Sending raw material or semi-finished goods out to a job-worker — for plating, stitching, machining, printing — is normal in most manufacturing, and it is also where stock records quietly go wrong. Material leaves on a delivery challan, comes back weeks later in a different form, and matching what went out against what came back, correctly and on time, is exactly the kind of tracking paper registers are bad at.
Where it usually breaks down
- Challans get written by hand, and quantities get mistyped or rounded off.
- Partial returns from a job-worker are hard to match against the original challan without checking by hand.
- Nobody has a clear, current answer to “how much material is currently with which job-worker”.
- Reconciling this for GST job-work returns becomes a scramble at filing time, not a running record.
What barcode tracking changes
- Each batch gets a barcode at dispatch, scanned out, scanned in on return — no manual quantity entry at either end.
- A running, current view of what is with which job-worker, without asking anyone to compile it.
- Partial returns match automatically against the original batch, flagging any shortfall.
- The same scanned record feeds your job-work reconciliation, instead of being rebuilt separately at filing time.
What it costs you
The main cost is a barcode printer and scanners at your dispatch and receiving points, plus a short setup to match your existing batch and item codes. It is a small investment relative to the stock discrepancies it usually catches within the first few months of proper, consistent use. It is not worth it if your job-work volume is very low and irregular — a paper register is fine at small scale.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Does it match partial returns automatically, or still need manual checking?
- Can it export data in the format your GST filing already uses?
- Does it work with your existing item and batch codes, or force new ones?
- What happens if a job-worker does not have scanning equipment on their end?
How we can help
We build barcode-based job-work tracking that ties into your existing accounts, so dispatch, return and reconciliation stay in one running record instead of three separate ones you have to reconcile by hand each month. See Kanakku, or talk to us to tell us how your job work currently runs.
