How to use this book

Who this book is for

This book is for the people who keep a distribution business running:

• The stockist who owns the business and signs the cheques.
• The office staff who raise bills, enter receipts, file returns and chase claims.
• The salesmen who take orders and collect money on the beat.
• Support and implementation staff who help stockists set up their books and systems.
• Anyone new to an FMCG distribution business who wants to understand how the money and the goods move.

You don't need a commerce degree. If you have stood at a counter, written a bill or counted cash at the end of the day, you have enough to start.

The four parts, and why in this order

1. Keeping the books. The record: documents, accounts, debit and credit, and the reports built from them.
2. Running the business. The work that creates the record: taking orders, buying, collecting, paying staff, filing returns, closing the month.
3. FMCG trade practice. The main part. How a packet moves from the company to the kirana, and the targets, schemes, margins and claims along the way.
4. Using software and AI. What to automate, how to choose and switch software, and how to use AI without letting it decide things it shouldn't.

Each part stands on the one before it. A claim in Part 3 is a document with postings from Part 1, raised as a step in a chain from Part 2. Software in Part 4 does the same steps faster; it does not change the rules. If you read Part 3 first, you will keep running into words that Parts 1 and 2 explain.

Reading alone or in a session

Every chapter is short and carries one idea. You can read one with your morning tea.

Reading alone: read a chapter, then try the example with a bill or a ledger from your own business. One chapter a day is enough.

In a session: a trainer takes one chapter at a time. The group reads it, works through the example together, and then answers the questions out loud. Owners and staff in the same room is best — the owner learns why the clerk asks for a document, and the clerk learns why the owner cares.

Named concepts

Each chapter gives its idea a short name: the two tanks, the bill is the entry, the expiry date on money owed. The name is meant to be repeated. When a clerk says "replace, never patch", everyone in the office should know what is meant without a long explanation. One name always means one idea, in every chapter, drawing and slide.

Check yourself

Every chapter ends with three questions and the answers hidden below them. Answer before you open them, even if only in your head. If you get one wrong, read the chapter's example again — that is where the answer is. A chapter you can answer is a chapter you can use the next morning.