Common Billing Mistakes in Wine Shops

The mistake:

Billing happens in “quantity = 1” without clearly identifying bottle size. During excise inspection, stock is checked size-wise, not item-wise.

How software causes it:

Generic billing software treats liquor as a normal item, not as size-based inventory. One item code, one stock — no size logic.

Result: Daily closing stock mismatch and excise objections.

The mistake:

Sales happen, bills are printed, but actual physical stock doesn’t match system stock.

How software causes it:

• No real-time stock locking
• No excise-safe stock deduction logic
• Manual adjustments allowed without audit trail

Result: “System mein stock hai, godown mein nahi.”

The mistake:

Cashier edits price directly during billing.

How software causes it:

Software allows free price editing, ignoring MRP or excise-approved rate structure.

Result: Rate variation issues, penalty risk, and trust problems during inspection.

The mistake:

Same bill number appears twice or sequence breaks.

How software causes it:

• Weak bill-number locking
• Offline billing without sync rules
• Poor crash recovery

Result: Excise officers treat this as serious compliance violation.

The mistake:

Bills generated outside permitted selling hours or mixed between shifts.

How software causes it:

No shift-wise or time-based restriction built into the billing logic.

Result: Mismatch between sales register and excise norms.

The mistake:

Every morning starts with stock differences.

How software causes it:

• No day-end compulsory closing
• No auto carry-forward of size-wise closing stock
• Allowing back-dated entries

Result: Daily register becomes unreliable.

The mistake:

Staff manually prepares excise registers in Excel or notebook.

How software causes it:

Software does not generate excise-ready reports, forcing manual work.

Result: Human errors, overwriting, and last-minute stress during inspection.

The mistake:

Entries are edited or deleted without record.

How software causes it:

No user-level permission control or change logs.

Result: “Yeh correction kisne ki?” — No answer.

The mistake:

Billing stops or data gets corrupted.

How software causes it:

Cloud-only systems without offline safety or poor local backup options.

Result: Lost bills, missing stock movement.

The biggest mistake:

Using normal retail software for a legally controlled excise business.

How software causes it:

The system is built for biscuits and soap — not for:

• Size-wise liquor control
• Excise inspection
• Departmental reporting