If you collect rent via M-Pesa, you have three realistic options: a Paybill number, a Lipa na M-Pesa Till, or Pochi la Biashara. Each works differently, costs different amounts to set up, and suits different types of landlords. Choosing the wrong one creates friction every month — either for you or for your tenants.
Here is how they compare.
How Each Method Works
**Paybill** is a business payment channel. When a tenant pays via Paybill, they go to M-Pesa > Lipa na M-Pesa > Pay Bill, enter your Paybill number, then enter an account number (typically their unit number or name), and the amount. Payments land in an M-Pesa business wallet, from which you withdraw to your bank or mobile number. The account number field is the key advantage — it lets you immediately identify which tenant a payment came from.
**Lipa na M-Pesa Till** is the same menu path but designed for retail point-of-sale. Till payments do not have an account number field — the tenant just enters the Till number and the amount. This makes identification harder when multiple tenants pay the same amount. Some landlords use it, but the missing account reference is a genuine tracking problem.
**Pochi la Biashara** is the simplest option. It attaches to your existing personal M-Pesa line — there is no separate account and no registration fee. Tenants pay through M-Pesa > Lipa na M-Pesa > Pay Business (Pochi), select your number, and send. Payments are visible separately from your personal Send Money transactions. It is fast to set up and costs nothing, but it has a monthly transaction limit and no account number field.
Setup Requirements and Fees
**Paybill** requires a formal registration process with Safaricom. You apply through a licensed aggregator or directly through Safaricom's business portal. You will typically need a business registration document (or a PIN certificate for sole proprietors), an ID, and a bank account. The registration fee varies but is generally in the range of KES 5,000–20,000 depending on the aggregator. Processing takes one to three weeks.
**Lipa na M-Pesa Till** registration follows a similar process — same documents, similar timelines. Registration costs vary by aggregator. The main difference from Paybill is the payment flow for the customer, not the setup.
**Pochi la Biashara** requires no registration and has no setup fee. You activate it directly from your M-Pesa menu in a few minutes. There is a monthly transaction limit (currently KES 300,000 per month), and each incoming transaction has a small processing fee deducted at source.
Who Each Method Suits
**Pochi la Biashara** is the right starting point for landlords with fewer than 10 units who want to be up and running the same day. Zero cost, zero paperwork, immediate activation. The main limitation is the lack of an account reference field — you will need another way to identify which tenant paid (most tenants will send a message with their confirmation code or unit name). It also does not scale well beyond roughly 15–20 tenants before the monthly limit becomes a constraint.
**Paybill** is the right long-term choice for landlords with 10 or more units, or anyone building a more formal rental business. The account number field is a significant operational advantage — every payment arrives with a tenant identifier attached, which eliminates most identification guesswork. The upfront cost and registration time are the barrier, but for a medium or large portfolio they are worth absorbing.
**Till** is genuinely the weakest option for rent collection specifically. Without an account reference field, it provides the cost of Paybill without the main tracking benefit. Most landlords who use Till do so because they already had one for another business purpose. If you are starting fresh, Pochi or Paybill is a better fit.
How Payments Appear and Are Tracked
With Paybill, your M-Pesa business statement shows: date, time, sender name, sender number, account number (the tenant-supplied reference), and amount. If you instruct all tenants to use their unit number as the account reference, reconciliation is straightforward — you search by account number and match each payment to a tenant.
With Pochi, your statement shows the sender name, sender number, and amount — but no account reference. You match payments to tenants by phone number or by cross-referencing the confirmation codes tenants send you. This works, but it requires an extra step.
With Till, same situation as Pochi — no account reference, matching by sender information only.
KodiBase works with all three methods. Tenants submit their M-Pesa confirmation codes through their payment portal, and the system creates a credit entry regardless of which collection method you use. For Paybill users, the account reference also appears in the record, which speeds up verification.
Which to Choose
For landlords with 1–9 units: start with Pochi la Biashara. It costs nothing, works immediately, and handles the volume comfortably. Set up a simple convention — ask every tenant to send you a WhatsApp message with their confirmation code after paying. That is your tracking system.
For landlords with 10 or more units, or anyone planning to scale: register a Paybill number. Accept the upfront cost and two-week wait. The operational benefit of having a tenant-supplied account reference on every payment pays for itself within a few months of not having to manually match 20 payments to 20 tenants.
For anyone already using a Till for another reason: it will work for rent collection, but add a manual step to require tenants to include a reference (WhatsApp message, confirmation code) so you can identify payments. Without that, month-end reconciliation becomes unnecessarily tedious.