How can we help?

1. On the HeriBMS home page, choose Start your 7-day free trial, then I run a business.
2. Enter your business name, your name, your email and a password.
3. You are signed in, and your 7 days start now.
4. Set up your business takes two pages. Page 1: what kind of business it is, whether you sell from one shop or more than one branch (on plans with branches), and whether to set up KRA eTIMS now or later. Page 2: with more than one branch, add each branch and choose to set it up yourself or hand it to a team lead you invite by WhatsApp or email. Then bring in your products from a photo or a spreadsheet, or tick that you'll add them yourself. Bringing in your customers and what they owe is optional. Selling services only? Tick that instead and your Dashboard opens straight away.

1. Open Upload records from the menu, and choose customers or products.
2. Photos: take a clear photo of each page (up to 10 per import), flat and in good light, and send them. HeriBMS reads them and the HeriBMS team checks them against your pages, usually within one working day.
3. Spreadsheet: choose a CSV or Excel file whose first row names the columns, such as Name, Phone and Amount owed, or Product, Selling price and Quantity. It is read at once.
4. Check the rows. Fix or skip anything highlighted, then choose Add. Nothing is added before that.

What customers owe comes in as opening balances on Debts; they are not counted as sales. A customer whose phone number is already on HeriBMS is not added twice. Photos are deleted 30 days after the import ends.

1. Sign in as the administrator and open Team from the menu.
2. Choose a role: Sales & Inventory (sales and stock) or Accounts & Billing (invoices and payments). If you have branches, choose the branch they work at.
3. Send it by email, or by WhatsApp: enter their number and choose Send on WhatsApp, which opens WhatsApp on your phone with the message ready.
4. They open the link and set their own password. Invited on WhatsApp, they also give the email they will sign in with.

Each plan has room for a number of people, counting invitations not yet accepted: the Duka plan 2, the Biashara plan 3, the Wenye plan 4 for each branch. When it is full, the administrator chooses a bigger plan on the billing page, and you can invite them once it is confirmed.

1. Administrator: everything, including team, settings, reports, refunds and paying for HeriBMS.
2. Sales & Inventory: customers, sales, stock and reports. Staff tied to one branch see that branch only, and its reports only if they are its team lead and you allowed it.
3. Accounts & Billing: invoices, payments and reports.

1. Open Stock from the menu, then Products and stock.
2. Under Add product, enter the product name, its selling price and the quantity (and a buying price, for your profit report), then choose Add product. It's ready to sell at once. More details, such as size, unit and group, are under More details.
3. Starting a sale with nothing to sell? Add the product, its price and the quantity right on the sale screen.
4. When more stock arrives, under Receive stock choose the product, then enter the quantity, unit cost and selling price. Batch number and expiry date are optional: leave the expiry date blank for goods that don't expire.
5. Choose Receive stock. The batch appears in the stock list.

When you sell, HeriBMS takes stock from the batch that expires first; goods with no expiry date are used after dated ones.

1. Open Products from the menu. Search by name, or show one group or marketplace category.
2. To change a product, choose Edit… on its row: its name, size or variant, unit, reorder level, group and marketplace category.
3. Groups are your own: type a new name in the Group box and the group is made. Rename or remove groups under Your groups.
4. Archive a product you no longer sell. It leaves new sales but keeps its history; find it under See archived products.

Everyone on your team who works with sales, stock or accounts can see this page; administrators and Sales & Inventory staff can change it.

1. Set a reorder level for each product under Products, choosing Edit… on its row.
2. Open Stock, then Open the reorder list. Products at or below their reorder level are grouped by the supplier of the last stock received.
3. Choose Send on WhatsApp or Send by email to send a supplier its order. Change any quantity in the message before you send it.
4. Choose Download as a spreadsheet for the whole list.

Suggested quantities bring stock back to twice the reorder level. Record the supplier when you receive stock, so products group by supplier.

1. Open Products from the menu and fill in Add a service: its name and price, and a group if you like.
2. Choose Add service. It now appears when you search for products on a sale, marked Service.
3. Add it to a sale like any product and choose how many. No stock is taken.
4. To change its price, choose Edit… on its row. New sales use the new price; earlier sales keep theirs.

