How to choose billing software for your fertilizer shop

Every software demo looks good. The salesperson makes a perfect bill with a perfect product in a quiet room. Your counter in June is not a quiet room.

This guide is written by the makers of AgroPay, so read it with that in mind. We have tried to make the checklist useful whichever product you choose.

Decide what your shop actually needs

Write down three things before you look at any product.

• Where you bill. One computer at the counter, several counters, or a phone?
• What the law and your CA ask of you. GST returns every month or quarter, a pesticide register, a seed or fertilizer licence to keep current.
• Where the time goes today. Totalling bills, chasing udhaar, writing the register, finding expired stock, or month-end with the CA.

Software that fixes the third list is worth paying for. Software that adds features to the first list you never use is not.

The questions to ask every vendor

1. Does it keep billing when the internet is down?
2. Where is my data stored, and can you see it?
3. Does it already know agri products, with HSN and GST rates?
4. Does it track batch and expiry, and sell the earliest expiry first?
5. Can it print a pesticide register for any month?
6. Will the bill print in my language?
7. Does it make the GSTR-1 file, and does it file it, or do I?
8. Does it keep farmer khata with dues grouped by age?
9. What does it cost over three years, including renewals and GST?
10. Can I use the full product on my own counter before paying?
11. Does it run on a phone? On two counters at once?
12. Does it make e-invoices and e-way bills, if I need them?
13. What happens to my data if I stop paying?
14. Who answers when something breaks at 7 pm, and in which language?

Ask for the answers in writing, on WhatsApp or email. A vendor who will not say what the product does not do is telling you something.

What to test in the free trial

Use real products and real customers for at least a week. In that week:

• Make a mixed bill: one seed, one fertilizer, one pesticide. Check each line’s GST by hand once.
• Give credit and take a part payment. Check the farmer’s balance the next day.
• Enter a supplier bill with batch and expiry, then sell from that product and check which batch was used.
• Cancel a bill and return part of another. Check that stock and the khata come back correctly.
• Print the pesticide register and the GST report for the week. Show them to your CA.
• Pull the network cable and make a bill.
• Take a backup and restore it on the same computer.
• Ask support one question in your language, and time the answer.

If any of these goes wrong in a week of normal use, it will go wrong in the sowing-season rush.

Compare the price over three years

Some products are sold once with a yearly maintenance fee, some as a yearly licence, some as a monthly plan with a free tier. Add up what each costs over three years, with GST, and with everything you actually need switched on. Then weigh that against the time and the mistakes it saves. A cheaper product that you stop using after two months is the most expensive one.

When not to buy software yet

If you make a handful of bills a day, are not GST-registered and have no computer at the counter, a well-kept paper register may serve you better for now. Buy software when it removes a real problem, not because a neighbour did.

Where AgroPay fits

AgroPay is built for an agri-input shop that bills from one Windows computer. Our own answers to these questions are on the comparison page, and the free trial runs for 15 days or 50 bills.