M-PESA Business Till charges and uses
What an M-PESA Business Till costs a Kenyan business to collect and pay out, how to apply and activate it, and how takings and fees reach the ledger.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
For a hardware shop in Thika or a salon in Kisumu, the M-PESA Business Till may be the way most customers pay. Customers pay with their phones, the money lands in the till, and the owner can pay a supplier from it the same afternoon. It is easy to stop looking closely at what it costs, or at how the money moving in and out of it reaches the books.
This article sets out what Safaricom says the Business Till can do, the charges on money coming in and going out, how to apply and activate one, and how to keep the takings, fees and payments straight in Achekam. The charges quoted are Safaricom's at the time of writing; check its page before relying on them.
What the Business Till can do
Safaricom says the M-PESA Business Till lets a business receive payments and then use the collected money directly from the till: to pay other businesses through their Paybill or Buy Goods numbers, to pay customers, to withdraw to the owner's nominated number, a bank or an agent, and to sell airtime.
That flexibility is the till's strength. It is also why it needs controls: money can leave the till as easily as it arrives. Safaricom's Business Till page sets out the uses, charges and application steps in full.
Collection charges and the free band
Safaricom says the business owner is charged a maximum of 0.55%, and not more than KSh 200 per transaction, on money collected on a Business Till, and that collections of KSh 200 and below are free. It adds that customers pay no charge to pay a Business Till, except at fuel stations.
In practice:
- Small sales of KSh 200 or less cost the business nothing to collect.
- Larger sales cost up to 0.55% of the amount.
- Very large sales stop costing more once the charge reaches the KSh 200 cap.
For a business with many small sales, collection costs may be modest. For one with fewer, larger sales, the cap matters. Either way, the charges are a real cost of selling, and they belong in the books as an expense, not hidden inside the takings. How recent tax changes bear on payment fees is covered in payment fees and the Finance Act 2026.
Paying out from the till, and what it costs
Spending from the till has its own charges. Safaricom says paying another Business Till from a till costs 0.27%, capped at KSh 200, while sending money to a mobile number, paying a Paybill and withdrawing at an agent attract the standard M-PESA charges. Selling airtime from the till earns a 5% commission.
So the route you use to pay a supplier changes the cost. If a supplier also has a Business Till, paying it till to till is priced differently from paying its Paybill. Check Safaricom's current tariffs for the routes you use most.
Applying and activating
Safaricom says Business Till applications are made on the Lipa na M-PESA Application Portal, and that they are processed within 10 minutes for the Individual category and within 24 hours for other categories. The store details are then sent by SMS to the nominated number.
To activate the till, Safaricom says the owner dials *234# from the nominated number and chooses option 2, or uses the M-PESA Business App, then accepts the terms and sets a secret PIN. That PIN controls the money in the till, so treat it like the PIN for a bank account: known only to the person responsible for the till, and changed if that person leaves.
If your customers pay against invoices rather than at a counter, a Paybill may suit you better; applying for an M-PESA Paybill explains that route, and Buy Goods or Paybill? compares them.
Till takings and fees in Achekam's ledger
When sales are rung up on Achekam's point-of-sale till, every sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step, with each payment method to its own account, revenue, output VAT, and cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price. M-Pesa takings go to their own account (1070), separate from cash and card.
When a customer pays the business's M-PESA till number from their own phone, the cashier types the M-PESA code and the server matches that payment to the sale once only. This works once the number is registered for payment notifications.
The money then has to be followed out of M-PESA. Payouts from each payment gateway, including M-Pesa, are recorded against that gateway's clearing account with its fees, by hand. Record each withdrawal to the bank with the Safaricom charge on it as its own line, so the fees show as an expense and the clearing account comes back to what is still sitting in the till.
Payments made directly from the till to suppliers need recording too. Each one is a payment out of the M-PESA account: record it against the supplier's bill, or as an expense with its receipt, so the books show where the till's money went.
Controls over spending from the till
Because the Business Till can pay suppliers, customers and the owner directly, a few rules protect the business:
- One named person holds the PIN, and a second person reviews the statement.
- Every outgoing payment has a document: a supplier invoice, a receipt or a signed request.
- Owner withdrawals are recorded as drawings, salary or a loan to the owner, never left unexplained.
- The statement is reconciled regularly against sales, payouts and fees in the books.
- Airtime sales are recorded with the commission earned.
A till that is reconciled every week is a convenient bank account. One that is not becomes a place where money disappears.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
