Glossary

The words you meet in Kila and in this Help Centre: Kila’s own, the Kenyan tax and payment terms it uses, and the words of each trade, with a few in Swahili where Kenyan businesses and Kila use them. Labels on Kila’s screens are in bold, as Kila writes them.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z

Your business’s words

Kila uses your kind of business’s words on its screens and receipts: a clinic sees patients and bills, a hotel guests, stays and folios, a school students and fee invoices. The table shows each kind of business’s words where they differ from Kila’s own.

Kind of business	customer	product	sale	receipt	bill	branch	staff
Wholesale & distribution			order	invoice		depot
Food & drink service	guest	menu item	order			outlet	waiter
Stay	guest		stay	folio		property
Appointments	client		visit
Fitness & memberships	member						trainer
Jobs & repair		part	job	job receipt			technician
Professional services	client		invoice	invoice			team member
Health care	patient	item	bill				practitioner
Production						site
Education	student	fee item	fee invoice			campus
Logistics & field		item	booking			depot	driver

Some kinds of business change a word again. A bar sells drinks, its bills are tabs and its staff are bartenders; a law firm’s sales and receipts are fee notes and its branches are offices; a salon’s staff are stylists and a spa’s therapists; a construction business calls its staff fundis and its products materials; a farm’s branches are farms. Firms name their projects their own way too: a law firm’s are matters, an accounting firm’s engagements, and a property manager’s are properties, with landlords as the clients.

The owner can choose other words under Administration › Business profile, in Words: “Menus and screens use them straight away.” Pages in this Help Centre use the words of the business you choose at the top of the page.

A

Approval limit

The most a role may approve on its own: refunds, discounts, stock adjustments, credit agreements, purchase orders, expenses and payment runs. Anything bigger waits in Approvals for someone whose limit covers it, never the person who asked. See What needs approval, and why.

B

Batch

Stock of one product received or made together, kept apart with its own number and, where it has one, its expiry date. When stock leaves, Kila takes the batch that expires first (Soonest expiry first (automatic)), and under the Food safety or Pharmacy rules the till refuses a batch past its date. Some products are tracked by serial number instead, one unit at a time. See Track batches and serial numbers.

Beat

The round of shops a rep visits: a route’s outlets, on the days the rep goes there. Kila builds each rep’s day on My route from their beats. See Set reps’ beats and targets.

Booking

What a logistics business and an events venue call a sale. At a courier, a booking is a parcel with its tracking number, a trip such as cargo or an airport transfer, or a hire; it moves across the dispatch board from To dispatch to On the way, then Delivered or Not delivered. See Logistics and field.

Books

The module that keeps Kila’s double-entry ledger, with the profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow and trial balance built from everything the business records. See Books.

Branch

Each place your business trades from, with its own tills and stock. Kila uses your kind of business’s word for it, such as depot, outlet, property, site, farm, campus or office, and your plan sets how many you can have. See Set your business details, opening hours and tills.

Branch operations

The module for each branch’s opening and closing checklists, audits with scores and photos, and an issues log followed until each problem is fixed. See Branch operations.

Bursary

Money off a learner’s fees, set on their page under Bursary or discount as a percentage or an amount per invoice, with the reason, such as a county bursary. It counts from the next fee invoice Kila raises. A sponsor who pays part of a learner’s fees is billed its share instead. See Give a bursary.

Buy Goods till

One of the two kinds of M-Pesa number a business is paid to: customers pay it by its Till number. It is not one of Kila’s tills, which are checkout points. See Choose how you take money.

C

Carcass breakdown

Weighing each cut as it comes off a carcass, quarter or goat. Kila works out the loss, puts the cuts into stock at their share of the carcass’s cost and shows the yield against the cutting spec. See How carcass breakdowns and yield work.

Cash on delivery (COD)

Money a rider collects at the door for the merchant who sold the goods, such as an online shop that sends parcels on account. The business holds it for the merchant until it is paid over in a remittance. See COD cashier.

Cash over and short

Where Kila posts the difference between the cash counted at the close of a shift and the cash it expected. Kila never hides a difference: even a shift closed within the tolerance shows the exact amount it was short or over. See How shifts and cash-ups work.

Cash-up

Counting a till’s drawer at the end of a shift, note by note, and comparing it with the cash Kila expects: the float, plus the cash taken, less the cash that left the drawer. Balanced or within the tolerance, the shift closes; beyond it, the count goes for review. See Close a shift.

