Bill without a signalबिना नेट के बिल
The sale is written to the phone, then sent when there is a network. It is never the other way round.
Pilot openThe counter doesn't stop
The counter doesn't stop
when the signal does.
Billing, stock and udhaar on the phone you already have.
बिल, स्टॉक और उधार — एक ही ऐप में, बिना नेट के भी।
No signalBills save on the phone first
₹0Free through the pilot
Android 8+The phone already at your counter
CSVExport everything, any time
10:42Karobari
3 बिल सेव हैं — ऑनलाइन होते ही भेजेंगे3 bills saved — syncing when online
शर्मा किराना स्टोरSharma Kirana · Open until 9pm
दूधMilk 1L · ₹66
आटाAtta 5kg · ₹210
तेलOil 1L · ₹145
कुल₹487
In one paragraph
What Karobari is
Karobari is a free, offline-first billing, inventory and udhaar (customer credit) app for Indian shopkeepers, published at karobariapp.in and running on any Android 8.0 or newer phone. A sale is written to the phone's own storage first and synced to the server afterwards, so billing continues through a dead tower, a finished data pack or a power cut. Stock is held in three states — selling, archived and not for sale — and every quantity carries its unit, from loose grams to a sealed carton. The udhaar ledger is visible to the shop owner alone: staff can bill, but never see the day's total, the ledger, or another member's bills. Payment reminders are sent from the shopkeeper's own WhatsApp number rather than a platform number. It is free during the pilot — no card, no row caps, no bill limits, and no watermark on a customer's receipt.
Five things that are true of it
- Local write first
Karobari writes every sale to the phone's local storage first and syncs it to the server afterwards, so a bill is never blocked by a missing network.
- Never rejected at sync
An offline sale is never rejected when Karobari syncs: stock clamps at zero, the discrepancy is flagged, and the shopkeeper is asked to recount.
- Your own number
Karobari sends udhaar reminders from the shopkeeper's own WhatsApp number, so the platform never sits between a shop and its customer.
- Staff see less
Staff using Karobari can create bills but cannot see the day's revenue total, the udhaar ledger, or bills created by other staff members.
- Free during the pilot
Karobari is free during its pilot: no card, no row caps, no bill limits, and no platform watermark on a customer's receipt.
The words on this page
Ten words a counter uses every day, in all three scripts they get written in — because the app uses them too, and because half the people searching for this type them in Roman letters.
- udhaar / udharउधारcustomer credit
- Goods handed over now and paid for later. Karobari keeps udhaar as a running balance per customer, worked out from entries rather than overwritten.
- khataखाताledger
- The book the credit is kept in — a udhar khata is the credit ledger. In Karobari the khata is visible to the shop owner alone, never to staff.
- bakaya / baakiबक़ाया / बाक़ीoutstanding balance
- What a customer still owes today. Karobari shows the bakaya before the shopkeeper agrees to give more credit, not after.
- dukan / dukaanदुकानshop
- The shop itself — which may be a room, a cart, a stall or a round. Karobari does not require a dukan to be a building, and never blocks billing over it.
- maal / samanमाल / सामानstock, inventory
- What is on the shelf. Karobari holds every item in exactly one of three states — selling, archived, or not for sale — and every quantity carries its unit.
- parchiपर्चीreceipt
- The slip handed across the counter. A parchi from Karobari carries the shop's name and no watermark of ours.
- hisaab / hisaab-kitaabहिसाब-किताबthe accounts
- The day's reckoning — what came in, what went out, what is owed. Staff using Karobari never see it: no day total, no khata, no other member's bills.
- bina net keबिना नेट केwithout internet
- Without a network — the phrase a shopkeeper actually uses. A bill in Karobari is written to the phone first and uploaded on its own when the signal returns.
- kacha bill / kaccha billकच्चा बिलrough slip
- A rough, unnumbered slip that stands in until the real entry is made. A Karobari bill is the record itself — saved on the phone and numbered in the shop's own sequence.
- pakka billपक्का बिलproper numbered bill
- The numbered bill a customer can hold the shop to. Every Karobari bill gets a number in the shop's sequence, and when a shop sets its GSTIN the receipt carries it with the bill's tax total.
The app
Three things, done properly.
Everything else on this site is detail about these.
Know what's on the shelfस्टॉक का हिसाब
Selling, archived or not for sale — three buckets, every quantity with its unit.
Udhaar you can settleउधार खाता
The khata, kept properly. Reminders go from your own WhatsApp number, not ours.
The no-signal architecture
A bill is a write to your phone. Not a request to us.
Most billing apps are a form that posts to a server: no network, no bill. This one runs the other way round — and the order is the product, not a feature of it.
