Every shilling that leaves the till or the M-Pesa line gets a date, a category and a branch. SmartBiashara puts your running costs next to your sales, so the profit figure you see at month end already has rent, transport and power taken out.
Included on every plan, from TSh 15,000 a month. See pricing
This month
Expenses
Spent this month
TSh 12.9M
Awaiting approval
4
vs last month
−6%
| Date | Category | Branch | Paid via | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov | Transport | Kariakoo | M-Pesa | 45,000 |
| 13 Nov | Electricity (LUKU) | Mwanza | M-Pesa | 120,000 |
| 12 Nov | Rent | Arusha | Bank | 1,500,000 |
| 12 Nov | Staff lunch | Kariakoo | Cash | 36,000 |
| 11 Nov | Repairs | Dodoma | Airtel Money | 85,000 |
The day-to-day problems this module is designed to remove.
Money taken from the drawer for a boda delivery or a bag of charcoal rarely gets written down. By Friday the cash count is short and nobody remembers why.
When you only look at sales minus stock cost, the shop seems healthy. The electricity token, the guard and the generator diesel are quietly eating the margin.
Paper slips fade, get wet or go missing. When your accountant asks for the quarter's costs, someone spends two days rebuilding them from memory and phone messages.
With costs mixed in one notebook, the Arusha shop and the Moshi shop look the same. You find out one of them was losing money only after months of paying its bills.
A manager opens the expense screen on a phone, laptop or tablet and enters the amount, date, category and a short note. Because SmartBiashara runs in the browser, there is nothing to install on the branch computer. The entry is saved to your account straight away and the owner can see it from anywhere.
Set up your own expense categories such as rent, transport, utilities, wages, repairs and marketing. Each cost is filed under one of them, so you can see at a glance that transport went up this month while rent stayed flat. Clear categories also make life easier for whoever prepares your books.
Each expense is linked to the business location that paid it. If you run a shop in Kariakoo and another in Mbagala, the security guard, the shop rent and the power bill land against the correct one. Branch-level costs are what turn a sales report into a real picture of which shop earns its keep.
Recorded expenses sit inside the same system as your sales, purchases and accounting. That means the profit and loss report subtracts operating costs automatically instead of leaving you to do it on a calculator. The number you see is profit after running costs, which is the one worth planning around.
Use the built-in Admin, Manager and Cashier roles to decide who can enter costs and who only sells at the till. A branch manager can log the day's spending while the owner reviews the totals. Keeping expense entry to trusted staff makes the numbers easier to believe.
Download expense lists to Excel, PDF or CSV, or send a report by WhatsApp. At quarter end you hand over a clean file instead of a bag of receipts. That leaves your accountant checking figures instead of retyping them from paper.
Here is an illustrative example from a two-branch hardware duka. Your own categories and amounts will differ.
At 10am the Mbagala branch manager pays TSh 8,000 to a boda rider to deliver cement to a fundi on site.
She opens SmartBiashara on her phone, picks the Transport category, enters the amount and writes the customer's name in the note.
From the head office in town, the owner checks the day's expenses and sees the delivery cost against the Mbagala branch.
When the cash is counted that evening, the TSh 8,000 is already explained, so the drawer balances without arguments.
The profit and loss report for the month subtracts every recorded cost, and the owner can see whether delivery is worth what it costs.
This month
Expenses
Spent this month
TSh 12.9M
Awaiting approval
4
vs last month
−6%
| Date | Category | Branch | Paid via | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov | Transport | Kariakoo | M-Pesa | 45,000 |
| 13 Nov | Electricity (LUKU) | Mwanza | M-Pesa | 120,000 |
| 12 Nov | Rent | Arusha | Bank | 1,500,000 |
| 12 Nov | Staff lunch | Kariakoo | Cash | 36,000 |
| 11 Nov | Repairs | Dodoma | Airtel Money | 85,000 |
Illustrative expense list with costs grouped by category and branch. Figures are examples only.
When cash taken out for small costs is written down, the evening count matches. Fewer shortfalls means fewer awkward conversations with staff.
Seeing net profit after running costs helps you decide whether you can afford a new hire, a second branch or a bigger stock order.
Category totals show when generator fuel or transport starts climbing, so you can act in the same month instead of at year end.
Costs are already sorted and exportable, which shortens the time your accountant needs to prepare returns.
Still have a question? Ask our team on WhatsApp, phone or email.
Expense recording is part of the core system from the Starter plan, which costs TSh 15,000 a month excluding VAT. Every higher plan includes it as well. The plan you choose mainly decides how many locations, users and products you can have. You can try it free for 14 days with no credit card.
Yes, each expense is recorded against a business location. That lets you compare what each branch costs to run alongside what it sells. Starter covers one location, Basic up to 3, Standard up to 5 and Enterprise up to 50.
A purchase is stock you buy to resell, such as bags of rice or boxes of tiles, and it goes into inventory through a purchase order or goods received note. An expense is a running cost like rent, fuel or electricity that does not become stock. Keeping them apart is what makes both your stock value and your profit figure correct.
Yes, recorded expenses sit in the same books as your sales and purchases. The profit and loss report takes them into account, so you see profit after operating costs. You can export that report to Excel or PDF for your accountant.
You control access through the Admin, Manager and Cashier roles. Give the people who handle petty cash the role that lets them record costs, and keep cashiers focused on selling. If you are unsure which role suits a branch manager, ask our team what each role can do before you set up your staff.
Yes, a cost is recorded as an expense whichever way you paid it, and you can keep the M-Pesa or bank reference in the note so the entry can be traced later. SmartBiashara does not connect directly to a bank account, so bank-paid costs are typed in by your team. Ask our team how payment details are captured on expenses in your setup.
Open a free 14-day trial, set up your expense categories and record this week's costs. No credit card is needed, and our team is on WhatsApp at +255 749 900 050 if you want help getting started.