Channel manager

A service, such as Channex or SiteMinder, that sells a hotel’s rooms on booking sites such as Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb. Connected to Kila, it gets your rates, availability and restrictions within seconds of a change, and its bookings come in as reservations. Every connection starts in test mode, which takes your rates but makes no bookings on a live Kila: bookings come in only once the connection is live. See Connect booking sites and channel managers.

Check-off

One payment from a co-operative, a dairy or a sugar company for what its members owe, which Kila spreads over the members’ accounts, each member’s oldest invoices first. In Kila’s words: “Co-operatives and dairies pay for their members by check-off.” It is recorded with Record a check-off on Agrovet › Farmers, advice and seasonal credit. See Agrovet.

Collection ticket

The ticket a customer takes away when they leave an item with a workshop or a laundry. It says what was taken in and what needs doing, and carries a barcode for the till, a QR code to follow the job and, where the business uses one, the release code. See Print a collection ticket.

Comp

An item the house gives free, such as a birthday cake or a drink for a long wait. It stays on the bill at its price, marked Complimentary, with nothing to pay; a waiter asks a manager for it. See Give an item on the house.

Conflict search

A law firm’s search for every name on new instructions among its clients past and present, the parties on its matters, its enquiries and the people related to its clients. Someone else then decides whether the firm can act. See Run a conflict search.

Controlled drugs register

A pharmacy’s record of every controlled drug received, dispensed or corrected at a branch, with the patient, the prescriber, the pharmacist and the balance after each entry. Kila keeps it as the drugs are sold, received and counted. See Count controlled drugs.

Cost centre

A field, herd or poultry house whose costs Kila keeps together. What goes into it, from stock or as a cost, stays against it until its next harvest or births. See Follow a field or herd’s costs.

Course

Part of a meal sent to the kitchen together, such as the starters, the mains or the desserts. Where a business holds courses, Kila keeps the later ones at their station until a waiter fires them, with Fire mains or Fire desserts. See Hold and fire courses.

Credit note

The record of money given back on a sale. A return at the till is a credit note, numbered CN-…, with its reason; a credit note from a supplier or a principal is set against what you owe them. See Take a return and refund it.

Cutting spec

The cuts a carcass should give, each as a share of its weight, with the loss allowed before a breakdown needs approval. Bones and fat marked as by-products carry none of the cost. See How carcass breakdowns and yield work.

D

Daftari

Swahili for a notebook: the exercise book many businesses keep their records in before Kila. Kila’s sign-in page says it is built “for businesses that have outgrown the daftari”. See Move to Kila from another system or a daftari.

Daraja

Safaricom’s system for connecting software to M-Pesa. Kila sends M-Pesa prompts through its own Daraja app with Prompts through Kila; a business that already runs one chooses Your own Daraja app. Until Kila’s M-Pesa connection is live, neither sends prompts, and Integrations and API says Prompts not connected: see M-Pesa prompt and Choose how you take money.

Day board

Where a business that works at its customers’ sites, such as an installer, a contractor or a cleaning business, books each visit for a technician or a crew, day by day: “Site visits by technician or crew. The crew marks on the way, arrived and done from My jobs.” It is under Sites › Day board. See Tell the customer you are on the way.

Delivery code

A code the receiver of a parcel is sent when it is booked, and gives the driver at the door as proof of delivery. SMS is in test mode, so read the code to the receiver as well. See Set what proves a delivery.

Deposit

Part of the price paid ahead, for an order, a booking, a reservation or a job. Kila holds it on the customer’s account and takes it off what they owe when they pay. Kila also calls paying a closed till’s cash into the M-Pesa till a deposit. See Take a deposit and Deposit cash.

Depot

What a logistics business and a wholesaler call a branch. Parcels are scanned in and out at each depot, and those going to another depot travel on a manifest. See Logistics and field.

Dip

Measuring what is really in a fuel tank, by the stick and its dip chart or from a gauge. Kila compares each dip with the book stock, and a loss or gain beyond the tolerance waits for review. See Dip the tanks.

Drop to safe

Taking cash out of the drawer during a shift and putting it in the safe, recorded on the shift panel with Move cash. The cash-up shows it as Cash drops to the safe. See Move cash during a shift.

Drug schedule

The class a medicine sells under at a pharmacy. OTC (general sale) sells like any product; P (pharmacy only) needs a pharmacist’s approval; POM (prescription only) and CD (controlled drug) also need the prescription recorded. Veterinary medicines have classes of their own: see Veterinary category. See Selling medicines.

