Gold and jewellery ERP software is a business system built for how precious metals are traded: stock held by weight, purity and piece rather than by unit, prices that follow the daily gold rate with making charges kept separate, old-gold exchange and scrap, hallmark and certificate records, and the transaction records that anti-money-laundering and VAT obligations require. We build it for Deira and DMCC traders.
Part of our guide to Custom Software & Web Apps.
Why a generic ERP does not fit a gold trader
A packaged ERP counts units. It assumes an item has a fixed cost, a fixed price and a barcode, and that the same item in two branches is interchangeable. None of that is true of a bangle. Its value is its weight at today's rate for its purity, plus a making charge, plus perhaps a stone with a certificate. Tomorrow the same bangle is worth something else.
That is why so many traders in the Deira Gold Souk still run on a ledger, a calculator and a scale, with a spreadsheet somewhere behind them. The packaged software never fitted, so it was abandoned, and the business went back to what works. Our guide to IT for Deira trading businesses describes the wider office picture; this page is about the system itself.
The same applies in the free zone. Wholesalers and refiners based in DMCC have larger volumes and more counterparties, but the underlying problem is identical: the software has to think in grams and purity, not in units.
Inventory by weight, purity and piece
Every piece is recorded with its gross weight, its purity, its net gold weight where stones are present, its making charge basis and a tag. Stock is reported three ways at once: pieces, grams, and grams of fine gold, which is the figure that matters when the rate moves.
Stock lives in more than one place. A typical client has a shop in the souk, an office or vault in DMCC, and a workshop. The system holds each location separately, moves pieces between them with a transfer record that both sides confirm, and shows the owner the whole position without a phone call.
What the inventory module records:
- Gross weight, stone weight and net gold weight per piece, with the scale reading captured rather than typed where the scale supports it.
- Purity or karat, so that fine gold content and rate-based pricing are calculated rather than estimated.
- Category, design, supplier and cost basis, for margin reporting by line and by supplier.
- Location and movement history, including pieces out on approval or at the workshop.
- Stocktake by weighing: the count is reconciled in grams, not just in pieces, because that is how a shortfall shows itself.
Prices that follow the daily rate, with making charges separate
The gold rate is entered or fed in each morning, by purity. A piece's metal value is then calculated from its net gold weight at that rate. The making charge is held separately, as a fixed amount per piece or a rate per gram agreed with the workshop, and shown separately on the quote and the invoice. The customer sees the two components the way the trade has always shown them.
Because the rate changes, a quote is stamped with the rate and time it was priced at. If the customer returns the next day, the system reprices from the current rate and the same making charge, rather than honouring a figure that no longer reflects the metal. Tag printing uses the same logic, so the ticket in the window and the figure in the system never disagree.
Old-gold exchange, scrap and the workshop
Many retail transactions involve a customer bringing in old gold. The system records the exchanged item by weight and tested purity, values it at the rate for that purity, and nets it against the purchase on a single receipt. The exchanged gold then enters scrap stock, with its own weight and purity, until it goes to the refiner or the workshop.
Workshop jobs are tracked on a job card: metal issued by weight, stones issued by count and certificate, the finished piece received back by weight, and the difference recorded as wastage or returned scrap. Repairs for customers follow the same card, with the customer's piece held as a separate liability rather than mixed into stock.
Hallmark and certificate details are attached to the piece: the hallmark reference, the assay record where there is one, and stone certificates by issuer and number, with a scan of the certificate stored against the record so it travels with the piece when it sells.
The compliance layer: AML registration, records and goAML
Dealers in precious metals and stones are a designated category under the UAE anti-money-laundering framework, and the Ministry of Economy sets out the obligations that apply to them: registering with the supervisory system, carrying out customer due diligence, keeping records of transactions and of the customers behind them, and reporting certain transactions and any suspicious activity through the goAML system. The Ministry's anti-money-laundering guidance describes the framework in full.
We do not state the thresholds, the timing or the categories of reportable transaction on this page, because they are set by the regulator and must be read from the source and from your own compliance adviser. What the software does is make the obligation possible to meet. It records the identity documents collected for a transaction, links them to the receipt, flags transactions that your compliance officer has asked to see, and produces the records in the form needed to complete a goAML report. The decision to report, and the filing itself, remain with your compliance officer.
Record-keeping is the quiet part of the obligation and the one spreadsheets fail. Every transaction, identity record and report is kept, searchable and backed up, for as long as your adviser says it must be.
VAT on gold, and what the accountant needs
VAT in the UAE has specific treatment for gold and diamonds, and the Federal Tax Authority publishes the rules that apply to supplies between registered businesses and to supplies to consumers. We do not summarise them here. What matters for the system is that the accountant can see, for every transaction, which treatment was applied, to whom the supply was made, their registration status, and the declarations that were collected where the rules require one.
The ERP does not replace your accounting package. Approved sales, purchases and exchanges are pushed into it with the right tax coding and the metal and making-charge components kept separate, so that the ledger and the returns are prepared where they always were. The approach is the same one described on our custom ERP software page: build what is yours, keep the accounting where it belongs.
Customer records, approvals and follow-up for the wholesale side can sit in a connected CRM, so the sales team is not working out of the stock system.
What we build, and how it is priced
What we build is not a product. There is no licence, no vendor roadmap and no feature you are waiting for someone else to ship. We write a specification with you after watching how your shop, office and workshop actually work, you sign it, and we build to it in phases, usually starting with stock and pricing. Listonics is not an authorised reseller or partner of any software vendor.
The system runs in a hosting account you own, with the database and the code in your name. Given what it holds, we pair it with proper access control and security and a tested backup as part of the same project, and our managed IT support clients have it maintained under their existing agreement.
Projects at Listonics run from AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on requirement, and a gold trading system is delivered as a sequence of phases in that range. Pricing is quoted after a scope call, once we have seen the locations, the volumes and the accounting system you use.
Frequently asked questions
No. We build a system for your business from a specification you sign, in phases, and you own the code, the database and the hosting account. Listonics is not an authorised reseller or partner of any software vendor, and there is no product licence. The trade-off is that it is built for how you work rather than for an average of the market.
It prepares the records: the identity documents, the transaction details and the linked receipts, in the form your compliance officer needs to complete a report. The judgement about what to report and the act of filing stay with your compliance officer, because the obligation is the business's and the rules are the Ministry of Economy's, not ours.
Yes. Each location holds its own stock by piece, by gram and by fine gold content. Transfers between them are recorded and confirmed at both ends, workshop issues and returns are tracked on job cards, and the owner sees the combined position without ringing round.
No. Sales, purchases and exchanges are pushed into your accounting package with the metal value, the making charge and the VAT treatment kept separate, so the ledger and the returns are prepared there as before. The ERP handles stock, pricing, exchange, workshop and compliance records, which is the part the accounting package cannot.
The rate is entered or fed in each morning by purity, and every piece is repriced from its net gold weight automatically. Quotes carry the rate and time they were priced at, tags print from the same figures, and the making charge stays separate so a rate change does not disturb it.
Projects at Listonics run from AED 2,500 to AED 30,000 depending on requirement, with a trading system delivered as phases within that range. We quote after a scope call and a visit to the shop or office, because the price depends on locations, volumes, the accounting system in use and whether compliance records already exist in some form.
Written by Srinivasan Ramachandran, Founder, Listonics · Last reviewed October 8, 2026