In Kolhapur, Maharashtra, hundreds of family-run workshops handcraft Ganapati idols — a craft handed down through generations. MurtiTrack is the business app we built for them: designed for the phone, built for the pressure of the festival season, and written in Marathi from the very first screen.
The challenge
Every year, in the weeks before Ganesh Chaturthi, workshops take on a surge of orders with a deadline that cannot move. Raw materials are bought at prices that change by the day, artisans are paid for every idol they cast, and thousands of customers are waiting for delivery. Until MurtiTrack, all of it was managed with paper ledgers, phone calls and memory.
That way of working had real costs:
- No clear view of stock. Owners couldn't easily tell which idols were available, which were sold and which sizes were running out — in the one season that matters most.
- Money left on the table. Without a clear record of who owed what, outstanding balances often went uncollected.
- Disagreements over pay. Artisans are paid per idol at agreed rates, and without shared records, counts and payments were regularly disputed.
- Tax season meant starting from scratch. A year of purchases and sales had to be pieced back together from notebooks.
- Software in the wrong language. The whole trade — owners, staff and customers — works in Marathi. Every business tool on the market was in English.
Our goal was simple to state and hard to deliver: modern software that a traditional, Marathi-speaking business would feel was made for them, not translated for them.
Our approach
We started by learning how a workshop really runs through the season — how orders are taken, how artisans are paid, how customers are kept informed — and designed around those habits rather than asking owners to change them. Three principles shaped every decision:
- Marathi first. Every screen, number, date, invoice and report works natively in Marathi, with English one tap away.
- Made for the phone. Owners and staff run the business from the workshop floor, often on a patchy mobile signal, so the app keeps working when the connection doesn't.
- Ready for the rush. Several people can work in the same workshop at once, each from their own phone, without getting in each other's way.
The solution
MurtiTrack brings the whole workshop into a single app.
Stock and orders in one place
Every idol is recorded with its photo, size and category, and stock updates automatically as orders are placed. Seasonal pre-orders, advance payments and delivery dates sit alongside everyday orders, with reminders so no deadline is missed.
Getting paid, through WhatsApp
Invoices, payment reminders, statements and dispatch photos reach customers on WhatsApp — the app they already use every day — and every message is tracked.
Fair, transparent pay for artisans
Rate cards, work logs and advances are recorded once and seen by both the owner and the artisan, so everyone works from the same numbers.
Suppliers and purchases under control
Every raw-material purchase is logged against its supplier, giving owners a clear picture of what they spend and with whom.
Reports in one click
Sales, purchases, supplier spend and artisan costs can be downloaded as clean, professional Marathi PDF reports whenever they are needed.
One workshop, a whole team
Owners invite staff with clearly defined roles — from taking orders to view-only access — so each person sees exactly what they need, and nothing more.
Secure by design
Behind the friendly interface sits the protection you would expect from enterprise software: passwordless sign-in, verified payments and strict separation of every workshop's data.
The results
- The paper ledgers are gone. Owners see sales, collections, outstanding balances and best-selling idols on a live dashboard.
- Balances are being collected. Clear Marathi statements sent over WhatsApp turned an awkward phone call into a simple, professional follow-up, and owners are recovering money they had previously written off.
- Pay disputes have ended. Owners and artisans work from the same records, so there is nothing left to argue about.
- Tax season is a one-click download. Records that once had to be rebuilt from notebooks are ready whenever they are needed.
- Customers noticed the difference. Marathi invoices, receipts and photo confirmations of dispatch brought a level of service new to the trade, and quickly became the app's most talked-about feature.
- No training needed. Because the app speaks their language, owners who had never used business software were taking orders on it within a day.
Why it matters
MurtiTrack shows that small, traditional businesses deserve software as good as anything large enterprises use. A trade that ran on notebooks now runs on a secure, modern platform — and it does so in Marathi.
MurtiTrack is a Unitary Tech Global product, built in collaboration with Univolute.
