The word gets used loosely enough that software is sold as a 'khata app' when it is really a bill list. The distinction is worth being precise about, because it decides whether the thing you install can answer the question you actually have.
A khata is a running account for one person. Not a folder of their bills — one number, kept current, carried forward.
Why one number, and not a list
Because that is the question that gets asked. A customer at your counter asks what they owe. You ask yourself who to chase this week. Neither question is answered by a list of transactions — both are answered by a balance, and if the software makes you add up to get there, it has left the work with you.
This is what a paper bahi got right. The page had a carried-forward figure at the bottom, and that figure was the record. Anything that replaces it has to be at least as good at producing one trustworthy number.
The four things it has to survive
A balance is easy to keep correct when everything is simple. These four are where implementations differ, and they are worth testing on any khata app you are considering.
| What happens | What the balance must do |
|---|---|
| They pay part of what they owe | Reduce by that amount, and stay linked to what remains |
| They return an item | Reduce, without deleting the original sale |
| You entered a wrong amount | Be correctable, with the correction visible rather than silent |
| They buy again before paying | Add on top, keeping the age of the older part |
Age is half the information
Twenty thousand owed across the shop tells you almost nothing. Twenty thousand of which most is over ninety days old is a different business problem from twenty thousand that is all from this week, and the second one is usually fine.
This is the single thing a paper bahi could not do at a glance, and the clearest reason to move a khata onto a phone: sorting by how long money has been owed, rather than by who owes the most. There is a separate guide on chasing what is owed without damaging the relationship, and a free ageing calculator on this site if you want to see the shape of your own book before installing anything.
Where a khata stops
It answers who owes you. It does not tell you whether the sale was worth making, what your stock is worth, or where the month's cash went. Those are accounting questions, and they are why most shops that start with a pure khata app end up wanting billing, stock and reports behind it.
Which is the honest reason Khata is not only a khata app: the balance is the entry point, and the rest is what you need once the balance stops being the only thing you are unsure about.