In this guide 6 sections
A yard system must follow each lot from the gate to the farmer’s payment: weighment, grade, bid rate, advance recovered, commission, hamali and buyer dues. It should settle the farmer the same day, carry advances across seasons and post vouchers to Tally. Test it with one real day of lots before signing.
Start with the lot, not the farmer
A chilli yard in Guntur or a cotton yard in Kurnool sells by lot. Everything else hangs from that one record. If the lot is loose, the settlement is loose.
At the gate the clerk should capture the farmer, the village, the vehicle number, the number of bags or bales, the variety and the lot mark. The weighbridge slip comes next, with gross, tare and net weight tied to the same lot. Moisture and grade follow after the buyers have inspected the heap.
Then comes the auction. The winning bid, the buyer’s name and any rate revision after a quality dispute must sit against the lot. A system that stores only the final amount cannot explain a complaint made three weeks later.
- Lot mark, variety and bag or bale count
- Gross, tare and net weight from the weighbridge slip
- Grade, moisture reading and rejection notes
- Winning bid, buyer and any later rate change
Carry the farmer’s advance across seasons
Most farmers draw money before the crop is picked. It buys seed, sprays and labour for the cotton picking. The adatiya then expects it back from the sale, often across more than one lot and more than one season.
That balance is the hardest thing to keep on paper. A ledger page runs out, the book is changed, and the old figure is copied by hand. One slip and the farmer disputes the whole account.
Ask for an advance ledger that never resets at year end. Each advance needs a date, a mode of payment and a note on the crop it was meant for. Each recovery should be posted against a named lot, so the farmer can see exactly what was cut and when.
Commission, hamali and a settlement the farmer can read
A sale bill for a farmer is a short list of deductions. Commission, hamali for unloading and loading, weighing charges, market fee and the advance recovery all come off the lot value. Rates differ by commodity and sometimes by buyer.
The system should hold these rates in a table you can edit, with a start date, and not buried in code. When a rate changes, old bills must keep the old rate.
Same-day settlement is the real test. The farmer waits at the yard with a tractor on hire. Print the account sale, show the cash or bank transfer line and get a signature or thumb impression. Done.
- Rate table by commodity with effective dates
- Hamali and weighing charges per bag
- Advance recovery shown as its own line
- Payment mode and a farmer acknowledgement
Posting to Tally without typing twice
Most yards keep Tally for the books and the auditor. Nobody wants a second set of accounts. The yard system should push sales, commission income, farmer payables and buyer receivables into Tally as vouchers.
Check the mapping before you commit. Which ledger takes the commission? Where does hamali go when it is collected for labour? How are buyer receipts matched to lots? A weak export gives you a spreadsheet that someone still retypes at month end.
Ask to see a day of lots become vouchers in a test company. Compare the closing balance of the buyer ledger with the yard’s own list of dues.
Questions to put to a vendor before signing
Bring a real day of lots to the demo. Ask the vendor to enter them with the weighment slips in front of you, settle two farmers and post to Tally. A slide deck proves nothing.
Then ask the awkward things. What happens when the weighbridge fails and the clerk keys weight by hand? Can a bid be corrected, and who sees the change? Who owns the data if you leave? How long does a farmer’s statement take to print when the yard is full?
Write the answers down and compare two vendors on the same sheet.
- Can it run a full auction day with a slow connection?
- Does the advance balance survive a change of season?
- Who can edit a bid or a rate after settlement?
- Can you export every record in a plain file?
Yard software vendor scorecard
A one-page table with eight rows: lot capture, weighbridge slip, bid history, advance ledger, commission and hamali rates, account sale print, Tally voucher mapping and data export. Columns show what the vendor demonstrated, what they only promised, the problem you saw and a score for each of two vendors.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can one system handle both chilli and cotton?
Usually yes, if rates and units are set per commodity. Chilli is sold by bag and cotton by weight or bale, and each has its own deductions. Check that both settle correctly in a test.
Should the farmer’s advance be tracked per lot or per farmer?
Keep one running balance per farmer, then post each recovery against the lot that paid it. That gives you both the total owed and the history behind it.
Do we still need Tally if the yard system has accounts?
Often yes. Your auditor and tax filings already work from it. Let the yard system do lots and settlements, and post summaries to Tally.
What if the connection drops during an auction?
Ask whether the system works offline and syncs later. A yard cannot stop selling because the network went down, so test this with the plug pulled.