Adding a second item to a running qist plan

Make it a second plan. Do not stretch the first one. Each item then keeps its own total, its own number of months and its own finish date, and the customer can still see where his fridge plan ends. Merging the two hides the finish line and quietly changes a deal his guarantor already agreed to.

"Just add it to the same plan"

Nadeem Bhatti comes in on a Thursday at about half past eight, while you are pulling the shutter halfway down. He is five months into a twelve month qist plan on a fridge that you wrote yourself: Rs 72,000 total, Rs 18,000 advance on the day, then twelve instalments of Rs 4,500. He has paid every one on the date he promised.

Now his wife wants a washing machine. He points at the one on the top shelf and says the sentence every shopkeeper hears eventually.

"Just add it to the same plan."

He means it kindly, and it sounds like a small piece of paperwork. It is not. He is asking you to take a plan that is nearly half finished, tear up its ending, and replace it with a bigger one that runs to a month neither of you has named. Agree without thinking and you will not feel the cost for a year.

Two plans, not one bigger plan.

What merging actually hides

Merging looks tidy on the surface. One customer, one amount, one date every month. Underneath, three things break at once.

One merged plan against two plans running side by side

Merged into one planTwo plans, side by side

The finish dateMerged into one planPushed out to a month nobody said out loudTwo plans, side by sideEach item ends on its own written date

If he stops payingMerged into one planYou cannot say which item is unpaidTwo plans, side by sideOne plan is clear, the other is the problem

What the guarantor agreed toMerged into one planA smaller total, on a different itemTwo plans, side by sideEach plan carries the guarantor who said yes to it

Which item you could take backMerged into one planNeither one, cleanlyTwo plans, side by sideThe one on the plan he stopped paying

Explaining it at the counterMerged into one planYou redo the sums out loud every timeTwo plans, side by sideTwo short answers, two balances

What he feels in month nineMerged into one planThat this is never going to endTwo plans, side by sideThat the fridge is nearly his

The finish line goes first. Nadeem can count on his fingers: seven more instalments and the fridge is his. Merge the washing machine in and the ending becomes a date he cannot picture. A customer who cannot see the end of a plan treats it like a bill that never stops, and people pay bills that never stop badly.

Second, you lose the ability to say which item has been paid for. Fourteen months from now Nadeem stops paying and tells you, with a straight face, that the fridge was finished long ago and only the washing machine is left. You have one running total. You cannot prove otherwise, and neither can he, so the loudest voice wins.

Third, you lose the item as your cushion. With two plans, an unpaid washing machine plan is a washing machine you can talk about taking back. With one merged total, neither item belongs to a specific unpaid amount, so taking either one back is a move you cannot explain.

Can he actually carry both

Before the shape of the plan matters, ask whether the man can pay it. Shopkeepers skip this step, because the customer in front of them has a perfect record on the plan he has.

A perfect record proves he can carry Rs 4,500 a month. It proves nothing about Rs 8,300.

So ask three things, out loud, at the counter. What do you already pay me every month. What are you paying anywhere else. And when does your money arrive, and how much of it.

Say his money arrives on the fifth of the month

What comes into his house, once a monthRs 38,000

What he already pays you on the fridgeRs 4,500

What he pays the mobile shop for a phoneRs 2,200

What a washing machine plan would addRs 3,800

Going out on plans before food, rent or fuelRs 10,500

Nadeem earns Rs 38,000 and it lands on the fifth. He pays you Rs 4,500 and a mobile shop Rs 2,200 for a phone he bought on instalments. Add Rs 3,800 for the washing machine and Rs 10,500 of a Rs 38,000 income is promised before a single bag of flour is bought.

The verdict is not now. Not because Nadeem is unreliable, but because the same reliable man will have to choose between three payments in the month his child gets sick, and there is no reason to assume he chooses you. It is the arithmetic behind how much udhaar to give and who should get it, on a bigger number over a longer time.

Do the sum on paper in front of him. That turns your refusal into the two of you looking at the same page.

The rules for the second plan

If the numbers work, the second plan is a whole plan, built from the beginning, not a line added to something that exists.

A second plan is a whole plan, made from the start

1. 1Its own advance, in one amount, on the dayNever funded by cutting the first plan's monthly amount.
2. 2Its own one-time markup, set when you create itDecided once, for this item and this length. Nothing is ever added to it afterwards, for any reason.
3. 3Its own length, ending on a month he can nameNine months he can picture beats fifteen he cannot.
4. 4Its own guarantor, who said yes to you himselfThe man who stood behind a fridge did not stand behind this.
5. 5Its own page in your bookTwo schedules, two balances, two finish dates, one customer.

Take its own advance, in one amount, on the day. Never fund it by cutting the monthly amount on the first plan, the quiet mistake shops make here. A customer who cannot put an advance together for the second item has told you something valuable for free, the same test as taking a real advance before you order a big item.

Set its own price at creation. The markup on a qist item is a one time thing, decided once when you build the plan, belonging to that item's own risk and its own length. Nothing is ever added afterwards for a month that ran slow. An instalment that arrives late is a mark in your book telling you to go and ask, never a charge.

Give it a length he can picture. Nine months on a washing machine, ending in a month he can name without looking at a paper, is worth more to you than fifteen months ending somewhere in the fog.