Duka

Swahili for a shop. Kila’s distribution screens use it for the small shops on a route: Duka or kiosk is one of the outlet channels, beside minimart and supermarket.

E

Empties

Returnable crates and bottles. A distributor sends them out with its sales, with a deposit on the shop’s account, and the deposit comes back to the shop with them; a bar keeps track of its own on Empties and crates. See Take back crates and empties.

Engagement

What an accounting firm calls a project: one piece of work for a client, such as an audit or monthly bookkeeping. See Accounting firm.

EPRA

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, which publishes the maximum pump prices for each town every month, in force from the 15th. Kila sets your pump prices for each new cycle and checks them against the maximum for your town. See Change pump prices.

eTIMS

KRA’s electronic Tax Invoice Management System: each invoice and credit note goes to KRA, which returns the numbers, signature and QR code that go on the receipt. Kila needs your KRA PIN, your eTIMS device (the OSCU serial KRA gives you) and a KRA item code on every product. Kila is not connected to KRA yet: receipts carry test numbers and say “eTIMS test mode - not a valid fiscal receipt”. See eTIMS.

F

Fee note

What a law firm calls an invoice. It starts as a pre-bill of the matter’s unbilled time, disbursements and agreed fees, and passes through four hands, so no one person bills a client alone. See Issue a fee note.

Fee structure

What one class pays for one term: tuition and the fees every learner pays, and the optional items, such as transport, lunch or a club, billed only to the learners who take them. See Set a term’s fee structures.

Float

The cash in a till’s drawer when a shift opens, counted by the cashier so Kila knows what they started with. It is the first line of the cash-up, Opening float. See Open a shift.

Folio

A hotel guest’s bill for the stay: the room nights, the restaurant and bar bills charged to the room and the extras, less payments and deposits. The guest settles what is left at check-out. See Post charges and take payments on the folio.

Forecourt

The pumps’ side of a fuel station, and Kila’s Forecourt page for it: each attendant’s meter readings, the tank dips and wet stock, the tanker deliveries, the pump prices and the pumps themselves. See The Forecourt page.

Freeze

Pausing a gym membership for a number of days instead of cancelling it. The member keeps their plan and price, cannot check in while it is frozen, and their next bill moves out by the same days. See Freeze a membership.

Fundi

Swahili for a skilled tradesman. A construction business’s staff are fundis in Kila and its labour rates start with Skilled (fundi), and a property manager can give a maintenance request to a fundi from outside the firm. See Handle a maintenance request.

G

Gate pass

A pass that lets something leave through the gate. A distributor’s truck gets one once its load has been checked against the load sheet; at a garage, “A vehicle leaves only on a pass issued at collection”; at a school, a learner leaves on a pass only with a guardian or an adult on their pick-up list. See Send a route’s run out and Let a learner out on a pass.

GRN

A goods received note: the number a supermarket or an institution gives when it receives a delivery. The driver types it in GRN or stamp number when delivering. See Deliver an order with proof.

H

HACCP

A food business’s plan of critical control points and their limits, with the records that show they were kept. Kila’s HACCP page holds “Critical control points, their limits and the records: readings, corrective actions and verification.” See Food processing.

Hand over

Passing your till to the next cashier with the cash still in the drawer. You count it once: your shift closes with that count, and the next cashier’s shift opens with it as their float. See Hand over a shift.

Hire purchase

The module for selling on instalments: the customer takes the goods home after a deposit and pays over time, and the business owns them until the last instalment. See Hire purchase.

Housing Levy

The Affordable Housing Levy, taken from staff pay with a matching share from the employer. Kila’s Payroll works it out with PAYE, SHIF and NSSF. See Payroll.

I

In transit

Stock that has left one branch on a transfer and has not been received at the other yet. Nobody can sell it in between; it counts at the receiving branch once someone there records what arrived. See Transfer stock between branches.

Insights

Kila’s page that puts together what the business made, where the money went and what needs your attention, with how each figure was worked out. See What Insights shows.

Intake

Where milk, grain, fruit and other raw materials arrive at a production site and are tested before they go into stock. Intake and tests keeps each delivery’s readings and what was accepted or sent back, and what is accepted goes into stock as a numbered batch. See Receive a delivery at intake.

iTax

KRA’s online system for filing tax returns. Kila does not file returns: Money › Tax has the worksheets for VAT, withholding and turnover tax to file there. A client’s withholding certificate comes from iTax too. See Record a withholding tax certificate.

J

Job board

A workshop’s view of all its jobs at once: each job a card in the column of its stage, from taken in to collected, with each technician’s load above it. See The job board.

