Getting started with the Meku Business POS for a small retail shop

If you run a small retail shop, the kind we call a rejareja in Tanzania, selling everything from soda and bread to airtime and household goods, Meku Business gives you a complete POS on your phone. This guide takes you through the first hour: from creating your account to making your first sale.

What you need before you start

A phone (any modern Android phone or iPhone), or a computer
Your phone number
A list of your 10 best-selling products with their prices

That is all. You do not need a card machine, a printer or a computer. If you get a thermal receipt printer later, Meku connects to it, but you can start without one.

Step 1: Create your account

Open mekubusiness.co.tz on your phone, or install the app. Tap Create account and enter your phone number. Meku sends you a code by SMS. You can also sign up with Google or Apple.

Then type your business name, choose a username, and say what kind of business you run. It takes about two minutes.

Your account starts on the Free plan, which lets you manage up to 10 products. When you want to add more, the Starter plan (25,000 TZS a month) raises the limit to 100 products.

Step 2: Add your first 5 products

Go to Inventory and tap Add. For each product, fill in:

Name: what your customers ask for (“Coca-Cola 500ml”, not “Beverage 04”)
Price: the price you sell it for
How many you have: how many are on the shelf now

Categories, photos and barcodes are optional. Do not spend time on them on the first day. You can add them later. Meku creates a product code for each product automatically.

Tip: Start with your five best-selling products. Add the rest when customers ask for them.

Step 3: Make your first sale

At the home page, tap New Sale. You see your products. This is how a sale works:

Tap a product to add it to the basket.
Change the quantity with the + and − buttons if you are selling more than one.
Choose how the customer pays. Under DIRECT TO ACCOUNTS, tap Cash, your Lipa namba or the bank. Under PAYMENT LATER, tap Credit if the customer will pay later.
Tap Charge.

A receipt is made automatically. If you have a connected printer, it prints. If you do not, you can send the receipt to the customer’s phone, or close the screen. Every sale is saved.

Step 4: Sell on credit without forgetting who owes you

If a regular customer says “niandikie mzee, nitakulipa Ijumaa” (“write it down for me, I will pay on Friday”), choose Credit under PAYMENT LATER. Meku asks for the customer’s name and phone number.

Open Debts at any time to see who owes you, how much, and for how long. When the customer pays, tap their name and record the payment. Meku also sends polite SMS reminders automatically, after 7 days, 30 days, 6 months and 1 year.

Step 5: See the numbers of your day

At the end of the day, open Home. You see:

Today’s sales, and how customers paid: cash, mobile money or credit
Your best-selling products
Debts, as one total

Many shopkeepers tell us they never had this before. Knowing exactly how much you sold, how each customer paid, and who owes you, without searching through a notebook, is the main reason merchants continue with Meku after the first week.

Common questions

Do I need the internet to use the POS? Yes. You need network to log in and to record sales. A small internet bundle, about 500 MB a month, is enough for a busy shop.

What if I make a mistake on a sale? The owner can cancel a sale from its page under Transactions. The stock is returned to your inventory automatically. The cancelled sale stays in your records, so your records are always honest.

Can my staff use the POS without seeing my profit? Yes. Invite them under Staff → Access and give them the Staff role. They can sell, record their own expenses and see today’s sales, but your reports and your profit stay private to you.