Part 4 · Using software and AI · Chapter 4.3
Clean masters first
Draft: the wording may change.
The idea
Masters are the lists every document picks from: customers, products, prices, tax rates, routes and staff. A bill is mostly choices from masters. If the masters are clean, thousands of bills are right without anyone checking them. If one master is wrong, every bill that uses it is wrong. So: clean masters first, before the first bill.
What a master holds
| Master | What it holds | What breaks if it is wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | Name, address, GSTIN, route, credit limit, credit days | Outstanding splits, wrong tax type, no credit check |
| Product | Name, pack, HSN code, GST rate, MRP, brand | Wrong tax on every bill, wrong brand totals |
| Price list | Rate for each type of buyer, scheme rules | Wrong margin, credit notes later |
| Tax | GST rates as the law sets them | Every return wrong |
| Route / beat | Which outlets on which day | Missed calls, wrong beat reports |
| Staff | Name, role, login, salesman code | Incentive to the wrong person |
At the counter
Ravi Stores was entered three times over two years: "Ravi Stores", "Ravi Stores (Main Road)" and "RAVI STORE". Bills went to all three. Ravi's real outstanding is ₹18,400, but no single ledger shows more than ₹7,900, so his credit limit of ₹15,000 never stopped a bill. The salesman kept supplying. When Ravi slowed down paying, the stockist found ₹18,400 stuck, not ₹7,900.
One product had the wrong GST rate in its master. It was sold on 1,200 bills over four months. Every one of those bills, the GST return and the company claim built on them were wrong. One fix in the master stops new errors; the old bills still need credit or debit notes (chapter 1.14).
Rules for clean masters
- One thing, one record. Search before you create. Merge duplicates; do not open "Ravi Stores 2".
- Never guess. If you do not know a customer's GSTIN or pincode, leave it empty and find out. A plausible wrong number is worse than a blank, because a blank gets noticed.
- Tags, not new accounts. Route, salesman and brand are tags on the customer or bill, not separate sales accounts (chapter 1.6).
- Tax rates from the source. Take GST rates and HSN codes from the official GST portal or the company's price list, not from memory. Check the current rate on the portal whenever the law changes.
- One person approves new masters. Anyone can request a new customer; one person creates it.
- Old masters are closed, not deleted. A product no longer sold is marked inactive so old bills still read correctly.
Common mistake
Letting the billers create customers and products "on the fly" while billing, to save time. Within a month there are duplicates, spelling variants and products with no tax rate. The time saved at the counter is lost many times over at month-end, at GST filing and when the company asks for outlet-wise sales.
Where you'll use this
Clean masters are what make three questions: what kind, with whom, for which part (chapter 1.6) work in software: the account, the party and the cost centre on each posting all come from masters. Order to cash, stock, GST and incentives in the next chapters all assume this chapter is done.
Check yourself
- Ravi Stores has three customer records. What goes wrong with his credit limit?
- You don't know a new retailer's GSTIN. What do you enter?
- A product is wrong in the master for four months. Does fixing the master fix the old bills?
Answers
- His outstanding is split across three ledgers, so no single one crosses the limit and the credit check never stops a bill.
- Nothing — leave it blank and find the real number. Never a guessed one.
- No. It stops new errors. Old bills need credit or debit notes, because they are already posted.