MunshiA Personal khata is a separate khata for money you lend or borrow yourself, kept apart from every business. To add one, tap your business name on Home and choose Add Personal. The same person can be in your Personal khata and in a business at the same time, and the two stay fully separate. It solves a common problem: personal loans between family and friends leaking into the numbers of a shop.
Why keep personal money out of the business khata
Most people who run a business also lend a relative money for an emergency or borrow from a friend. When these entries sit in the shop’s khata, three things go wrong:
- Your totals stop meaning anything. “You will get” mixes customers’ credit with a cousin’s loan.
- Reports and statements get confusing. A customer statement or a bank report should show only business money.
- Profit looks wrong. Personal lending is not a sale, and repayments are not income.
A Personal khata keeps those entries in their own book, so the business books stay clean.
How to add a Personal khata
- On Home, tap the business name at the top. The list of your businesses opens.
- Tap Add Personal. It is described as money you lend or borrow yourself, kept apart from every business.
- Add a person, then record You gave when you lend and You got when you are repaid, or the other way round when you borrow.
- To go back to a business, tap the name at the top again and choose it.
Entries work the way you already know: You gave and You got, balances in plain words, and a short note on each entry.
The same person in both, kept apart
Someone may be your customer at the shop and also a friend you once lent money to. In Munshi they can be in your business and in your Personal khata. Each has its own balance and its own entries, and neither shows up in the other. You never have to decide which one “wins”.
Where Personal appears in the list
In your list of businesses, Personal comes first, then a line, then your businesses. That makes it easy to see which book you are in, and hard to record a personal loan in the shop by accident. Look at the name at the top of Home before you record, just as you would check which register you have open.
Good habits for personal lending
- Write down every loan, even a small one. Friendly lending is exactly where memories differ.
- Add a note with the reason or the promised date.
- Share a statement if you need to settle a misunderstanding. See how to settle a dispute with proof.
- Do not use business cash for personal loans without recording it. Take it out as a household withdrawal in the Cash Book, or record it as a personal loan, so your business totals stay honest.
Personal khata or another business?
If you run a second shop or a side trade, give it its own business instead; that is what businesses are for. Use Personal for money between you and other people that is not part of any trade. For the bigger picture, read how to manage multiple businesses in one app and how to track business expenses in Pakistan.
Real situations where a Personal khata helps
The feature is easiest to understand through examples that people recognise:
- Lending a relative money for an emergency and agreeing they will repay in instalments. Each repayment is a You got entry, and the balance shows what is left.
- Borrowing from a friend to cover a bad week. Record it so you remember exactly what you owe and can repay it when you can.
- Sharing costs with family, such as a trip or a wedding gift, where you pay first and others pay you back.
- Lending to someone who is also your customer. The shop credit lives in your business; the personal loan lives in Personal. They never mix.
How to record borrowing and lending correctly
The two buttons keep their meanings. When you lend, you gave money, so tap You gave: the person owes you. When they repay, tap You got. When you borrow, you got money, so tap You got: now you owe them, and the balance reads in plain words as you owing them. When you repay, tap You gave. A short note, such as “for hospital bill, repay by December”, helps both of you remember the agreement.
Being fair and kind with friends and family
Money between people who care about each other is delicate. Recording it is not a sign of distrust; it is a way to protect the relationship from forgetting. Be open about it: tell the other person you are writing it down, and offer to show them the balance. If you need to remind someone, use warm, short wording, and avoid doing it in front of others. If repayment is difficult, agree a smaller amount and a new date, and record it. The same tone that works for customers works here; see how to send payment reminders on WhatsApp.
Privacy: who sees your Personal khata
Your Personal khata sits in your own account, apart from your businesses. If you share the shop’s phone with a partner or helper, remember that the personal book is on the same app. Use App Lock with a PIN you do not share, and think about whether you want a family member to see personal balances. Because Personal is shown first in your list, it is the first thing someone sees when they open the list of businesses, so lock the app if the phone is shared.
Reports and statements: keeping business clean
The main reason to keep Personal separate is that your business reports stay about business. When you export a Profit & Loss estimate or a Cash Book report, you are looking at the business that is open, so personal loans do not appear. When you share a statement with a customer, it contains only their business account. If you need a statement of a personal loan, you can create it from the Personal account on its own. See how to share your khata and reports with your accountant.
Closing out a personal loan
When a loan is fully repaid, the balance reaches zero and the account is settled. You can leave it in the list as a record, or archive it once it is settled so your list stays tidy. Archiving hides a settled account without losing its history, and only accounts with no entries can be deleted outright. Keep the record of old loans: it is quiet insurance against a misunderstanding years later. For the habits that keep every book accurate, see seven small habits of a khata that always balances.