Cement, rebar, pipes, fittings, paint, tiles, sanitaryware, electrical fittings and hardware share a profile: heavy, expensive per order, and sold to dealers, hardware stores, contractors and sometimes directly to projects. A single order can be larger than a week of small-shop sales in other industries, so one unpaid invoice matters. This page describes how building material distribution commonly works in Nepal and how gamitrack supports the sales, delivery and collection sides.
How building material distribution typically works in Nepal
Producers and importers supply regional dealers, who supply hardware and sanitary shops, contractors, builders and project sites. Many suppliers also sell directly to large projects. Sales officers visit dealers, shops and contractors to take orders, share current rates, explain schemes and collect payments. In many cases, an order is a negotiation that ends with a rate and a delivery date.
Construction in Nepal follows the seasons. Activity rises after the monsoon and before the next, with festivals and remittance inflows influencing when families start building. Heavy rain disrupts both roads and sites. Credit is the norm for contractors and dealers, with part-payments and post-dated cheques common, and settlement often tied to the customer's own payments from owners or projects. Prices of imported and steel-linked items move, so rates change more often than in packaged goods.
Where it goes wrong
Prices change and the message does not reach everyone, so two officers quote different rates for the same product. Large credit sits with a few buyers, but the details are scattered across the owner's phone, an accountant's ledger and officers' notebooks. Cheques arrive for amounts that do not match any single invoice, and allocation becomes an argument. Deliveries are planned by phone, trucks run part-empty, and proof of delivery is a paper slip that can be lost. Field staff cover wide areas, and it is hard to see which dealers and contractors are being visited regularly.
How gamitrack is used day to day
The owner or manager. Maintain price lists centrally, with the default price, a price for each type of customer and overrides for individual businesses where needed. Everyone orders at the current price the moment you change it. The ledger shows balances and aging for each dealer and contractor, and the weekly collection plan compares what you planned to collect with what was actually received. Dealer targets by Nepali fiscal quarter, with edits as the year goes on, keep the bigger accounts on a clear path.
Sales officers. The Today tab shows the day's dealers, shops and sites. At each visit the officer checks in, notes closing stock where relevant, takes the order from the price list with VAT added only on taxable lines, adds a photo, and records the outcome. If the customer is waiting for a better rate or a delivery date, a follow-up is set. Payments can be recorded on the spot, whether cash, cheque, bank transfer or digital, and are allocated to invoices. New contractors and shops can be added from the field with GPS and are approved by a manager.
Delivery staff. Because products and orders carry weight in kilograms, dispatch can see the load before a vehicle is assigned. The driver sees the delivery in the Deliveries tab with the amount due, location and directions, and marks delivery with GPS, a photo and the receiver's name at the site. If cash or a cheque is handed over, it is recorded then and there. A delivery recorded far from the shop or site location is flagged for review.
Dealers. Dealers use the dealer app to place orders from their own price list, follow the status of each order, and view their own statement. In via-dealers mode, they also see and fulfil orders your officers booked for hardware shops in their area. They never see another dealer's prices. Monthly stock counts compare expected closing stock with the actual count.
Schemes and incentives. Schemes on fulfilled secondary sales with tiered rewards give dealers a reason to lift more in a quarter. Commissions for your own officers can be set with a salary, universal or personal rates on secondary orders, and a minimum achievement rule.
Returns and credit notes. If a delivery is refused or partly returned, the return is recorded and approved into a branch with a credit note, so the ledger and stock stay aligned.
Invoices. Dispatch produces an IRD-format tax invoice with gap-free numbering per fiscal year, amounts in words, and Bikram Sambat and Gregorian dates.
Getting started
Start with your largest twenty accounts. Load their price lists and outstanding balances, record opening stock, and move their orders and payments into the system for a month. The first thing most owners learn is how much of their credit is overdue and for how long, which is usually the most valuable single number in the business.
See pricing or contact us to set up a demo. Related: agro inputs and FMCG.