How to run the shopShree Nirmal Vivek · staff only
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Staff handbook

Running the shop takes five minutes at a time

Written for whoever looks after the shop. You do not need to know anything about computers. Nothing here takes more than five minutes. The whole shop is one file, index.html — no monthly fee, no account, no software to install.

01Before you put it online — four things to fill in

Open index.html in Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Do not open it in Word. Press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) and search for CONFIG. Change only the text between the quote marks.

1. The UPI ID — do this first

// find this line and put the ID between the quotes
upiId:   "shreenirmalvivek@sbi",

Ask the bank for the current account's UPI ID if you don't know it. Once filled in, customers automatically see a QR code and a "Pay now" button. Leave it empty and the shop tells them to wait for a payment request instead — that works too, it's just one more step for them.

2. Check the WhatsApp number

whatsapp:  "919649014230",

That's 91 (India) then the 10-digit number, no spaces, no plus sign. Orders go to whichever number is here, so make sure it's the phone someone actually watches during office hours.

3. Check the prices

In the products: list, change the number after price:. Nothing else — no rupee sign, no commas. mrp:0 means no strike-through price; mrp:500 shows ₹500 crossed out. Only use it if the item really was that price.

4. Change the announcement at the top

announce: "🪔 Corporate orders close {cutoff} · Retail until {retail} while stock lasts · ...",

The pieces in curly braces, {cutoff} and {retail}, are filled in automatically from the dates lower down in CONFIG (corporate.cutoff and corporate.retailCutoff). Change the date there once and it changes everywhere. You can delete the braces and type plain text instead; the page shows exactly what you write.

Change this whenever you need to: order deadlines, festival greetings, "closed for holidays".

02The three things you'll do most often

Something has sold out

Find the item and change its stock.

Write thisCustomer seesCan they buy?
stock:"in"🟢 In stockYes
stock:"low"🟡 Only a few leftYes
stock:"out"⚪ Sold outNo — button switches off
Do this the moment you run out

A customer who orders something you can't send is a customer you lose, and it takes ten seconds to prevent.

Adding a photo — no editing needed

The shop shows a drawing of each item until a real photo arrives. You don't have to edit the file at all. Drop a photo with the exact name below into the same folder and it appears automatically.

ProductName the photo exactly
Hand-painted diya set of 6diya-set.jpg
Scented jar candlecandle.jpg
Hand block-printed cotton totetote-bag.jpg
Handmade paper notebook & folder setpaper-set.jpg
The Diwali hamperhamper.jpg

Put the item on a plain light background near a window. Daylight, no flash, shoot from slightly above, fill the frame. A phone camera is completely fine. Lowercase names, no spaces, ending .jpg. A real photo sells far more than a drawing — this matters more than anything else on this page.

Naming the maker

maker:"",        // shows "Made by our trainees"
maker:"Rahul",   // shows "Made by Rahul"
First name only

Use a first name only, and only with the family's permission. Never a full name, never a photo of a child's face, never a diagnosis. This is what turns a diya into a story — but the family decides, not us. The same rule governs the makers' stories page.

03Delivery charges & the sample box

delivery: {
  pickup:       0,     // collected from the school
  jaipur:       60,    // within Jaipur
  rajasthan:    90,    // rest of Rajasthan
},

Change these two numbers if courier rates go up. The buyer pays the courier on every order, at cost. We do not absorb it and there is no order value above which it stops being charged.

Why we charge it, in words you can say out loud

"We are a non-profit. The margin on every item goes to the trainee who made it and the trainer who taught them. If we paid the courier out of that, we would be taking it back out of their hands." Anyone who objects can collect from the school, where there is genuinely no courier and nothing to charge.

We never say "free"

Collection shows as "no courier charge", because there genuinely is no courier. That is the only zero on the whole site, and it is a fact rather than a gift.

