party or party group carries a discount percentage by brand or category, and the invoice computes automatically.
When a brand revises its list, one master update flows to every party without re-entering thousands of rates. Date-effective revisions mean old invoices keep their original values.
Where you hold stock across a price revision, the price-difference claim against your distributor can be calculated on the stock held at the moment of revision.
Project and contractor supply
A project is not a single sale. Material goes out over weeks against an agreed schedule of rates, sometimes with retention and stage-wise billing, and the contractor expects a consolidated statement.
Busy tracks a project as a cost centre or sub-party, so all challans and invoices for that site accumulate into one account with material issued, invoiced, received and outstanding visible together.
Rate lists can be pinned to the project for its duration, so the agreed schedule holds even when general rates move.
- Project or site as cost centre with consolidated account
- Project-specific rate list valid for the contract period
- Delivery challan to invoice conversion at agreed intervals
- Project-wise profitability after freight and discounts
Serial numbers, warranty and service
Switchgear, motors, appliances and panels carry warranty. Busy tracks serial numbers on purchase and sale, so when a unit comes back you know when it was sold, to whom, at what price and whether it is in warranty.
Warranty-period reporting also protects you on the buying side, because a claim to the manufacturer needs the same information.
Service and replacement transactions are recorded against the original serial, which keeps stock and the customer's history correct.
A very large item master, kept usable
Electrical dealers routinely carry five to twenty thousand lines. The master only stays usable if it is structured — category, brand, rating, size, and a consistent naming pattern with aliases and part numbers.
We build that structure during implementation and set up search so a counter person finds a 32A four-pole MCB of a particular brand by typing a few characters rather than scrolling.
Reorder levels by category and supplier-wise shortage reports then make ordering a routine task rather than a memory exercise.
- Category, brand, rating and size hierarchy with aliases
- Barcode or short-code entry for fast-moving lines
- Reorder levels and supplier-wise shortage reports
- Dead stock analysis by brand and category
Credit control for electricians and contractors
Electricians buy small and often, contractors buy large and slowly. Both need credit, and both need limits. Busy applies limit and days per party with warning or block at billing, and reports exposure by party and by project.
Bill-by-bill ageing, PDC tracking, interest on overdue where applicable, and automated reminders keep collection systematic. For project business, retention amounts are tracked separately so they are actually claimed at the end.
GST, e-way bill and freight handling
Electrical goods span multiple GST rates and orders often mix them, so item-level HSN and rate mapping matters. Freight, loading and packing are configured as bill sundries with the right tax treatment.
E-way bills for site deliveries generate from the invoice or challan with transporter and vehicle details. GSTR-1, 3B and 2A/2B reconciliation run from the same books, protecting input credit on a large number of purchase bills.
Implementation for an electrical dealer
We start with the item master and the brand rate structure, because everything else depends on them. Units and conversions are set for cable and wire, list prices and discount groups are loaded, and serial-tracked items are flagged.
Opening stock is taken by section, print formats for invoice, challan and project statement are designed, credit rules are set, and counter and accounts staff are trained separately. Support continues by phone, remote and on site around Pune.
Electrical trade cases and Busy handling| Case | Busy handling | Result |
|---|
| Coil bought, metres sold | Alternate unit conversion | Balance length stays in stock |
| Brand list price revision | List price master with discount groups | One update, all parties correct |
| Contractor project supply | Cost centre with project rate list | Single running account and profitability |
| Switchgear warranty claim | Serial number tracking | Sale date and warranty status instantly |
| Mixed GST rates on one order | Item-level HSN and rate mapping | Correct tax on every line |
