The supplier who hands you goods and no bill

Write the delivery down yourself, at the step, before the van leaves. Date, item, the quantity you counted, and the rate on every line. Say the total back to him out loud, then get one small acknowledgement: a signature, a photo, or a message he replies to. That page is what settles every argument that comes later.

The van pulls away and the record goes with it

Ten past eight in the morning. The van stops half on the footpath and the driver is already sliding cartons onto the step while you are still counting the cash box. Rashid, the man who brings your cooking oil, calls the rate over his shoulder. Rs 2,460 a carton, twelve cartons. By the time you look up he is back in the seat. No bill, no delivery note, nothing on a pad. A number he said and a number you heard.

Often this is not a plan. A small supplier who loads his own van before dawn may have no bill book and never had one. Sometimes it is how a man chooses to trade. Either way the result on your side of the counter is the same: you are now the only person keeping a record of something that involved two people.

Most shopkeepers do not notice until the first argument. His memory of the rate will always be better than yours. Your memory of the count will always be better than his. Neither of you is lying. You are each remembering the half that suits you, which is what memory does.

Four things go wrong when nothing is on paper

The first is the rate. With no bills there is no history, so a rise of Rs 30 a carton hides completely. You never compare, because there is nothing to compare against.

The second is the count. Twelve cartons were agreed, eleven came off the van, and you find out on the day the shelf runs dry, a week later. Raise it then and his answer is honest and useless: he remembers loading twelve.

The third is payment. You hand him Rs 20,000 against a running total that lives in two heads. Neither of you writes which delivery the money settles, so a month on there is one figure he believes and another you believe, and no line to point at.

The fourth is returns. A carton is leaking, or three pieces are the wrong size. Nothing on paper says he brought them, or what you were charged. A decent supplier takes them back anyway. One who is short of cash is suddenly not sure they came from him.

What a slow rate rise really costs

Of those four, the rate takes the most money, because it never announces itself. Nobody hands you a rise. The figure just sits a little higher next time, and higher again after that.

Say five deliveries of cooking oil come in with no bill on any of them

First delivery, 12 cartons, he says Rs 2,400Rs 28,800

Second delivery, 12 cartons, the rate is now Rs 2,430Rs 29,160

Third delivery, 12 cartons at Rs 2,460Rs 29,520

Fourth delivery, you pay for 14 cartons, 13 come off the van1 carton short

Fifth delivery, 12 cartons at Rs 2,500Rs 30,000

Extra paid because the rate crept, deliveries two to fiveRs 3,400

The carton you paid for and never hadRs 2,480

What five deliveries with nothing on paper cost youRs 5,880

Made-up figures, chosen to show the shape. Put your own last five deliveries in these rows and the quiet loss stops being quiet.

Look at the missing carton against the creep. One carton short is Rs 2,480 and you argue about it. The creep is Rs 3,400 and nobody feels it at all. The loud loss gets a fight, the quiet one gets paid every month without a word.

The only defence is a rate column of your own, per item, per delivery. Write the rate even when it has not moved. The same number four times in a row is exactly what makes the fifth one visible. What you paid is also the floor under the price you put on the shelf, and a floor that shifted without your knowledge quietly eats the margin you thought you had.

Your own note is proof of habit, not proof of law

Your written page is not a legal document. What counts as proof, and what paperwork a business is expected to keep, differ from one area to another, and that is a question for somebody who knows the rules where you trade.

But it is not what the page is for. Your page is for the ordinary argument across a counter, where there is no court and no lawyer, only two men who will need each other again.

In that argument, habit is worth a great deal. A supplier who has watched you count every carton and write every rate for a year behaves differently from one who has watched you wave the van off. He is not a criminal either way. He is a man who knows which shop is easy to be casual with.

What your own delivery note must carry, every single time

• The date, and the time if his van comes twice in a day
• The supplier's name and the driver's name
• Every item, written by the name you use in your own shop
• The quantity you counted off the van, not the quantity he called out
• The rate for each line, written even when it has not changed
• The total, said back to him out loud before he leaves
• What you paid today and what is still owed on this delivery
• A blank line at the bottom for his signature, initials or thumb mark

Keep it in one book, always the same one. A record only works if it lives in a fixed place.

The routine at the step, in two minutes

All of it belongs at the step, before the van moves. Once he has pulled away you are writing from memory, and memory is what failed you in the first place.

The two minutes at the step, while the cartons are still on the ground

1. 1Open your book before the first carton comes offWrite the date and the supplier's name at the top of a fresh line.
2. 2Count the goods yourself, before the van movesCount the cartons, and open one to see that it is full. A count done later is a memory.
3. 3Ask the rate for each item and write it there and thenAsk even when you think you know it. Asking is what keeps it from moving.
4. 4Add it up and say the total back to him out loud"Twelve cartons at Rs 2,460. That is Rs 29,520. Agreed?" Silence there is your agreement.
5. 5Get one acknowledgement, however smallHis signature on your page, or a message with the totals that he replies to.
6. 6Write what you paid now and what stays owed on this deliveryA payment with no delivery beside it is the argument you will have in three months.
7. 7Add the line to your supplier's running balance the same dayOne column per supplier is enough. The number at the bottom is what you both quote.