The sample box is charged — on purpose

corporate: { samplePrice: 750 },

A company that wants to see the product before ordering pays ₹750 for a sample box, credited in full against their order. It filters out browsers, it costs a serious buyer nothing, and it sets the tone: we're a supplier quoting a price, not a charity hoping to be noticed. If a buyer pushes back:

Say this, plainly

"It's credited against your order, so if you go ahead it costs you nothing. We charge it because every box takes a trainee about forty minutes to make."

04When someone asks for a discount

They will — especially once they hear the word "school". We do not discount. The answer, in your words:

Say this

"Our margin is a trainee's stipend and a trainer's salary, so a discount comes straight out of a wage. The price is what the work costs. If you'd also like to support the programme, that's a separate conversation and we can issue an 80G receipt for a donation."

That last sentence turns a discount request into a possible donation, and keeps the two transactions cleanly apart — which the law requires anyway.

05Putting it online

You already pay for shreenirmalvivek.org. Use it, because it costs nothing extra.

Option A — on the school's website (recommended)

  1. Ask whoever manages the website (host: eWebGuru) to create a folder called shop.
  2. Put index.html, stories.html and your photos inside it.
  3. The shop is then live at shreenirmalvivek.org/shop.

Option B — if nobody can reach the website

Go to netlify.com/drop in any browser. Drag the folder onto the page. It goes live in about thirty seconds and gives you a web address to share. No cost, no account.

Once live, put the link in the WhatsApp Business profile, the Instagram bio, the Google Business Profile, and at the bottom of every email.

06What happens when someone orders

  1. They add items and tap Send order on WhatsApp.
  2. WhatsApp opens with the order already written out. They press send.
  3. You get a message listing every item, quantity, total, their name, phone and address.
  4. You reply the same working day to confirm stock and delivery. This is the single most important thing in the whole system.
  5. You send a UPI request for the total. Once paid, you pack and send it.
Nothing is charged automatically

No money moves until you ask for it. If you're out of stock, nothing has gone wrong — you just tell them.

Set the WhatsApp away message

The shop tells buyers we reply between 10:00 and 15:00, Monday to Friday. WhatsApp Business can say the same thing automatically, so an order sent at nine at night gets an answer within a second instead of waiting until morning wondering whether anyone is there.

Set it up on the shop phone, once

  1. Install WhatsApp Business from the Play Store on the phone that carries the SIM for 9649014230. If regular WhatsApp is already on it, the app offers to migrate; say yes.
  2. Fill the profile: name (Shree Nirmal Vivek School Shop), address, category (Retail), hours (Mon–Fri 10:00–15:00), the shop URL.
  3. Turn on the away message (below) and the greeting message ("Namaste. Thank you for writing to Shree Nirmal Vivek School Shop. We reply the same working day between 10:00 and 15:00.").
  4. Open Business tools → Quick replies and paste the six replies from the printed sheet. Give them short codes: /confirm, /soldout, /sent, /state, /closed, /80g. Once loaded, a two-key shortcut in the chat drops the whole reply, with the blanks visible for filling in.

Link a laptop or a second phone — the real two-people setup

WhatsApp Business supports up to four linked devices on one number. Use it: an unanswered WhatsApp on the primary phone during Diwali week is the season's income.

  1. On the shop phone: Settings → Linked devices → Link a device. A QR code appears.
  2. On the Principal's laptop, open web.whatsapp.com in Chrome and scan the QR. The whole conversation history is now readable and answerable from the laptop, without the SIM being present.
  3. Repeat on the backup person's phone. From this point either device can reply, and both see the same threads.
  4. Every two months, review linked devices on the primary phone and remove any that are no longer in use.

In WhatsApp Business → Settings → Business tools → Away message, turn it on, set it to outside business hours, and use this:

Thank you for your order. Our office is open
10:00 to 15:00, Monday to Friday. We will confirm
stock and the delivery date on the next working day.
Your order is safe with us.

