Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
Kalamandir Jewellers Limited is a Surat gold and diamond jeweller that began as a 200 sq ft store in Kosamba. It now runs large showrooms across Gujarat, a store in Mumbai and 14 airport outlets across India.
A jewellery showroom controls every gram and every rupee at the counter. The hard part is the small spending around it: repairs, supplies, refreshments, fuel and travel between stores.
That spending peaks in the busiest weeks of the jewellery year, such as Dhanteras, Diwali, Akshaya Tritiya and the wedding months. Showrooms run long days, and staff need to fix, buy and deliver things fast.
Since June 2025, Kalamandir has run this spending on CashBook UPI wallets. Each person who spends for the company carries a company-funded wallet on their own phone.
Head office in Surat tops up a wallet in seconds, whether the person is in Surat, Vadodara or Mumbai. Nobody waits for cash before a job gets done.
Every payment shows up live, with who paid, who was paid and when. Finance sees what the showrooms spend as it happens, even in the busiest weeks, not after the month ends.
About Company
About Kalamandir Jewellers
It is a busy afternoon in a jewellery showroom. On the floor, a family has spent an hour looking at bridal sets. Staff have served them tea and sweets twice. Upstairs, a display light has stopped working, and an electrician is on the way. The staff pantry needs a new gas cylinder. A colleague is driving over from another store to help.
None of this makes a sale. But someone has to pay for all of it, today. That is the daily reality of expense management for jewellery showrooms.
This is the side of jewellery retail that customers never see. Kalamandir Jewellers Limited has dealt with it for 40 years. According to the company's own history, it opened its first store in Kosamba, near Surat, in 1986. The store was 200 sq ft and sold hallmarked 22-carat gold and silver jewellery. A large showroom followed in Bharuch in 2012. In 2013 came a 30,000 sq ft store in Surat, with separate floors for gold, diamond and wedding jewellery. A store in Vapi came next, along with Saj Dhaj Ke, the group's bridal jewellery brand. Today its collections run from everyday gold to diamond, polki, antique and platinum jewellery.
Growth has been fast since then. Kalamandir opened in Ahmedabad in 2023 and in Borivali, Mumbai, in 2024. By 2026 it was running 14 airport outlets, from Surat and Vadodara to Kolkata, Patna, Pune and Madurai. In August 2026 it opened a 30,000 sq ft flagship showroom in Vadodara. It also has showrooms in Mehsana, Kosamba, Bharuch, Vapi and Surat.
The jewellery industry in India runs on a calendar. Indians spent a record US$49 billion on gold jewellery in 2025, according to the World Gold Council. They spent more even though they bought 24 percent less gold by weight, because prices rose. The council found that festival and wedding shopping drove sales in the last three months of that year. Every jeweller knows this pattern. A large share of the year's sales comes around Dhanteras, Akshaya Tritiya and the wedding months.
This story shows how Kalamandir pays for the everyday spending behind those busy weeks and the ordinary days in between. It also shows how head office now sees that spending as it happens. The same pattern holds for most retail businesses with more than one store.
Challenges
Why the Small Spends Are the Hard Part of Running a Jewellery Showroom
A jewellery business is built on control. Jewellers weigh every piece, check its purity, hallmark it with a unique ID called a HUID, and record it. Staff count the cash at the counter and match it every evening. Stock moves between stores only with checks at both ends. Most jewellery shop management is about exactly this: stock, purity, gold rates and billing.
The spending around the counter is a different story. These are everyday jewellery shop expenses: small, constant and spread across many places. Three things make it hard to manage.
It happens in every store at once. A large showroom is not just a shop. It is a whole building to look after. Lights fail, fittings need fixing, the pantry needs supplies and the floors need cleaning. Each showroom and airport outlet spends on these things every day, often hundreds of kilometres from head office. An airport outlet in Kolkata or Madurai is too far from Surat for anyone to drop off cash when it runs low. None of it is big. All of it adds up.
