Inventory & sales · East Africa

Know what's on the shelf.
And who moved it.

Enter your items once. Saliyo keeps the count, shows what you actually earned, and flags the gap the day it appears. With a name against it.

End-of-day count
ItemShould beCountedDifference
matches
Everything else on the count matched.
From UGX 30,000 a month No contract Any tablet or phone
salio noun, Swahili

Balance. What is left. The number you check on your phone before you spend. We named the software after it because that is the only number a shopkeeper really needs, and almost nobody has it.

A book tells you what you wrote down.
It cannot tell you what is true.

Stock

You find out a size is finished when a customer asks for it.

Counts down with every sale, and tells you before you run out.

Money

The till is short and nobody can say when it happened.

The day closes against what should be there, and the difference is named.

Profit

You know what came in. You are guessing at what you made.

Real profit per item, worked out from what you actually paid.

Loss

Things go missing. You suspect. You never quite know.

Every change carries a name and a time, and cannot be deleted.

What it does

Four things, done properly.

Not forty features you will never open. These are the questions shop owners actually ask, in the words they ask them in.

“A register for my items”

Everything you stock

By size, colour, pack or batch: whatever your trade uses. What you paid, what you sell it for, how many are left. Load hundreds at once from a spreadsheet.

“Show balance in stock”

A count that keeps itself

Every sale takes stock down. Every delivery puts it up. Count the shelf whenever you like and the difference is shown in units and in shillings.

“Show the profit”

What you actually made

Worked from your real buying prices, fixed at the moment of sale, so a delivery tomorrow never quietly rewrites last week's profit.

“Track the business growth”

This month against last

What is selling, what is slowing, and what has been sitting in your store for ninety days doing nothing but holding your money.

If you buy things and sell things, it fits.

The counting is the same everywhere. What changes is how your trade describes an item. Saliyo bends to that rather than the other way round.

General retail & minimart

Fast-moving lines, many small sales. Reorder levels stop you running dry on the things people come in for.

Home, interiors & bedding

One design in four sizes and six colours is 24 separate lines. Saliyo treats each as its own item, and shows which colours never move.

Pharmacy & medical

Many small lines and staff you have to account for. Every sale and every stock change carries a name and a time. Batch numbers and expiry dates are not built yet — see below.

Hardware & building

Cement, iron sheets and timber, sold by piece or by bundle. High value per unit, so a small shortage is real money.

Agro-vet & farm inputs

Demand that comes in seasons. See what sold last season, and what has sat in the store since, before you commit to this one.

Electronics & phone shops

High theft risk and thin margins. Every movement has a name against it, and cashiers never see your buying price. Serial numbers are not built yet — see below.

Boutique & fashion

Size and colour variants, and a dead-stock report that tells you when to mark something down.

Wholesale & distribution

Sell by the carton or by the piece: each is its own item, at its own price and its own count. Load hundreds of them from a spreadsheet.

Bar, restaurant & liquor

Where cash and stock both walk. Daily till reconciliation against what was actually sold.

Stationery & bookshop

Hundreds of low-value lines. Load them all from a spreadsheet in one go.

Auto parts

Deep catalogues where finding the part is the job. Search by any word in the name, or scan the code — a barcode scanner types straight into the till.

Salon, cosmetics & beauty

Retail stock alongside services, with staff accounts so you know who sold what.

Your cashier never sees what you paid.

Most systems show everyone everything and call it simple. Saliyo gives each person their own login and shows them only their own work. Prices, margins and profit stay with you.

YouOwner
  • What every item cost you, and the margin on it
  • Profit, growth and stock value
  • Every price change, discount, void and adjustment, with the name on it
  • An alert on your phone when something is off, wherever you are
Your cashierSells only
  • The selling screen, and the selling price
  • What is left on the shelf
  • What you paid, or the profit on anything
  • Cancelling a sale or changing a price without your approval

We do not sell you a machine.

Saliyo runs in a browser, so it works with equipment you can buy in any town and repair in any town. Here is exactly what to get. We set it all up when we come.

Something with a screenNeeded

A phone, a tablet or a laptop — whichever you already have, running Chrome. Our first shop serves customers on a phone and keeps a laptop on the counter for printing. A tablet, 10 inches or bigger with 3 GB of RAM, is the comfortable middle. Nothing installs: Saliyo opens in the browser and takes none of your storage.

