MoneyInstallments
How to build a qist plan that stays fair
A qist plan with no interest: fix the cash price, add the one-time markup once, take a down payment, choose one day a month, and never charge for lateness.
Build a qist plan in six steps
- 1Say the cash price out loudWhat the same item costs if he pays today.
- 2Add your markup onceOne percentage, decided before the plan starts, never again.
- 3Take a down paymentMoney on day one, and it makes the rest divide cleanly.
- 4Choose the count and the dayEqual installments on one fixed date every month.
- 5Write the schedule twiceOne copy for him, one for you, same dates on both.
- 6If one is missed, re-date itA part payment and a fresh date. Never a late charge.
A qist plan is one big amount cut into small dates. Fix the cash price, add your markup once before the plan starts, take a down payment, then split what is left into equal installments on one day of the month. Write it where both of you can read it. Never add anything for being late.
When a qist plan is the right answer
Plain udhaar and a qist plan look similar from the outside. Both are money you have handed over and not yet collected. They behave very differently.
Udhaar is for the small, quick stuff: Rs 900 of rashan on Tuesday, cleared on salary day. There is no schedule because there does not need to be one. If you want that side of the shop running smoothly, the habits in how to recover udhaar without losing the customer do most of the work.
A qist plan is for one big item that a working person genuinely cannot pay for in a single morning. A fridge. A sewing machine. A cycle for a boy who has started a job three villages away. The amount is too large for "when the money comes in" to mean anything.
Here is the honest test. Ask yourself: can he clear this in one month out of normal income? If yes, that is udhaar, and adding a schedule only makes paperwork. If no, do not stretch udhaar to cover it. Turn it into a plan with dates, because an amount without a finish line is the amount that goes bad.
Plain udhaar or a qist plan?
Imran sells electronics on a small road in Sahiwal. For two years he sold big items "on trust", which meant a Rs 30,000 fridge went out of the shop with nothing written except a name and a phone number. Some came back over four months. Two never did. He now refuses to sell anything above Rs 15,000 without a plan, and he says the strange part is that customers like it more, not less. A plan tells a man exactly what his life will cost for the next six months.
Decide the price before you decide the dates
This is where most shopkeepers get confused, so take it slowly.
A qist customer pays more than a cash customer. That is normal and everybody in the bazaar knows it. Your money is tied up for six months instead of six minutes, and you carry the risk in between. The way to charge for that fairly is a one-time markup, decided at the moment the plan is created.
One-time means exactly what it says. You look at the cash price, you add a percentage once, and that gives you the installment price. That number is now frozen. It does not grow every month. It does not grow because he paid late. It is a price, not a running charge, and once the plan starts it can never move again.
Say it in plain words at the counter, because a customer who understands the number never argues about it later:
"Saleem, in cash this is Rs 36,000. On a qist plan it comes to Rs 39,600, spread over six months. That Rs 3,600 is fixed right now — nothing gets added later."
Suppose: a Rs 36,000 fridge on a six-month plan
An example plan, not real shop data. The markup is added once here and never again, and nothing is ever added for a late installment.
Two rules keep this clean. First, always tell him the cash price too, even though he is not paying it. A customer who learns the cash price later, from another shop, feels cheated even when he was not. Second, keep your markup the same for everybody. The moment your percentage depends on how desperate a man looks, you are not running a shop, and word travels fast on a small road.
How much? That is your call. It should come from your own cost of money and your own risk, not from a percentage somebody quoted you in a chai shop.
The down payment does three jobs
Ask for money on day one. Always.
The first job is obvious: it lowers what is sitting outside your shop. The second is quieter and bigger. A man who has put Rs 9,600 of his own money into a fridge behaves like a man who owns a fridge. Somebody who put in nothing is still deciding whether he wants it.
The third job is arithmetic, and it is the one nobody thinks of. Choose the down payment so the remaining amount divides into round installments. In the example above, Rs 9,600 down leaves exactly Rs 30,000, which is six clean payments of Rs 5,000. Compare that with an awkward Rs 5,467 a month. Round numbers get remembered, get counted correctly in a hurry, and never start an argument at the counter.
A reasonable habit is a quarter of the installment price for a customer you know, and a third or more for someone new. If a man cannot put anything down at all, that is not a plan, that is a gift with paperwork attached.
How many installments, and which day of the month
Two decisions, and both are easier than they look.
The count. Short plans finish. Long plans die. Three to six months suits most shop items, and twelve is the outer edge for something genuinely large like a motorcycle. Every extra month is another month in which a job can be lost or a family can move. If a customer asks to stretch a plan to eighteen months, the item is usually too expensive for him. Offer a smaller model instead.
The day. Fix one date and let it be the same date every month. Pick it just after money normally reaches him. A salaried man is paid in the first week, so the 10th is comfortable. A man selling vegetables has money on market days. A farmer has money twice a year, so his plan needs bigger, rarer installments, not monthly ones.
Then, if you can, use the same day for your whole shop. When every plan in your khata lands on the 10th, wasooli stops being something you remember and becomes something you do. One morning a month, one list, done by lunch.
Write the schedule where both of you can see it
An agreement only two memories are holding is not an agreement.