Job card

The record of one job, which is what a garage or workshop calls a sale: what was taken in and its condition, the estimate and the customer’s answer, the parts and the technician’s time, the checks and the payment. See Jobs and repair and Job cards.

K

Karibu

Swahili for “welcome”. Kila greets you with it on your home page, such as “Karibu, Amina”. See Sign in and set up two-step verification.

KEPHIS

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, which licenses seed merchants. Kila keeps the KEPHIS seed merchant licence with its expiry date under Agrovet › Agrovet settings and reminds the owners before it expires; unlike a PCPB or VMD licence, it does not stop any sales. See Selling farm chemicals.

KIAMIS

The government’s platform for farm subsidy e-vouchers, such as the fertiliser subsidy’s. Kila keeps each farmer’s KIAMIS number on the farmer register and finds farmers by it, but is not connected to KIAMIS yet: “use Manual and the platform’s own app or USSD.” See Agrovet.

Kila Floor

The waiter’s and bartender’s own screen, on their phone: the outlet’s tables with their bills, what the kitchen and the bar have ready, and their own shift. They need no till of their own. See Kila Floor, the waiter’s phone.

KRA item code

The KRA item classification code eTIMS reports with every product. Give each category a code under Products › KRA item codes, and products their own where they differ. See Set up eTIMS and KRA item codes.

KRA PIN

Your business’s tax number from the Kenya Revenue Authority, such as P051234567M. Kila prints it on every receipt and invoice, and eTIMS needs it. See Set your business details, opening hours and tills.

KVB

The Kenya Veterinary Board, with which vets and animal health officers are registered. A prescription-only veterinary medicine sells only on a prescription that gives the Vet’s KVB number, and only through someone whose Kenya Veterinary Board registration number is recorded in Kila, such as the animal health officer. See Sell on a vet’s prescription.

L

Layaway

Reserving goods while the customer pays for them in parts: the goods stay in the branch until the last payment, with no interest and nothing lent. See Put goods on layaway.

Licensed hours

The hours a liquor licence allows alcohol to be sold, set by the county by class of licence. Outside the hours recorded under Administration › Settings › Liquor licence, the till shows Alcohol sales closed now, refuses alcohol and sells everything else. See Selling alcohol.

Lipa na M-Pesa

Swahili for “pay with M-Pesa”, the name Safaricom gives paying a business by M-Pesa. M-Pesa prompts need the Lipa na M-Pesa Online passkey Safaricom emails, and Kila’s own invoices can be paid by Lipa na M-Pesa, Paybill. See Choose how you take money.

LPO

A customer’s own purchase order, such as a supermarket’s or a company’s. Kila keeps its number as the customer’s order number and, with LPO valid until, refuses a delivery day after the LPO expires. See Take an order at the order desk.

M

Manifest

The list of parcels going from one depot to another on one vehicle, sealed when the truck leaves. The far depot scans them in, and anything short, over or damaged goes on the exceptions list. See Hub clerk.

Margin watch

Kila’s list of every price that earns less than its minimum margin, the least a price should earn you, with the price that fixes it. Minimum margins are set for the whole business, a branch, a category or one product. See Fix prices below the minimum.

Market return

Goods a shop hands back to a distributor, such as expired, damaged or unsold stock or a wrong delivery. Kila follows them from the shop to the depot, where they are checked, and then to the shop’s credit note. See Take back a market return.

Matter

What a law firm calls a project: one piece of legal work for a client, from draft to archive. Kila moves it on only when its gates are passed, such as the conflict search and the client’s identification before it opens. See How a matter moves.

Menu layout

How Kila’s menu is arranged for everyone in the business: Classic, Hubs, Workspaces or Processes. Every layout has the same pages and the same access. See Choose a menu layout.

Meter reading

The litres a fuel nozzle’s meter shows. An attendant’s shift takes its nozzles at the opening readings, and the closing readings give the litres pumped: fuel pumped but not rung up becomes a meter sale. See Cash up an attendant.

Module

A part of Kila that does one job, such as Point of sale, Stock or Loyalty. Your kind of business and your plan decide which modules you have, and the owner switches the optional ones on under Administration › Business profile. See Features A to Z.

Money account

Each place the business keeps money: the cash in the tills, an M-Pesa till or paybill, a bank account, a safe. Kila keeps a balance for each, and every payment out says which one it came from. See How money accounts work.

M-Pesa code

The code on the customer’s M-Pesa message, 10 letters and numbers such as TJ4K7Q2XYZ. The cashier types it on the sale; Kila checks it has not been used before and keeps it on the receipt. See Take M-Pesa.