It peaks when nobody has time. Every jewellery year has its peaks: Navratri, Dhanteras, Diwali, Akshaya Tritiya and the wedding months. In those weeks, showrooms open early and close late. Families choosing bridal jewellery stay for hours, and looking after them well is part of making the sale. Staff work long shifts, and extra staff join for the season. Repairs cannot wait for Monday, and supplies run out faster than usual.
The people being paid want UPI or cash. The local electrician, the hardware shop, the sweet shop, the gas supplier and the person who helps for a day are small businesses and individuals. Almost none of them take a company card.
Across Indian retail, the usual answer has been one of two things. The first is a fixed cash float at each showroom: a set amount of petty cash that head office tops up when it runs low. The second is staff paying from their own pocket and claiming it back later.
Both have a cost in a jewellery business. Someone has to draw the float, keep it safe, count it and refill it, in a building that already handles a lot of sales cash. Keeping the two apart takes care every single day. Claims make staff pay for the busiest weeks out of their own money, and bills get lost when everyone is rushed. Then there is trust. A jewellery business guards its gold and cash closely. Loose petty cash and handwritten slips are the one part of the day that nobody can easily check.
Head office, meanwhile, sees the spending late. Registers and slips come in after the month ends. By then nobody can tell which showroom spent what, or why. Good petty cash management is hard enough in one store. Across many cities, it is close to impossible on paper.
Small showroom spending happens in many stores and cities at once, far from head office.
It peaks in the festive and wedding season, when staff have the least time to manage it.
Electricians, local shops and daily helpers take UPI or cash, not company cards.
Cash floats need daily care in a building that already handles large sales cash.
Head office sees showroom spending only after the month closes, without a clear trail.
A jeweller can track every gram of gold. The challenge was to track every rupee spent around it, while the business kept growing.
For Kalamandir, growth meant more showrooms, more airport outlets and new openings like Vadodara, each spending money every day. Head office needed to see that spending while it was happening, not weeks later.
Solutions
A Company Wallet for Everyone Who Spends for the Showroom
In June 2025, Kalamandir moved this spending onto CashBook. The company funds one central account. Each person who spends money on its behalf now carries a company UPI wallet on their own phone. They pay any shop or person by UPI, the same way they pay for everything else in their lives. Every payment lands on one dashboard that head office in Surat controls. The company decides how much each wallet holds, so each person carries only what their work needs. Jewellery shop management software keeps track of stock, gold rates and billing. CashBook handles the other side of the business: the everyday spending around the showroom.
On Kalamandir's account, the spending falls into four groups. Together, they cover most of a jewellery showroom's day-to-day running costs.
Showroom upkeep
Electrical and hardware repairs, steel and kitchenware, gas cylinders, cleaning and pantry supplies, and quick delivery apps when something is needed within the hour. The small things that keep a large showroom ready for customers.
Food and refreshments
Sweets, farsan, snacks and meals from local shops and restaurants. On a busy jewellery floor, refreshments are part of the service, and staff on long shifts in peak season need meals.
Travel between stores
Fuel, meals and hotel stays when staff work at a showroom in another city. The account shows this spending in Vadodara and Mumbai as well as Surat. When a new showroom opens, the team setting it up can pay for what it needs from day one.
Payments to people
Many payments go straight to individuals rather than shops. This is the most frequent kind of payment on the account. A wallet pays a person as easily as a store.
The change that matters most is the top-up. Head office refills any wallet from Surat in seconds. A showroom that runs short on a busy Saturday evening does not wait for cash to arrive or for someone to pay personally. In peak season, nobody has to guess how much cash to keep in a drawer. Each wallet gets exactly what it needs, when it needs it.
Each wallet belongs to a named person whose identity has been checked (KYC). It runs on UPI's regulated, NPCI-certified payment system. Money reaches a showroom in another city without leaving the company's control. It never passes through a staff member's own bank account. Every rupee moves under the company's own name.
