Trade Manager Complete Guide: Track Domestic and International Purchase Trades

Trade Manager is a trade tracking app for clothing and footwear wholesalers who purchase goods domestically or internationally. It keeps the supplier order, items, payments, shipments, receiving, shortages, claims and final costing connected from purchase placement until the trade is completed.

It is designed for a practical question every wholesaler must answer: What did we order, what did we pay, where is the goods, what actually arrived, and what did each sellable piece finally cost?

Trade Manager is one part of My Local Shops. For the complete flow after goods are received, read how purchase, inventory, billing, payments and reports work together.

At a glance

Area	What Trade Manager records	What the owner learns
Trade	Supplier, order date, currency and notes	Which purchases are active and which supplier each one belongs to
Items	Name, item code, HSN, ordered quantity and rate	What was ordered and its expected value
Supplier payments	Amount, date, payment mode, recipient and exchange-rate details where relevant	How much has been paid and how much remains due
Consignments	Items allocated to each shipment	Which part of a larger order is moving in each delivery
International movement	Shipping mode, cargo agent, tracking, packages, weight, charges and expected arrival	How imported goods are moving toward India
Local delivery	Courier or delivery partner, tracking, packages, weight, charges and expected delivery	How goods are moving from port, hub or supplier to the business
Receiving	Sellable, non-sellable and explicitly missing quantities	What physically arrived and what can become inventory
Claims	Damage, shortage or another issue, responsible party, amount and status	Which losses still need follow-up
Costing	Purchase value, transport and applicable additional costs	Total landed cost, cost per sellable piece and suggested selling price
Proofs	Relevant photos or documents attached to trade events	Supporting evidence remains with the event it belongs to

Why purchase tracking needs more than an order total

A wholesale purchase rarely ends when the owner sends an order on WhatsApp or writes it in a notebook. Between placing the order and selling the goods, several things can change:

• the supplier may split one order into multiple shipments;
• only part of the supplier amount may be paid initially;
• an international payment may use a different exchange rate from the first estimate;
• cargo, importer, customs and local-delivery charges may be added later;
• fewer boxes or pieces may arrive;
• some received pieces may be damaged and not sellable; and
• a claim may remain open even after the usable goods reach the shop.

If these facts remain in separate chats, receipts and memories, the owner may know the purchase price but still not know the real position of the trade. Trade Manager keeps each stage under the same trade record.

The complete Trade Manager workflow

Step 1: Create the supplier

The owner first selects an existing supplier or adds a new one. A supplier can retain useful contact and currency context, so the same details do not need to be typed for every purchase.

For example, a Mumbai wholesaler may purchase one design from a supplier in Surat in Indian rupees and another design from an overseas supplier in a foreign currency. The trade records remain separate even though both will later become inventory for the same business.

Step 2: Create the trade

A new trade begins with:

1. supplier;
2. order date;
3. transaction currency; and
4. optional notes.

Indian rupees are available for domestic purchases, while the relevant foreign currency can be selected for an international purchase. The system gives the trade its own identity so all later activity—items, payments, consignments, receiving, proofs, claims and costing—stays connected.

Step 3: Add the ordered items

The owner records each purchased item with its:

• name;
• item code, when available;
• HSN code, when available;
• ordered quantity;
• rate per unit; and
• relevant notes.

The item total is calculated from quantity multiplied by rate. When a trade contains several designs at different rates, they remain separate instead of becoming one unexplained purchase amount.

This matters later because additional trade costs are distributed across the items according to their share of the order value. A higher-value item therefore receives a proportionate share rather than every design being treated as identical.

Step 4: Record supplier payments and remaining amount

Payments can be added as they happen instead of waiting until the complete supplier amount is settled. The owner records the amount, date, payment mode and the party paid.

For foreign-currency trades, exchange-rate information helps convert the purchase into rupees for costing. If actual payment rates exist, the costing uses those records. If nothing has been paid yet, an expected rate can be entered rather than silently treating foreign currency as rupees.

The trade shows whether the supplier order is unpaid, partially paid, paid or overpaid. The remaining supplier amount is calculated from the order value minus recorded payments; the owner does not need to create an artificial “credit payment” merely to make the balance appear.

Step 5: Add one or more consignments

One purchase trade can arrive through multiple physical deliveries. Trade Manager therefore treats a consignment as a delivery batch belonging to the trade.

For each consignment, the owner can allocate which items and quantities are expected in that shipment. Suppose a supplier splits 1,000 T-shirts into two dispatches of 600 and 400 pieces. Both shipments stay under the same purchase trade, but each can have its own movement, charges, receipt and proofs.

This prevents the first delivery from making the entire order look received.

Step 6: Record international shipping when applicable

For an imported consignment, the international leg can include:

• shipping mode, such as air cargo, sea freight, courier or hand carry;
• cargo agent;
• tracking number;
• package count;
• weight, cost per kilogram or CBM where relevant;
• international shipping charges;
• pickup date and expected arrival;
• importer details;
• Bill of Entry reference and date where available; and
• notes.

The importer or cargo-related charge and its payment can be followed without mixing it with the supplier's goods payment. This distinction is important: paying the supplier does not mean the freight or importer has also been paid.

