When stones and gold go to a karigar, they are still yours until they come back set in jewellery. Track three things for each maker: which stones they hold, how much fine gold they hold, and what each finished piece used. A piece’s cost is the maker’s labour plus the stones set in it plus the fine gold it used — wastage included.
Are stones and gold with a karigar still your stock?
Yes. Issuing stones or metal to a maker is not a sale — ownership does not change. The stones are still your capital and must still show in your stock, marked as with that maker, so they cannot be sold or memoed to anyone while they are out.
The same goes for gold: what the maker holds is your metal, owed back to you either as finished jewellery or as metal returned.
What is fine gold, and why track it instead of grams?
Gold is issued and received in different purities. 22K gold is 91.6% pure gold, 18K is 75%, 24K is 99.9%. The only fair way to keep a maker’s balance is in fine gold — the pure gold inside the metal: weight × purity.
100 g of 22K is 91.6 g fine. A ring made in 18K that weighs 10 g contains 7.5 g fine. Keeping the balance in fine grams lets you issue in one purity and receive in another without the account going wrong.
What is wastage?
Making jewellery loses some metal — in filing, polishing, casting. The trade allows for it as wastage, a percentage on the metal in the piece. With 5% wastage, a piece containing 7.5 g fine uses 7.875 g fine from the maker’s balance (7.5 × 1.05). The agreed wastage percentage is part of the deal with each maker and should be recorded on every piece.
A worked example
You issue a karigar 20 diamonds from a parcel, 4.05 ct, and 100 g of 22K gold — 91.6 g fine. Your gold cost you ₹7,400 per fine gram, and the diamonds ₹65,000 a carat.
A ring comes back: 18K, 10 g net, 5% wastage, with 7 of the diamonds (1.42 ct) set in it, and a labour bill of ₹6,500. The ring used 7.875 g fine gold, so the maker still holds 83.725 g fine and 13 diamonds (2.63 ct).
The ring’s cost is ₹6,500 labour + ₹92,300 of diamonds (1.42 × 65,000) + ₹58,275 of gold (7.875 × 7,400) = ₹1,57,075. That is the cost its margin is measured against when it sells.
What should a maker’s account show?
- Stones issued, set in jewellery, returned, and still with the maker — with how many days they have been out.
- Fine gold (and silver or platinum) issued, used in pieces, returned, and still with the maker.
- What the maker has billed — labour, and metal or wastage when it was their metal — and what has been paid.
- For each finished piece: which stones went into it, from which issue, and how much metal it used.
Settling the gold balance
Sooner or later the gold left with a maker is settled: returned as metal, or kept by the maker at an agreed rate per gram, which comes off what you owe them. Either way the fine balance should come to zero only when the gold is really accounted for.
How Avirat tracks making
In Avirat you issue stones to a maker from stock — they stay yours, marked as with the maker, and can be returned unused. When jewellery comes back, each piece is entered with its weights and the maker’s charges, and the stones set in it are picked from what that maker holds, never more. Metal is issued, used, returned or settled in fine grams by purity, with wastage on each piece; a piece can’t use more fine metal than the maker holds. Each piece’s cost adds the labour, its stones at their cost and its metal at your average cost per fine gram. The With Makers report shows each maker’s stones and metal, how long they have been out, and their value; any stone can be traced to the piece it went into.
See how Avirat handles this: Jewellery software