Flour & Rice Mill Management
Procurement by net weight, yield per grind, and by-products accounted for — because bran and husk are where a mill's margin actually hides.
A mill buys by weight and sells by weight, and the entire business sits in the difference between the two. Wheat comes in at a gross weight, loses something to moisture and dockage, goes through the plant, and comes out as several products at once — fine atta, maida, suji, and bran that is sold separately. If the yield per hundred kilograms is not measured per lot, the mill is being run on the assumption that it is the same as last month.
Rice works the same way with more steps and more by-products: paddy in, hulling, polishing, grading and sortex, and an output split between head rice, broken of various grades, bran and husk. What gets built here is procurement at net weight, a yield record per lot or per day, and by-product stock treated as stock rather than as a windfall — plus the party khata, because mills buy from arthis and farmers on account and sell on account.
What it fixes
- Procurement recorded at the gross weight on the slip, with moisture and dockage deductions agreed verbally and settled later
- Yield per grind never measured against the lot that was put in, so a drop in recovery is noticed only in the monthly profit
- By-products — bran, husk, broken, chokar — carried away and sold with no proper stock record, which is where the leakage usually is
- Weighbridge slips kept separately from the purchase entry, so gross, tare and net are reconciled by hand
- Bag stock in several pack sizes with loose stock in the godown, counted differently by the storekeeper and the office
- Party accounts with arthis and brokers running on advances and adjustments, with commission and loading charges settled from memory at the end
What gets built
A starting point, not a fixed list. The build is scoped to your own process before anything is written.
Procurement and weighbridge
Vehicle in and out with gross, tare and net weight, moisture or dockage deduction applied as a recorded rule, and the purchase posted at net weight against the party.
Lot and godown stock
Raw stock by lot, variety and quality, held per godown, with what has been issued to the plant and what remains — in loose weight rather than converted to bags too early.
Production and yield
Raw quantity issued against output received per product, with recovery percentage per lot or per shift, so a yield that has slipped shows up within days.
By-product accounting
Bran, husk, broken and other by-products received into stock as products with their own quantity, rate and sale, so they are reconciled against yield instead of disappearing.
Packing and finished stock
Finished stock by product and pack size, packing material consumed, and loose versus bagged stock kept straight between the godown and the office.
Party khata and brokerage
Running accounts for arthis, farmers, brokers and buyers, with advances, adjustments, commission and loading and freight charges on the same account rather than beside it.
Who this is for
Flour mills and rice mills, including shellers and parboiling units, with their own weighbridge, a godown and purchases coming through arthis or direct from growers. It is worth most where recovery and by-products are a meaningful share of margin, which is almost always. A small chakki grinding on order for walk-in customers does not need this. Mills working largely on government wheat quota should raise that at scoping, because quota procurement, release and reporting follow their own rules per province and that part has to be built to match what your food department actually requires rather than to a generic model.
Questions
Can it read our weighbridge directly?
Usually possible and worth doing, because retyping a weight is where disputes begin. Most weighbridge indicators output over a serial or network connection and that can be read into the entry screen. It depends on the make and model of the indicator and on how your bridge is wired, so we would want those details and ideally a look at the installation before committing to it in a quotation.
Will it tell us our exact cost per bag?
It will give you a defensible cost based on raw material at net purchase rate, recovery actually achieved, packing and the direct costs you book. It will not be exact to the rupee, because by-product realisation moves and overhead apportionment is a judgement your accountant makes. What it does fix is the biggest variable, which is pretending recovery is constant when it is not.
We do mostly trading, not milling, in some seasons.
Then say so, because the build leans differently. A trading season needs strong party khata, weighbridge and stock, and barely touches yield. A mill that trades half the year can have both, but if trading is the bulk of your business the honest recommendation may be a smaller build focused on procurement, stock and party accounts rather than a full mill system.
Tell us how your mill runs.
We scope it first — what it takes, how long, what it costs. No obligation.