Running a credit ledger: three holes in the paper book
Most losses on customer credit come not from the customer who does not pay but from the record that was never kept. How to build a ledger that holds where the debt came from, who wrote it and when.
Buying on credit is the oldest way a small business in Turkey keeps a customer. For a corner shop a paper book, or a pad next to the till, looks like enough — until one line becomes an argument.
The loss usually does not come from the customer who will not pay. That customer is the minority. The loss comes from the record itself.
Three holes in the paper book
It does not say where the debt came from. The book says "Ahmet — 340". Three weeks later Ahmet says "I had two teas that day" and all you hold is a number with nothing behind it. You can win the argument and still lose the customer.
It does not say who wrote it. It may have been the evening waiter, it may have been someone else. If the figure is wrong, nobody knows who would remember.
The date is approximate. No date is written, or a day is skipped. The conversation about terms begins with "was it last month or the one before".
All three come from the same root: the book records the result, not the event.
The four things a ledger must hold
For a credit entry to stand on its own it needs:
- Date and time. If there are two entries on one day, they must be
tellable apart.
- The amount.
- What it came from. Which table, which bill, which items. That line is
the answer to all three arguments above.
- Who it was written to. Not a name, a record. When two customers share a
first name, a name is not enough.
Collections need the same discipline: date, amount and a note. A line reading "payment on account" answers the "what was this for" question three months later.
A balance is not stored, it is summed
A common mistake: writing the balance in a corner of the book and updating it by hand with every transaction. Two records — the movements and the balance — will eventually disagree; one gets updated, the other is forgotten, and there is no way to tell which is right.
The balance should be summed from the movements. Debts add, payments subtract, the result is the balance. That leaves a single source of truth, and "where did this figure come from" always has a visible answer.
Keep revenue and collections apart
A credit sale is a sale that happened: goods left, service was given. It belongs in revenue. But the money did not reach the till: it does not belong in collections.
Add the two together and at the end of the day you will see money that is not in the drawer. "Revenue was good but there is no cash" usually starts here. The same separation applies to items on the house: they belong in neither, because no sale took place.
Make the reminder easy
The hard part of credit is not the record, it is the reminder. With a clean record the conversation changes: instead of "you owe me" you say "3 September, table 4, 340 ₺". There is nothing to argue with, because what is in front of the customer is an itemised list, not a claim.
Set a ceiling as well. An undefined limit lets the debt grow unnoticed, and past some point the customer simply stops coming. Saying the ceiling up front is easier than mentioning it afterwards.
Where to start
If you have a paper book, enter the balances as an opening line and do not throw the paper away. Then one rule: every debt should come from a sale. The habit of writing debts by hand brings back the "where did this come from" question.
In our QR menu and bill system the credit ledger works this way: when you close a bill as credit, the debt drops into the ledger by itself, what was eaten at which table stays behind the line, and the balance is summed from the movements. Free, and it asks for nothing beyond signing up.
Sık sorulanlar
- Does credit count as revenue?
- The sale happened, so it belongs in revenue; the money did not reach the till, so it does not belong in collections. Adding the two into one figure means showing money you do not have. A report should keep them on separate lines.
- Should I take a signature for the debt?
- Most businesses do not for small amounts, and that is understandable — nobody wants to sour the relationship. But if the date, the amount and what it came from are written down, the reminder conversation is far easier: the argument becomes "which day", not "did I pay".
- How often should I ask for payment?
- There is no single right interval; weekly is common with neighbourhood regulars, end of month with business accounts. What matters is that the interval is known. An undefined term turns every reminder into a fresh negotiation.
- What do I do with the old paper book?
- Enter the balances into the new ledger as an opening line and keep the paper. Let that line read "carried over"; if a disagreement comes up in the first months, the paper is what you will rely on.