What to record on every jar delivery, and why each field matters

Every dispute at month-end starts with a missing detail. The customer says they got fewer jars. The driver says the customer was not home. The owner has a number and no proof. Good records fix this at the doorstep, one stop at a time.

You do not need a long form. You need a small set of fields, filled in every time, by the person who is standing there. This guide lists them, explains why each one earns its place and shows how they feed billing and dues. It works the same on a paper register, a spreadsheet or an app.

The minimum record per delivery

For each stop, record these.

1. Customer. Who the delivery was for.
2. Date. The day it happened, not the day it was written up.
3. Planned jars. What the standing order said should go.
4. Delivered jars. What actually went.
5. Empties returned. How many empty jars came back on this stop.
6. Price. The rate that applied to this delivery.
7. Cash received. Money handed over at the stop, if any.
8. Reason if skipped. Why the stop did not happen.
9. Extras. Any jars beyond the plan, and who asked.

Everything else is optional. Add a field only when you will use it.

Why each field matters

Customer

This sounds obvious. It fails when two customers share a name, a shop and its owner’s house are listed separately, or a driver writes only “Sharma ji”. Use one name per customer, and add the area or shop name to tell similar ones apart.

Date

Balances, ageing and invoices all depend on dates. A delivery written up three days later gets billed in the wrong period. The date also lets you answer “did we deliver last Tuesday?” without arguing.

Planned versus delivered

The gap between the two is where money and goodwill hide. If a customer is planned for three jars and gets two, someone is short. If they get four, they were given extra. Without both numbers you cannot tell which happened. The guide on short and extra deliveries goes deeper on reading this gap.

Empties returned

Each jar that goes out should eventually come back. If you only count jars delivered, empties vanish with no trace. Record empties on every stop, separately from jars delivered. A running balance of jars out versus jars back shows who is holding too many. See empty jar tracking for how to act on it.

Price

Prices differ. One customer pays the standard rate, another has a negotiated rate, and a rush extra may cost more. If the price is not on the record, the invoice depends on someone’s memory. Write the rate that applied. If it differs from the usual, mark it.

Cash received

Money handed over at the doorstep needs to be recorded at that moment. Cash that is “remembered” at night is often forgotten or mixed up with another customer’s. Record the amount, and the method if you take more than one. This is what lets you show a customer what they owe after the payment, rather than before it.

Reason if skipped

A skip without a reason is a puzzle. Customer away, shop closed, road blocked, no empties ready, refused, driver ran out of time. Each reason leads to a different action. Away customers need a pause. Blocked roads need a route fix. “Driver ran out of time” means the route is too long. Over a month, the reasons show you what is going wrong. Also record empties on a skipped stop. Sometimes the customer hands back empties even if the delivery did not happen.

Extras

An extra is a jar beyond the plan, sometimes by request, sometimes because the driver had spare. Record how many and who asked. Extras that go unrecorded are free water. Extras that are recorded may become a standing order if they repeat.

Common recording mistakes

• Writing totals only. “12 jars” for a route tells you nothing about which customer got what.
• Filling in at night. Memory fades. Entries made hours later miss details and invite guesses.
• Merging empties into delivered. Writing net jars hides losses.
• Skipping the reason. “Not delivered” with no cause cannot be acted on.
• Overwriting instead of correcting. Cross out and rewrite with a note so the history stays readable. On a sheet, add a note rather than silently changing a cell.
• Forgetting the price when it changes. Rush rates and special deals vanish into the average.
• Different spellings of one customer. Balances split into two rows.
• Collecting cash without writing the amount. The customer remembers what they paid. You do not.
• No daily check. Nobody compares the day’s record with the plan until month-end.

Checklist for the driver and the office

For the driver at each stop:

• Confirm the customer name on the stop.
• Count jars delivered and write the number.
• Count empties taken back and write the number.
• Note any cash received and the amount.
• If skipped, write the reason before leaving.
• If the customer asks for more, write the extra.

For the office at the end of the day:

• Compare delivered with planned, stop by stop.
• Check that every skip has a reason.
• Check that empties are written on every stop.
• Match cash received with the cash handed in.
• Mark the day as final so nobody changes it later.

Example layout

The table below is an Example. The customers and numbers are made up and round, only to show the layout. They are illustrative, not real results.

Reading it. Customer B returned one empty for two delivered, so the bottle balance moved by one jar. Customer C got one extra. Customer D took no delivery but handed back two empties, which still count. The prices of ₹30 and ₹35 are made-up round numbers.

How this feeds billing and dues

Each field has a downstream use.

• Delivered jars times price gives the amount billed for each stop.
• Cash received reduces what the customer owes.
• Date decides which month the delivery falls in and how old a debt is.
• Planned versus delivered explains differences when a customer disputes a bill.
• Empties tell you how many jars each customer is holding.
• Skip reasons stop you billing for deliveries that did not happen.
• Extras show what to bill beyond the standing order.

With these in place, month-end becomes a matter of adding up, not remembering. The guide on month-end billing without disputes shows how to use this record at invoice time.

How Pyaau helps

Pyaau is an Android app for jar delivery businesses.

Its stop screen already holds most of these fields. The driver swipes a stop delivered or skipped, and a skip needs a reason. Delivered jars and empties taken back are set with a one-tap “Match”. Short and extra show on the stop as -1 or +2. Extra orders and plant pickups record the amount received, with a flag when the price changed. Each customer has a ledger, and the office closes the day with a summary and Lock Run.

When you add a customer who already owes you money, has paid ahead, or already holds your jars, you can enter that opening position. The amount owed (or paid ahead) becomes their starting balance and the jars become their starting count. It shows as the first row of the customer’s timeline, “Opening balance”. No invoice is made for it.

If you work on paper or in a spreadsheet, the fields above still apply.