1. Can you see the business from your phone?

If balances, stock and today's sales are only visible on the computer at the shop, the software manages the desk — not the business. Look for native iOS/Android apps, not a "remote desktop" workaround.

2. Does it keep gold-based accounts?

The trade runs on has and milyem. If the program can only hold TRY balances, every gold-based account will live in a side notebook — and the software has already failed. Balances should be trackable in TRY, currency and gold basis at once.

3. Is inventory tracked by gram and karat?

Piece-count stock is for supermarkets. A jeweler's inventory must carry weight, purity and labor on every product, and the total should be valued with live rates.

4. Is there real workshop support?

If you manufacture, ask for work orders, fire (loss) tracking and ramat records. A "production module" that is really a stock adjustment screen will show its limits in the first month.

5. Where does your data live — and can you leave?

Ask two blunt questions: "If my computer dies tonight, what happens?" and "If I quit your product, can I export my data?" Cloud storage with automatic backups and open export should be the baseline.

6. How do updates arrive?

Desktop-era programs update via a technician visit or a downloaded patch. Cloud software updates itself. This single difference predicts most of your future maintenance pain.

7. Can staff use it without seeing everything?

The salesperson should sell, the workshop should log production, and only the owner should see totals and reports. Role-based permissions and an activity log are non-negotiable for a business built on trust.

8. Is the pricing honest?

Watch for license + module + station + "yearly maintenance" stacks that triple the sticker price. Subscription pricing you can cancel anytime keeps the vendor honest: they must earn you every month.

9. Can you try it before paying?

A vendor confident in their product lets you use it free first. Demand a real trial with your own data, not a supervised demo.

10. Does the maker understand the trade?

If fire, ramat and sarrafiye need explaining to the support line, you will be their teacher for years. Choose software whose makers speak the trade's language natively.

Where Bakiyem stands

Bakiyem was built as the answer to this list: mobile-first jewelry software with gold-based balances, gram-and-karat inventory, workshop and fire tracking, cloud sync, role-based access, cancel-anytime subscriptions and a free plan to start. Judge it by the same ten questions — the trial is free.