Services don't appear on the stock lists or in low-stock warnings, and they count as sales in your reports.

1. Open Customers from the menu.
2. Choose Add a new customer, fill in their name and any contact details, and choose Add customer.
3. Use Find a customer to look them up later.

1. Choose New sale on the Dashboard or the Sales page. The sale is for the walk-in customer; to put a name on it, choose Add a named customer.
2. Under Add item, type part of the product name, pick it, set the quantity and choose Add to sale. Repeat for each item.
3. Under Paid by, choose Cash, M-Pesa (and type the M-Pesa code) or Card, then Complete sale. If the customer pays partly in cash and the rest by M-Pesa, choose Cash + M-Pesa, enter the cash part and the M-Pesa code.
4. If the customer will pay later, choose Pay later. The sale's screen and Accounts show what is still owed, and you can take the payment there.

Staff can lower a price by up to 10% using Price override. A bigger discount, or a price above the list price, needs an administrator. Every changed price is recorded.

1. Open Quotations and choose New quotation. Pick the customer, add the items and set a Valid until date.
2. Choose Copy customer link and send the link to your customer, for example by SMS or WhatsApp. They can open it without an account.
3. When they accept, choose Convert to sale.

1. If the sale has not been paid: open the sale, enter a Void reason and choose Void sale.
2. If it has been paid: an administrator first opens Accounts, finds the payment under Payments, enters a reason and chooses Reverse payment. Then void the sale as above.

Reversing a payment keeps it on record, so your books always show what happened.

1. Open Branches and choose Add a branch.
2. Assign each staff member to a branch under Staff assignment, or choose the branch when you invite them from Team. Staff then see only their branch's stock and sales.
3. Make one Sales & Inventory person each branch's team lead. They look after its stock and can invite its staff. You choose whether they may also approve its local prices and see its reports.
4. Choose how branch prices work under How branch prices work: the same price everywhere, with local prices by request (recommended), or team leads set their own branch's prices.
5. Follow each branch's checklist on Branches: who runs it, its opening stock, its staff and, if you use KRA eTIMS, its key. Each line ticks itself when it's done.

Need something different, such as regional price lists? Ask HeriBMS for a custom arrangement from the Branches page. For each branch, your business can add up to two users for a role such as Accounts & Billing or Sales & Inventory.

1. Open Marketplace and filter by category to find products.
2. Add what you need to Your cart and choose Place order.
3. The supplier confirms or declines your order. You can follow its status on the Marketplace page.

1. Open Products, choose Edit… on a product, and give it a marketplace category.
2. When a supplier's product becomes the lowest price in one of your categories, or a supplier starts a sale there, you get an alert.
3. New alerts show on your Dashboard and under Alerts for you on the Marketplace page. Choose Mark all as read once you've seen them.

The marketplace list is always ordered by price, cheapest first. Products in the Featured row are paid placements.

1. Open Accounts and find the invoice.
2. Enter the amount, choose the method (cash, M-Pesa, card or bank) and choose Record Payment.
3. For M-Pesa, enter the M-Pesa code from the customer's confirmation message. The same code can't be used twice.

A payment a customer makes to your till on their own is recorded by hand, with its M-Pesa code. Safaricom's Split Notifications can send your cashier an SMS for each one (see below). An M-Pesa prompt sent from HeriBMS is recorded by itself.

1. This is set up with Safaricom, not in HeriBMS. Only your till's main administrator can switch it on, from the administrator's Safaricom line.
2. Dial *234# and choose 2, M-PESA Business Till. Then choose Split Notifications (also called M-PESA Jumbe). You can also do this in M-PESA Business Hub.
3. Enter your cashier's name and Safaricom number, and confirm with your M-PESA PIN.
4. Your cashier gets an SMS with an acceptance code, and enters it when their phone asks. Messages start only after they accept.
5. From then on, your cashier gets an SMS for each payment to your till: the M-Pesa code, the amount, the time and the customer's Jumbe ID. It doesn't show your balance, your other payments, or the customer's full name and phone number. You still get the full message.
6. In HeriBMS, the cashier records the payment on the sale with its M-Pesa code. HeriBMS won't accept the same code twice, and you can follow every payment from your Dashboard and payment notifications.

