CaratLedger
Custom diamond and jewellery management software
Rough to polished, karigar to certificate — tracked by carat.
For manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers where value is concentrated in small parcels, stock moves out to karigars and comes back changed, and a fraction of a carat matters. Built around lot and packet identity, issue-and-return against wastage norms, and the certification trail buyers now expect.
Screens
What it looks like
4 screens from the working demo — the same data you will see if you open it.
The problem
Why this gets built
Value in this trade is measured in fractions of a carat, and it moves through many hands before it comes back. Without lot-level tracking, yield is an estimate, karigar accounts are settled from memory, and a shortfall is discovered long after the parcel has moved on.
Who it is for
Fit
Diamond polishing and jewellery manufacturing units in Surat and Mumbai running job work at scale.
Capabilities
What the system does.
Rough lot tracking
Every lot and packet recorded from purchase, with weight and cost carried through every process.
Yield analysis
Rough carats in against polished carats out, per lot and per karigar, so yield is measured rather than assumed.
Karigar job work
Issue and receipt against each worker with labour rates per carat and outstanding parcels visible at all times.
Assortment & grading
Polished stock organised by the 4Cs, with assortment recorded as it happens.
Certification
GIA and IGI certificate numbers tied to stones, so a certificate is never separated from what it certifies.
Party ledgers
Purchase, sale and memo movement per party with outstanding positions current, not month-end.
See it running
CaratLedger is a clickable demo — open the modules, browse the tables, see how the screens fit together.
Buying decision
Why off-the-shelf falls short here.
Jewellery breaks the assumption every generic inventory system is built on - that what goes out is what comes back, and that an item's identity survives handling. Gold issued to a karigar returns as a different object of lower weight. A rough parcel becomes several polished stones of different grades. Neither is a stock transfer in any ordinary sense.
Value density makes the tolerances unforgiving. A system that rounds weights, or that tracks stock by item code rather than by packet, loses money quietly and gives no way to find out where. Wastage that is allowed by norm and wastage that is loss look identical in the report.
A custom build tracks the packet, not the product code: every issue to a karigar is an open obligation with an expected return weight and an agreed wastage percentage, every polished stone carries its parent lot, and certified stones carry their certificate number through to the sale.
Comparison
Packaged product vs a custom build.
The differences that decide it, for this sector specifically.
| Aspect | Packaged product | Custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Stock identity | Item code and quantity | Lot and packet, with parent-child lineage from rough through polished to finished piece |
| Karigar work | Not modelled | Issue and receipt with expected return weight, agreed wastage norm, and variance flagged against the worker |
| Weights | Rounded to two decimals | Carat and gram precision carried end to end, with no silent rounding at any step |
| Making charges | A flat percentage | Per-design, per-karigar rates, labour on weight or on piece, with the rate history preserved |
| Certification | A free-text field | Certificate number, lab and grading attributes attached to the stone and carried onto the invoice |
| Hallmarking | Outside the system | HUID recorded against the piece, with compliance reporting produced from the same records |
Integrations
What it connects to.
A system that cannot reach the tools already in use becomes another island. These are the connections this sector normally needs.
Accounting
Sales, purchase and karigar settlements posted to Tally or Zoho Books with metal and making split correctly.
Rate feeds
Daily gold and silver rates pulled in so valuation and quotes use the day's rate, not a typed one.
Certification labs
Certificate lookup by number so grading data is imported rather than transcribed.
Weighing scales
Direct capture from the scale, removing the most common source of weight error.
Retail POS
Counter sale, exchange and old-gold buyback against the same stock records.
How it runs
From first conversation to cutover.
Indicative for a build of this shape. The parallel run is not optional — nothing is retired until the numbers agree.
- 1-2 weeks
Discovery
We take your real design master, karigar rate card and wastage norms, and watch one full issue-and-receipt cycle.
- 5-8 weeks
Core build
Packet-level stock, karigar issue and receipt, and weight handling first, since every other number depends on them.
- 3-4 weeks
Parallel run
Run alongside existing records through a full karigar cycle and a stock count, until the physical count matches.
- 1-2 weeks
Cutover
Opening stock locked by packet, counter and karigar access switched on, old registers retired.
After rollout
What changes day to day.
- Wastage beyond norm is visible per karigar and per job rather than absorbed into a company-wide figure.
- A polished stone can be traced to the rough parcel it came from, which is what makes a costing argument settleable.
- Physical stock counts reconcile to the system because both are held at packet level.
- Certificate and HUID data reaches the invoice without being retyped, so compliance is a by-product rather than a task.
Described qualitatively on purpose. We do not publish percentage improvements we cannot attribute to a named client with their agreement.
Questions
Common questions.
How is yield calculated?
Rough carats issued are measured against polished carats received, per lot and per karigar, so yield is a recorded figure rather than an estimate.
Can it track karigar job work?
Yes. Every issue and receipt is recorded against the worker with labour rates per carat, and outstanding parcels are visible at any moment.
Does it store certification details?
Yes. GIA and IGI certificate numbers are tied to the stones they certify, so a certificate is never separated from its stone.