---
title: "Khata for Hardware & building materials"
source: https://www.lskhata.com/use-cases/hardware-store
---

# Khata for Hardware & building materials

Contractor credit, supplier orders and real margins

Hardware runs on trade credit in both directions. Khata tracks what contractors owe you, what you owe suppliers, and whether the job was actually worth doing.

## What this trade struggles with
- Contractors buy on credit and settle weeks later, if you remember to chase
- Deliveries arrive in parts and nobody records what is still outstanding
- Prices move, so you no longer know your real margin on a line
- Goods sell by metre, kilo, box and piece from the same shelf

## How Khata fits
- **Credit limits and terms** — Set a credit limit and a credit period in days per party, so a contractor's exposure is a number you decided rather than one you discover.
- **Purchase orders that track delivery** — Raise a PO, approve it, and record what actually arrived. Partial deliveries are recorded against the order, so you can see what is still owed to you.
- **Margins on moving cost** — Purchase price and running average cost are held per item, so the profit report reflects what you really paid, not last year's price.
- **Units that match the shelf** — Metre, centimetre, kilo, box, piece and dozen, so cable, cement and fittings all bill correctly from one catalogue.
- **Both sides of the ledger** — Customer dues and supplier payables sit in the same system, so your working-capital position is one view rather than two notebooks.
- **Staff who cannot see cost** — Counter staff can bill and check stock while purchase prices and margins stay restricted to you.

## Limits, stated on the page itself
- There is no per-item serial-number tracking.
- Rate contracts and customer-specific price lists are not supported; special pricing is applied per bill.

## Common questions

**Can I bill in both pieces and bulk units?**

Yes. Cement by the bag, wire by the metre and fittings by the piece all sit on one bill, because the unit is set per product rather than per shop.

**How do I handle a contractor who buys all month and pays later?**

Put them on khata. Every bill adds to their balance with a date against it, and the party ledger prints the whole month as a statement when it is time to settle. Credit limits and terms can be set per party.

**Can I give a regular contractor their own rates?**

Not as a saved price list. Rate contracts and customer-specific pricing are not supported — you apply the special rate on the bill itself. If fixed contract pricing is central to how you sell, that gap will show.

**Can I track serial numbers on tools and appliances?**

No. There is no per-item serial-number tracking, so warranty tracking by serial has to live outside the app.

**Will it warn me before I run out of a fast-moving item?**

Yes. Set a reorder level per product and low-stock alerts tell you before the shelf is empty rather than after a customer asks.