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 60-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. Pay within the first 30 days of your trial and you get 15 months for the price of 12, starting when the trial ends. There are no per-user fees: one subscription covers every owner, partner and salesperson you add. 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 60 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 I send invoices with my own logo?
Yes. Owners can create invoices from the Invoices tab: pick items from stock or type a service such as rent, labour or a catering job, add VAT if needed, and share a PDF with your logo, brand colour, KRA PIN and payment details on WhatsApp or email. Unpaid invoices appear in Debtors, overdue ones are flagged, and once paid an invoice can be resent as a receipt marked Paid in full.
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?
Any small business in Kenya that wants to know its real monthly profit. Shops that buy and sell stock — dukas, hardware stores, spare parts dealers, agrovets, boutiques, wholesalers — use the full inventory, stock take, credit sales and staff features. Farms, landlords, restaurants and cafés, salons, garages and transport operators use it to record income and every expense and see what each month really earned. It also works for households that simply want to track spending.
Can I use Hesabu for a farm?
Yes. Record every input as an itemized expense — seed, fertiliser, feed, vet costs, casual labour, fuel — and every sale of produce, milk or eggs as income. Hesabu groups costs by category and shows what each month earned, so you can see which season paid and which costs are eating the profit. If you also sell from stock, such as feeds or seedlings, the inventory tracks that too.
Can I track rental property income and expenses with Hesabu?
Yes. Record rent and service charges as income, and repairs, caretaker wages, rates, water, electricity and loan repayments as expenses, to see each month's net rental income. Each property can have its own separate books, and you switch between them under one login — or keep them all together.
I run more than one business. Can I keep them separate?
Yes. Create a separate workspace for each business — say a shop, a farm and your rentals — and switch between them with one tap. Each has its own books, reports and staff, so figures never mix. Household books can sit alongside them for free.
Still deciding? The 60-day trial unlocks everything — no card, no commitment. Business costs KES 10,000 a year; household books are free forever.
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