M-Pesa prompt

A request Kila sends to the customer’s phone for the amount due: they enter their M-Pesa PIN, and Kila completes the sale when M-Pesa confirms. Until Kila’s M-Pesa connection is live, Kila sends none, and Integrations and API says Prompts not connected; customers paying your till or paybill, and the cashier typing the code, works either way. See Take M-Pesa.

N

Night audit

The close of a hotel’s day: it posts each guest’s room night to their folio, marks arrivals who never came as no-shows and starts the next hotel day. See Run the night audit.

No-show

A booking whose guest or client never came. At a hotel, the night audit marks arrivals not checked in as no-shows and charges their first night; at a salon or spa, the service’s rule decides whether the deposit is kept. See Run the night audit.

Not confirmed yet

A payment M-Pesa has not answered for yet, such as a prompt with no reply or a code waiting for the statement. Kila does not count it as money received and does not call it failed: someone checks, then records how it ended. See Check an M-Pesa payment that is not confirmed yet.

Nozzle

Where fuel leaves a pump. Each nozzle draws from one tank and has its own meter, and fuel sells only on an attendant’s shift that holds a nozzle of it. See Set up tanks, pumps and nozzles.

NSSF

The pension contribution under the NSSF Act, taken from staff pay in tiers, with the employer’s share. Kila’s Payroll works it out from its NSSF tiers. See Payroll.

Nyama ya mia mbili

Swahili for “meat for two hundred”: KES 200 of meat, the way many customers ask at a butchery, by the money rather than the kilo. Kila works out how much to cut at the price per kg and records the line at exactly the amount asked for. See Sell meat by amount.

O

On account

Paying later: a customer your business trusts takes the goods now, and the sale goes on what they owe. Each such customer has a credit limit, the most they may owe at one time, and payment terms, the days they have to pay for each sale. See Sell on credit.

On duty

A pharmacy sells the medicines that need a pharmacist only while a pharmacist is on duty at the branch. One pharmacist is on duty at a time: they sign on when they arrive and off when they leave. See Sign on duty.

Opening count

A quick blind stock count at the start of the trading day, of the products the owner chooses, by someone in a counting role at each branch. The tills open once the count is sent. See Count the stock before the tills open.

Order

Goods kept for a customer who collects them later: Kila holds the prices, reserves the stock at your branch and keeps any deposit until they collect. A wholesaler, a restaurant and a laundry also call their sales orders. See Take an order.

Overlay

A set of rules a business must follow on top of its profile: Alcohol, Pharmacy, Farm chemicals, Food safety, Clinical privacy, Fuel and Weighed goods. In Kila’s words: “Overlays add the rules a business must follow, usually by law, without changing how it works.” See Your business profile.

Owing

Medicine a patient is still owed from a part supply of their prescription. It stays on their record, and the till dispenses it later without the prescription being typed again. See Dispense a repeat or an owing.

Owner money

Money the owner puts into the business or takes out for themselves. It is neither a sale nor an expense, so profit does not change, and the account’s balance stays true. See Record owner money.

P

Paid in and paid out

Cash put into a till’s drawer, or taken out of it, for something other than a sale, such as transport for a delivery or a supplier paid in cash. Each needs an amount and a reason: “Every shilling in or out of the drawer needs a reason. It goes on the shift record.” See Move cash during a shift.

Partner BNPL

The module for selling on instalments without lending: a financing partner decides, pays the business and collects from the customer, and Kila records the decision. No financing partner is connected to Kila yet, so Kila sends no application: apply with the partner directly, then record its decision on the agreement. See Partner BNPL.

Paybill

The other kind of M-Pesa number a business is paid to. Customers pay it with an account number too, such as a learner’s admission number, which lets Kila place the payment by itself. See Choose how you take money.

PAYE

Income tax taken from staff pay. Kila’s Payroll works it out each month from dated tables of PAYE bands and reliefs, and says at the top: Rates not yet checked by a payroll professional. See Payroll.

Payer

An insurer, SHA or a scheme that pays part of a patient’s bill: a customer on account with its own rules, such as a co-pay, an excess or the most it pays on a bill. The patient pays their share, and the rest waits on the payer’s account to be claimed. See Claim from insurers, SHA and schemes.

PCPB

The Pest Control Products Board, which registers each pesticide and licenses the premises that sell them. A product carries its PCPB registration number, and once a licence with PCPB in its name has expired, the till refuses pesticides until the renewed date is recorded. See Selling farm chemicals.

