Jewellery gems and precious metals

Separate the operating roles

A retailer selling finished ornaments, a job worker handling customer-owned metal, a bullion trader and a refinery need different records and regulatory assessments. Identify who owns each consignment and who makes the sale. Distinguish natural stones, laboratory-grown stones, precious-metal jewellery and other products in descriptions and stock records.

Check hallmarking against the product and location

Use the current BIS hallmarking orders, covered districts and exemptions to assess the actual jewellery business. Do not assume every metal, article or transaction has identical treatment. BIS provides separate information on jeweller registration and recognised assaying and hallmarking centres.

Where applicable, link hallmarking evidence and identifiers to the item record. A supplier invoice should not be treated as a substitute for checking the applicable hallmarking requirements. Preserve product descriptions, purity and weight information consistently from receipt to customer sale.

Reconcile metal as well as money

• Opening and closing metal quantities by purity, location and ownership.
• Metal issued to artisans, finished goods returned, approved process loss and recoverable scrap.
• Stone quantities and values separately from metal and making charges.
• Customer repairs, exchanges and old-metal receipts with valuation and settlement records.
• Consignment movements, exhibition stock, insurance records and periodic physical counts.

Structure customer and supplier records

Document the pricing basis, making charges, deductions, exchange terms and payment trail. Assess applicable identity, cash-transaction and reporting requirements for the actual transaction; splitting receipts does not resolve a transaction-level obligation. Restrict access to customer identity and payment records.

For imports or exports, review product classification, origin, valuation and the applicable trade procedure before dispatch. Manufacturing premises may also need process-specific pollution, worker-safety and local permissions, particularly where chemicals or refining processes are involved.

Example: customer metal sent for remaking

A customer gives a jeweller an old ornament to remake. Record receipt weight and assessed purity, agree deductions and charges, document transfers to the artisan and reconcile the finished item and balance. The accounting should reflect the actual ownership and transaction rather than recording every metal receipt as a normal stock purchase.

Define specialist responsibilities

Kosha can support inventory controls, accounting, tax records and commercial documentation. Assaying, hallmarking, gemstone grading and technical certification remain with the relevant recognised or qualified specialists.

Prepare a stock reconciliation handover

For inventory accounting support, bring the physical count, item register and movements to and from artisans or other locations. Identify customer-owned articles, consignment stock and business-owned goods separately. Record the count date and movements around that date so an item in transit does not appear missing from both locations.

Keep unresolved differences visible by item or lot: quantity, weight, recorded purity, ownership and supporting document. An accounting adjustment should follow an explained difference; it should not erase an unanswered custody question. Technical purity findings remain the responsibility of the appropriate specialist.

For a new artisan or consignment arrangement, commercial contract review can help examine custody, authorised work, loss allocation, return timing and settlement terms. Supply the proposed agreement alongside the actual movement records and business process.