Bank & Cash

Bank & Cash keeps track of the money in your till, your bank accounts, your wallet apps (Opay, Palmpay, Moniepoint, Kuda…) and your POS. When a customer pays you, SmartShop already knows how they paid. Bank & Cash puts that money in the right place and adds it up. Then, once a month, you upload your bank statement and SmartShop helps you check that the bank and SmartShop agree. That is how you catch fake transfer alerts, money that never arrived, and bank charges you did not know about.

1. Opening Bank & Cash

In the web portal, click Bank & Cash in the left-hand menu (under Operations, below Expenses).

• Bank & Cash is for the shop owner and managers. Cashiers do not see it. A cashier can still check a customer's transfer receipt on its own page (section 13).
• It works on a computer and on a phone's browser. On a phone, the Back button takes you back one screen.

2. The home page at a glance

The page answers three questions, from top to bottom:

2.1 The coloured dot on each account card

Bank & Cash does not show how much your customers owe you or how much you owe suppliers. For that, use Reports → Customers Who Owe and the vendor reports (see the Dashboards & Reports Manual).

3. Getting started: four things to do once

The first time you open Bank & Cash, the "SmartShop needs you" list walks you through these. Do them in this order:

1. Count the cash in your till and type the total (section 4).
2. Add your bank account, wallet and POS, with how much was in each on the day you start counting (section 5).
3. Say where each payment method goes — for example, "Transfer" money lands in your GTBank account and "POS" money in your Moniepoint POS (section 6).
4. Upload last month's bank statement for each bank, wallet or POS (section 8), then answer its entries (section 9).

After that, the only regular job is once a month: upload the statement and answer the entries SmartShop could not sort by itself.

4. Count the cash in your till

SmartShop knows every cash sale and every cash payment, but it cannot know how much cash was in the till before you started using Bank & Cash. Until you tell it, the cash card says Not counted yet.

1. On the home page, press Count my cash (in the "SmartShop needs you" list).
2. Count the notes in your till — and in your safe, if you keep one — and type the total.
3. Leave Counted on as today, unless you counted on another day.
4. Press Save.

SmartShop counts your cash from that day: the amount you typed, plus cash that comes in, minus cash that goes out. The cash card and the total on the home page change straight away.

5. Add a bank, wallet or POS

On the home page, click the dashed card Add a bank, wallet or POS.

To change an account later, open it and press Change details. If you stop using an account, press Turn off (stop using it) in the same box. Nothing is deleted; turned-off accounts are listed at the bottom of the home page.

6. Where each payment method goes

Your shop has payment methods such as Cash, Transfer and POS. Bank & Cash needs to know which account each one's money lands in. Until you say, those payments wait as not sorted yet, and the home page asks "Where does the money for Transfer go?".

Open it from the "SmartShop needs you" list (Choose), or from More → Where each payment method goes.

1. For each payment method, choose the account the money lands in.
2. Press Save on that line. The waiting payments move into that account straight away.

Cash goes into your main cash by itself. Change it only if your cash sales go somewhere else.

6.1 Fee or delay (only if you need it)

Some POS companies and banks pay you a day later, or keep a small fee. Press Fee or delay on that payment method and set:

• Money arrives — the same day, or 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days later. SmartShop then does not worry when the money is not on your statement on the same day.
• Fee kept — none, a % of each payment, a % but not more than an amount (for example 0.5% but not more than ₦100), or the same amount each time. SmartShop uses this to work out what the fee should have been, and shows it next to what the bank or POS really kept (section 14).

7. One account's page

Click any account card on the home page.

7.1 What each month box says

8. Upload a bank statement

Press Upload bank statement on the home page (SmartShop asks which account it is for), or open the account, choose Bank statements and press Upload a bank statement.

8.1 Which file to upload

On the Freemium plan, saving a statement uses usage units, and reading a PDF or photos uses usage units for each page (section 18). If SmartShop cannot read a page, that page is free. Uploading the same file again costs nothing — SmartShop tells you it is already uploaded.

