Count the forgotten payments first
Try this exercise once: for a single day, note every small payment that is not stock. Tea for staff, bus fare for a delivery, plastic bags, a broken lock, mobile top-up for the shop phone. At the end of the day, add them up. Multiply that number by the days you are open and compare it with what your memory would have guessed.
Categories that fit a small shop
Keep it under five categories so recording stays fast:
- Shop running: electricity, water, internet.
- Transport: delivery, bus fare, fuel.
- Packing: bags, boxes, tape.
- Staff and tea: small food payments.
- Repairs and extras: everything else.
"Other" is allowed, but if it is more than a slice of the month, split it.
Record at the moment of payment
Write it when the money leaves the cash box, not in the evening. A note on the phone, a line in the app, or the same place you record sales. The delay is where the amount is forgotten.
Paper bills still need a home. Photograph supplier receipts and keep one PDF per month with the free photo to PDF scanner — it runs on the shop phone and never uploads the bill anywhere.
Personal money does not belong in the ledger
Many shop owners keep a small personal float from the cash box. That is understandable, but it should leave a visible trail. Take a withdrawal, record it, and treat it like any expense line. Mixing it silently is the fastest way to lose the day's total.
A monthly profit that is only "roughly right" is usually wrong by exactly the amount that was never recorded.
The monthly look
At the end of the month, the expense report should answer: which line grew, and was that growth planned? If transport and packing have grown with sales, that is healthy. If they grew without sales, it is a leak. Without a record, you cannot tell the difference.
NanoKhata records an expense in a tap, on the same screen as sales, works without internet and totals the month for you.