General

Some businesses are none of Kila’s other kinds, or several of them at once: a shop that also prints and charges phones, a workshop that also sells spares. Kila runs them as General: the till, stock, buying, customers on credit and the books from the first day, and the rest added in one step when the business needs it.

How Kila works for a General business

• You choose it when you sign up. Answer How do you mostly get paid? with Several of these or None of these. The type of business is then General / Other, and Kila sets your business up as General: “A curated start: add what you need.”
• The main screen is the till, Till (scan and sell), and it sells without a shift. Open a shift at the top of the till is there for a cashier who counts a float into the drawer and counts it out at the end.
• Your day revolves around the sale. Each one records what was sold and how it was paid, on its receipt.
• General uses Kila’s standard words: customer, product, sale, receipt, branch.
• The menu starts in the Hubs layout, the one Kila suggests for General: “About ten areas, each with an overview page, and every setting in one Settings centre.” They are Home, Approvals, Sell, Customers, Services, Products and stock, Buying, Money, Run the business, Insights and reports and Settings. The owner can choose another: Choose a menu layout.

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General has one kind of business:

• General / Other

The pictures on these pages come from Mwanga Enterprises, a made-up General business in Machakos.

What a General business starts with

Under Business profile, Modules lists what is Included (“Part of this profile.”). On every plan these are In use: Point of sale, Stock, Purchasing, Services, Customers, Credit, Books, Reconciliation, Multi-branch, Advanced reports, Expenses, eTIMS and the Compliance calendar. A few included modules are not in every plan, such as Partner BNPL: they say Upgrade to use. Everything else is Optional: “Off until an owner switches them on. Modules they need come with them.”

Add what your business does

The first card on Business profile is What your business does: “Add what you need in one step. Each group switches its modules on; switch it off again any time. Nothing is deleted.” It has ten groups:

Group	What Kila says it is for	It switches on	In the plans
Appointments and bookings	A diary of bookings with staff, packages and memberships.	Appointments, Service packages	Business, Growth, Enterprise
Jobs and repairs	Job cards from intake to collection.	Job cards	Business, Growth, Enterprise
Deliveries	Deliver what you sell, with proof and cash on delivery.	Delivery	Growth, Enterprise
Online shop	A storefront with M-Pesa and delivery or collection.	Online store, Delivery	Growth, Enterprise
Loyalty and gift vouchers	Points, tiers and gift vouchers.	Loyalty	Business, Growth, Enterprise
Warehouse	Bins, putaway and picking for a store room or warehouse.	Warehouse	Growth, Enterprise
Lay-by and instalments	Customers pay over time before they collect.	Layaway	Growth, Enterprise
Staff and payroll	Attendance, leave, advances and payslips with PAYE, SHIF, NSSF and the housing levy.	Staff and attendance, Payroll	Business, Growth, Enterprise
Supplier portal	Suppliers see your orders and send invoices online.	Supplier portal	Enterprise
Insights and statements	Trends, margins and branch comparisons; statements to customers.	Insights, Statements	Business, Growth, Enterprise

On Starter, every group says Not in your plan, because each needs a module Starter does not have. Starter does have Appointments and Insights: switch them on one at a time under Modules, below the groups. See Add what your business does.

A day in a General business

1. Open the till. It is ready to sell. A cashier who counts a float into the drawer taps Open a shift first: Open a shift.
2. Sell. Find or scan the product or service, tap Charge and take the payment: The till screen, Take cash, Take M-Pesa. A customer with an account can pay later: Sell on credit.
3. Do the rest of your work with the groups you added: bookings in the diary (Appointments), job cards, deliveries or orders from your online store.
4. Watch the day. The home page shows sales today against the same day last week, payments not confirmed yet, what customers owe, low stock, what waits for approval and the licences and returns due.
5. Close. A cashier who opened a shift counts the drawer and closes it: Close a shift. Every till’s money for the day is on Check the trading day.

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The home page’s cards

Kila arranges a General owner’s home page with these cards. Each shows when its feature is on and your role may see it:

• Does another profile fit you better?
• Sales today against the same day last week
• Payments waiting for confirmation
• Sales on account, payments, overdue balances
• Low or out of stock
• Approvals and reviews waiting
• Licences, permits and returns due

Does another profile fit you better? is General’s own: see Move to a closer kind of business later.