Domestic purchases can skip the international leg and continue directly to local delivery or receiving.

Step 7: Record the local-delivery leg

The same consignment can also record movement inside India. The owner can keep the courier or delivery partner, tracking number, package count, weight, charges, pickup date and expected delivery together.

The courier ledger follows local-delivery charges and payments separately. If ₹8,000 is charged and ₹5,000 has been paid, the remaining ₹3,000 remains visible against that transport party instead of disappearing inside a general expense number.

Step 8: Attach proofs where they belong

Purchase orders, payment proofs, cargo documents, delivery receipts, receiving photos and claim evidence are useful only when their purpose remains clear.

Trade Manager attaches a proof to the relevant trade section or individual event. A payment proof stays with that payment; a claim image stays with that claim; and a shipment document stays with that shipment context. This is more useful than keeping every image in one unlabelled phone gallery or searching an old chat later.

These business proofs are private records. They are not public product photos on the My Local Shops website.

Step 9: Record what physically arrived

Receiving is recorded per consignment. For each item, the owner deliberately enters:

• sellable quantity: pieces that can become inventory;
• non-sellable quantity: pieces received but written off because they cannot be sold; and
• missing quantity: pieces that did not arrive.

The app does not silently assume that every difference is missing. The owner explicitly records the shortage because an incorrect ordered quantity or receiving entry should not automatically become a confirmed business claim.

Box count, delivery reference, received location, received date and notes can also be kept with the receiving record.

Step 10: Raise and follow a claim

If goods arrive damaged, short or otherwise incorrect, the owner can raise a claim against the relevant party. Supported claim context includes the supplier, payment agent, importer, cargo party or another party.

A claim can record:

• damage, shortage or another claim type;
• affected items and quantities;
• amount claimed;
• description, date and notes;
• supporting proof; and
• status such as open, in progress, resolved, partially resolved, rejected or written off.

Receiving and claims remain related but are not the same thing. Recording 20 missing pieces establishes what happened to the goods; raising a claim establishes how the owner is following up on the commercial loss.

Step 11: Review landed cost and selling guidance

After costs and receiving facts are available, Trade Manager combines applicable amounts such as:

• purchase value converted to rupees where necessary;
• international transport charges;
• local-delivery charges;
• payment-agent or importer commission;
• customs or import duty;
• Social Welfare Surcharge;
• anti-dumping duty;
• IGST entered for the trade;
• other custom costs added by the owner.

It then shows the total landed cost and an item-level breakdown. Once receiving exists, the per-piece view uses the sellable quantity so missing and completely non-sellable pieces do not pretend to be stock available for recovery.

The owner can add a target markup and receive a suggested selling price per piece. Suggested item prices are rounded upward to a whole rupee so the displayed price does not fall below the selected target merely because of rounding.

The next guide in this series will explain the landed-cost calculation with a complete short-delivery example.

Step 12: Complete the trade or close an agreed shortfall

A multi-consignment trade becomes fully received when the ordered items have been accounted for across its consignments. This avoids closing a trade simply because one shipment arrived.

Sometimes the remaining pieces will genuinely never arrive and the parties agree to close the matter. The owner can close the trade without full receipt, but must record a reason. This keeps the exception visible instead of changing quantities just to force a completed status.

Received consignments can then be brought into Inventory Manager, where sellable goods become products and SKUs at the correct shop or godown.

Domestic and international trade: what changes?

Workflow area	Domestic purchase	International purchase
Supplier and items	Required	Required
Currency	Usually INR	Relevant foreign currency
Supplier payments	Recorded against the order	Recorded with exchange-rate context where applicable
International leg	Not needed	Shipping mode, cargo/importer, tracking, freight and import details can be recorded
Local delivery	Optional, depending on movement	Often used for movement after port, customs or cargo hub
Receiving and claims	Same deliberate quantity checks	Same deliberate quantity checks
Costing	Purchase plus applicable domestic charges	Converted purchase value plus applicable freight, import and local costs

Trade Manager does not force every international field onto a domestic purchase. The common trade structure remains the same, while transport and costing details are added only when they apply.

Realistic example: one order arriving in two shipments

A footwear wholesaler orders 1,000 pairs from a supplier:

Item	Ordered quantity	Purchase rate
Men's casual shoes	600 pairs	₹500
Women's casual shoes	400 pairs	₹400

The purchase value is ₹4,60,000. The supplier sends two consignments.

Consignment 1

• Declared: 350 men's pairs and 250 women's pairs
• Received sellable: 345 men's pairs and 245 women's pairs
• Received non-sellable: 2 men's pairs and 3 women's pairs
• Explicitly missing: 3 men's pairs and 2 women's pairs

The owner records the receipt and raises a shortage or damage claim as appropriate. The first shipment does not complete the trade because the rest of the order remains allocated to the second consignment.

Consignment 2

• Declared: 250 men's pairs and 150 women's pairs
• Received sellable: 248 men's pairs and 149 women's pairs
• Received non-sellable: 1 men's pair
• Explicitly missing: 2 men's pairs and 1 women's pair

Across both shipments, the owner now has a deliberate record of sellable, non-sellable and missing quantities. Transport charges from both consignments contribute to the trade's costing instead of only the final shipment being counted.

