What is Hesabu?
Hesabu is a bookkeeping and stock management app for small businesses and households in Kenya. You record each sale, purchase and expense line by line, and Hesabu turns that into automatic financial statements — profit and loss, balance sheet, cash position, debtors and inventory valuation. It runs in a web browser on any phone or computer, with no installation.
How much does Hesabu cost?
Household and personal books are free forever. A business workspace costs KES 10,000 per year after a 14-day free trial with every feature unlocked. There is no monthly plan — one annual payment covers the whole year, which works out to about KES 28 per day. Payment is by M-Pesa.
Is there a free version of Hesabu?
Yes. Personal and household expense tracking — expenses, income, categories, monthly summaries and dashboards — is free forever with no time limit. Business features such as inventory, sales, stock takes, debtors and staff logins run free for 14 days, after which they need a paid year. If a subscription lapses, your books stay readable; only recording new entries pauses.
Does Hesabu work on a phone?
Yes. Hesabu is built mobile-first and works in your phone's browser — Chrome, Safari or any modern browser. There is nothing to install from an app store. Shopkeepers typically record sales on a phone at the counter and review reports on a larger screen later.
Does Hesabu work with M-Pesa?
Hesabu is designed around how Kenyan businesses actually handle money, including M-Pesa. You record cash sales, credit sales and part-payments, and a bank reconciliation step ("Iko kwa banki?") separates money you have collected from money that has actually reached the bank — so purchases can only be funded from cash that is really banked. Hesabu does not connect to the M-Pesa API automatically; you enter transactions yourself, which is what keeps the records honest and complete.
Can Hesabu track my stock or inventory?
Yes. Hesabu tracks quantity and weighted average cost for every product. Recording a purchase adds stock, recording a sale removes it and locks in the cost of goods sold, so gross margin per sale and total stock value are always current. You can restock, issue free samples, and set selling prices individually or in bulk by margin percentage.
How do I know if stock is going missing from my shop?
Hesabu has a stock take (spot check) feature. You count what is physically on the shelf, enter the actual numbers, and Hesabu compares them to what the books say. Any difference is shown immediately as a variance in both units and shillings, including what the missing stock would have sold for. Every stock take is kept in a running variance history, so you can see, for example, "KES 4,200 unexplained shortage this month" — which is usually the fastest way to spot theft, spoilage or recording mistakes.
Can I give a salesperson access without showing them my profits?
Yes. Hesabu has a sales-only role. A salesperson gets their own login that can record sales and view only the sales they personally made. They never see cost prices, margins, profit, inventory value, expenses, other staff's sales or any financial statement. Owners see who recorded every entry, and only owners can reverse a mistake or re-issue an old receipt.
Can I track customers who buy on credit?
Yes. You can record a sale as cash, fully on credit, or part cash and part credit. Hesabu then keeps a debtors list showing who owes you, how much, and how many days the debt has been outstanding. You can receive partial payments against any sale, and the balance updates automatically.
Do I need accounting knowledge to use Hesabu?
No. You only need to copy your receipts and record your sales honestly, line by line. Hesabu does the accounting behind the scenes — weighted average costing, cost of goods sold, VAT handling, owner's loan treatment, retained earnings and the balance sheet are all derived automatically from what you enter.
Can I send a receipt to a customer without a printer?
Yes. When you record a sale you can share the receipt as a PDF straight from your phone, which opens WhatsApp, email or any other sharing app. No physical receipt printer is needed. Owners can also re-issue a receipt for any past sale.
Can two people use the same business account?
Yes. A business owner can invite others to the same workspace. A full member — a spouse or co-owner — sees and manages everything. A sales-only member can record sales but sees no costs or other data. You can change or remove a person's access at any time.
Is Hesabu better than using Excel for shop records?
Excel is flexible but it does not enforce discipline: formulas break, stock and cash get out of step, and nothing warns you when the numbers stop reflecting reality. Hesabu is purpose-built for trading businesses — stock quantities and costs update themselves from sales, debtors are tracked automatically, purchases cannot silently overdraw your bank balance, and stock takes measure shrinkage in shillings. You can still export any month to Excel when you need a spreadsheet.
How does Hesabu compare to QuickBooks or Odoo for a Kenyan small business?
QuickBooks, Odoo and similar systems are powerful but are priced in dollars, assume some accounting knowledge, and carry far more features than a duka, hardware shop or salon needs. Hesabu is deliberately smaller: one annual price in shillings, Kenyan defaults such as KES and 16% VAT, a phone-first interface, and only the features a small trading business actually uses daily. Businesses that need multi-warehouse manufacturing or payroll are better served by a full ERP.
Can I export my data to Excel?
Yes. Any month can be exported to an Excel workbook containing the full ledger, profit and loss, and supporting detail — useful for your accountant, your bank or your own analysis. Your data is never locked in.
What happens to my data if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. If a business subscription lapses, the workspace becomes read-only: you can still open your books, read every record and export to Excel, but new entries pause until the year is renewed. Household books are free and never lock.
Do I need an internet connection to use Hesabu?
Yes, Hesabu needs an internet connection because your books are stored securely online rather than on one device. The benefit is that your records survive a lost or stolen phone, and you and your staff can work from different devices on the same books.
What kinds of businesses use Hesabu?
Hesabu suits small trading and service businesses in Kenya — dukas and general shops, hardware stores, spare parts dealers, agrovets, salons, boutiques, wholesalers and similar businesses that buy stock, sell it, sometimes sell on credit, and need to know their real profit. It also works for households that simply want to track spending.
Still deciding? The 14-day trial unlocks everything — no card, no commitment. Business costs KES 10,000 a year; household books are free forever.
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