South Africa
A POS built for a card-first market that loses power
South Africa breaks the pattern the rest of this list follows. Mobile money never became the default here — cards did, and a customer is far more likely to tap than to open a wallet app.
The operational problem is not the payment, it is the power. When the lights go and the router with them, a cloud till that needs a connection to look up a price stops being a till. Trading stops with it, and the queue walks.
And SARS does not issue you a fiscal device to lean on. Whether your invoice is valid is a question about what is printed on it.
What you get
How South Africa pays
Card — tap, chip and swipe
The rail most South African retail actually settles on, debit more than credit. Recorded against the sale, so the settlement report and the day's takings describe the same trading.
PayShap and instant EFT
Pay-by-bank is growing fast here, and it lands as a reference rather than a receipt. Matched against the invoice instead of hunted for in a bank statement.
QR wallets
SnapScan, Zapper and the bank apps that behave like them — logged into the same day's takings as everything else, not a separate app's report.
Cash, with change
Still how a large share of spaza and township trade is done. The till does the arithmetic in rand and the drawer count has to balance at close.
On account, and part-payments
Layby is ordinary retail practice here. Each deposit is recorded against the customer's balance, so what is still owed on an order is a number rather than a note in a book.
SARS VAT, and why the invoice itself is the compliance
South Africa is the one market on this list with no fiscal device and no live e-invoicing mandate. There is nothing to transmit to and no certified hardware to buy. What the VAT Act requires instead is that a tax invoice carries specific particulars: the words "Tax Invoice", your name, address and VAT registration number, a serial number and date, a description and quantity of what was supplied, and the value with the VAT shown.
That sounds easier than a fiscal regime and in practice it is harder to get right, because nothing stops you issuing an invalid one. A handwritten slip missing a VAT number is only a problem months later, when a customer cannot claim the input tax and comes back to you for a reissue you can no longer reconstruct.
sell.ke prints those particulars on every receipt as a matter of course, at 15% or at whatever rate you set per product, and keeps the line-level detail behind each sale — which is also what your VAT201 and your accountant need at period end. If SARS's real-time VAT reporting proposals do become a mandate, the records the filing would draw on are already being kept.
- Tax invoices carrying the VAT Act particulars, numbered sequentially
- VAT shown per line and per invoice, zero-rated and exempt lines handled separately
- Line-level detail in ZAR behind every sale, tied to a stock movement
- Period exports for VAT201 and for your accountant
What you get
What that means for your shop in South Africa
Trades through load-shedding
The till is offline-first. Prices, stock and customers are on the device, so sales, receipts and stock deduction keep working with no power at the router — and reconcile when the line comes back.
Runs on a battery you already own
A phone or tablet outlasts a POS terminal on an inverter. No proprietary till to keep alive, no boot sequence to sit through when the power returns.
Card-first, without a second set of books
The payment mix here is genuinely different, and card is the default rather than the fallback — recorded against the sale, not left in the terminal's own report.
Priced and reported in rand
ZAR throughout: prices, stock valuation, margins and day-end totals, with VAT inclusive or exclusive pricing as you prefer.
Branches across provinces, one account
Per-branch stock and takings, transfers between stores, one dashboard for the owner — whether that is two shops in Gauteng or a chain across four provinces.
The features this leans on
Each one goes deeper than this page does — start with the first.
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Stock you can trust
Batch and expiry, serial numbers, reorder levels, stock takes and the formulas behind them.
Reports and real accounting
Double-entry books — trial balance, P&L, balance sheet — not a CSV export to somebody else's software.
Branches, staff and control
Shared catalogue, separate stock, transfers that are movements, and permissions per branch.
Questions
Questions from South Africa
Does sell.ke work when the power is out?
The till does. Sales, price and stock lookup, stock deduction and receipt printing all continue with no connection, and sync when it returns. What needs connectivity is card authorisation, PayShap confirmation and the online store — so during load-shedding you can keep trading on cash and record the rest, rather than closing the counter.
Can I take card payments through sell.ke?
Card is recorded against the sale at the counter, alongside cash, instant EFT and on-account. sell.ke is not the acquirer and does not sit in the flow of funds — you keep your own merchant agreement and your own rates. Tell us which provider you use and we will say exactly what connects.
Is sell.ke SARS compliant?
South Africa has no fiscal device to certify against, so the question is whether your invoices are valid. sell.ke issues tax invoices carrying the particulars the VAT Act requires, numbered sequentially, with VAT shown per line, and keeps the detail behind each sale for your VAT201 and your accountant.
Does it handle layby?
Layby is handled as a customer account: the order is recorded, each deposit is posted against the customer's balance, and what remains outstanding is visible rather than written in a book under the counter. Cost and price are tracked per line, so you still know the margin when the final payment lands.
Does it run in rand?
Your shop runs entirely in ZAR: prices, stock values, margins and reports, with VAT at your rate. Subscription billing is quoted in US dollars outside Kenya; ask the team about settlement in rand.
Can I use it for more than one shop?
Yes. Branches share one product catalogue but hold their own stock, so a transfer between them is a recorded movement rather than a re-count. Reports run per branch or across all of them, and staff permissions are set per branch — a Kisumu supervisor does not need to see Nairobi's margins.
Do I need internet?
Not to keep selling. Offline mode lets the till take sales, print receipts and reserve stock while the connection is down, then syncs everything when it returns. You do need connectivity for the parts that are inherently online: an M-Pesa STK push, an eTIMS submission and the online shop all need a live link.
What does it cost?
Plans run from USD 12/month for a single-location till to USD 115/month for unlimited scale, with the online store on your own domain included from USD 23/month. In Kenya the same plans are KES 1,499 to KES 14,999/month, billed in shillings. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no per-terminal licence and no commission on your sales. There is no hardware to buy either — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
Try it in your South Africa shop
Fourteen days, no card, no hardware to buy. Your prices, stock and reports all run in ZAR.