How to Manage Jewellery Workshop and Karigar Work

Why the workshop is where stock records break

In most jewellery businesses the single largest unexplained difference at audit is metal out with karigars. It is not usually dishonesty. It is that issued metal has left the tray, has not left the business, and has nowhere in an ordinary stock register to sit. A piece count has no row for “in the workshop”, so the metal simply stops being visible until something finished comes back.

Everything below follows from insisting that issued metal remains yours and remains counted. Once that is true, the awkward conversations become arithmetic instead of memory.

The four moments that matter

1. Issue. Metal leaves the counter. Weight, purity and fine weight are recorded against a named karigar and a job.
2. Expect. The job carries what should come back: the finished weight, and the wastage you have agreed to allow.
3. Receive. The finished pieces are weighed. Actual is compared to expected while the karigar is standing there.
4. Settle. Labour is calculated and the karigar’s balance is adjusted, with any shortfall beyond the allowance accounted for explicitly.

Skipping the second moment is the common failure. A job with no expected weight cannot be reconciled, only accepted.

What to record when you issue

• Who. A named karigar with a ledger of their own, not “workshop”.
• What. Gross weight, purity, and the fine weight that follows from it. Fine weight is what lets you compare an issue of 22K scrap against a return of 22K bangles without arguing about alloy.
• What for. The job: how many pieces, of what kind, to what design.
• On what terms. The wastage allowance and the basis for labour, both agreed now.
• When. The date issued and the date expected, so an overdue job surfaces without anyone remembering to ask.

Agreeing a wastage allowance before the job starts

Wastage is real. Metal is lost in melting, drawing, filing and polishing, and a karigar who returns exactly what they were given has probably given you back something you did not want. The question is not whether to allow wastage but whether the allowance was agreed in advance and written down.

Allowances differ by work. Fine chain and filigree lose more than plain bangles; a repair on an existing piece loses very little. Set the allowance per job rather than as one shop rule, record it as a percentage of the issued weight, and let the system calculate the expected return from it. Then the conversation on receipt is about a number both of you already accepted.

Receiving the work: expected against actual

Weigh each finished piece, not the batch. A batch weight hides which piece is light, and the piece that is light is the one you will be asked about later. Here is a job worked through end to end.

Six bangles came back. Weighed one at a time, they are:

Settling labour

Labour is usually calculated on the finished weight, sometimes per piece, sometimes as a lump sum for a job. Whichever basis you use, settle it against the job rather than as a loose payment, so the karigar’s ledger reads as a sequence of jobs and payments rather than a running argument. A karigar balance that can be read back job by job is the difference between a disagreement that takes five minutes and one that takes a week.

Repairs are not your stock

A customer’s piece brought in for repair is on your premises and is not yours. It must not sit in saleable stock, for two reasons: it overstates your holding, and sooner or later somebody sells it. Keep repairs in their own flow, with the customer, the piece as received, what was agreed, and what it weighed going out. At audit, count repairs separately from stock and never add the two totals.

Replacements

A replacement is different from a repair: a piece goes back to the workshop and a different piece comes to the customer. Both sides need recording, against each other, so the stock effect is visible on both. Not every shop works this way, which is why repairs and replacements are modules a business turns on when it uses them rather than screens everybody has to look at.

What to agree before the first job

Most workshop disputes are really disagreements about terms that were never stated. Before any metal changes hands, settle five things in words both sides would repeat the same way: the wastage allowance and what it is a percentage of; whether labour is charged on issued or finished weight; who carries the loss when a piece has to be remade; what happens to filings and sweepings; and how long a job should take.

None of this is unusual and none of it is adversarial. It is the same courtesy a supplier extends when they quote before delivering. Written down once per karigar, it turns every later conversation into a reference rather than a negotiation, and it protects the karigar as much as the shop — a good one is being judged against a number they accepted, not against a mood.

What the workshop reports should tell you

• Metal still out, by karigar, in fine weight. This is the figure your audit needs.
• Jobs open longer than expected, so a slow job is a question and not a surprise.
• Wastage by karigar over time, which is the only fair way to judge an allowance.
• Karigar balances, and what each payment settled.

How DataJewellers does this

Workshop and karigar management follows exactly the cycle above: issue metal with weight, purity and fine weight recorded against a named karigar; hold the expected return on the job; record what came back and see the difference before labour is settled; and keep karigar balances and payments with a history you can read. Job states run from issued through received to completed, so metal still out is a report rather than a recollection. Karigar jobs are on by default; repairs and replacements are enabled per business.

Because issued metal stays inside the business total, jewellery inventory management can show the holding split between the counter, the workshop and metal in transit, which is what makes a count close. Finished pieces come back into stock with their own item codes and printed tags, so they enter the counter the same way a purchase does — see purchase management for the equivalent flow on goods bought in.