The cashier's number must be a Safaricom line registered for M-Pesa. You can remove a cashier the same way, through *234# or M-PESA Business Hub. For help, call Safaricom on 0722 002 222 or email M-PESABusiness@safaricom.co.ke.

1. Check who manages your till or paybill on the M-Pesa Business portal. Safaricom sends a one-time code to that person's phone in step 4. If nobody has portal access, ask Safaricom first: M-PESABusiness@safaricom.co.ke or 0722 002 222.
2. Go to developer.safaricom.co.ke (Safaricom Daraja), create an account and sign in.
3. Choose Go Live, then M-Pesa Express (Lipa na M-Pesa Online).
4. Enter your short code (for a till, the store number), and confirm with the one-time code Safaricom sends to the portal manager's phone.
5. When Safaricom approves the app, copy its consumer key and consumer secret, and the passkey Safaricom emails you.
6. In HeriBMS, the administrator opens Business details → M-Pesa prompts at the till, enters the short code, the till number (leave it empty for a paybill), the two keys and the passkey, and chooses Connect M-Pesa prompts. HeriBMS checks them with Safaricom before saving.
7. Test it: make a small sale, choose Send M-Pesa prompt and pay it from your own phone.

M-Pesa prompts are optional. Without them, cashiers record M-Pesa payments with their M-Pesa code. HeriBMS support can walk you through the Safaricom steps.

1. Have these ready: your business's KRA PIN, your iTax password, and the KRA PIN of a director or the owner.
2. Sign up at digitax.tech and add your business with its KRA PIN.
3. Ask DigiTax support (support@namiri.tech) for your integration token.
4. Sign in to KRA's eTIMS portal with your iTax details. Make a service request, choose OSCU as the service type, enter the integration token and submit.
5. Tell DigiTax support you have submitted it. KRA reviews the request, and DigiTax then activates your account.
6. In DigiTax, go to Integrations, choose Add API key and copy the key.
7. In HeriBMS, the administrator saves your KRA PIN under Business details → Tax, then pastes the key under Business details → KRA eTIMS and chooses Save DigiTax key.
8. HeriBMS switches eTIMS on once your business is live on DigiTax. From then on, each sale is sent by itself within a few minutes, and the sale screen shows KRA's invoice number and a QR code your customer can scan.

Customers can only claim your invoices as business expenses when they come through eTIMS. Voiding a sale that KRA already has sends a credit note for it. Sales from before eTIMS was switched on are not sent. If your branches share one KRA PIN, DigiTax needs a separate DigiTax business, with its own key, for each branch: save each one under Business details → KRA eTIMS → Branches. Until a branch's key is switched on, that branch's sales go through your main key. HeriBMS support can help with any step. DigiTax charges by how many invoices and credit notes you send in a plan year, so each void counts too. Business details → KRA eTIMS → Invoice counter shows your count against your plan and warns you from 80%, before DigiTax moves you up a plan.

1. Open Debts. Customers who owe are listed largest first, with how long their oldest unpaid sale has waited.
2. Choose WhatsApp reminder to open a polite message to the customer in your own WhatsApp, ready to send.
3. Set a credit limit for a customer if you like. When a customer already owes more than their limit, their sale screen says so before you sell more on credit. It never stops the sale.

Debts brought in with Upload records show as opening balances. They count as money owed, not as sales.

1. Open Expenses and choose Record an expense: what it was for, the amount, the category, the date and how it was paid.
2. A wrong entry can be voided. It stays on record, struck through, and no longer counts.
3. Reports shows profit and loss for the dates you choose: sales, minus the cost of the stock sold, minus expenses.

Profit is shown to administrators and Accounts & Billing only. Stock received without a buying price is counted as cost unknown, and the report says so.

1. The Dashboard shows today's sales, payments, and stock running low or expiring.
2. Reports shows what you billed, what you collected and your top products for any dates you choose.
3. Administrators can download invoices as a spreadsheet (CSV) from Reports, up to a year at a time.
4. For your accountant, choose Download for your accountant: money in (payments) and money out (expenses) for the dates shown, one row each, ready to import into accounting software such as QuickBooks or Xero.