आपके ऑर्डर के लिए धन्यवाद। हमारा दफ़्तर सोमवार से
शुक्रवार, 10:00 से 15:00 तक खुला रहता है। अगले
कार्यदिवस पर हम स्टॉक और डिलीवरी की तारीख़ बता देंगे।

Set business hours in the same menu so the message only goes out when the office is genuinely shut.

Two people, not one, before Diwali

Start four weeks before the cut-off

For the four weeks before the order cut-off, a second member of staff must be able to answer the WhatsApp number and update stock. Not "knows about it" — has actually done it once, with someone watching. Diwali is exactly when one person falls ill, and an unanswered WhatsApp in that fortnight is the whole season's income.

Name the backup person here

Fill this in and keep it filled in. If it is empty, the two-people rule is a plan not a decision. Both people carry the printed quick-replies sheet in their bag from four weeks before the cut-off.

PrimaryNamePhone
Runs the shop, holds the SIM______________________________________________
BackupNamePhone
Trained on the Business app, laptop linked, has the quick replies______________________________________________
EscalationNamePhone
Principal, for anything either person cannot answerC. S. Trivedi0141-2711683 (school landline)

Every day at 15:00, count the shelf

The one operational routine that stops paid orders for stock we no longer have

The shop tells buyers whether an item is In stock, Only a few left or Sold out. That is a switch a human flips. Nobody flips it means the shop lies about stock, and the first symptom is a buyer paying for something that ran out yesterday.

  1. 15:00 every working day, at the end of the school day, the named person counts what is on the packing shelf.
  2. Open index.html in Notepad, scroll to CONFIG. For each of the five products, set stock:"in", "low" or "out" to match what the shelf actually shows. Save, re-upload.
  3. Write the count and the change in the stock register that same day.
  4. In a festival week, count twice — 10:00 and 15:00. Diwali orders come in bursts, and the second symptom of missing count is two orders on the same box.

Rule of thumb: if fewer than 12 of any one item are on the shelf, that item is "low"; if none are on the shelf and none coming out of the workshop today, it is "out". Nothing else is trustworthy.

Keep a register

Write every order down: date, name, phone, what they ordered, amount, paid yes/no, sent yes/no. This is not optional — the school is a registered charity, and money from selling things must be recorded separately from donations and fees, with a stock register showing raw material in and finished goods out. Ask the school's CA to set the format up once, at the start.

07Four rules that protect the school

Rule 1

Never issue an 80G receipt for a purchase. Someone buying a candle is not donating — they get a bill of supply (a numbered receipt with the school's name, address and PAN). A donation is a separate transaction with its own receipt. Mixing the two puts the school's 80G approval at risk.

Rule 2

Only sell things our own trainees made. Buying diyas from a wholesaler and reselling them is trading, and it endangers the school's tax exemption. Everything on the shop must come out of our own vocational centre.

Rule 3

Shop income stays small next to the school's income. A registered charity may run a business only when it is incidental to its objects, and the safe working limit is 20% of the school's total receipts in a year. Selling what the training produces is incidental. Selling as the main activity is not. Add the shop's yearly takings up every March and check them against total receipts. If the shop is heading past a fifth of the school's income, stop and take the CA's advice before the year closes, not after.

Rule 4

Watch the GST line. We are not registered under GST because our turnover is below the threshold, currently ₹40 lakh a year for goods. Keep a running total of shop sales. At ₹30 lakh, tell the Principal and the CA and start the registration conversation. Crossing the line without registering is the expensive kind of mistake, and it is entirely avoidable because you can see it coming months ahead in the register.

08Money, the CA and the tax line

The shop is not a side project in the school's accounts. It is a small business run inside a charity, and it has to look like one on paper.

Every quarter, without being asked

On the first working day of July, October, January and April, send the school's CA:

  1. The order register for the three months just finished.
  2. Total shop receipts for those three months, and the running total for the financial year.
  3. The stock register: raw material bought, finished goods made, finished goods sold.
  4. A note of anything unusual, such as a large corporate order or a refund.
Put it in the calendar now

Four reminders a year, on the 1st of July, October, January and April. This is fifteen minutes each time if the register is kept up. It is two days of misery if it is not.

