Hishab: Digital Khata & Income Proof for Small Shops

The problem
Millions of small shopkeepers in Bangladesh track sales and customer credit (baki) in handwritten notebooks. Banks and microfinance lenders can’t use these records, so shop owners with real, steady income have no formal proof of it and struggle to access credit.

Our solution
Hishab turns a photo of a handwritten khata into a structured digital ledger. From that ledger it produces three things:

• A daily and monthly sales summary
• A baki tracker with customer-wise balances and reminders
• A printable income report with a loan-readiness score

How it works

1. The shopkeeper photographs a khata page, with Bangla and English digits both supported.
2. AI transcribes the handwriting into rows of date, description, type and amount. Anything unclear is left blank and flagged rather than guessed.
3. The shopkeeper reviews and corrects the flagged entries.
4. Deterministic code, not AI, calculates all totals, averages, baki balances and the loan-readiness score. The score is based on days recorded, consistency of sales and average daily income.

What makes it different

• Responsible AI use: the model only reads handwriting. It never calculates or estimates numbers.
• Human in the loop: every unclear field is surfaced for the owner to confirm.
• Built for local reality: it supports Bangla digits, Bangla ledger terms and a mobile-friendly interface, and it works from the notebook shopkeepers already use.
• Actionable guidance: the score comes with specific tips on how to improve it.

Impact
Hishab gives small shop owners a low-cost path from an informal notebook to a documented financial record. That makes it easier to approach lenders, and it also helps them recover baki and understand their own business.

Technology
React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind, an Express server and the Google Gemini API for handwriting transcription.

I left out the word “verified” on purpose, since the records are shop-reported and digitized rather than independently audited. If the form has a word limit, tell me the number and I’ll trim this to fit.