1. When the 7 days are up, signing in takes you to the billing page instead of your workspace.
2. The administrator can still download all your records from that page.
3. If no plan is paid for, the workspace and its records are deleted 90 days after the trial ends.
4. Staff who are not the administrator see a message asking them to contact their administrator.

1. The administrator opens Plan and billing and chooses Monthly or Yearly. Yearly costs about two months less.
2. Choose a plan: the Duka plan (one shop, 2 users, KES 1,499 a month), the Biashara plan (one branch, 3 users, KES 7,999 a month) or the Wenye plan (up to 3 branches with 4 users each, KES 9,899 a month, and KES 1,500 a month for each extra branch). A plan too small for your team or branches can't be chosen.
3. Choose Continue. Where the M-Pesa prompt is offered, enter your phone number, choose Send M-Pesa prompt and enter your M-Pesa PIN on your phone. HeriBMS opens as soon as Safaricom confirms the payment.
4. Or pay the amount shown with M-Pesa (Lipa na M-Pesa, Buy Goods) to the till number shown; M-Pesa shows the name IHL Tech Africa, the company behind HeriBMS. Enter the M-Pesa code from your confirmation message and choose Submit payment. HeriBMS opens as soon as it is confirmed.

If a plan isn't renewed, HeriBMS becomes read-only: you can look at and download your records, but not record new ones. Paying early adds the month or year after your current one, so you never lose days. KRA eTIMS invoicing is an add-on, priced on request.

1. On the HeriBMS home page, choose Start your 7-day free trial, then I'm a supplier.
2. Enter your business name, email, phone number (optional) and a password, then choose Register.
3. HeriBMS reviews new supplier accounts. You can sign in once yours is approved.

1. Sign in to the supplier portal.
2. Under List a product, enter the product name, category, price and the quantity in stock.
3. Choose List product. It appears under Your products straight away.

1. Under Your products, choose Set a promotional offer on the product.
2. Enter the offer price and the first and last day, then choose Save offer.
3. The offer runs from the start of the first day to the end of the last day, Kenya time. Choose Remove offer to end it early.

1. Buyers see the marketplace ordered by price, cheapest first. Featured placement adds your products to the Featured row above that list as well.
2. New suppliers are offered featured placement during their first week. Call HeriBMS on 0181 660 123 to ask about prices.

The lowest price always leads the main list. Featured placement can't move a product ahead of a cheaper one there.

1. New orders appear under Orders waiting for you, with each item and the total.
2. Choose Confirm order if you can supply it, or Decline so the business can order elsewhere.
3. Handled orders move to Recent orders.

1. Staff sign in at the Sign in page. Suppliers use the supplier sign-in page.
2. HeriBMS keeps you signed in for up to 48 hours, and signs you out after 4 hours without activity, so a phone or till left unattended doesn't stay open.
3. On your own phone or computer, tick Keep me signed in on this device when you sign in. HeriBMS then keeps you signed in for 30 days, and signs you out only if you don't use it for 7 days. Don't tick it on a shared till.
4. After several wrong passwords, sign-in pauses for 15 minutes to stop anyone guessing.
5. With two-step sign-in on, HeriBMS also asks for the 6-digit code from your authenticator app.

Never share your password. Give each person their own sign-in instead, so everything they do is recorded under their name.

1. Install an authenticator app on your phone, such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator.
2. In HeriBMS, tap your name at the top, choose Account security, then Set up two-step sign-in.
3. Scan the QR code with the app, then type the 6-digit code it shows.
4. Save the 8 recovery codes somewhere safe, away from your phone. Each one signs you in once if you lose your phone.

HeriBMS also emails you when your account is signed in to from a new browser. If it wasn't you, tap your name at the top, open Account security and choose Sign out everywhere else, then change your password.

1. When your account is signed in to from a phone or computer it hasn't seen before, you get an email saying which browser and when.
2. If it was you, there's nothing to do.
3. If it wasn't, tap your name at the top, open Account security and choose Sign out everywhere else, then change your password with Forgot your password? on the sign-in page.

1. Tap your name at the top and choose Contact support. Choose a topic and write your message.
2. After you send it, HeriBMS shows your ticket number, like TC-00012. Quote it if you call.
3. Your requests and whether they are answered are listed on the same page.