M-Pesa, quotations and invoicing ยท 7 min read
A practical Kenyan workflow for moving a WhatsApp enquiry into a professional invoice, M-Pesa STK request, confirmed payment and receipt.
A payment screenshot tells a staff member that a customer says they paid. It does not reliably prove which invoice was settled, whether the transaction completed, or whether the amount and phone number match. The safer workflow begins with a uniquely numbered invoice and ends with a confirmed payment attached to that invoice.
Confirm the customer, item or service, amount, delivery terms and payment deadline in the conversation. Create the invoice while that context is fresh. Send a secure payment link or trigger STK checkout, then monitor the payment attempt instead of asking the customer to send evidence manually.
Store the M-Pesa reference, amount, payer phone, payment time and matched invoice. Issue a receipt and update the customer statement. If payment should trigger delivery, create or assign the job immediately so paid work does not disappear into the chat history.
Review failed, cancelled and expired attempts separately from confirmed payments. Reconcile the payment account daily, investigate unmatched transactions, and avoid marking an invoice paid from a screenshot alone.
Practical checklist
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