Nothing, if you have a phone

The phone in your pocketNeeded

You already own it. The whole shop works on it — selling, stock, the day’s takings — and so does the owner view, so you can check on the shop from anywhere without being in it.

You have one

Bluetooth receipt printerAndroid or laptop

A 58 mm thermal printer prints a Saliyo receipt from an Android phone or tablet in Chrome, and from a Windows laptop over the ordinary printer driver — we did both in a real shop before writing this, on the shopkeeper’s own phone and his own printer. An iPhone cannot reach one at all, and we will not pretend otherwise: Apple allows no browser to do it, so an iPhone sends the receipt to the device at the counter that has the printer. Every sale also makes a receipt you can show on screen or send on WhatsApp. Tell us which machine you will sell on before you buy one.

UGX 120,000 – 250,000

Barcode scannerOptional

A Bluetooth scanner in keyboard mode: no drivers, no setup. Worth it above roughly 300 lines, or if your goods already carry barcodes. Not worth it for textiles or produce.

UGX 150,000 – 280,000

Cash drawerNot ready yet

A drawer opens on a pulse from the receipt printer, and Saliyo does not send that pulse yet even where the printer works. Useful in a busy shop with more than one cashier; unnecessary if you keep one tin — which is most shops.

Wait for the printer

A shop can run on Saliyo with nothing but the phone already in your pocket — that is not a starter setup, it is how our first shop actually runs. A scanner is worth buying when volume makes it worth the money, and you buy it yourself, locally, so it stays yours. Where something is unfinished the card says so: we would rather tell you than sell you a drawer that sits in a box.

What it costs

Start small. Move up when you need to.

No contract, no notice period. Stop whenever you like. Moving up costs you only the difference.

You can open a shop online in any of these today. In Uganda and Rwanda you start on a free trial; everywhere else you pay for your first month or year as you open it, by mobile money, and there is no setting-up fee. Would you rather we came and did it with you? Talk to us.
Small
One shop, up to five people.
UGX 30,000/ month
or 300,000 a year (saves 60,000)
Setting up, once: 150,000
  • Up to 500 products
  • Your items, by size and colour
  • Stock that counts itself
  • Selling screen
  • Real profit
Start with Small
Most shops start here
Growing
When you have staff, and want to know who did what.
UGX 40,000/ month
or 420,000 a year (saves 60,000)
Setting up, once: 250,000
  • Up to 1,000 products
  • Everything in Small
  • Staff logins and permissions
  • Stock counts that name who handled it
  • Daily cash check
  • Alerts to your phone
Start with Growing
Established
A busy shop with a full team — and, when it is ready, a second place.
UGX 65,000/ month
or 720,000 a year (saves 60,000)
Setting up, once: 350,000
  • As many products as you like
  • Everything in Growing
  • As many staff as you need
  • Priority support, and we pick up the phone
  • Not ready yetBoth places on one screen, and stock moved between them on the record
Start with Established

Setting up is not a licence fee. Someone comes to your shop, counts your stock with you, loads your items and buying prices, and trains each of your people face to face. Support, updates and backups are included for as long as you stay. Arrange that first if you would rather not start on your own.

The things people ask before they buy.

Why do I pay every month instead of buying it once?

Because it is not a program sitting on your computer. Your records live online, get backed up every night, and are reachable from your phone wherever you are, and that costs money every day of the year, whether you are using it or not.

There is a second reason, and it is the one that matters to you. If somebody sells you software once, they are finished with you the moment you have paid. Paying monthly means we only keep being paid while it keeps working for you. That makes your problem our problem.

A vendor quoted me a one-time fee. Is that not cheaper?

Ask them what they charge to come and update it, and what happens when the computer it is installed on dies. Most "one-time" quotes are a floor, not a total: you pay again every visit, and nobody can tell you what three years will cost.

With Saliyo the number is fixed before you start. Updates, support and backups are included for as long as you stay.

What happens if I stop paying?

It stops at the end of the period you have paid for. No notice period, no cancellation fee, nobody arguing with you.

Before you go we send you everything (items, sales, stock history, the lot) in a file you can open. Your records are yours. You will never be held hostage by your own data.

What does the setup fee actually cover?

