Almost every shopkeeper we speak to says the same thing: giving credit is easy, asking for it back is not. The money is not usually lost because a customer refuses. It is lost because nobody wanted to have the conversation, and by the time somebody did, the balance was old enough that the customer had stopped feeling it was real.
Age is the signal, not size
The instinct is to chase the biggest number. That is usually wrong. Your largest balances often belong to your best customers, who buy a lot and settle regularly. The dangerous balance is the small one that has not moved in three months.
| Age of balance | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Under 15 days | Normal trade credit | Nothing |
| 15–30 days | Slipping, often just forgotten | One plain reminder |
| 30–60 days | Needs a conversation | Ask, and agree a date |
| Over 60 days | Will not fix itself | Agree a part payment, pause new credit |
These bands are a starting point, not a rule. A wholesale customer on 45-day terms is not late at day 40. Set your own bands and then apply them consistently, because the consistency is what stops it feeling personal.
Send it to the phone
The reason asking for money in the shop goes badly is rarely the asking. It is the audience. A customer who would happily pay tomorrow will dig in when three neighbours are listening, because now it is about standing rather than money.
A message to their phone removes the audience entirely. They can read it, feel whatever they feel about it privately, and pay without anyone watching them do it.
Decide the limit before you need it
- 1
Set a limit when you open the khata
When a customer first asks for credit, agree a ceiling out loud. It is a far easier conversation on day one than at ₹9,000.
- 2
Agree a term at the same time
Weekly, monthly, or on payday. A balance with no expected settlement date never becomes late, which is exactly why it never gets paid.
- 3
Record both against the customer
Written down, the limit is a shop policy. In your head, it is your opinion of that person — and that is what makes enforcing it feel like an insult.
- 4
Review the list weekly
Five minutes, sorted by age. Anything that has moved a band gets a message that day, before it is old enough to be embarrassing.
When somebody genuinely cannot pay
Sometimes the answer is that the money is not there. Pushing harder does not produce it, and it does cost you a customer who may be solvent again in two months.
A part payment on an agreed date is worth more than a promise of the full amount at an unspecified one — it re-establishes that the balance is real. Pause new credit while the old balance clears, and say so plainly rather than quietly refusing at the counter later.