Jewellery shop software in Lahore

The gold trade in old Lahore

The Walled City of Lahore Authority describes Sarafa Bazar, also called Sooha Bazar, as the market that caters to every part of gold trading, buying and selling, close to Rang Mahal chowk. Nearby, Wacho Wali Bazaar deals in silver among other goods, and Anarkali has long had jewellery shops among its cloth and garment stalls.

The way gold is sold here has its own vocabulary. Prices follow the day's rate per tola. A piece is priced from its net weight at that rate for its karat, plus banwai for the making, and less kaat when old gold is bought back. Families bring old jewellery to exchange for new designs before weddings, and a large share of a jeweller's year is custom work: sets made to order by karigars who take gold out of the safe and return finished pieces with some wastage.

That makes a jeweller's records unusually exact. A gram missing between the safe and the workshop is real money, and a customer who returns months later expects the same weight and karat on the slip.

Many old-city jewellers still keep this in registers and on slips written by hand. The arithmetic is done on a calculator for every customer, and the rate has to be changed on every price tag when gold moves.

Payments are large and often mixed: part in cash, part by bank transfer, part in old gold, and sometimes a balance that the family clears after the wedding. Each part has to be counted against the right bill, and the old gold has to reach the safe at its tested weight and karat.

A Lahore jeweller's day on Nafaa

Morning rate. Type the 24K rate per tola or per gram. The 22K, 21K and 18K rates follow from their purity, and you can change any of them. Every piece in stock is now priced at that rate.

Pieces. Each piece keeps its karat, gross weight, stone weight and net weight, banwai, kaat, polish and hallmark charges, and its stones. Nothing is priced from memory.

Old gold. A customer brings her mother's set to exchange. Weigh it, test the karat, take off the stones and value it at the buying rate less kaat. The slip prints with her CNIC, and the value can go against the new bill.

Custom orders. A bridal set is ordered with an advance in cash or in old gold. The order names the karigar, the due date and the money still to come.

Karigar accounts. Gold given to each karigar, what came back with the wastage allowed, and the labour owed, so the safe and the workshop always agree.

Metal stock. Kachcha sona and chandi by karat, valued at today's rate, with every movement in and out of the safe.

Questions from Lahore jewellers

Can I sell silver as well as gold?

Yes. Metal stock is kept by metal and karat, and silver pieces are priced from their own rate.

Can a salesman change the price while bargaining?

He can change the rate or the banwai on the bill if his role allows it. Roles decide who may change prices.

Does the old gold slip show the customer's details?

Yes. The slip carries the weight, karat, deductions and the customer's CNIC.

Can I take a repair without mixing it with my stock?

Yes. A repair records the customer's piece with its weight and karat, the promised day, the charge and any advance, apart from the pieces you sell, so the showcase count stays clean.

Can I see the value of my stock at today's rate?

Yes. Metal stock is valued at the rate you set this morning, by karat, so a rise in the gold rate shows straight away in what the safe is worth.

Where can I read about gold-rate pricing?

See gold rate pricing for jewellery shops and the jewellery page.