"How do I get a till number?" is one of the most common questions a new Kenyan business asks, and most of the answers online stop at "apply through Safaricom". This covers what you actually need, which product to apply for, how long each step takes, and why applications get rejected.
First: till, Paybill, or Pochi?
These are three different Safaricom products and picking the wrong one costs you time.
| Pochi la Biashara | Buy Goods (Till) | Paybill | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Sole traders, market and mtaa businesses | Shops, restaurants, salons — anyone selling over a counter | Businesses collecting against an account or invoice |
| Business registration | Not required | Required | Required |
| Customer enters | Your phone number | Till number, amount | Paybill number, account number, amount |
| Separates business from personal funds | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reference per customer | No | No | Yes — the account number |
| Typical use | Boda, grocer, hawker | Retail checkout | Schools, rent, utilities, subscriptions |
The rule of thumb: if you need to know which customer a payment belongs to, you need a Paybill. A school collecting fees needs the account number. A shop selling sugar does not — it needs a till.
Most retail businesses want Buy Goods. Our fuller comparison is in Paybill vs Till Number vs Pochi la Biashara.
What you need before you apply
For a Buy Goods till or Paybill, have these ready:
- Business registration certificate — a business name certificate from eCitizen is sufficient; you do not need a limited company
- KRA PIN certificate for the business
- Original national ID of the applicant or director
- A Safaricom line registered in the business owner's or business's name, which becomes the administrative number
- Bank account details in the business name, if you want settlement to a bank rather than to the M-Pesa account
For Pochi la Biashara, you need none of that — it activates from your existing registered Safaricom line.
The application that gets rejected almost always fails on one of two things: the names on the ID, the registration certificate and the KRA PIN do not match exactly, or the applying phone line is registered to someone else. Check both before you queue.
How to apply
There are three routes, and they differ mainly in speed:
M-Pesa Business / Safaricom app. Fastest for straightforward applications. You submit the documents digitally and track status in the app.
A Safaricom shop. Slower, but worth it if your paperwork has any complication — a name mismatch, a partnership, a company with multiple directors. The staff will tell you what is wrong before it is rejected rather than after.
A Safaricom business account manager. If you already have one, use them. Multi-branch and higher-volume merchants get materially faster handling this way.
Timelines vary with document quality. Pochi la Biashara is close to immediate. A clean Buy Goods application is commonly a matter of days. Paybill takes longer, because the account-reference setup requires more configuration on Safaricom's side. Anything with a document mismatch resets the clock.
Activating and testing
Once approved you will receive your till or Paybill number, plus credentials for the administrative line. Before you announce it to customers:
- Send yourself one shilling. Confirm it arrives, and confirm the SMS names your business correctly — the trading name on your receipts comes from this record.
- Check the operator PINs. You will have separate roles: a business administrator, a store manager, and operators. Do not let everyone use the administrator PIN. This is the same principle as restricting who can adjust stock.
- Confirm settlement. Know whether funds sit in the M-Pesa business account or sweep to a bank, and on what schedule. Businesses are regularly surprised by this in their first month.
Connecting it to your POS
A till number on its own means an operator reads the amount out loud, the customer types it in, and someone watches for the SMS. That works, and it is slow and error-prone at any volume.
Connecting the till to your POS changes the flow: the till pushes an STK prompt to the customer's phone with the exact amount already filled in, the customer enters their PIN, and the sale is marked paid automatically when the callback arrives. No typing, no misheard amounts, no reconciling SMS messages at closing time.
This runs over Safaricom's Daraja API, which needs a consumer key and secret from the developer portal linked to your short code. sell.ke's team does this setup with you over WhatsApp — it typically takes under 30 minutes once your till is live. See M-Pesa POS integration for the detail.
Common problems
"Payments arrive but my POS does not mark them paid." The callback URL is not reachable or not registered. This is the most common integration fault and it is a configuration fix, not a Safaricom one.
"A customer paid but says it failed." Almost always an STK prompt that timed out on their handset while the money moved. Match it manually against the transaction code and confirm before re-charging — double-charging is the worst outcome here.
"The name on my receipts is wrong." It comes from your Safaricom merchant record, not from your POS. Correcting it means going back to Safaricom.
"I want to move my till to a new business name." Treat this as a new application rather than an amendment; transfers between legal entities are slow.
"Which number do customers see?" For Buy Goods they see your till number and trading name. Make sure the trading name is one your customers recognise — a mismatch between your signage and the M-Pesa confirmation causes real hesitation at the counter.
After it is working
Two habits worth forming early:
Reconcile daily, not monthly. Match M-Pesa settlements to POS sales every day. A gap found today is traceable; the same gap found at month end is a write-off.
Keep the administrator line safe. It controls operator PINs and settlement. It should not be the phone that sits on the counter.
Setting up a till for your shop? Start a free sell.ke trial — we connect your Buy Goods or Paybill number to your checkout so payments confirm themselves against every sale.