Guides
Guides for the counter and the front desk
How to take M-Pesa without the evening argument, keep stock right, confirm a hotel check-out, and keep books an accountant will thank you for.
- RestaurantRestaurant POS with a kitchen screen: from the table to the bill without a shoutThe order taken at the table appears in the kitchen the moment the waiter taps send. Here is how a restaurant system removes the paper docket, the shouted ticket and the bill that never adds up.
- AccountingBookkeeping for a small business in Kenya: invoices, VAT and the reports your accountant asks forYou do not need to be an accountant to keep books an accountant will thank you for. The five documents, the weekly routine, and the reports that answer 'who owes me, who do I owe, and did we make money'.
- HotelLate check-outs and overstays: keeping a hotel's guest register and revenue honestA guest who stays an extra night and a receptionist who forgot to check someone out look the same on the calendar. How a front desk confirms every departure, bills every slept night, and never sells a room that is still occupied.
- RetailOffline POS: how to keep selling when the internet goes downA dead line or a power cut should not close your till. Here is what an offline point of sale actually does for a shop, and what to check before you trust one with a Saturday.
- RetailM-Pesa at the till: STK Push, Paybill and Till number, explained for shop ownersMost of your customers will pay by M-Pesa. Here is how the three ways of taking it differ at the counter, how each one gets matched to the sale, and how to stop the evening count turning into an argument.
- GuidesWhat NodePoint is: one login for your shop, restaurant, hotel and booksFour apps that share one login, one customer list and one set of reports — built for how business is done in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Here is what each one does and how they fit together.
- AccountingKRA eTIMS for small businesses: what it asks of you, and how to be readyeTIMS is KRA's way of seeing your invoices as they happen. Here is who it applies to, what an invoice needs to carry, and how to keep VAT tidy every day so filing stops being a monthly panic.
- HotelHow to choose hotel management software in Kenya: what a small hotel actually needsBefore the demo, know what the front desk does a hundred times a week. A checklist for guesthouses, lodges and city hotels: the calendar, the guest register, the folio, housekeeping, M-Pesa and the reports that tell you if the month worked.
- RetailStock control for dukas, supermarkets and hardware stores: what actually worksStock is the biggest amount of money in most shops and the least watched. Six habits that stop stock-outs, dead stock and quiet losses, and the reports that show you where the money is sitting.
- RetailM-Pesa STK Push at the counter: what happens between “Pay” and the receiptThe prompt on the customer's phone feels instant, but there are five steps between the cashier tapping Pay and the receipt printing. Knowing them is how you handle the one time in twenty it stalls.
- AccountingSelling in KES, UGX, TZS, RWF and USD: pricing, payment and reports across bordersA lodge quotes in dollars and gets paid in shillings; a distributor buys in USD and sells in UGX. How to keep one honest set of books when three currencies pass through the same till.
- RetailMoving from Excel to a POS without losing a day of tradeSpreadsheets were free and familiar until the evening they started eating your time. The signs you have outgrown them, and a switch-over plan that keeps the shop open the whole way through.