Plan

What your business pays Kila for, with its limits on branches, users and tills: Starter (up to two branches), Business (up to six), Growth (up to twelve) or Enterprise (more, priced through Kila’s sales team). Each plan includes the one below it. See Your plan and billing.

Pochi la Biashara

An M-Pesa wallet for business takings on a personal phone line; the words are Swahili for “business pocket”. Kila’s Statements reads its statements, and can keep business takings apart from personal transfers. See Statements.

Portal

A website where your customers or suppliers sign in to see their own records: customers what they owe, their statement and their receipts, suppliers the purchase orders you sent them. Most businesses have no screen yet for giving them a sign-in; schools and daycares (the Parent portal) and law firms (the Client portal) do. See Portals, Customer portal and Supplier portal.

Pour cost

What a measure of a drink costs the bar as a share of its price before VAT. The Bar page shows it for each measure, in red when it costs more than the bar’s target. See Count the bar and read the variance.

PPB

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board, which licenses pharmacy premises every year and registers pharmacists. Kila keeps the premises licence with its expiry date, and refuses P, POM and CD medicines once it has expired. See Selling medicines.

Pre-harvest interval

The days after spraying before a crop may be harvested, PHI for short, recorded on a pesticide as Pre-harvest interval in days (pesticide). Under the Farm chemicals rules the receipt gives it for each pesticide sold: “Do not harvest the crop within it after spraying.” On a farm, a spray’s pre-harvest interval holds the field’s harvest until it has passed. See Selling farm chemicals and Follow a field or herd’s costs.

Principal

A manufacturer or importer a distributor sells for: in Kila’s words, “one of your suppliers whose brands you sell to outlets”. Principals fund trade schemes, and the distributor claims back what they owe. See Claim from a principal.

Production order

One run of one product: what to make, at which site and how many. Planning it reserves the recipe’s materials, issuing them starts production, and closing it records the good units and the scrap. See Plan a production order.

Profile

The kind of business Kila is shaped for: Shop, Wholesale & distribution, Food & drink service, Stay, Appointments, Fitness & memberships, Jobs & repair, Professional services, Health care, Production, Education, Logistics & field or General. It sets the main screen, the home page, the set-up checklist, the modules, the menu and the words; the owner can change it under Administration › Business profile. See Your business profile.

Q

Quotation

Prices offered to a customer before they buy, made at the till in Quotation mode. The prices hold until its date, and you turn it into a sale at the till when the customer is ready. See Make a quotation.

R

Rail slot

The rail or shelf where a laundry keeps a bagged order until it is collected. The counter records it under Bagged and waiting as each order is bagged, and at collection Kila shows where to fetch it, such as On Rail B-14. See Tag garments at the laundry counter.

Rate plan

A way a hotel sells its rooms at its own prices, such as bed and breakfast, half board or corporate. Each plan’s board basis decides the meals posted with each night, and its prices are set by room type and season. See Set up rooms, rates and seasons.

Recall

Taking a batch off sale because the Pharmacy and Poisons Board or the supplier has recalled it. Block the batch in Kila and every till refuses it; Kila then shows who bought it, and what is left goes back to the supplier. See Recall a batch.

Recipe

What one batch of a product takes and makes: its materials, how many it makes, the share expected to come out good, and its labour and overheads. For things you assemble it is a parts list. See Set up a recipe or parts list.

Reconciliation

The module that matches the M-Pesa, card and bank payments Kila recorded against the M-Pesa and bank statements, and lists every difference for someone to decide. See Reconciliation and Reconcile M-Pesa and bank statements.

Release code

A short code on a customer’s collection ticket: “Give this code when you collect. Keep it to yourself.” The person collecting gives it at the hand-over; without it, a manager can hand the item over, with a reason that is recorded. A business that uses release codes sets them under Workshop settings. See Hand a job over and take payment.

Remittance

Money paid over to someone, with what it covers. A courier’s COD cashier prepares each merchant’s remittance, the cash on delivery collected for them less the delivery fees they owe, for a second person to approve; at a clinic, the remittance is what an insurer or SHA paid on a claim, recorded with Record remittance. When you pay a supplier in a payment run, Kila sends them a remittance advice. See COD cashier and Approve and pay a payment run.

Retainer

A fixed fee a client pays every month for a number of hours of work, such as bookkeeping or payroll. Kila invoices it each month, counts the hours logged against it and bills the hours beyond it at the team’s rates. See Set up a retainer with included hours.

