Cribbies, a baby clothing and toys retailer with 4 branches across Kerala, replaced billing software that only printed bills with one system for products, inventory and billing, and founder reports built on top.
- 0branches on one system
- 1system for products, inventory and billing
- 0manual routines removed from the week
- Client
- Cribbies, baby clothing and toys, 4 branches across Kerala
- Business
- Retail: baby dresses and toys sold across branches, with stock bought and sold in batches
- Before
- Generic billing software that billed, but couldn't show full sales, costs or the batch-wise flow of products
- What we built
- One system for products, inventory and billing across every branch, with founder reports on sales and staff performance
The problem
Cribbies' billing software did one job: it printed bills. It couldn't show the founders what they needed to run the business.
Full sales across branches, the cost behind each sale, and the way products moved in and out batch by batch all sat outside the system, or had to be pulled together by hand.
So every decision waited on a report. Someone built it, the founders checked it, and by the time it was ready the question had often moved on. The founders were losing hours every week to reading and reconciling reports instead of acting on them.
The shops were doing well. The numbers were arriving too late and in too many pieces.
Before
Every question became a report request. Someone built it by hand.
- Can I get last week's sales for all four branches?
- Working on it. Need the stock sheet from the second branch first
- And what did that toy batch actually cost us per piece?
- That's in the purchase register, I'll add it to the sheet
- Which branch moved the most dresses this month?
- Sending the report by tomorrow evening
By the time the report arrived, the question had moved on
After
One system. The numbers are there when the founders open it.
- Sales by branch, liveAll four branches, today and this monthAutomatic
- Batch 0412: 38 of 60 soldWhere the rest is, branch by branchAutomatic
- Cost behind each saleMargin by product and by batchAutomatic
- Staff performanceWho is selling, and whereIn the system
No one builds these. The system keeps them current.
Pain points
What we heard from the founders, and what each one was costing the business.
- 01
Billing that only printed bills
The software recorded a sale and printed a receipt. Nothing else about the business lived in it.
The system knew what was sold, not what it meant
- 02
Sales in four pieces
Each branch's figures sat on their own and had to be added up by hand to see the whole business.
No single view of total sales
- 03
No cost behind a sale
What a product cost to buy and what it sold for were in different places, so margin was a calculation, not a number.
Pricing and purchasing decided blind
- 04
Batches tracked outside the system
Stock arrived, moved between branches and sold in batches, but the movements were kept in sheets and memory.
Stock hard to find, easy to lose
- 05
Every decision waited on a report
Someone built the report, the founders checked it, and the question had often moved on by then.
Slow decisions, stale numbers
- 06
Founders reading, not acting
Hours every week went into reading and reconciling reports instead of running the shops.
Expansion and partnerships on hold
How we worked
We didn't start with a feature list. Our consultants started at the counter and in the stockroom.
- 01
Listen
We sat with the Cribbies team and went through how a product comes in, how a batch is recorded, how stock moves between branches, how a sale is billed, and what the founders look at before they decide anything.
- 02
Map
That gave us two things: the workflow as it really ran, not as the billing software assumed it did, and a short list of the decisions the founders needed numbers for. Which products and batches sell. What each sale costs. How each branch and each member of staff is performing.
- 03
Build to the list
The system was built to that list. Billing, inventory and reports follow the way Cribbies actually sells, in every branch.
Time given back
Four weekly routines that used to need a person now run on their own.
Each line below was work someone did by hand every week so the founders could see their own business. The system keeps those numbers current, so the hours go back to running and growing the shops.
- Adding up sales across the four branchesPulled together by hand from each branchAutomatic
- Working out the cost behind each salePurchase register checked by handAutomatic
- Tracking batches from purchase to sale and between branchesKept in sheets outside the softwareIn the system
- Building the founders' reportsBuilt after the fact, checked, rebuiltReady on open
Where the time went: back to expansion and partnerships. The reports do the rest.
What we built
One system for products, inventory and billing across every Cribbies branch. Each part replaces something the old software couldn't do or someone did by hand.
Billing that follows how Cribbies sells
Billing in every branch, built around the real flow of a sale instead of a generic template.
ReplacedGeneric billing software that only printed bills
Batch-wise inventory
Every product tracked batch by batch, from purchase to sale and between branches.
ReplacedStock movements kept outside the billing software
Sales and costs in one place
Full sales and costs by branch, by product and by batch.
ReplacedFigures pulled together by hand from different places
Founder reports
Sales, product movement and staff performance, ready whenever the founders open them.
ReplacedReports someone built after the fact
What changed
The founders now make decisions from the reports, not after building them.
- Sales, costs and the batch-wise flow of every product are visible in one place, by branch.
- Staff performance shows in the same reports, so the founders can see who is selling and where.
- The founders' time now goes into expansion and partnerships. The reports do the rest.
How HowinCloud works
We build around how your business already works. First we study how it runs: who does what, where work waits, and what the founder checks before deciding. Then we build one system around that, for every part of the business. Cribbies is one example.