M-PESA gives small businesses three ways to receive money. Picking the right one affects your fees and how much control you have over payments.
Buy Goods (Till Number)
- Best for most shops — customer pays a business number, not your personal line.
- Customers cannot reverse the payment without your consent.
- No fee to the customer; you pay a small transaction fee on withdrawals.
PayBill
- Customer enters your business number plus an account/reference number — great for tracking which order was paid.
- Higher setup cost and KYC requirements than a Till.
- On Shops, add your PayBill under Dashboard → Payments as a manual method and tell customers to use the order number as the account number — they attach an M-PESA screenshot at checkout and you approve it in one tap.
Pochi la Biashara
- Runs on your own Safaricom line — separates business money from personal M-PESA without a business registration.
- Free to set up via *334# or the M-PESA app.
- Customers can pay to your Pochi number like a Till; reversals need your approval.
What about automatic payments?
With the Starter plan you can connect Daraja (Safaricom's developer API) so customers get an STK PIN prompt at checkout and orders confirm themselves — no screenshot verification. Until then, manual methods work fine: add them under Dashboard → Payments and the customer sees clear instructions plus a proof-of-payment upload.
