Goods borrowed from a neighbouring shop: record swaps and returns

Borrowing goods from a neighbour is routine at a market or among shops on the same street. A customer asks for something you do not stock, so you run next door. Or you hand your surplus to a neighbour who will help you out another day. It is a good habit: the customer does not walk away and relationships grow stronger. There is only one condition: write it all down. Otherwise, a few days later the argument starts, "I gave it back" against "no, you did not", and the goods vanish between two notebooks.

Three kinds of swap

They look the same, but in fact they are three different situations and are recorded differently:

1. Borrowing: you take goods for a while and return the same item when your own stock arrives.
2. Buying: you take goods at an agreed price, sell them to a customer and pay your neighbour.
3. Commission: you sell somebody else's goods; if they sell you pay a share, if not you return them.

State which one it is in the very first conversation. Many disagreements grow out of "but I bought it" against "no, I only lent it for a while".

Commission needs a special rule: set the return deadline for unsold goods in advance, for example two weeks. Otherwise they sit on the shelf for months and everyone forgets whose they are. The share can be a percentage or a fixed sum; what matters is that the figure is stated and written down on day one. The same goes for price: ask beforehand whether you may sell below the price your neighbour has set.

One entry, five facts

Write one line in your notebook for every swap. It should contain: the date, from whom or to whom, what and how many, on what terms, and the return deadline. For example: "Monday. From Rustam 6 batteries, borrowed, will return in two days." If the neighbour writes the same line in his own book, the two notebooks check each other.

Give this its own page and call it "With neighbours". When open lines are gathered in one place, they are easy to review at the end of the week.

How it looks in your balance

Borrowed goods are not yours, so do not include them in your main balance. Put them on the shelf separately or stick on a coloured slip: "Rustam's". Otherwise, at a stock-take they will look like "surplus" and spoil the true balance. A small habit helps too: stick a label with a name and date on borrowed goods, such as "From Rustam, Monday". Three days later you see at a glance what has been sitting there and for how long.

Goods you gave away are not an issue but a temporary state. Move them from your main balance to a line "at the neighbour's". If they come back, add them again; if not, close the line as a sale or a loss, depending on what was agreed.

The weekly settle-up

Once a week, on Friday for example, go through the open lines together with your neighbour:

• mark what has been returned and close the line;
• settle in cash for what was sold;
• rewrite what is unsold but still on the shelf with a new deadline;
• if anything was broken or spoiled, decide on the spot who answers for it.

Say you took 6 batteries, sold 4 and returned 2. Payment is then due for 4 only. Settle the price in advance: at purchase price, or with a mark-up? That question should be settled at the time of the swap, not afterwards.

At month end, count the closed lines in the book to see who helped whom and how often. If one side keeps taking and the other giving, talk about it calmly; usually the terms are simply agreed afresh.

Common mistakes

• agreeing by word of mouth: "we will settle up later";
• mixing the neighbour's goods with your own;
• taking money for a sale and forgetting to pass it on;
• not agreeing beforehand who answers if the goods break or spoil;
• not marking in the book that the goods were returned.

Conclusion

Swapping goods with a neighbour helps the customer and the relationship, but only if it is written down. Three kinds of situation, one line per swap, separate storage for what is borrowed and a weekly settle-up prevent most disputes. If your shop has borrowed, lent and your own goods mixed together, the Sanab team can separate them during a count and show the exact balance in the report.