And give it its own page. Two plans under one customer, each with its own schedule and its own balance, is the whole point. Everything you would put into a first plan goes into this one, as in building a qist plan that stays fair.

The guarantor said yes to a fridge

Rasheed, Nadeem's uncle, stood at your counter on the Tuesday morning the fridge plan was written and agreed to stand behind Rs 72,000. He asked what the fridge cost. He asked how many months. Then he said yes.

He did not agree to Rs 117,600 across two items. Nobody asked him.

That is what makes merging worse than a bad idea. It changes somebody else's promise while he is not in the room. If Nadeem stops paying and you go to Rasheed for a total that includes a washing machine he never heard of, he will refuse, and he will be right to. A guarantee you have quietly enlarged is a guarantee you have destroyed.

So the second plan gets its own guarantor line, and the yes has to be said to you directly. Not passed on by the buyer. Not a phone call where Nadeem hands you his uncle mid sentence. Rasheed comes in, hears the item, the total and the number of months, and says yes to that.

He may say yes to the fridge and no to the washing machine, a reasonable answer from a man who knows his own nephew. Take it seriously. Who should stand behind what, and when to ask at all, is worked out in when to ask for a guarantor and when not to.

When the answer is no, or not yet

A flat no loses a sale and sometimes a customer. "Not yet, and here is what I can do" keeps both, so have the alternatives ready.

Wait until the first plan is nearly over. Tell Nadeem plainly: when two instalments are left on the fridge, come back and we write the washing machine that day. Note the month down and mention it when he next walks in. That is not a refusal, it is an appointment, and a customer with a date rarely goes to another shop.

Take a much bigger advance instead. If he wants it now, the price of now is Rs 20,000 down rather than Rs 11,400, which pulls the monthly amount to something that fits beside the fridge. He decides, and plenty of customers find the money when the choice is theirs.

Sell the second item on a short arrangement that is not a qist plan at all. Half today, the rest in two payments across six weeks, done before the fridge plan ends. On a smaller item that is often the cleanest answer, and choosing between the two shapes is the question in udhaar or qist on a big item.

What you must not do is say yes with a worried face and then chase him for fourteen months. If a missed instalment is coming, the calm way to handle it is what to do when a qist payment is missed.

The one case where combining is honest

There is one narrow case, worth naming so you can recognise it.

The first plan is nearly finished. One or two instalments are left, the amount is small, and the customer genuinely wants one date and one amount instead of two of each. That is not a merge in the dangerous sense. It is closing a plan that was almost closed and starting a fresh one carrying a small remainder.

Do it like this. Add up what is left on the first plan and say the number out loud, to him, before anything is written. Close that plan in your record as settled into the new one, so it has an ending and a date. Then write a new plan whose total is the second item's price plus that remainder, with its own advance, its own length and its own guarantor consent. Write on the paper that the new total includes Rs 9,000 carried over from the fridge.

Never do this with a plan that is only half run, and never do it silently. If you cannot say the carried amount and the new finish date in one sentence at the counter, you are not combining anything. You are hiding it.

Two qist plans under one customer

Everything above works with a register and a pen, because the thinking is the part that matters. It also works in Wasoolo.

A customer has one page, and under it two qist khatas: the fridge and the washing machine, each with its own schedule, its own remaining balance and its own finish date. You open the customer and see both, and neither hides the other. The one time markup is set when you create the plan and stays where you set it, with nothing added afterwards for lateness or anything else.

Guarantors are recorded per plan rather than per customer, which matches the rule above. Rasheed stands behind the fridge, and if he agrees to the washing machine too, that is a separate record you make when you write the second plan.

For the monthly payment, Wasoolo can send an in app reminder to the customer's own login if he uses the customer side app, and a one tap button opens a WhatsApp chat with the message ready for you to send yourself. Nothing goes out without you pressing send.

Common questions

He says two plans mean he pays me twice a month. Is that a real problem?

It is not. Set both plans to fall on the same date, so he makes one visit and brings two amounts, which you record separately. He is objecting to two trips, not two records, and one date solves that while your book still shows what each rupee bought.

Can I take the second item's advance out of what he has already paid on the fridge?

No, and this trap looks generous. Money paid on the fridge has bought part of a fridge, and moving it sideways leaves that plan owing more than it did in the morning. Take a fresh advance for the fresh item. If he cannot find one, that is your answer.

What if the second item is small, say Rs 6,000?

Then it probably should not be a qist plan at all. Put it on his udhaar khata and take it back over a few weeks, or half today and the rest on his next payday. A schedule and a guarantor are a lot of machinery for a small item.

He wants a longer first plan so he can afford the second one. Should I extend it?

Extending a running plan changes a total the guarantor already agreed to, so it is the same problem in a different shirt. If the monthly amount truly no longer fits his income, that is a separate conversation about the first plan, held with the guarantor present.

Two plans, and one month he brings less than both instalments. Where does it go?

Ask him, and write down what he says. Money that arrives without instructions gets argued about later, so let him choose which plan it lands on and note that beside the entry. With no preference, use the older plan, which is closer to finishing.

Should the second plan cost more because he already owes me?

Set the price the way you would for any buyer, from the item, your own cost and the length of the plan, decided once at the start. A second plan changes the structure, not the price: a bigger advance, a shorter term, a guarantor who said yes to you in person. Charging a good customer more for being a good customer is not a policy you would enjoy explaining.