From the moment someone pays, the payment shows who paid, who was paid and when. Spending that used to sit in a paper register now goes straight into the records, ready for jewellery accounting in Tally or Zoho Books. If a payment fails because of a weak mobile signal, the money goes back to the wallet, and the failed attempt stays on record.
A funded wallet for each person who spends, so a repair or a supply run starts with company money on the phone.
Direct UPI payment to electricians, local shops, sweet shops, hotels and individuals, none of whom need a card machine.
Instant top-ups from Surat, so a showroom never waits for a cash run, even on its busiest days.
Every payment shows who paid and who was paid, on one live dashboard that exports to Tally and Zoho Books.
ID-checked (KYC) wallets on NPCI's UPI system, with no petty cash to count and no staff money at risk.
The sales counter keeps doing what it does best. The everyday spending around it now has its own clear record.
Before and After
Before, on cash floats and claims | After, on CashBook wallets | |
|---|---|---|
Paying a local electrician or sweet shop | Cash from the showroom float, with a slip if someone remembers | UPI from a company wallet, with who paid, who was paid and when |
Running short on a busy day | Wait for cash from head office, or pay personally | Topped up from Surat in seconds |
Staff working at another store | Pay first, claim later | Company wallet, same dashboard |
Small spends and the sales counter | Petty cash kept in the same building as the day's sales cash | No petty cash needed for small spends |
What head office sees | Last month's spending, once the registers come in | Today's spending, by person and by who was paid |
When the books are checked | Slips and registers, some missing | Every payment on record, in the company's own name |
Impact
What Changed When Showroom Spending Became Visible
The first change is timing. Showroom spending now appears on the dashboard as it happens, already showing who paid and who was paid. Head office does not wait for the month to close to know what a busy week is costing. It can see it while the week is still going, when there is still time to act. If one showroom's spending suddenly jumps, head office can see which store, which person and which shop.
The second is speed on the floor. Head office can top up a wallet from Surat in seconds, wherever the person is. Staff pay for a failed light, an empty gas cylinder or a missing supply within the hour, without waiting for a cash run. They stay with customers instead of chasing cash.
The third is distance. Spending at the Vadodara showroom or the Mumbai store sits on the same dashboard as spending in Surat. An airport outlet in another state is as easy to follow as the flagship down the road. Opening a new store no longer means setting up another cash box to watch.
The fourth is a clearer record. Head office can trace every payment to who paid, who was paid and when. Small spends no longer need cash at all, so they no longer sit beside the sales cash. Company money also no longer passes through staff bank accounts on its way to a shop. That clears up an old grey area in how Indian businesses pay for small things.
Staff also stop carrying the cost. Nobody on the floor pays for the company's sweets, repairs or fuel and then waits weeks to get the money back. That matters most in the weeks when they work hardest.
Month-end accounts get easier too. There are no envelopes of slips to sort and no cash floats to match. The accounts team spends less time on small bills and more time on the numbers that matter. For a jewellery retail business with many showrooms, that time adds up every month.
Real-time view: showroom spending is visible as it happens, even in peak weeks, not after the month closes.
Instant top-ups: head office refills any wallet from Surat in seconds, in any city.
One dashboard: Surat, Vadodara and Mumbai spending sit side by side, store by store.
Traceability: every payment shows who paid, who was paid and when, ready for the books.
No staff money at risk: small spends no longer run on personal cash or cash floats.
Kalamandir keeps opening showrooms and airport outlets. With wallets, each new store adds a few lines to the dashboard, not another cash box to count.
Now a Kalamandir showroom can fix, buy and pay for what it needs the same hour, from company money on a phone. Head office in Surat sees every payment as it happens, across Gujarat, Mumbai and beyond.
Industry Application
Does Your Business Run More Than One Showroom?