Return inspection

Where returned goods held for inspection wait before they are sold again. Someone releases what is fit to sell, or marks it damaged and says why. See Inspect returned goods.

Role

What someone may do in Kila, its permissions, and the most they may approve on their own, its approval limits. Each person has one or more roles, for the whole business, a branch or a till: Kila’s standard roles, roles for your kind of business, or custom roles the owner makes. See How roles and permissions work.

Round

What one table orders at once. The waiter builds it on their phone, and nothing reaches the kitchen or the bar until they tap Send; each item then goes to the station that makes it. See Send an order to the kitchen and bar.

Run

A planned trip out, with its stops in order. A courier’s dispatcher plans each rider’s run, with its parcels in delivery order and a Run sheet to print; a distributor’s run is one route’s orders for one day, in the order the truck reaches the shops. In production, a run is one production order being made. See Dispatcher and Send a route’s run out.

S

Scale label

The label a counter scale prints, with a barcode holding the cut’s PLU and its weight. At the till you scan it and the cut goes into the cart at that weight, priced per kg. See Sell from a scale label.

Scrap

Units lost while a batch is made, such as Damaged packaging or Underweight or overfilled, recorded with the business’s own reasons when the order is closed. Only the good units go into stock. See Record output and close a production order.

SHA

The Social Health Authority: a payer, like an insurer, for the patients it covers at clinics and pharmacies. Kila is not connected to SHA yet: send SHA claims through the SHA portal and record them in Kila. See Claim from insurers, SHA and schemes.

SHIF

The SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund) contribution taken from staff pay, paid to the Social Health Authority. Kila’s Payroll works it out with PAYE, NSSF and the Housing Levy. See Payroll.

Shift

One person’s time on one till, from counting the float at the opening to counting the drawer at the close. Every payment taken on the till in between belongs to that shift. See How shifts and cash-ups work.

Shift review

A second look at a shift that closed short or over beyond the tolerance, by someone other than the cashier, such as a till supervisor. They Accept variance with a note, or Dispute it for follow-up. See Review a shift.

Short-dated

Stock close to its expiry date. Suppliers take short-dated medicines back for credit only before their cut-off, so Kila gathers every batch near its date at each branch. See Return expired and short-dated stock.

Split payment

One sale paid in more than one way, such as part cash and part M-Pesa. Each part is taken on its own, and all of them belong to one sale and one receipt. See Take more than one payment on a sale.

Standard cost

What one unit of a product should cost, from its recipe’s materials, labour and overheads over the good output. Each finished batch’s real cost is set against it, and Cost variances shows where the difference came from. See Set up a recipe or parts list.

Statement

A customer statement lists what they bought on account, what they paid and what they owe after each line. Kila’s Statements module reads your M-Pesa and bank statements and checks them line by line against what Kila recorded. See Print a customer statement and Upload a statement.

STK push

What Safaricom’s system calls the M-Pesa prompt that asks a customer for their PIN on their own phone. Kila calls it a prompt: see M-Pesa prompt.

Stock count

Counting what is on the shelf and comparing it with what the books say, blind if you choose. Lines far off go for a recount, and nothing in stock changes until someone who approves counts posts the result. See Count stock.

Surprise cash count

A count of a till’s drawer in the middle of a shift, asked for by a manager from anywhere. The cashier counts blind, without seeing what Kila expects, and Kila tells the manager whether the drawer holds what it should. See Ask for a surprise cash count.

Suspend

Parking a sale while the customer fetches something, so you can serve the next one. Nothing is paid or taken from stock until you resume it from Suspended and charge it. See Suspend a sale and resume it.

T

Tab

A bill that is not at a table, such as a guest at the counter or a group standing in the lounge. Each round goes on it, and the guest pays once at the end; a bar calls all its bills tabs. See Run a tab.

Till

A checkout point where a cashier opens a shift, called a register in Kila’s settings. Each branch has one or more, and your plan sets how many. See Set your business details, opening hours and tills.

Till device

A phone, tablet or computer approved to sell for the business. Only approved devices sell offline, and once approved devices are switched on, only they open a shift or sell at all. See Approve a till device.

Tolerance

How far a count may be off before someone reviews it. A shift short or over within the Shift variance tolerance, set under Settings › Point of sale, closes with the difference posted; beyond it, the count goes for review. Fuel stations set tolerances for tank dips and deliveries too. See How shifts and cash-ups work.

Tot

A measure of spirit sold from a bottle. A wines and spirits shop sells them from Inventory › Tots, which shows the price of a tot, what each one costs and what a bottle’s tots earn against what the bottle cost. See Shops.

