Skip to the page
Showing help for:
Showing help for:

Rules your business follows

Selling alcohol

What Kila does at every till for a business licensed to sell alcohol, the settings it needs, and what to tell the customer.

Find it
Administration, then Settings, then Liquor licence, or search settings in Kila

Steps differ for restaurants and bars.

A business licensed to sell alcohol may sell it only to adults, only in the hours of its licence, and only while the licence is valid. Kila keeps these rules at every till, and on its server, for every product marked 18+. Everything else sells as normal.

Wines and spirits shops, and bars and lounges, start with these rules. Another business that sells alcohol, such as a supermarket or a beverage distributor, has them once the Alcohol rules are on its business profile: Settings › Liquor licence then shows This business sells alcohol as on.

The law saysKila does
Alcohol is sold only to people aged 18 and over. Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010.Before any payment for a sale with alcohol, the till asks the cashier to check the customer’s ID. No payment can be taken until they tick the check, and the check is recorded with the sale.
Alcohol is sold only in the hours of the licence. The county issues the licence and sets the hours by licence class. Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010, and your county’s alcoholic drinks control law.Outside the hours you record, the till refuses alcohol and says when sales open again. Everything else in the sale can still be sold.
Alcohol is sold only while the licence is valid. Your county licence.After the expiry date you record, the till refuses alcohol until the renewed licence is saved.

The law says

The minimum age is 18. A business may choose a higher age for its own policy, never a lower one. Licensed hours differ by county and by class of licence: record the hours printed on your licence, not a guess. For an on-licence, the Act’s hours are 17:00 to 23:00 on weekdays and 14:00 to 23:00 at weekends and on public holidays.

The owner or an administrator records the licence once, under Administration › Settings › Liquor licence. Kila’s set-up list has it as Liquor licence: number, class, county, expiry and hours.

  1. Enter the Licence number, the date it Expires, who Issued by (county) and the Licence class.
  2. Leave Check ID at the till on, and set the Minimum age: 18, or higher if your business chooses.
  3. Leave Enforce licensed trading hours on and set the hours for each day and for public holidays, as your licence gives them. Use the Act’s hours fills in the Act’s on-licence hours.
  4. Tap Save changes.
Settings, Liquor licence at Baraka Wines and Spirits: the licence number NCC/ALC/OFF/2026/04417 (1), Check ID at the till (2) and Enforce licensed trading hours (3), with hours for each day.Settings, Liquor licence at Baraka Wines and Spirits: the licence number NCC/ALC/OFF/2026/04417 (1), Check ID at the till (2) and Enforce licensed trading hours (3), with hours for each day.

When a sale has alcohol in it, the payment screen opens with Check the customer’s ID: “This sale includes alcohol. It can only be sold to someone aged 18 or over. The check is recorded with the sale.” The cashier looks at the customer’s ID and ticks I have seen ID. The customer is 18 or older. Only then can they take the payment.

Take payment for a Mlima Stout: the panel Check the customer's ID with the box I have seen ID. The customer is 18 or older (1). The payment methods stay grey until it is ticked.Take payment for a Mlima Stout: the panel Check the customer's ID with the box I have seen ID. The customer is 18 or older (1). The payment methods stay grey until it is ticked.

For restaurants and bars

On a tab. At a bar the ID check is part of Add to tab: tick I checked the customer’s ID: 18 or older (“Needed once per tab for alcohol.”) when you open the tab at the till. Its later rounds go from Kila Floor without asking again. Kila Floor has no ID check of its own, so a tab opened on the phone with New tab cannot send alcohol:

Kila shows:

Not sent

Check the customer’s ID. Alcohol is sold only to people aged 18 and over. Confirm the check to complete the sale.

Open such tabs at the till instead. See Run a tab.

At the door. A bar that charges entry checks ID at the door too, for every group let in, paid, free or on the guest list: In waits until the door ticks I have seen ID, and the check is recorded with each entry. See Door.

The top of the till shows the hours, such as Alcohol 10:00 to 23:00, on a wide screen. Outside them it shows Alcohol sales closed now, and a sale with alcohol is not completed:

Kila shows:

Not completed yet

Alcohol is outside the licensed trading hours (17:00 to 23:00 today). Sales open today at 17:00. Remove Mlima Stout 500ml bottle to sell the rest now. Fix it and tap Complete sale again.

Tell the customer when alcohol sales open again, take the alcohol off the sale and sell the rest. Mixers, ice and snacks sell at any time.

Outside the licensed hours: the till shows Alcohol sales closed now (1), and the payment says the sale is not completed because alcohol is outside the licensed trading hours (2).Outside the licensed hours: the till shows Alcohol sales closed now (1), and the payment says the sale is not completed because alcohol is outside the licensed trading hours (2).

For restaurants and bars

A bar’s till shows its hours the same way, such as Alcohol 17:00 to 02:00 at The Vault Lounge on a Friday.

After the expiry date recorded in Settings, a sale with alcohol is refused with: “The liquor licence … expired on …. Alcohol cannot be sold until the renewed licence is recorded in Settings.” Record the renewed licence’s number and expiry under Liquor licence and alcohol sells again.

The customer has no ID with them. Do not tick the check. Kila cannot take the payment for alcohol without it; sell the rest of the sale without the alcohol.

Can we sell before our hours if it is a regular customer? No. The till refuses alcohol outside the hours recorded for today, whoever the customer is.

Which products count as alcohol? Products marked 18+. The till shows the 18+ mark on them.

  • Shops: how Kila works for a wines and spirits shop.
  • Cashier: the ID check in a cashier’s day.
  • Close a shift: licensed hours and the end of a shift.

Last checked on Kila on .

Did this help?

Still stuck?

Email Kila support. Say what you were trying to do and copy the message Kila showed you, word for word.

Contact support

Choose your business

The Help Centre then shows the steps and words for your kind of business. Your choice stays on this device.