The sale is written locally
Items, total, payment mode and the member who rang it up go into the phone's own database. That is the complete bill. Nothing about it is waiting for a reply.
The change joins a queue
The bill, the stock movement and any khata entry sit in an outbox with a count you can see on Today. Billing stays at full speed with the queue any length.
The queue drains on its own
The phone sends everything when a network appears. You can tap “Send now” yourself — but nothing is lost if you never do, and nothing is blocked if it fails.
And when the count later disagrees: the sale stands. Stock clamps at zero, the difference is flagged, and you are asked to recount — never a silent correction, and never a sale rejected hours after the customer walked out with the goods.
₹0
What it costs during the pilot
Free, and here is why that is not a trick.
The app is offline-first, so it barely uses a server. There is nothing to recover from you yet.
No cardNothing to enter, nothing to cancel.
No row capsUnlimited items, bills and customers.
No watermarkThe receipt is your signboard, not our billboard.
Straight answers
The questions worth asking first
Each one has a page behind it, written to be read before you install anything.
There are already billing apps. Why this one?
Six differences, each traced to something that actually goes wrong at a counter — a record that holds up later, shops that are not buildings, one phone with three people on it.
Read the sixWho can read my books?
You. Not your staff, not our support team, not anyone we sell to. There is a table of exactly who sees what — and a list of the things we deliberately do not claim.
See the access listFree? What is the catch?
The app barely touches a server, and there is no sales team. What money would ever come from is named now, in public, while nobody is under pressure.
The honest versionWhat happens when the network drops mid-sale?
Nothing. The bill is a write to your phone, not a request to us. And when the count later disagrees, the sale stands and you get a recount — never a silent correction.
See the mechanismWill it run on my phone?
Any Android 8 or newer. There is a browser view for the desk work a phone is bad at — and two platforms we do not support, each with the reason attached.
Where it runsMy shop is not a normal shop.
A cart, a stall, a round, a visiting trade — around 150 of them, each arriving with its own units and words. Establishment type never blocks billing.
Find your tradeIn detail
What's in the app
Built around a counter, not a desk.
Offline billing
Power cut, dead tower, finished data pack — the bill still saves.
Scan or search
Add stock by barcode, or type against the shared catalog. Voice entry is planned, not shipped.
Digital khata
Balances per customer, and a reminder sent from your own number.
Batch and expiry
Track a batch to its date, and hear about it before it turns.
Staff, with limits
Staff bill. They never see the day's total, the khata, or each other's bills.
A page customers find
Your shop gets a public page listing what's actually on the shelf today.
Your trade
It speaks your trade
Units, words and receipt shape change with the shop. Same app.
Loose goods
खुला सामान किलो-ग्राम में, पैकेट सामान बारकोड से।
Loose goods by weight, packaged goods by barcode. Every quantity carries its unit.
शर्मा किराना स्टोर
आटा · Atta · 5 kg₹210.00
तेल · Oil · 2 × 1 L₹290.00
नमक · Salt · 1 kg₹28.00
कुल₹528.00
Being found
And customers can find the shop
A public page per shop, showing what is on the shelf today. Nearby and real — never cheaper, never delivered.
Records
हिसाब-किताब, kept straight
Cash and UPI land in the same pocket. The app keeps recorded sales next to UPI receipts so the gap is visible while you can still close it.
Your monthly recorded turnover, beside what actually came in.
It records what you sold. It does not calculate your tax, and it does not send your sales anywhere.
Guarantee
What it will not do
Written down now, while it is cheap to promise.
- Take a cut of a payment — the UPI QR is yours, and the money never passes us.
- Hold your records hostage — full CSV export, free, for as long as the app exists.
- Put a paid listing above an organic search result.
- Sell, share or monetise your udhaar book.
Your counter
A month, at your numbers
Move the sliders to your own shop. Nothing here is an estimate of what the app saves you — it is your month, arithmetic only.
Assumes 30 days open in the month. Nothing is sent anywhere — this runs in your browser.
Bills a month1,800
Recorded turnover₹6,30,000
On the khata at the end of the month उधार में फँसा पैसा₹1,26,000
Side by side
Against the book, and against a cloud POS
No logos in this table on purpose — a claim about someone else's product goes stale the week they ship.