8.2 Check that it adds up

Before anything is saved, SmartShop shows you what it read.

• Does it add up? SmartShop checks: starting balance + money in − money out = ending balance. If it says yes, it adds up, the file was read correctly.
• If it says no, it is off by …, look at your printed statement and correct the starting or ending balance or the dates. Entries marked yellow are the ones SmartShop is unsure about.
• Only open Columns if the entries look wrong (for example money in and money out are swapped). There you say which column is which and press Read the file again.

Press Save statement. Then SmartShop opens the statement so you can look at it once more:

• If a line is wrong, press fix beside it, correct it, and press save.
• When it adds up, press Use this statement. SmartShop links most entries to your sales and payments by itself, records bank charges it knows, and tells you how many are left for you.
• To throw a statement away before using it, press Remove.

9. Check with your bank, one entry at a time

This is where you find out whether SmartShop and your bank agree. SmartShop shows you one bank entry at a time — something your bank says happened — with its best guess of what it was. You give a quick answer, and the next one appears.

Open it from the "SmartShop needs you" list (Start), or by clicking a month on the account's page.

9.1 The numbers at the top

9.2 Answering an entry

If SmartShop's guess is right, press Yes, that's it. If not, choose what it really is:

After you answer, SmartShop may say there are more entries like this one (for example two more IKEDC payments) and offer to do the same for all of them — and every month, if you are the owner.

9.3 One bank entry, several sales

A POS company often pays a whole day's card sales into your bank in one amount, less its fee. Choose A sale or customer payment, then tick every sale that makes up the bank entry.

The line under the list compares what you ticked with what the bank shows. If the bank paid in less because the POS kept a fee, tick The bank or POS kept part of it as a fee: the difference is recorded as a bank charge. Then press Link.

9.4 Ask SmartShop to look for matches

If SmartShop has no guess for several entries, press Ask SmartShop to look for matches under the entry. SmartShop looks harder — for example at sales on nearby days, or several sales that add up to one payment.

You still decide each one. A suggestion is never applied until you press Yes, that's it.

9.5 Not business money

Only skip entries that should not be in your shop's records at all. A sale you forgot to record is not one of these — record the sale first, then press Recorded something new? Look again on the entry.

9.6 The two lists at the bottom

• In SmartShop, not on the bank statement yet — payments SmartShop recorded that the bank does not show. Usually it is money that arrives a day or two later. If something stays here, the customer may not really have paid, or paid another way. Press Paid another way? to change how that customer paid (for example from Transfer to Cash).
• Done this month — every entry already answered, and how: linked by SmartShop, a bank charge recorded by SmartShop, remembered, or answered by a person. Press undo if an answer was wrong.

10. When SmartShop asks you a question

10.1 Bank charges — once per account

The first time SmartShop finds bank charges it knows on a statement (SMS alerts, stamp duty, account maintenance…), it asks you once:

Press Yes, record them. You can switch any of them off later (section 15). Not now leaves them for you to answer one by one; SmartShop asks again on a later visit.

10.2 Entries that repeat

When the same kind of entry appears three times or more, SmartShop asks what they are:

With Do this every month ticked, SmartShop answers them by itself next month too. Only the owner can make SmartShop remember; a manager's answer covers these entries only. Ask me later hides the question for now.

11. Finish a month

When every entry is answered and the gap is 0.00, the check page says so:

Press Mark September as checked and confirm. SmartShop keeps a report of the month, which you can download.

• Months are checked one after the other. If an earlier month is not checked yet, SmartShop tells you to do that one first.
• You can only finish a month once it is over and its whole statement is uploaded.
• If something in a checked month changes later — for example a phone syncs an old sale — the month opens again by itself and appears at the top of "SmartShop needs you" as needs checking again. Nothing is lost; just check it again.
• The owner (or a manager with "Open Checked Months") can open a month again on purpose with Open this month again, saying why.