Trade scheme

A promotion a principal pays for, such as a percentage off, free goods or a better price for more. Kila applies it to every order that qualifies until its budget is given away, and keeps what the principal owes you for the claim. See Run a trade scheme.

Trading day

One day of selling at a branch. It runs on into the next morning rather than stopping at midnight, so a sale after midnight counts for the evening before. Sales › Trading day shows one day in full, every till and the money checked. See Check the trading day.

Triage

The first clinical look at a patient: their vital signs, why they came, what they are allergic to and how urgent they are. The Triage screen does it in one step, then sends the patient on to a clinician. See Triage a patient.

U

Utilisation

The share of the hours each person in a firm is available that they spent on billable work, set against the firm’s target. A low figure can mean too little client work, or time not recorded yet. See Check your team’s utilisation.

V

Van day

A rep’s day selling from a van, from the load in the morning to the count at night. At the end, the store counts the stock on the van back in and someone other than the rep counts the cash, and Kila compares both with what the day says. See Close a van day.

VAT

Every price you type in Kila includes VAT. Each product has a tax category, starting on B: VAT 16%, or A: Exempt, C: Zero rated, D: Non-VAT or E: VAT 8%: “Tax categories follow the KRA eTIMS codes.” See Add your products.

Veterinary category

The class a veterinary medicine sells under at an agrovet. Prescription only (POM-V) needs a vet’s prescription and a qualified seller; Pharmacy and merchant (PM) and General sale (GSL) sell like other products. Whatever the category, the receipt gives the medicine’s withdrawal period. See Sell on a vet’s prescription.

VMD

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, which registers veterinary medicines and licenses the premises that sell them. A product carries its VMD registration number (veterinary), and once a licence with VMD in its name has expired, the till refuses veterinary medicines until the renewed date is recorded. See Selling farm chemicals.

Vote head

The heading a school fee item belongs to, such as TUI Tuition. Payments settle each fee invoice in the order of the vote heads, and the fee reports show the money received by vote head. See Set a term’s fee structures.

W

Waybill

The sender’s copy of a parcel’s booking, printed at the counter with the delivery code and the link to track the parcel. Like the labels, it carries the tracking number as a barcode. See Book a parcel.

Wet stock

The fuel in a station’s tanks. Kila’s Wet stock tab follows each tank against its own book, day by day: the previous dip, plus deliveries, less the meter sales, against the dip. See The Forecourt page.

WHO hazard class

A pesticide’s hazard class, recorded on the product as WHO hazard class: Ia, Ib, II, III or U. Under the Farm chemicals rules, products in the classes the rules name, Ia and Ib to start with, are sold only once the buyer’s name, phone number and ID number are recorded, like products marked Restricted use (the buyer is recorded). See Sell a restricted product.

Withdrawal period

The days after a veterinary treatment when an animal’s milk, meat or eggs must not be sold, recorded on a veterinary medicine as Withdrawal period in days (veterinary). Under the Farm chemicals rules the receipt gives it for each veterinary medicine sold, whatever its category: “Do not slaughter the animal or sell its milk or eggs within it.” On a farm, Kila holds back the milk of a cow in her withdrawal period. See Sell on a vet’s prescription and Record a milking.

Withholding tax

Tax a client takes off what it pays you and pays to KRA for you: Withholding income tax (5%) or Withholding VAT (2%). Until their iTax certificate arrives, the amount stays on their account; recording it credits the account. See Record a withholding tax certificate.

Work in progress

Time, expenses and milestones recorded on a client’s work and not billed yet. Kila shows them as Unbilled until they are invoiced, and a firm’s month-end billing run turns them into bills. See Run the month-end billing.

Workspace

Your business’s own place in Kila, at its own address, such as nuru-general-store.kilabiashara.co.ke, where your team signs in. The owner chooses it at sign-up, and it cannot be changed from inside Kila later. See Sign up your business.

X

X reading

Your shift so far, printed without closing it: sales, payments by method, the VAT and the cash Kila expects in the drawer. Nothing changes, and you carry on selling. See Print an X reading.

Y

Yield

How much came out against what went in. In production, the good units made as a share of the batch, set against the recipe’s Good output; at a butchery, each cut’s share of the carcass’s weight, set against its cutting spec. See Read production results.

Z

Z report

The closing report of a shift once it is closed, or of a till’s whole trading day once every shift on it is closed. While a shift is still open, its report is an X reading. See Print an X reading.