The kilo that disappears between the sack and the shelf

A 50kg sack of rice does not produce 50kg of sales. Some is lost to moisture, some to spillage at the scoop, some to the habit of rounding in the customer's favour on a 900g weighing. None of it is theft and all of it is real.

Why the books cannot see it

The purchase is recorded in sacks. The sales are recorded in kilos. Unless something converts between the two at the moment of sale, the two records never meet, and the difference silently becomes part of gross margin — where it is indistinguishable from pricing.

The owner's instinct is that loose goods earn less than packaged ones. That instinct is usually right and almost never quantified, so it cannot be acted on.

What changes it

Two things, neither of them dramatic. The item carries both units and a conversion, so a sale in kilos decrements a purchase in sacks. And the expected yield is compared with the billed quantity when the sack is finished, not at year end.

The number that comes out is small per sack and material per month. Once it exists, the decision it supports is straightforward: which loose lines are worth carrying, and which should be bought pre-packed even at a worse unit price.

The part software does not fix

The scoop still rounds in the customer's favour, and in most shops it should — it is a relationship, not an error. The point is to know what it costs, and to price the line accordingly rather than discovering the shortfall in aggregate twelve months later.