| At the counter | Karobari | Paper बही-खाता | A cloud POS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sells with no signalबिना नेट के बिक्री | YesThe bill is written to the phone, then sent. Never the other way round. | YesPaper needs no network — and no backup exists when it is lost or soaked. | PartlyTypically degrades to a spinner or a refused write when the tower drops. |
| What it costs to startशुरू करने का ख़र्च | Yes₹0, on the Android phone already at the counter. | YesA notebook and a pen. The cost arrives later, as forgotten udhaar. | NoA monthly plan, and often a terminal to go with it. |
| Reminding a customer who owesउधार की याद दिलाना | YesOne tap, sent from your own WhatsApp number. | NoA phone call, or a walk to their house. | PartlyUsually metered — a free quota, then a per-message credit. |
| Printing a receiptपर्ची छापना | YesStandard 2-inch and 3-inch ESC/POS Bluetooth printers, no driver. | NoWritten by hand, which is the slowest thing at a busy counter. | PartlyOften a desktop driver, or the vendor's own hardware. |
| Who can read the khataउधार खाता कौन देखे | YesThe owner. Not staff, not support, and never a third party. | PartlyWhoever is standing at the counter when it is open. | NoWhatever the current terms say, which can change without you. |
| Leaving with your recordsअपना रिकॉर्ड ले जाना | YesFull CSV export, free, at any time. There is no lock-in to leave. | YesThe book is yours — as long as you still have the book. | PartlyExport is commonly a paid tier, or a support request. |
| The language at the counterकाउंटर की भाषा | YesHindi and English read by a person; six more shipping as they are reviewed. | YesWhatever script the shopkeeper writes in. | PartlyUsually a translated shell around English technical words. |
Questions
The ones shopkeepers actually ask
क्या यह बिना इंटरनेट के काम करता है?Does it work without a network?
हाँ। बिल, स्टॉक अपडेट और उधार एंट्री पहले आपके फ़ोन में सेव होती हैं। नेट आने पर वे अपने आप भेज दी जाती हैं — बिक्री कभी नेट का इंतज़ार नहीं करती।
Yes. Bills, stock changes and khata entries are written to the phone first and sent when there is a network. A sale never waits for a signal.
नेट न होने पर स्टॉक कम पड़ गया तो?What if stock runs out while I was offline?
बिक्री कभी अस्वीकार नहीं होती। स्टॉक 0 पर रोक दिया जाता है, गड़बड़ी दर्ज कर दी जाती है और ऐप आपसे दोबारा गिनने को कहता है। पैसा आ चुका है — सवाल गिनती का है।
The sale is never rejected at sync. Stock clamps at zero, the discrepancy is flagged, and the app asks you to recount. The money already changed hands; only the count is in question.
मेरा डेटा किसका है?Who owns my data?
आपका। सभी बिल, स्टॉक और उधार खाते कभी भी CSV में मुफ़्त निर्यात कर सकते हैं। कोई लॉक-इन नहीं।
You do. Every bill, stock list and khata exports to CSV, free, whenever you want. There is no lock-in to leave.
स्टाफ़ को क्या-क्या दिखता है?What can my staff see?
स्टाफ़ बिल बनाता है। उसे दिन की कुल बिक्री, उधार खाता, या दूसरे स्टाफ़ के बिल नहीं दिखते। रेट बदलने के लिए अलग अनुमति चाहिए।
Staff bill. They do not see the day's total, the khata, or another member's bills — and editing a price needs a permission you grant separately.
WhatsApp पर बिल और उधार याद भेजने का कोई चार्ज?Does sending a bill or reminder on WhatsApp cost anything?
नहीं। संदेश आपके अपने WhatsApp नंबर से जाता है, हमारे किसी सर्वर से नहीं — इसलिए न प्रति-संदेश शुल्क है, न कोई कोटा।
No. The message goes from your own WhatsApp number, not through a server of ours — so there is no per-message charge and no quota to run out of.
किस फ़ोन पर चलेगा?Which phones does it run on?
Android 8.0 या उससे नया कोई भी फ़ोन। नया फ़ोन ख़रीदने की ज़रूरत नहीं।
Any Android 8.0 or newer. It is written for the phone already at your counter, not a new one.
बिलिंग ऐप तो और भी हैं। यही क्यों?There are other billing apps. Why Karobari?
क्योंकि यह काउंटर के लिए लिखा गया है, दफ़्तर के लिए नहीं: बिना नेट के बिल, ठेले और अस्थायी दुकानों के लिए भी, और एक ही फ़ोन पर तीन लोगों के लिए अलग-अलग हिसाब।
Because it is written for a counter, not a desk: billing with no signal, shops that are not buildings, and one phone with three people billing on it, each recorded separately.
मुफ़्त है — पेच क्या है?It is free. What is the catch?
ऐप ऑफ़लाइन-पहले है, इसलिए सर्वर का ख़र्च न के बराबर है, और कोई सेल्स टीम नहीं है। भुगतान पर कोई कमीशन नहीं, और आपका उधार खाता कभी बेचा या इस्तेमाल नहीं किया जाएगा।
The app is offline-first, so it barely touches a server, and there is no sales team to pay for. We take no cut of a payment, and the udhaar book is never sold or monetised.
Try it on your counter
The pilot is open. Message us and we will set your shop up.