How it works · A story in 11 short videos
Njeri’s 45 days.
Njeri runs Njeri’s Minimart on Thika Road, Kasarani. One shop, three staff, and a blue notebook that never quite adds up. Follow her through the free trial, one day at a time, and see what yours could look like.
Njeri and her shop are made up to tell the story. Everything she does is a real part of Ecosys360.
Chapter 1 · Day 1 · Morning
She signs up before her tea gets cold
Njeri has run her minimart for six years. Everything lives in a blue notebook: what came in, what went out, who owes her money. Most nights she stays an hour after closing just to make the numbers agree.
A friend who sells hardware in Ruiru tells her about Ecosys360. On Monday morning, before opening, she signs up on her phone.
What Njeri does
- 1 Picks her type of business: a retail shop
- 2 Chooses a plan to try (the trial covers everything)
- 3 Adds her shop, Kasarani, as the first branch
- 4 Adds Brian as her first cashier
- 5 Sends it in. Ecosys360 approves her account, and her 45 free days begin
Ten minutes later, Njeri’s Minimart exists in Ecosys360.
See the plans →Chapter 2 · Day 1 · Afternoon
Every product gets a code the till can read
Most of her products already have barcodes. But the sugar she packs herself and the loose rice have nothing to scan.
Ecosys360 gives those items their own code and prints labels for them. Njeri also writes down where each item sits, so a new cashier can find it fast.
What Njeri does
- 1 Adds products with their prices in the catalogue
- 2 Scans the barcodes that are already on the packets
- 3 Prints a sheet of QR labels. Items with no barcode get their own code as they print
- 4 Sticks the labels on the sugar and rice bags
- 5 Writes a shelf spot for each item, like “Shelf A2”
By closing time, every item in the shop can be scanned.
More about stock →Chapter 3 · Day 2
The first scanned sale
Tuesday morning, Brian scans a basket: cooking oil, rice, sugar and tea leaves. The total appears straight away. No calculator, no adding up in the notebook.
The customer pays by M-Pesa. Brian gives a 12% discount to a regular, more than the 5% Njeri allows, and her phone tells her within seconds.
What Njeri does
- 1 Brian scans each item, or picks it from the screen
- 2 The customer pays cash, M-Pesa, or a bit of both
- 3 A receipt prints or goes to the customer
- 4 Njeri sees the sale, and any big discount, on her phone
The till is faster, and Njeri knows what happens even when she isn’t there.
More about selling →Chapter 4 · Day 2 · Closing time
The money matches the sales
This used to be the worst part of the day. Dozens of M-Pesa messages, a cash drawer and a notebook total that never agreed. Every week a few thousand shillings seemed to disappear.
Now each payment is tied to the sale it paid for. When the customer pays by M-Pesa, the sale closes by itself.
What Njeri does
- 1 At the till, the customer gets an M-Pesa prompt on their phone
- 2 They enter their PIN and the sale completes on its own
- 3 Cash and M-Pesa on the same sale are kept apart
- 4 At closing, she counts the cash drawer and closes the shift. Any difference shows straight away.
For the first time in years, Njeri goes home on time.
More about selling →Chapter 5 · Day 3
Everyone gets their own login
Until now, all three staff used Njeri’s phone and one password written on a sticky note. When something went wrong, nobody knew who did it.
Now Brian and Achieng sign in as cashiers. They get the till, not the books. Otieno handles stock and deliveries, so that’s what he sees. Njeri sees everything.
What Njeri does
- 1 Njeri adds each staff member with their email and a password
- 2 Chooses what each person can open: till, stock, deliveries
- 3 Each person signs in with their password and a code sent to their email
- 4 Every sale and change shows who made it
- 5 Njeri can see which phones are signed in and block any she doesn’t know
Three staff, three logins, and one owner who can see it all.
Chapter 6 · Week 2
The stock count that finally adds up
Counting stock used to take a whole Sunday, and the answer was always a guess. This time Otieno counts with his phone, shelf by shelf.
Ecosys360 compares his count with what the system expected. Three bags of sugar are missing. Now Njeri knows, and she knows which shelf.
What Njeri does
- 1 Otieno starts a stock count for the Kasarani shop
- 2 He types what he actually sees on each shelf
- 3 Ecosys360 shows where the count is more or less than expected
- 4 Njeri checks the differences and accepts the count
- 5 Items close to their expiry date are flagged
Njeri knows exactly what’s on her shelves, and what it’s worth.
More about stock →Chapter 7 · Week 3
She stops paying for goods that never came
Njeri orders 120 bags of maize flour. The lorry brings 100. The bill still says 120. In the past, she would have paid it without noticing.
Ecosys360 checks the order, what actually arrived and the supplier’s bill against each other, and holds the bill until they match.
What Njeri does
- 1 Njeri sends the supplier an order from Ecosys360
- 2 Otieno records what actually arrives
- 3 The supplier’s bill is checked against the order and the delivery
- 4 If they don’t match, the bill waits until the supplier fixes it
Twenty bags of flour, saved on one order.
More about buying stock →Chapter 8 · Week 4
Month-end in one afternoon
Month-end used to mean a week of evenings with the notebook and a calculator. This month the books are already done. Every sale, expense and supplier bill went in by itself.
Then payroll. Ecosys360 works out PAYE, NSSF, SHIF and the Housing Levy for each person. Brian, Achieng and Otieno get their payslips on their phones.
What Njeri does
- 1 Njeri opens the month-end checklist and ticks off each step
- 2 She reads her profit for the month in plain numbers
- 3 She runs payroll and checks each payslip
- 4 Staff open My HR to see their payslips and leave days
Books closed, staff paid, and Njeri knows her real profit.
More about payroll →Chapter 9 · Week 5
She asks her business a question
Njeri wants to open a second shop, but is it the right time? She types one question to Bee, the helper inside Ecosys360: “How is my business doing?”
Bee answers in shillings, from her own records: sales are up, profit is healthy, and a few credit customers need a reminder.
What Njeri does
- 1 She types her question in plain words
- 2 Bee reads her sales, stock and books
- 3 It answers with real numbers and a health score
- 4 Each morning, Bee lists what needs her attention
Njeri decides: Ruiru is next.
More about Bee →Chapter 10 · Week 6
A second shop in Ruiru
Njeri adds Ruiru as a second branch. Otieno moves stock from Kasarani to stock the new shelves, and both shops update on their own.
Customers in Ruiru start ordering for delivery. A rider takes each order, and the customer gets a tracking link on WhatsApp and a code to confirm it arrived.
What Njeri does
- 1 Adds Ruiru as a new branch
- 2 Sends stock from Kasarani to Ruiru
- 3 Gives delivery orders to a rider
- 4 The customer follows the rider and confirms with a code
Two shops, one screen, and no more “Uko wapi?” calls.
More about deliveries →Chapter 11 · Day 45
Njeri keeps it
Her free trial is about to end. Njeri flips through the old blue notebook and laughs. There is no going back.
She now has two shops, so she picks the Team plan, pays, and carries on as if nothing happened. All her products, sales, staff and books stay exactly where they are.
What Njeri does
- 1 Opens Billing and compares the three plans
- 2 Picks Team: up to 3 shops and 15 staff logins
- 3 Pays, monthly or yearly (yearly gets 2 months free)
- 4 Her account switches from trial to active. Nothing is lost.
From a notebook to two shops in 45 days.
See the plans →Your turn
Your 45 days start today.
Sign up in ten minutes. Load your products, make your first sale and bring in your team. Everything is included for 45 days. If you get stuck, message us on WhatsApp and a real person will help you set up.