AxisTrade and the exercise book
The book has run Ghanaian shops for a long time and it has never once refused to open. Here is what it still does better than any app, the five things it cannot do, and what an app asks from you in return.
The thing AxisTrade is really measured against is not another app. It is the exercise book on the counter, the debt book underneath it, and the pocket calculator beside them. That is the system that built the shop, and an honest comparison has to begin by saying so.
This page uses one shop throughout so the figures stay comparable: Adjoa's Provisions, a provision store with a branch at Madina and a second at Kaneshie, one salesperson called Kwame, a regular called Akosua Mensah, and a supplier called Melcom Distribution.
What the book does better
It never fails to open. No charge, no signal, no signing in, no update that moves the buttons overnight. A phone can be flat at four o'clock on a Friday. A book cannot.
Everyone can read it. Your sister minding the shop for an hour reads it without being taught anything. So does the customer leaning over the counter, and that shared reading is part of why the book settles arguments at all: both people are looking at the same line.
It costs nothing to run. No monthly figure, no data bundle, nothing to renew.
It is quick. One line per sale, written while you are still counting change. Any app that is slower than that at the counter has already lost, which is why AxisTrade puts the whole sale on one screen and never changes the page under a queue.
Nothing further down this page is an argument against the book. The book is the reason the shop is still standing.
The five things the book cannot do
1. It does not add itself up
Madina did 47 sales today, coming to GH₵ 3,240.50. The book holds all 47 lines. It has never once held that total. To get it, somebody works down the column on a pocket calculator, gets a figure, does not quite believe it, and does it again. Then that figure is compared to the notes in the bowl, and if the two disagree there is no way to tell whether the shop is short or the adding was.
The daily close is one figure, on every plan, split into cash, MoMo and credit, with returns and money out already taken off. The GH₵ 150.00 tricycle from Makola market comes off it, so it stops being a cost that only lives in your head.
2. It cannot be in two branches at once
Madina's book is at Madina. If Kaneshie did 12 sales and GH₵ 840.00 today, the only way to know before you lock up is to telephone somebody and trust the answer. That is not a failure of trust; it is a failure of paper. A book is a single object and it can only be in one place.
In AxisTrade each branch keeps its own products, prices, stock and daily close, and the owner sees both from one phone. Running more than one branch is part of Growth.
3. It cannot tell you what a thing cost you at the moment you sell it
Melcom Distribution delivered 20 tins of Milo 400g at GH₵ 25.50 each, GH₵ 510.00 in all. You paid GH₵ 300.00 by MoMo and still owe GH₵ 210.00. There were already 10 tins on the shelf that had cost you GH₵ 24.00. So from that delivery onwards, a tin on that shelf costs you GH₵ 25.00 on average. Not GH₵ 24.00, not GH₵ 25.50.
No book does that blend, and certainly not in the middle of a sale with somebody waiting. So the book can tell you what came in. It can never tell you what you made. AxisTrade works the cost out on every restock and pins it to each sale as it happens: sell that tin at GH₵ 38.50 and the profit on the line is GH₵ 13.50, not a guess. That is against the blended GH₵ 25.00, so it reads better than it would against the new carton alone. A week of that adds up to a figure like GH₵ 1,845.00 gross, which is exactly the number the book has never been able to produce. Profit by product is part of Growth.
4. It cannot be searched by a receipt number
Akosua Mensah says she already paid you GH₵ 50.00. In the book, you read backwards through pages of handwriting while she stands there, and whatever you find, she can still say the writing is wrong.
With a receipt on her phone reading MAD-D02-000318, you type the number and the sale comes up: the lines, the prices, how it was paid. Her page shows GH₵ 100.00 owed and GH₵ 60.00 still pending confirmation as two separate lines, never added into one flattering figure, against a limit of GH₵ 200.00. The credit book is part of Shop. There is a whole guide on keeping the credit book straight, with or without an app.
5. If it is lost or wet, it is gone
This is the one nobody plans for. A book left in a tro-tro, a leaking roof in July, a fire two shops down. The only defence paper has is a second book copied out by hand, and nobody keeps a second book.
A phone can be lost too, and it is worth being exact about what that costs. Everything already backed up stays with the shop and comes back on a new phone once you sign in with your number and passcode. Only the records still waiting on that particular phone are at risk, which is why every screen tells you how many are still waiting.
Ten questions, side by side
These are the questions a shop owner actually asks, and where each one gets answered.