Two of those steps carry the weight. Counting before the van leaves is the one everybody skips on a busy morning, and the one that costs a carton. Saying the total out loud does more than confirm a number: it puts the figure in the air while he is standing there and can still object.

If you have a helper, this is his job on delivery days, with one rule: he counts, you write. Two pairs of eyes on one van is why stock goes missing far less often where two people sign off on what came in.

Get something back, and know how to ask for it

Writing it down is half the job. Getting an acknowledgement is the other half, and it costs nothing.

Strongest first. A message you send him with the date, items, quantities, rates and total, and a one-word reply from him. That is the best thing available to most shopkeepers: dated by the phone, and sitting on both handsets, so neither of you is its only keeper. Below that, a page from your own book with his signature, initials or thumb mark. Below that, a slip in his own handwriting, however rough. Below that, a photo of the stacked cartons with the delivery man in the frame, taken openly. Last, the driver's initials on your page, weak but far better than an empty line.

Ask for the bill on the first delivery. On the fortieth it sounds like a complaint about the last thirty-nine. The sentence is short: "Rashid, can you write me a slip with the items and the rate? It is for my own record." It works because it puts the reason on you. You are not checking him, you are keeping your book straight, and nobody argues with that.

If he has no pad, let it go and offer the other half. "Then let me send you the totals on the phone after you leave, and just reply so I know I heard right." Almost every supplier agrees, because it costs him one word.

Paying against a delivery, and when to walk away

Six in the evening, the shop has gone quiet, and Rashid comes for money. He says the balance is Rs 61,000. You had Rs 58,500 in your head. Neither of you can point at a delivery, so you sit on the step doing three months of arithmetic out of memory, and the more certain man wins. Certainty is not evidence, but across a counter it behaves like it.

So never pay cash against a spoken total. Pay against a delivery. Write the date, the amount, and which delivery the money settles, then say those three back to him before he pockets it. If Rs 20,000 is coming off four deliveries, name the four. It is the same discipline that ends the fight when a customer says he already paid you, pointed the other way.

Keep a running balance for him the way you keep one for a customer. Every delivery adds, every payment subtracts, and the figure at the bottom is the one you both quote. A column per supplier at the back of your register does this perfectly well. Wasoolo does it by keeping the supplier as a party: each delivery carries its own date, items and rates, a payment attaches to a delivery instead of floating loose, and a photo of the goods or of your written page can sit on the entry. Because the buy rate lives on the item, a rate that moved between two deliveries shows up on its own instead of being remembered wrongly. That balance also tells you whether buying stock on credit is still comfortable or has got ahead of your cash.

Keep all of this in proportion. Plenty of good, cheap, reliable suppliers work without a bill book, and refusing every one of them would cost a small shop real money and real range. The answer is your own record, never a boycott. Which supplier you keep is a bigger decision than any single delivery, as one supplier or several sets out.

There are honest signals to stop. A count short more than once. A rate that changes and gets denied when you show him your own column. A flat refusal to acknowledge a total in any form: no slip, no signature, no reply. The first two may be carelessness. The third is a choice, and it tells you what the next argument will look like.

Common questions

My supplier has no bill book at all. Is he doing something wrong?

Usually he is just small. A man who loads his own van before dawn often has no printed pad and never had one. Treat it as a practical gap, not a question about his character. Keep the record he cannot give you.

What is the strongest record I can get without a printed bill?

A message listing the date, items, quantities, rates and total, with a short reply from him. It is dated by the phone, it sits on both handsets, and it costs neither of you anything. A signature on your own page comes next.

He says twelve cartons came and I say eleven. What now?

If you counted at the step and wrote it there, show him the page and ask him to check his loading. If you counted a week later, you will probably pay for the twelfth, and you should. Then count at the step from the next van on.

Is a photo of the goods enough on its own?

It helps, but it proves the goods existed rather than the rate you agreed. Take it openly, cartons stacked and the delivery man in the frame, and use it beside your written page instead of in place of it.

How do I keep a running balance when neither of us has invoices?

One column per supplier. Every delivery adds, every payment subtracts, and you both quote the figure at the bottom. A register does this fine. Wasoolo does the same by keeping the supplier as a party, each delivery dated and each payment attached to what it settles.

Should I stop buying from a supplier who puts nothing on paper?

Only once the pattern is clear. One short count is carelessness. A second short count, a denied rate change, and a refusal to acknowledge a total in any form is a pattern. Until then, keep your own record and keep a supplier worth having.