Write the plan down twice, one copy for him, one for you, and make sure both say the same six things: the item, the cash price, the markup in rupees, the down payment, the amount of each installment, and every single due date. Not "monthly". The actual dates, written out.
The same plan on a calendar, the 10th of every month
- 10 JuneDown payment, fridge goes homeRs 9,600Paid
- 10 JulyInstallment 1 of 6Rs 5,000Paid
- 10 AugustInstallment 2 of 6Rs 5,000Paid
- 10 SeptemberRs 2,000 paid, rest re-dated to the 24thRs 3,000Part paid
- 10 OctoberInstallment 4 of 6Rs 5,000Due
- 10 NovemberInstallment 5 of 6Rs 5,000Due
- 10 DecemberLast installment, plan closesRs 5,000Due
Then hand him his copy in front of him. That small act does something a signature cannot: it tells him you expect him to check your maths, which is exactly what an honest shopkeeper should want.
This is the part a phone does better than a copy, because the schedule updates itself as payments land and the balance is never a subtraction you have to do at 9pm. A digital khata can hold the plan, mark each installment paid or still due, and print a statement he can carry home. If that sounds useful, the ledger and installment tools are worth a look, and the app is free to download for a single shop.
Start your digital khata today
Free to start. Works offline. English, Roman Urdu & Hinglish. Your customers get their app free, forever.
When an installment is missed
Now the most important rule in this article, and the one that separates a shop people come back to from a shop people avoid.
Never charge anything extra for being late. No late fee. No interest on the overdue amount. Not Rs 100, not "just add Rs 50". Nothing.
This is not only about right and wrong, although it is that too. It is about what actually gets you paid. Think about the man who missed the 10th. He already knows. He has been thinking about you all week. If missing that date has now added Rs 200 to his total, the balance has become a punishment, and a punished man does one thing: he stops walking past your shop. You have swapped a delay you could have managed for a disappearance you cannot.
Late is a status, not a cost. It tells you who to call today. That is the whole job it has.
The day an installment is missed
This keeps the plan alive
- Call the same evening, calmly
- Take whatever he has today
- Agree a fresh date out loud
- Write the new date on both copies
- Keep the total exactly the same
This kills it
- Add a late fee or any extra charge
- Increase the markup mid-plan
- Ask in front of his family or friends
- Go quiet for two months, then shout
- Take the item back without talking first
Farah runs a sewing and stitching shop and sells machines on six-month plans. Zubair, a customer of hers, missed his September installment of Rs 5,000. She called the same evening, before the embarrassment could set in, and asked one simple question: "Zubair, how much can you manage today?" He sent Rs 2,000 that night. They agreed the remaining Rs 3,000 for the 24th, she wrote the new date on both copies, and his October installment stayed exactly where it was.
The plan total never moved. Rs 39,600 on the first day, Rs 39,600 at the end. He finished the machine in December and bought thread from her every month after that.
When to ask for a guarantor
A guarantor is not an insult and should never be introduced as one. It is normal for larger plans, and asking for one is far kinder than refusing the sale.
Ask when the amount is big enough to hurt you if it vanishes, when the customer is new to your street, or when his work moves him around. Do not ask a regular of ten years for a guarantor on a Rs 12,000 plan. That is how you lose a regular of ten years.
Keep the relationship clean with one rule: the guarantor must hear the numbers from you, at the start, in his own words. The exact total, the installment amount, every date, and what you would ask of him if things went wrong. Then write his name and phone number on both copies of the schedule.
The wrong way is the common way: a name scribbled down, never contacted, then a furious phone call in month five telling a man he owes Rs 20,000 he never knew about. That call ends two relationships at once. A guarantor who was told everything on day one usually becomes your best collector, because he will quietly ring the customer long before you have to.
Common questions
Is the markup on a qist plan the same thing as interest?
No, and the difference is timing. A markup is a price, decided once before the plan starts, and it never moves again no matter how long the money takes to arrive. Interest grows with time and grows more when payment is late. If your extra charge depends on a date, it has stopped being a markup.
What if the customer wants to pay the whole plan off early?
Take it, and thank him. The price was fixed at the start, so he pays the remaining installments and the plan closes. Never add anything for closing early. Early money is good money.
How much down payment should I ask for?
Roughly a quarter of the installment price for a customer you know, and a third or more for a new face. Then nudge the figure up or down so the amount left over divides into round installments. Round numbers prevent arguments and are easier for both of you to count.
A customer has missed three installments in a row. What now?
Stop sending messages and go and sit with him. Something has changed in his life and you need to know what it is. Rebuild the plan around what he can actually pay now, even if that means smaller installments over more months. A plan that finishes slowly is far better than a balance that never moves.
Should I take the item back if he cannot pay?
Only as the last step, and never as a surprise. A used fridge is worth far less than the money still owed on it, so taking it back usually costs you both. Talk first, re-date twice, and treat it as the point where you have already lost.
Can my shop assistant create qist plans without me?
Set the rules first: the maximum plan size, your standard markup, the minimum down payment, and when a guarantor is required. Write them down once. If your staff have their own logins on a shared khata, every plan carries the name of whoever created it, so a question in month four never begins with "kis ne banaya tha?".
Want to see how other shopkeepers handle the money side of a small shop? There is more on the Wasoolo blog, and the plans page shows what a growing shop gets on the paid tiers.