| The question | The exercise book | AxisTrade |
|---|---|---|
| What did we take today? | Add the column by hand, then add it again because the first answer looked wrong. | One figure at the daily close, split into cash, MoMo and credit, with returns and money out taken off. On every plan. |
| Is the cash in my hand right? | You compare it to a number you just worked out yourself, on the same evening you are tired. | The close shows the cash you should be holding, worked out on the server, not on the phone. |
| What does Akosua owe me? | Read backwards through the debt book and hope every repayment was written down. | Her balance and anything still pending confirmation, shown as two separate lines. Part of Shop. |
| Did Kwame write down every sale? | You were not there. The book only holds what somebody chose to write. | Every sale carries the phone and the person who recorded it, and nobody can rewrite one afterwards. |
| What did that tin cost me? | The supplier's price is in a different book, or on a scrap of paper, or in your head. | Cost is blended on every restock, and the profit on a line is worked out from the cost at the moment of that sale. |
| Where is the sale for receipt MAD-D02-000318? | There are no receipt numbers, so there is nothing to look up. | Type the number into sales history and the sale comes up, with its lines and how it was paid. |
| What sold at Kaneshie today? | Telephone somebody and trust what you are told. | Both branches on your own phone, each with its own products, prices and stock. More than one branch is part of Growth. |
| What is actually on the shelf? | Walk over and count, then remember the number until you can write it somewhere. | The count moves down as you sell and up as you restock, and flags what is low or needs a recount. |
| What do I still owe Melcom? | An IOU on the delivery note, if the delivery note survived. | GH₵ 300.00 paid, GH₵ 210.00 still owed, held against the supplier and not against your memory. Part of Shop. |
| Can I prove it? | Your handwriting against the customer's memory. | Nothing is edited or removed. A correction is a new entry beside the old one, so the record can be checked line by line. |
What an app asks from you
A comparison that only flatters us is an advertisement, and nobody believes one. Here is the other side, plainly.
The phone has to be charged. On a day when the light goes off and your phone is at four per cent, the book wins outright, and pretending otherwise would be silly. It is worth keeping a power bank in the shop the way you keep a torch.
You set a passcode, and you can forget it. Signing up takes your number, an email address and an 8-digit passcode. There is no code sent by SMS to wait for, and a forgotten passcode is reset with a code emailed to you. That is a two-minute problem, but it is a problem the book does not have, and the email address matters on the day you need it.
Your staff need showing once. Kwame will be selling faster than he wrote after about a day. The first hour is still an hour, and it is your hour. Start him on cash sales only and add the rest in the second week.
The first evening is typing. Products in, then walk the shelf and count. There is no way around this and no one else can do it for you, because only you know what a carton of your stock really costs. On Start that is 20 products, which most small shops finish in one sitting.
You cannot scratch anything out. Sales, stock movements and both money books only ever get added to. A correction is a new entry beside the old one, so a mistake stays visible with its fix next to it. Some people find that uncomfortable at first. It is the same property that makes the record impossible to argue with later, so we are not going to remove it.
It never sends anything for you. A payment reminder is written for you and opens in WhatsApp with your shop's name on it. You read it, and you press send. AxisTrade does not chase anybody, does not message your customers on a schedule, and does not collect money.
It records money, it never touches it. Cash, MoMo and credit are written down the same way the book writes them down. AxisTrade does not process the payment, hold your money or lend you any, and it is not accounting, tax or payroll software.
Who should not switch yet
- You sell by weight or by half-measures. If most of what you sell is scooped, poured or weighed, and "half a tin" is a normal sale, AxisTrade cannot record it: quantities are whole units only.
- You are VAT-registered and need tax on the receipt. Receipts carry lines, totals and how it was paid. There are no tax lines, and AxisTrade does not do your filing.
- You need a printer, a scanner or a cash drawer. Receipts are shared from the phone, there is no barcode scanning, and no hardware is supported. If a paper roll is part of how your customers expect to be served, keep it.
- You run a supermarket counter. AxisTrade is built for a shop with an owner and up to a few salespeople, where prices are haggled and MoMo is normal. It is not built for a supermarket.
- You want one product list shared across branches. Each branch is kept separate on purpose, so Madina can price and stock differently from Kaneshie. If you need one list everywhere, this will annoy you.
- You sell outside Ghana or in another currency. Everything is in Ghana Cedis and every day is an Accra day.
If you are on that list, keep the book. It is still the better system for you today, and we would rather say so than sell you something that will sit unused on your phone.
A fair way to decide
Do not throw the book away on day one. Run both for one week. Write every sale in the book as you always have, record it in the app as well, and each evening compare your added-up figure to the daily close. You will find out two things: whether the app is quicker than your pen at the counter, and whether the totals agree.
At the end of that week there is only one question worth asking, and it is the one we hold ourselves to: would you go back to the book? If the answer is yes, the app has not earned the shop and you have lost nothing but a week of writing twice.
Read next
- Running a shop without the exercise book · what to move first, and in what order.
- What your profit actually is · why takings and profit are two different figures.
- Selling when the network is down · the thing paper has always been good at.
- Counting stock without fooling yourself · how to count a shelf so the number means something.
- AxisTrade for provision stores · the shop this page has been describing throughout.
- Everything the shop runs on · try the sell screen · what each plan costs.
Questions people ask
Is AxisTrade trying to replace my exercise book?
Yes, and it has to earn that. The book is the trusted system, and it is trusted for good reasons: it always opens, it needs no charge and no network, and anybody in the shop can read it. AxisTrade only makes sense if it keeps those properties and adds the answers the book could never give: today's total, your real profit, and a record nobody can argue with.
Can I keep writing in the book while I try the app?
Many shops do, for the first week. Record every sale in both, then compare the book's figure to the daily close each evening. The week is over when you stop opening the book because the app already told you.
Does AxisTrade read what is already in my book?
No. It cannot read handwriting and it does not try. You start from today: type your products in, count what is on the shelf, and enter each regular's balance as it stands now. On Start that is 20 products, which is an evening's work for a small shop.
Does it still work when the network is down, the way the book does?
Yes. Selling, receipts, returns, recording money out and the daily close all work with no network. A sale is saved on the phone straight away and backs up on its own once you are back online.