The till without a shift

A General business’s till sells as soon as it opens. Open a shift asks the cashier to Open your shift and count the float; Back to selling without a shift goes back to the till.

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To make every cashier open a shift before selling, the owner switches on Cashiers open a shift before selling in Business settings, on the Point of sale tab: “A shift tracks the float, cash taken and the count at close.” See How shifts and cash-ups work.

Who does what

Role	What Kila says it is for
Owner	Full access to the business, including billing.
Branch manager	Runs one branch: tills, stock and staff.
Cashier	Sells at the till and runs their own shift.
Storekeeper	Receives, moves and counts stock.
Accountant	Keeps the books, reconciles and pays.
Service manager	Runs bookings, job cards and service staff.
Technician	Delivers services and works on assigned jobs.
Delivery officer	Delivers orders to customers.

General has no roles of its own: it has Kila’s standard roles, with the service manager, technician and delivery officer there for appointments, jobs and deliveries when you add them. The owner gives each person their roles under Users and roles: Add a user.

Tasks for General businesses

• Add what your business does: switch on appointments, an online shop or another group of modules in one step.
• Move to a closer kind of business: when most of your work has become one kind.

Set up a General business

Kila’s set-up list for a new General business, in order. Kila ticks each step off from what you record:

1. Business details and KRA PIN
2. What your business does: add appointments, jobs, deliveries or an online shop
3. First branch and till
4. Products or services
5. Opening stock
6. Customers who owe you
7. Suppliers
8. Staff and roles
9. M-Pesa till or paybill and eTIMS
10. Business permit and KRA returns
11. First sale

Step 2’s Open goes to Business profile. It ticks itself off once you switch a group on there, or tap This is all I need: “Saved. Add more any time from Business profile.”

Tip

In the Hubs menu the set-up list is Setup, under Settings, with Business profile, Business settings and Users and roles. See Your set-up checklist.

Move to a closer kind of business later

Kila looks at the last 30 days of your work. Once there are at least 20 records and 60% or more of them are one kind of work that another kind of business is built around, Does another profile fit you better? suggests it, such as: “Most of your work in the last 30 days is sales at the counter (100%). The Shop profile may suit you better.” Until then it says “After 20 records Kila tells you whether another profile fits your business better.”

Most of your work is	Kila suggests
appointments	Appointments
job cards	Jobs & repair
open bills at tables or a bar	Food & drink service
room stays	Stay
orders on account	Wholesale & distribution
deliveries, trips and hire	Logistics & field
patient visits	Health care
time on projects	Professional services
production runs	Production
students enrolled	Education
sales at the counter	Shop

You see what changes before you move, and nothing is deleted: Move to a closer kind of business.

Reports that matter here

All reports are under Insights and reports › Reports in the Hubs menu (Money › Reports in the classic menu). Start with these:

Report	What Kila says it shows
Daily sales	Sales, refunds, VAT and margin for each day.
Sales by product or service	What sells: quantity, revenue and cost for every product and service.
Payment method summary	Cash, M-Pesa, card and credit received, and refunds paid out.
Customer debt ageing	What customers owe on account, by how long it has been due.
Low stock	Items at or below their reorder point, with a suggested order.
Expenses	Spending by category and branch, with VAT and approval status.

See Run a report.

Common questions

Should I choose General or a closer kind of business? If one answer to How do you mostly get paid? fits most of your work, choose it: its main screen, words and set-up fit that work. Choose General when none fits, or when you do several kinds of work. You can move later, and nothing is deleted.

Why can I not switch on a group? Your plan does not have every module the group needs, and the group says which: Not in your plan: and the modules. On Starter that is every group. Switch on Appointments or Insights alone under Modules, or ask Kila to change your plan at support@kilabiashara.co.ke.

Do my cashiers have to open a shift? Not on General: the till sells without one. To make them, switch on Cashiers open a shift before selling.

Does moving to another kind of business delete anything? No. Kila says “Nothing was deleted. The change is in the audit log.” Modules the new kind of business does not use stop showing, and their records are kept.

Try it in the demo

Kila Test Lab runs as General on the Enterprise plan, with every group switched on, so its menu is longer than a new General business’s. Its home page has the same cards. The link fills in the person’s email: add the demo password the Kila team gave you.

• Kila Test LabEvery module switched onSign in as Tess Mwende (owner) (opens in a new tab)