The sellable quantities can move to inventory. Claims remain available for follow-up, while costing tells the owner how much of the purchase and applicable additional charges must be recovered through the pairs that can actually be sold.

What Trade Manager stores and what it calculates

Information recorded by the owner

• supplier and order context;
• item names, codes, HSN, quantities and rates;
• payment events and exchange-rate inputs;
• consignment item allocations;
• international and local movement details;
• transport-party charges and payments;
• received sellable, non-sellable and missing quantities;
• claims, status, notes and proof documents;
• applicable manual or custom costs; and
• desired profit markup.

Information calculated or summarised by the system

• order value and payment status;
• supplier amount remaining;
• importer and courier outstanding against their recorded charges;
• trade progress and consignment roll-ups;
• whether ordered items are fully accounted for;
• purchase value in rupees for foreign-currency costing;
• total landed cost;
• item-level landed cost per piece;
• suggested selling price; and
• expected profit at the selected markup.

The accuracy of a calculated result depends on the business facts entered. The app can organise and calculate recorded information, but it cannot know about a cash payment, damaged carton or unrecorded charge that the owner never enters.

What the owner sees

Trade Manager is an owner app because it contains commercially sensitive information. The owner can see:

• active and completed purchase trades;
• supplier and trade-party contact context;
• payment amounts and pending balances;
• shipment progress and expected dates;
• receiving differences;
• claims and their resolution status;
• private trade proofs;
• landed cost and suggested selling price; and
• reports summarising relevant trade, payment, claim and cost information.

The owner apps use the phone's supported security check when opened. Business records are associated with the signed-in seller account and stored in the cloud, so changing a supported device does not mean rebuilding every trade from the beginning.

Can billing staff use Trade Manager?

Trade Manager is intended for the owner or another trusted person handling purchases. Ordinary billing-counter staff should use Staff Bill to create permitted invoices without seeing purchase cost, landed cost, profit or owner reports.

This separation matters. A staff member may need the available selling stock to create a bill, but does not automatically need access to overseas supplier rates, import charges or the owner's target margin.

Common mistakes and edge cases

Treating the full order as one shipment

If a supplier dispatches in parts, create separate consignments. Otherwise the first receipt can be confused with completion of the full trade.

Entering only the sellable quantity

Record non-sellable and missing quantities deliberately. This makes receiving, claims and costing easier to review later.

Mixing supplier and transport payments

Supplier goods payment, importer charges and courier charges answer different questions. Record each against the relevant party or transport leg.

Costing a foreign purchase without a valid rate

Use actual payment-rate information where available or provide an expected rate before payment. A foreign amount should never be assumed to equal the same number of rupees.

Forgetting a charge before deciding the selling price

Review freight, commissions, duties and other applicable costs before treating the displayed cost as final. Missing expenses produce an artificially low selling target.

Counting damaged goods as normal stock

Only quantities marked sellable should be prepared for inventory. A physically received but completely non-sellable piece is not stock available for recovery through a normal sale.

Closing a short trade without explanation

If the remaining quantity will not arrive, use the explicit close-without-full-receipt path and record the reason. Do not falsify receiving quantities to make the progress look complete.

Assuming a claim changes receiving automatically

A claim records commercial follow-up. It does not turn a missing or damaged unit into sellable inventory. Update each business event according to what actually happened.

Frequently asked questions

Can Trade Manager track domestic purchases?

Yes. Select the domestic supplier and relevant currency, record items and payments, and use local delivery or direct receiving as applicable. International shipping fields can be skipped.

Can one trade contain multiple shipments?

Yes. A trade can have multiple consignments, each with its own item allocation, international or local movement, charges, receiving record and proof context.

Does Trade Manager support part payment to a supplier?

Yes. Payments are recorded as events, and the remaining supplier amount is calculated from the order value minus recorded payments.

How are foreign-currency purchases converted for costing?

Recorded payment rates are used when available. Before payment, the owner can provide an expected exchange rate. This gives the rupee costing a defined rate source.

Can I record damaged and missing goods separately?

Yes. Receiving distinguishes sellable, non-sellable and explicitly missing quantities for each item.

Does recording a shortage automatically raise a claim?

No. Receiving records what arrived. A claim is a separate follow-up record with its own party, type, amount, evidence and status.

Can received goods be added to Inventory Manager?

Yes. A received consignment that has not already been imported is available to Inventory Manager, where sellable goods can be structured as products and SKUs.

Is Trade Manager included in the My Local Shops subscription?

Trade Manager is one of the connected business apps included for subscribed sellers. Apps are free to download; check the current plans and location limits before subscribing.

Start tracking the complete purchase, not only the final bill

When a purchase is recorded from order placement onward, the owner can compare expectation with reality at every stage. Trade Manager keeps supplier purchases, payments, multiple shipments, received quantities, claims and final costing connected so the business does not depend on reconstructing an important trade from memory, notebooks and old WhatsApp messages.

View and download Trade Manager, read the complete My Local Shops platform guide, or start setting up your business.