Tailor job card format: what to write and how to track orders
Shops and retail. By Aman Dobriyal. Updated .
A tailor job card format only has to answer four questions. Whose order is this? What exactly was promised? Who is stitching it? When is it due? In most shops the first answer is on the bill and the other three live in someone's head.
Here is a format that works on paper, then in Excel, and an honest account of where each one stops working.
The tailor job card format, field by field
One card per item to be stitched, not one per bill. A bill for two curtains and a sofa cover is three jobs, often with three due dates.
- Job number. Start at 1 and never reuse a number.
- Bill number, customer name and phone.
- Item and fabric: what is being stitched, from which fabric, and how many metres or pieces were handed over.
- Measurements and style notes, written on the card itself. Lining, pleats, length, piping, whatever the customer asked for.
- Tailor's name. One name.
- Date given, and the date promised to the customer. Tell the tailor a date a day or two earlier.
- Stage: cutting, stitching, finishing, ready, delivered.
- The stitching rate agreed with the tailor for this job.
Running it on paper
Get a duplicate book printed with those fields, or print cards two to a page. One copy travels with the fabric. The other stays at the counter in a tray, sorted by promised date.
Every evening, flip through the tray. Anything due tomorrow that hasn't come back gets a phone call tonight, not when the customer is at the counter. When a job is delivered, staple the counter copy to the bill.
This works well while one careful person runs the tray. It fails on the day that person is off.
Running it in Excel
- Make a sheet called Jobs. One row per job, with the fields above as columns.
- Turn on filters. Hide the rows where Stage is delivered and sort by promised date. That is your order board.
- Add a column called Tailor paid on. Blank means you still owe for that job.
- On a second sheet, use SUMIFS to add up the stitching rate for each tailor where Tailor paid on is blank. That is what you owe each tailor today.
The sheet gives you two things paper can't: every late job on one screen, and tailor dues that add themselves up.
Where paper and Excel break
- The card and the bill are two documents. Someone copies the customer, the item and the fabric from one to the other, and that is where mistakes start.
- The tailor can't see your sheet. He is still told by phone, and he still says he was never told.
- Nobody updates the stage until a customer is standing there asking.
- Tailor payments get settled from memory at month end. Arguments follow.
- A file on one computer can be updated by one person at a time. The counter and the workshop end up with two versions.
If you take a handful of stitching orders a week, none of this hurts much. Stay with the tray. Software is not worth it yet.
What software changes
In the billing system I build for retail shops, the job card is raised straight from the bill, so nothing is copied by hand. Every job sits on a board with its stage and due date. Each tailor logs in and sees only his own work. What you have paid each tailor is recorded against his jobs.
What it does not do: make a slow tailor faster. It shows you the late job a day early instead of a day late. It also runs in the browser, so the counter needs an internet connection.
This comes up for
Short answers
What is a tailor job card?
A slip that travels with one stitching job from the counter to the tailor and back. It carries the customer, the item, the measurements, the tailor's name and the due date, so nobody has to rely on memory.
Should a job card be made per bill or per item?
Per item. One bill often has several things to stitch, given to different tailors with different due dates. One card for the whole bill hides which piece is late.
How do I track what I owe each tailor?
Write the agreed stitching rate on every job card and note the date you pay it. In Excel, add up the rates where the paid date is blank. In my retail billing product, each payment to a tailor is recorded against his jobs.
Job cards are one part of my retail billing product: the card comes out of the bill, and each tailor sees his own board. If your order book has outgrown the tray, see how it works, or leave your number and I'll call you back. Retail POS, stock and GST billing. Leave your number for a call back.