11 February 2026 · Arun Chaiyaporn
What to carry upstairs for the first sitting
Owners delay the first sitting because they think we expect a bookkeeper's file. We expect a passbook, a list of people, and a few dates. If the daily sales book is messy, we can still write the cash position. Cash is the balance and the bills, not the beauty of the ledger.
Bring these
The bank passbook, or the bank book's pages, for about eight weeks. We need the running balance and the deposits that match market days. A photograph of the pages is enough if you cannot leave the book at the office overnight.
The names of customers who still owe you, with amounts. A pencil list is a proper document. An invoice that was never written down can be spoken, and we will mark it as spoken so you know it was not checked against paper.
Supplier statements, or the notebook where you write what you took on credit. Beside each name, the day they usually expect money. 'Around the end of the month' is a start. A weekday is better.
The weekday wages are paid, the amount, and whether cash for wages is kept in the shop or taken from the bank the day before. Rent or the market stall fee, and the date. Any loan instalment already signed, written as a date and a sum. We record it as cash leaving. We do not talk you out of it or into it.
A cash floor: the amount you refuse to go below. Owners often name the wage packet plus the rent. That is a sound floor. Name it before you come if you can.
Leave these at the shop
Do not bring identification numbers of customers, copies of their identity cards, or passwords for the bank. We do not need them to write a week.
Do not bring every invoice from the last three years. Eight weeks of the passbook and the bills that are still alive are the working set. Older paper can wait for a later sitting if a season has to be reconstructed.
If you would rather we came to the shop, say so when you write. Saturday sittings at a grocery are ordinary for us, because the till cannot be locked. The fee is the same inside Mueang Narathiwat. Outside the amphoe, the travel is quoted on the note before you pay a deposit.
If a figure is missing
We would rather see a blank than a number you invented on the stairs. The sheet marks a missing figure, and the follow-up sitting fills it when the passbook has the answer. A first sitting with three blanks is still a sitting. A first sitting built on guesses is a story.
Telephone 073514309 or write to the office if you are unsure whether a paper is worth the walk. The list above is the one we send with the fee note.