A khata is the record of who owes you and whom you owe. These guides explain how to keep one that balances, how much credit to give, how to fix mistakes and how to move from paper to a phone.
A khata is an account book: a page for each person that records what you gave them and what you got from them, so the balance is always clear. Each customer, supplier or helper has their own khata. It began on paper and now also lives in apps such as Munshi, in Urdu and English.
Keep an udhaar ledger by giving every person one account, writing each credit or payment the moment it happens, and matching the cash in the drawer to the cash book every evening. Munshi, from DIGIT, does that job on the phone in English or Urdu, offline, and the balance updates itself. A WhatsApp reminder opens already written, and you press Send yourself.
Set up a digital khata for customer credit in an afternoon, and keep it accurate in a few seconds a day.
You don’t need accounting training. You need the same few habits, every day.
Decide each customer’s limit and due date before you give credit, write it in the note, and say it kindly. Munshi does not block credit at a limit, so you track it through each customer’s balance.
Typed the wrong amount, picked the wrong customer or deleted something by mistake? Every common slip has a quick fix.
A calm, step-by-step plan to replace a paper register with a digital ledger without losing a single balance.
To digitize a paper khata book, pick one cut-off date, list every customer with their balance, enter or import those balances once, check the total against the paper, then run both books for a week before you stop using the notebook. The checking step is what stops balances being lost.
A digital khata book is the paper bahi khata on your phone: you record credit given and payments received for each person, and the app keeps the balance, shows totals and can send reminders and statements. Good ones work offline and in Urdu.
Keep one page per customer with a date, an amount, what it was for and a running balance, update it the moment credit is given or paid, and look at the total every week. A khata app does the adding and the remembering.
Customers owe you. You owe suppliers. Here is how to keep both sides of udhaar in one app, so you never miss a payment.
Tap your business name on Home, then Add Personal. Money you lend or borrow yourself is kept apart from every business, and the same person can appear in both without the two mixing.
When a customer says they do not remember, a calm, dated record does the talking. Here is how to settle it without losing the relationship.
We looked at anonymous, counted-only data from about 500 businesses that used Munshi in its first two months. Shops write their khata in the evening, most credit is small, notes matter, and a missing phone number is the biggest reason a reminder is never sent. No names, numbers or amounts of any customer were read.
Honest comparisons between Munshi and other khata apps, written by the maker of Munshi and marked as such. Each one says where the other app is the better choice.
Simple bookkeeping for a small shop: a daily cash record, the day’s closing, expenses, bank and wallet payments, profit and loss, and zakat. Plain words, no accounting degree needed.
How different businesses keep their khata: kiryana stores, pharmacies, wholesalers, mobile shops, tailors and freelancers. Each guide uses that trade’s real credit patterns.
Guides for Pakistani and South Asian businesses outside Pakistan: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, the USA, India and Bangladesh. Munshi keeps each business in its own currency.
Step-by-step guides to Munshi itself: getting started, reminders, statements, backup and restore, import, several businesses and sign-in.
Munshi