Keep the two kinds of money apart

Sales money and donation money are different things in law and must stay in different lines of the accounts. A purchase gets a bill of supply. A donation gets an 80G receipt. Never the two in one transaction, never one document that does both.

Watch the yearly numbers

What to watchThe numberWhat to do
Shop receipts as a share of total school receiptsKeep under 20%Check every March. Above 15%, tell the CA early.
Shop turnover in a financial yearGST threshold, ₹40 lakh for goodsAt ₹30 lakh, start the GST conversation.
Sales outside RajasthanZero, until we registerRefer any such enquiry to the Principal.

09Things that go wrong, and what to do

ProblemWhat to do
Page looks broken after editingYou deleted a quote mark, comma or bracket. Undo with Ctrl+Z until it works. Always keep a backup before editing.
WhatsApp doesn't open for the customerThey're on a desktop without WhatsApp. The shop shows them the order text to copy, plus our number. Nothing is lost.
Someone orders something sold outReply, apologise, offer an alternative. Then set that item to stock:"out".
Someone outside Rajasthan wants to orderDon't ship it — we're not GST-registered. Tell them we deliver in Rajasthan for now. Large corporate order? Refer to the Principal.
Someone asks for a GST invoiceWe can't give one. The price already has no GST added, and no reverse charge is payable by them.
Someone wants cash on deliveryWe don't offer it. A refused parcel costs both the delivery and the return.

10If the person who runs the shop leaves

One person usually ends up owning this. That is fine while they are here and a problem the week they are not. Everything below fits on one sheet of paper. Fill it in, print it, and keep it in the Principal's file.

The handover sheet

  1. Where the folder lives. The exact computer and the exact folder. Write the path down.
  2. Where the backups live. Same, plus who else has a copy.
  3. The WhatsApp number and who holds the phone. If it is a personal phone, move it to a school phone before the person leaves, not after.
  4. The UPI ID and which bank account it points at.
  5. Who hosts the website and the login for it, in the Principal's sealed envelope, not in an email.
  6. The CA's name and number.
  7. Where the order register and stock register are kept.
  8. Any order that is open: taken but not yet delivered or not yet paid.
Nothing here should live in one head

If the answer to any line above is "only Sunita knows", that line is a risk, not a note. Fix it this week. The shop is deliberately built so that anyone who can use Notepad can run it, and that only holds if somebody else has been shown once.

The half-hour handover

Sit the new person down and do these five things with them, in this order. It takes about thirty minutes.

  1. Open the folder. Make a dated backup copy together.
  2. Open index.html in Notepad, change one item to stock:"out", save, open the shop, see it change, change it back.
  3. Place a test order from a phone, all the way to the WhatsApp message.
  4. Open the order register and write the test order in it.
  5. Show them this page and the quarterly CA routine.

11Before you go live — the checklist

  • UPI ID filled in, and tested by paying ₹1 from another phone
  • WhatsApp number correct, on a phone someone watches 10:00–15:00
  • All five prices checked against what the items actually cost to make
  • Stock status correct for every item
  • At least one real photo added, ideally all five
  • Somebody named as responsible for replying to orders the same day
  • Order register set up, and the CA has approved the format
  • A dated backup saved: copy the whole folder and rename the copy shop-backup-2026-08-12, using today's date. Do this before every editing session, and keep the last three.
  • WhatsApp Business away message and business hours switched on
  • A second member of staff has answered one order and changed one stock status, with someone watching
  • The four quarterly CA reminders in the calendar: 1 July, 1 October, 1 January, 1 April
  • The Hindi version checked by reading the shop once end to end with the toggle set to हिंदी
  • The link added to WhatsApp, Instagram and Google Business Profile