1. Where the rate comes from
The mills — Tata, JSW, SAIL and the local rolling mills — send a rate list every morning, on WhatsApp or through your distributor. It quotes a basic rate per ton; your landed rate is that basic rate plus loading, freight and your own margin. Spend five minutes each morning working out your selling rate and updating it in the software.
2. Billing in kg while buying in quintals and tons
You buy in tons — one ton is ten quintals or 1,000 kg — and you sell in kilograms. Always bill in kg, because that is what the customer understands. Set the item unit to Kg in the software and enter the rate per kg: 500 kg at ₹62 comes to ₹31,000, with no calculator involved.
3. Create a separate item for each size
TMT 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm and 25mm should each be a separate item with its own rate and its own stock. Do not create one generic item called Steel, or you will never know how much of each size is left. Update all the sizes together when the rate moves.
4. Working out weight from bundles
Keep the standard weights to hand: one 12m piece of 8mm is about 4.74 kg, 10mm about 7.4 kg, 12mm about 10.66 kg, 16mm about 18.96 kg and 20mm about 29.6 kg. Count the pieces in the bundle and multiply, or bill from the weighbridge slip. Explain your method to the customer and the argument never starts.
5. Builder credit runs into lakhs
A builder takes 10 to 20 tons a month and pays 45 to 60 days later. Bill every delivery with the vehicle number on it, record every payment, and send a statement on WhatsApp at month end. MaterialBill does all of this for you: daily rate updates, size-wise stock, the builder's ledger and the delivery challan.
6. Explaining your weight to the customer
Most disputes in the steel trade are about weight rather than rate, and they are avoidable by being explicit. Decide whether you bill from the weighbridge slip or from standard piece weights, say so before the sale, and print the basis on the bill. A customer who counts pieces in a bundle and multiplies by a published weight will arrive at your figure, and the conversation ends there. A customer who is simply given a total will always wonder. Keeping the standard weights on a printed sheet at the counter costs nothing and settles most of it before it starts.
7. Builder credit and the site payment cycle
A builder taking ten to twenty tons a month pays forty-five to sixty days later, and sometimes further, because his own money comes from a project. That means your steel business is financing his cash flow, and the exposure grows quietly because each individual load feels routine. Set a credit limit that reflects what you can actually carry through a slow quarter, record every delivery with a vehicle number, and send a statement on the first of every month. Those three habits are what separate steel dealers who grow from steel dealers who stall.