How to take an M-Pesa payment in UpeoRetail

UpeoRetail matches M-Pesa payments that have already arrived. The customer pays your till from their own phone, the payment lands in UpeoRetail, and you attach it to the sale. If it has not landed yet, you type the code off the customer's phone instead. Each code can only ever be used once.

How this works

UpeoRetail does not send a request to the customer's phone. The customer pays your till or paybill number themselves, the way they always have.

Your shop learns about the payment in one of two ways. Either a phone kept at the shop forwards the M-Pesa message to UpeoRetail, or the payment arrives directly from Safaricom. Either way it turns up in the pending list within seconds.

When neither has happened yet, you can still take the money. Type the code from the customer's phone and carry on.

Before you start

• Your shop must have M-Pesa switched on as a payment method.
• The customer needs their M-Pesa confirmation message to hand, in case you need the code.

Steps

1. Ask the customer to pay

Tell them the amount and let them pay your till or paybill from their phone. Wait for their confirmation message.

2. Choose M-Pesa on the sale

With the items already in the sale, choose M-Pesa on the right of the Sell screen.

A window opens showing the Balance due.

3. Find the payment

Payments that have arrived and are not yet spoken for are listed. Each shows the Amount, the Phone it came from and the Code.

Press Search to narrow the list by phone number or amount if there are several.

4. Or type the code

If the payment is not there yet, type it in yourself:

• M-Pesa code - the code from the customer's message, like TFG4H5J8K1
• Amount - what they paid
• Payer phone - optional, in the form 2547…

5. Attach it to the sale

Press Attach selected.

The amount moves into the sale as paid. Finish with Complete as normal.

What good looks like

• Balance on the sale falls to zero, or to whatever is still owed.
• The receipt shows M-Pesa and the code.
• The same payment cannot be attached to another sale. UpeoRetail refuses it.

If something goes wrong

The payment is not in the list. It may not have arrived yet. Wait a moment, press Search again, or type the code in by hand.

The code is refused. That code has already been used on another sale. Every M-Pesa code can be used once and only once. Check whether a colleague has already put the sale through.

The customer paid the wrong amount. Attach what they actually paid. UpeoRetail shows the rest as Balance, which they can settle in cash, or you can record as a credit sale.

The phone that forwards messages is off. Payments stop appearing in the list on their own. Keep taking codes off customers' phones, and tell the owner. UpeoRetail also sweeps for missed messages every few minutes, so late arrivals catch up.