Books for a tour operator in two countries
How a tour operator with companies in two of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya keeps each company's books, VAT and payroll separate in its own workspace.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Travel businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A safari operator based in Cape Town opens a Kenyan company to run ground operations out of Nairobi. A Lagos travel agency sets up a South African company to handle the inbound leisure trade it sells to Nigerian clients. Two companies, two tax authorities, two currencies, two payrolls, one owner and often the same small finance team doing both sets of books.
The risk is not complexity for its own sake. It is mixing: a Kenyan supplier's bill posted in the South African books, a Nairobi guide paid through the Cape Town payroll, a VAT return that includes the other company's sales. Each company is a separate legal person and must have its own books. This article shows how that works in Achekam and where the limits are.
One workspace per company, each with its own country
In Achekam, a business signs up as a business, chooses its country, and gets its own workspace, its own books and its own web address on the Achekam domain, with the person who signs up as its administrator. Each workspace has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts.
So a tour operator with companies in two countries runs two workspaces, one per company, each registered in the country where that company is incorporated and taxed. Do not try to run both companies in one workspace with separate accounts for each: the VAT, the payroll rules and the tax computations all follow the workspace's country, and they cannot follow two at once.
One caution at sign-up: a workspace with no jurisdiction recorded is treated as South African. Make sure the Kenyan or Nigerian company is registered as such from the first day.
What the country sets: currency, time zone and rules
Registering a workspace as Nigerian makes the Nigeria pack its default and, on activation, sets the naira and the Africa/Lagos time zone unless they are already set. Registering as Kenyan makes the Kenya pack the default and sets the shilling and the Africa/Nairobi time zone.
The country also decides VAT. Achekam takes the standard VAT rate for an invoice from the approved rule in force on the document's date in the issuing workspace's country, and refuses rather than assumes a rate when no approved rule applies. Every Nigerian and Kenyan tax figure in Achekam's rule book was seeded "under review", and nothing is computed from a figure until an Achekam platform administrator approves it. So the Kenyan company's invoices follow Kenyan rules once they are approved, and never borrow the South African rate.
If the Kenyan company runs tours itself, it will also need the right licence at home. Kenya's Tourism Regulatory Authority is where travel operators apply for and verify their licences.
Payroll under each country's rules
Each company employs its own staff and runs its own payroll. A business sets itself up as an employer and runs payroll under South African, Nigerian or Kenyan rules, chosen when the employer is created.
- A Nigerian employer's payroll works out PAYE on the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 bands, with pension, the opt-in National Housing Fund, NSITF, the ITF levy, rent relief and the minimum-wage exemption, from a table a person confirms.
- A Kenyan employer's payroll works out PAYE with personal and insurance relief, NSSF Tier I and II, SHIF, the Affordable Housing Levy and the NITA levy.
Set up the employer inside the workspace of the company that employs the person. A Nairobi guide employed by the Kenyan company belongs on the Kenyan payroll, even if the South African company sold the safari. Where a person works for both companies, take advice on who employs them before the first payslip.
Switching between books without posting to the wrong one
Someone who works in several workspaces switches books from the header, and a coloured bar shows whose books are open. For a finance team doing both companies, that bar is the most important thing on the screen.
A few habits help:
- Finish one company's task before switching. Do all the Kenyan supplier bills, then switch, rather than alternating document by document.
- Check the bar before every posting session, especially after lunch or a phone call.
- Keep separate inboxes or folders for each company's documents, so a Kenyan invoice never sits in the South African pile.
- Reconcile both sets of bank accounts every month. A posting in the wrong company shows up as an unexplained bank difference in one and a missing item in the other.
For an example of a business running several entities side by side, see several agency entities.
Rand on ledger screens for the Nigerian or Kenyan company
One limitation matters here. At the time of writing, the ledger screens show every amount in rand, and the chart of accounts is stored in ZAR, even for a Nigerian or Kenyan business. The figures themselves are the company's own; the currency label on those screens is not.
Tell everyone who reads the Kenyan or Nigerian company's ledger reports, including your accountant and any lender, that amounts shown as rand on those screens are in fact shillings or naira. Screens that still assume South Africa lists the other places this shows up. If the Kenyan company also keeps a dollar account, see running a US dollar account beside your local account.
Charges between the companies: agree them with your accountant
Companies in a travel group charge each other: the South African company sells a safari and pays the Kenyan company for the ground arrangements, or one company recharges shared staff or systems to the other. Each such charge is a sale in one set of books and a cost in the other, with tax consequences in both countries.
Do not invent these charges at year end. Agree with your accountants in both countries, in writing, which services each company provides to the other, how they are priced and invoiced, and how and when they are paid. Then invoice them monthly like any other customer, so both sets of books agree every month.
Setting up the second company
Register the second company's workspace in its own country, confirm the currency and time zone, set up its employer and its bank accounts, and give your finance team a short note on the rand-label limitation. Start the intercompany paperwork in the first month, not the twelfth.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