11.1 When the gap will not go to 0.00

If every entry is answered but there is still a gap, the page lists what is left. The usual causes are:

• A wrong starting balance for the account. If SmartShop sees this, it says so at the top and gives you a link to fix it.
• A sale or payment that was never recorded in SmartShop. Record it, then press Recorded something new? Look again.

Only if you are sure the bank is right and SmartShop is wrong, a manager with "Skip & Correct" can press The bank is right: correct the gap. SmartShop records the correction with the reason you give.

12. Move money

Write down money you moved yourself, so each account stays right. Press Move money on the home page (or on an account's page — then that account is already chosen).

Type how much and when, and the teller or transfer number if you have it — it helps SmartShop find the entry on your bank statement. Press Save.

All moves are listed under More → Money moved. Nothing there is ever deleted: if you made a mistake, press cancel, say why, and the entry stays in the list, crossed out.

13. Transfer receipts: spot a fake alert

When a customer says "I have sent it" and shows you a transfer receipt, SmartShop can check the receipt for signs of a fake before you hand over the goods.

1. Press Check a transfer receipt on the home page. (Cashiers use the separate page Check a Transfer Receipt.)
2. Upload the receipt: the PDF from the customer's bank app, or a picture of it — a screenshot or what they sent on WhatsApp.
3. Optionally type what the customer is paying.

A credited receipt is marked Waiting for bank. When you upload your statement and the money is on it, it becomes Bank confirmed. If the statement covers that day and the money is not there, it becomes Not on your statement — and it shows up in red on the home page.

More → Transfer receipts checked lists every receipt checked, by whom, and where each one stands with the bank. Take back cancels a credit if the money never came; the customer then owes it again.

14. Which bank charges me most

More → Which bank charges me most compares your accounts. Choose the dates (last month is filled in) and press Show.

• The box at the top says which account cost you the most, and on what.
• The bars compare charges for every ₦100,000 that moved in or out — the fair way to compare a busy account with a quiet one.
• See the full figures shows each kind of charge and each payment method. Fee you set is what your POS fee setting (section 6.1) says it should be; Fee taken is what was really kept. If "Fee taken" is higher, ask your POS company.
• Only accounts with an uploaded statement for those dates can be compared. Download saves the figures as a spreadsheet file.

15. Things SmartShop sorts by itself

More → Things SmartShop sorts by itself shows what SmartShop answers for you each month.

• What SmartShop remembers for your shop — answers you asked it to repeat every month (section 10.2), and how many times each was used. Press delete to stop one.
• Bank charges SmartShop knows — the common Nigerian bank charge wordings. Press Switch off on any you do not want recorded by itself.
• Add one yourself is there, but you should not need it: SmartShop asks you when it sees something new.

16. On your phone

Bank & Cash works in your phone's browser. Everything is the same; it just stacks up. The phone's Back button takes you back one screen — from an entry to the account, from the account to the home page.

Figure 27 — The home page and an entry to answer, on a phone.

17. Who can do what

The owner sets these under User List → Edit (see the Store Setup, Users & Security Manual). Only the shop owner can give Bank & Cash permissions — a manager cannot pass them on.

A button the person is not allowed to use is simply not shown. Where something needs the owner, the page says "Ask the shop owner to do this."

18. Usage units

• On a paid plan, Bank & Cash is included.
• On the Freemium plan, Bank & Cash uses usage units you have bought or earned by inviting shops. Your free monthly units cannot be used here. If you run out, SmartShop offers to let you buy more or invite a shop.
• Saving a statement uses usage units, and reading a PDF or photo statement uses usage units for each page it reads; a page it cannot read is free. Uploading the same file again is free.
• Checking a transfer receipt uses usage units (any kind). If SmartShop cannot read the receipt, it is free.

19. If something looks wrong

20. Quick reference