Kalamandir is a jeweller, but the same problem runs across the whole gems and jewellery industry, including the ornament trade. It affects the showroom floor. It also affects the karigar (craftsman) workshops, wholesalers, bullion dealers and refineries behind it. And it affects the gold loan branches and hallmarking centres found in every town. Each of them spends small amounts every day, far from the finance team. If the list below sounds like your business, the same pressures are shaping it.
Gold and diamond jewellery chains: repairs, supplies, refreshments and travel across showrooms in different cities, all paid on the spot.
Family jewellers and neighbourhood gold shops: daily spending that runs through the same building as the sales cash, peaking every festive season.
Airport, mall and shop-in-shop jewellery counters: small outlets far from head office that still need supplies, repairs and quick payments.
Gold and silver ornament manufacturers: karigar units and workshops in Surat, Mumbai, Rajkot and beyond, paying helpers, couriers and local suppliers every day.
Jewellery wholesalers and exporters: teams carrying samples to retailers and jewellery exhibitions across India, paying for travel, couriers and stalls on the way.
Diamond cutting, polishing and trading units: busy units in Surat and Mumbai with constant small payments for upkeep, transport and daily help.
All of these businesses work the same way. They keep tight control of the gold, the stones and the sale. Everything around them runs on small, quick payments to people who only take UPI or cash. Cash was never the right tool for that. It was simply the only one that worked. A company UPI wallet does the same job without the cash box, and keeps the record for the business.
Conclusion
Kalamandir Jewellers did not slow down its showrooms to get its spending under control. It moved everyday showroom spending onto CashBook UPI wallets. Staff can now pay for repairs, supplies, refreshments, fuel and travel the moment a showroom needs it. Head office in Surat sees every payment as it happens, across every store.
For any jeweller or retailer with more than one store, the lesson is simple. You do not need a cash float in every showroom to keep the floor running. You need money that can move as fast as your busiest day, and a record that keeps up with it.
See every showroom's spending on one screen.
Book a demo, and we will show you how CashBook UPI wallets work for a business like yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do jewellery showrooms manage day-to-day expenses?
Most use a cash float at each showroom, or ask staff to pay first and claim later. Both are slow, and neither shows head office the spending as it happens. A company-funded UPI wallet for each person who spends lets a showroom pay on the spot and record every payment live.
What are the running expenses of a jewellery shop in India?
Whether it is a neighbourhood gold shop or a chain of showrooms, the big costs are stock, rent, salaries, security and insurance. Then there are the everyday spends: electricity and repairs, cleaning and pantry supplies, refreshments for customers and staff, fuel and travel between stores, and payments to local helpers. These everyday spends fit the standard business expense categories, and they are the part a UPI wallet handles.
Does CashBook replace jewellery shop management software?
No. Jewellery shop management software handles stock, gold rates, hallmarking records and billing. CashBook handles the everyday spending around the showroom through company UPI wallets. It exports that spending to Tally or Zoho Books, so it sits alongside the rest of your jewellery accounting.
Does this work for gold ornament manufacturers, wholesalers and bullion dealers?
Yes. Karigar units, ornament manufacturers, jewellery wholesalers, exporters and bullion dealers all run on small daily payments to helpers, couriers and local suppliers. The same wallets work for them just as they do for a showroom, and manufacturing businesses already use the same setup on CashBook.
Why not let staff pay from their own UPI apps?
Because the money and the record both end up in personal accounts. A company wallet keeps the money in the company's name and links each payment to the business. This is the key difference between a company wallet and a personal payments app.
How can a jeweller keep small spends away from the sales counter?
By not using cash for them at all. When staff pay for small things by UPI from company wallets, no petty cash sits beside the day's sales cash. The evening count at the counter is then only about sales.
Is a UPI wallet safe for company money?
Each CashBook wallet belongs to a person whose identity has been checked (KYC), and runs on UPI's regulated, NPCI-certified payment system. Money stays under the company's control and never passes through a staff member's personal bank account.
Can wallet spending be exported to Tally or Zoho Books?
Yes. Every payment shows who paid, who was paid and when, and exports directly to both.
