Cement Dealers in Nepal: Truckloads, Contractor Credit and Site Deliveries

A cement dealer's business looks simple from the outside: one product family, standard 50 kg bags, demand that follows construction. Inside, the money is won or lost at three moments. The first is when a truck backs into the godown and the bags are counted. The second is when a contractor, already owing for two loads, asks for a third "until the owner pays me". The third is when bags reach a site where the person receiving them may not be the person who pays. This guide follows those three moments in order, then shows how a company or dealer can run them in one system.

Moment one: the truck arrives

Every truckload is a promise from the plant or distributor: a number of bags, of a grade, at a price. If the count is not checked and written down the same day, any shortage later becomes an argument with no evidence.

Unloading checklist

• Count bags against the challan or bill before the truck leaves.
• Note torn, wet or hardened bags separately, with a photo.
• Stack on pallets or planks, away from walls and the floor, under cover.
• Keep the older stack in front so it goes out first.
• Record the receipt into the right godown on the same day, not at month end.

Cement does not carry an expiry date in the way food does, but it does not like moisture. A bag that has sat through a wet month in a damp corner can harden at the edges. Rotation is a storage habit, not a paperwork exercise, but the record tells you which stack arrived first.

Grades and brands

Many dealers hold more than one brand and more than one grade, for example OPC and PPC. Treat each brand, grade and bag weight as its own item. When everything is "cement", nobody can say which brand is moving and which is sitting.

Moment two: the contractor asks for credit

Cement is bought by people who are paid in stages. A contractor buys on credit, the house owner pays the contractor when a slab is done, and the contractor pays the dealer when that money arrives, if nothing else is more urgent. When a project stalls, the dealer's money stalls with it.

A credit ladder

Instead of one rule for everyone, many dealers find a ladder easier to apply:

Buyer	Typical terms to consider	Watch for
Walk-in house owner	Cash or digital payment at the counter	Requests to "send now, pay later"
Small contractor, known	Short due days, small limit	Second order before the first is paid
Large contractor or builder	Agreed limit, due days fixed from dispatch	Payments that stop when a project slows
Hardware shop buying for resale	Dealer-style terms, monthly review	Mixing your bags with other brands' credit
Institutional project	Written terms, invoice per delivery	Long approval chains before payment

The numbers are yours to set. What matters is that the limit and the due days are decided before the truck is loaded, not argued about after.

The weekly credit hour

Pick one fixed hour each week. Look at every contractor's balance by age. For anyone past the agreed days, decide one of three things: call, visit, or hold the next dispatch. Write the decision down. Most credit problems in cement are not one big default; they are many small "one more load" decisions that nobody reviewed.

Moment three: bags reach the site

Site delivery is where cement differs from shop-based trades. The drop point changes with every project, the road may be a half-built track, and the person who signs may be a mason, a guard or the owner's relative.

Site delivery checklist

• Confirm the site location and a contact number before the vehicle leaves.
• Load against confirmed orders only, and check total weight against vehicle capacity.
• At the site, count bags with the receiver and note any damage.
• Take a photo of the unloaded bags and record the receiver's name.
• If payment on delivery is agreed, collect it and record the method on the spot.

When a dispute comes three weeks later ("we got 180 bags, not 200"), a photo, a GPS point and a receiver's name settle it faster than any phone call.

The people who choose the brand

The dealer sells, but masons, contractors and site engineers often decide which brand goes into the mixer. Company officers who only visit dealers miss half of the trade. A practical plan is to visit large dealers fortnightly, active contractors on a schedule, and to meet masons at sites and dealer counters with a recorded outcome: what they use now, what they complained about, whether they will try your brand.

How this looks in gamitrack

The three moments map directly onto the system.

Truck arrival. Each brand, grade and bag weight is a SKU with weight in kg. A truckload is recorded as a receipt movement into the right branch (each godown or depot is a branch), with a batch reference if you want to trace lots. Damaged bags go in as their own movement. Stock movements are append-only, so the history cannot be quietly edited. Low-stock levels tell you when to order the next truck.

Contractor credit. Contractors, builders, hardware shops and projects are parties with a type and location. Price lists resolve per order: a party override first, then the party-type list, then the default. Payment due days run from dispatch. Payments by cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank or cheque are allocated to the oldest bills first, and the party statement and aging show exactly who is late and by how much. Weekly collection plans give each officer a list and compare planned with actual collection.

Site delivery. Each order gets an assigned delivery person. The driver tab shows the amount due, the location and directions. Delivery is marked with GPS, a photo and the receiver's name, and payment can be collected right after. A far-delivery flag appears when the drop is far from the party's saved location, which is useful when a "site" turns out to be somewhere else.

Influencer visits. Officers follow routes with ordered stops. Visits are geofenced and need a photo, and visits outside the geofence, too short or without a photo are flagged for the manager. Outcomes record orders or the reason there was no order.

Orders and bills. Orders are dispatched all-or-nothing, so a confirmed load does not half-disappear. VAT invoices follow the IRD format and are numbered per fiscal year in Bikram Sambat. Check the current IRD rules at ird.gov.np for anything specific to your business.

Dealer layer. If the company sells through dealers, officers can book secondary orders that dealers fulfil in the dealer app. Monthly dealer stock reports compare expected and actual closing stock. Dealer targets are set annually by fiscal quarter, and tiered schemes reward fulfilled secondary sales.

A worked example (hypothetical)

Suppose a dealer in a Terai town receives a 400-bag truck on Sunday. Six bags are torn; the godown manager records 394 good bags and 6 damaged, with a photo. On Monday the officer books three contractor orders totalling 220 bags. The weight of the three orders fits one vehicle, so they are dispatched together. On Thursday the aging view shows one of those contractors has now passed the agreed limit with an older bill unpaid. The next order from him is held until a payment comes in, and the officer adds him to the week's collection plan. Nothing here is unusual; the difference is that each step is written down when it happens. The numbers are invented for illustration.

Your first 30 days

1. Week 1. Enter your brands, grades and bag weights. Count each godown and load opening stock.
2. Week 2. Add your top 20 contractors and builders with opening balances and due days. Agree limits.
3. Week 3. Assign one delivery person and record every site delivery with photo and receiver.
4. Week 4. Hold the first weekly credit hour from the aging view, and plan the next truck from low-stock levels.

Start small. One godown recorded properly is worth more than three recorded half-way.

Related reading

Steel rods and construction steel, paint distribution, collecting payments on time and the building materials industry page.

If you want to try this with one godown and your largest contractors, see pricing for the free trial, or contact us to talk it through.