How to close a van's day: stock and cash reconciliation in fifteen minutes

It is 7 in the evening. The van is back, the salesman wants to go home, and the owner wants to know how the day went. Without a fixed method, this is where arguments start: a few pieces missing, cash that “should be” more, and nobody sure which figure is right.

A van’s day can be closed in fifteen minutes with two formulas and a fixed order of counting. Here they are, in a form you can use with a notebook, a spreadsheet or any software.

The stock formula

Loaded in the morning = sold on bills + given free + returned to the godown + damaged + short

“Short” is whatever is left after everything else is counted, and the target is zero. Work product by product, and count in the unit you loaded: crates as crates, loose pieces as pieces. Mixing units is the most common reason a correct van looks wrong.

The cash formula

Cash to hand over = cash from today’s bills + cash collected on old bills − expenses paid from the bag (with slips)

Keep UPI completely separate. It is already in the bank, so check it against the bank app, not the cash bag. Credit given today is not cash either; it belongs in the shop’s balance. Adding UPI or credit into the cash figure is the most common reason cash “doesn’t tally” when nothing is actually missing.

Count in this order

1. Unload the unsold stock and count it with the salesman standing there.
2. Put damaged goods to one side and write down why each item is damaged.
3. For each product, compare loaded with sold + free + returned + damaged. Note any gap.
4. Count the cash and match it against the cash formula.
5. Check UPI in the bank app against the UPI bills.
6. Both of you agree the figures, and the day is closed.

Counting with the salesman present is not a formality. People accept a result they watched being worked out, even when it goes against them. A count done after he has gone home looks like an accusation the next morning, even when it is correct.

Five usual reasons a van comes back short

1. Free goods given but not put on the bill. The scheme was real, the paperwork was not.
2. A unit mix-up. Loaded as two crates, billed as 40 pieces when a crate holds 24.
3. A shop return taken onto the van but not written down.
4. Broken items thrown away on the road instead of being brought back and recorded.
5. Goods sold without a bill.

Only the fifth one is theft. The first four are process problems, and in most vans they account for most of the gap. Check them before you accuse anyone. Getting it wrong once costs you a salesman’s trust for a long time. (The money side of these leaks is in where a distributor’s margin goes.)

Cash short? Check these first

• UPI payments counted as if they were cash.
• A part payment taken but not written against its bill.
• Fuel, toll or loading charges paid from the bag without a slip.
• An old bill’s payment entered on today’s bill by mistake.

Small rules that keep it at fifteen minutes

• Same time every evening, same place, one sheet per van.
• A shortage is written down as a shortage, never quietly “adjusted” into another product.
• One short day is noise. The same product short with the same salesman three weeks running is a pattern. That is when you talk to him, calmly and with the sheets in front of you.
• If you deal in returnable crates, count the empties at the same time. See how to track returnable crates.

How Mulberry Sales does it

The van is loaded against a salesman in the morning and he bills only from what is on it. Scheme items go on the bill as free lines. Unloading at night puts unsold stock back into the godown count, and clocking out settles the van’s stock and cash. Damaged stock is written off at what it cost you, so it shows as a number in the day’s profit instead of an unexplained gap (Growth plan and up). End Day shows the cash to hand over with UPI kept separate, plus the day’s profit at cost. See van sales software.