Someone travels to your shop and spends three days there. Day one we count your entire stock with you and load it, with your buying prices. Day two we train each of your people face to face and you go live. Day three we stay while you actually trade on it and fix whatever comes up.

It is not a licence fee. It is the work that makes the difference between software you own and software you use.

Can I change plan later?

Any time. Moving up costs you only the difference for the rest of the period. Moving down takes effect when your current period ends.

Most shops start on Small and move to Growing when they take on staff.

What if I already have more products than my plan holds?

You keep every one of them. We never take a product away from a shop that already has it, and we never make you delete something to get back under a number. Everything you have stays on the selling screen, in your reports and in your stock.

What the number decides is the next product. If you are at the top of your plan, adding a new one asks you to move up first. Tell us and we move you the same day.

Do you charge per user?

No. Small covers up to five people, you included, Growing covers your whole team, Established is unlimited. Adding a cashier never changes your bill.

How do I pay?

Mobile money or bank transfer, in your own currency: Uganda shillings in Uganda, Rwandan francs in Rwanda. Monthly or once a year, whichever suits how you handle money.

Paying for the year saves you two months.

Is there a free trial?

Yes — 15 days, no card. Open your own shop from any “Get started” button and it is yours straight away; we only ask for your phone number and an email address. If you want longer, ask us.

There is also a live demo you can open right now with no form and no account at all: a real shop, already loaded. Click around as much as you like.

Beyond that, your first two months are free while we tune it around your shop. You start paying once it is genuinely working.

Do I have to buy a machine from you?

No, and we would rather you did not. We do not sell hardware. We tell you exactly what to buy, you buy it locally, and you own it outright, so when something breaks you replace one piece near home instead of shipping a whole terminal back to a vendor.

What if my internet is bad?

Recording a sale needs a connection today; WiFi or mobile data at the counter is enough. If it drops you write sales down and enter them after, the same as you do now.

Working fully offline is what we are building next. We will not pretend it is ready before it ships.

Does it handle URA or RRA tax receipts?

Not yet. In Uganda, fiscal receipting runs through URA's EFRIS and applies mainly once your turnover passes UGX 250 million a year; below that it is not your concern. In Rwanda it requires RRA certification we do not yet hold, so we will not sell it there until we do.

Ask your accountant where you stand. When you cross the line, we add it.

Who can see my numbers?

You, and whoever you give a login to. Your cashiers cannot see what you paid or what you earn: not on any screen, not in any report, not in any export.

We can reach the system to fix something, because we run it. We will not look at your business otherwise and we will never share your figures with anyone.

Something not answered here? Ask on WhatsApp and you will get a person, not a form.

What it does not do.

You would find out eventually. Better that you hear it now and decide with the whole picture.

It does not print URA tax receipts

Fiscal receipting in Uganda runs through URA's EFRIS, which applies mainly once your turnover passes UGX 250 million a year. Below that it is not your concern. When you cross it, we add it.

It needs internet to record a sale

WiFi or mobile data at the counter is enough. If the connection drops you write sales down and enter them after. Working fully offline is what we are building next, and we will not pretend otherwise until it ships.

Paper receipts work from Android and from a laptop — an iPhone needs the counter

A 58 mm Bluetooth printer prints a Saliyo receipt from an Android phone or tablet in Chrome, and from a Windows laptop over the ordinary printer driver — we did both in a real shop, on the shopkeeper’s own phone and his own printer, before writing this. An iPhone cannot reach a Bluetooth printer at all: Apple allows no browser to do it, so the iPhone sends the receipt to whichever device at the counter has the printer, and that one prints it. Every sale also makes a receipt you can show on the screen or send on WhatsApp. Tell us which machine you will be selling on before you buy a printer.

It does not track batch numbers, expiry dates or serial numbers

An item is an item: what it is, what it cost, how many are left. There is no per-batch or per-serial record, so a pharmacy cannot work first-expiry-first-out on it and a phone shop cannot trace a handset by its IMEI. If your trade needs that, say so — it is a decision about what we build next, not a secret.

It is not a device

You supply the tablet or phone. Nothing is installed and nothing is stored on it. Saliyo opens in the browser, so it takes none of your space.

Try it before you decide

Open the demo. It is a real shop, already loaded.

Sign in as the owner and look around. Then sign in as the cashier and see how little they can see. Nothing to install, nothing to fill in.