Get paid by M-Pesa in the chat

Customers pay into your own paybill or till. The money goes straight to your M-Pesa account and never passes through Sema. Connecting is done once, by an owner or admin, in Settings → Payments.

1. On Safaricom’s developer portal, developer.safaricom.co.ke, create an app for Lipa na M-Pesa Online and take it live on your paybill or till. Safaricom then gives you a consumer key, a consumer secret and a passkey.
2. In Sema, choose Paybill or till. For a paybill, enter the paybill number; for a till, the till number and its store number.
3. Paste in the consumer key, consumer secret and passkey, choose Live, and press Connect and check. Sema asks Safaricom to confirm the details there and then, and says Safaricom accepted it, or what is wrong.

In any conversation, anyone who replies to customers can ask for a payment:

1. Press Ask for payment by M-Pesa.
2. Enter the Amount (KES), in whole shillings up to KES 250,000, and what it is For, in up to 12 characters (an order number works well: “Order 1042”).
3. Check the M-Pesa number. It starts as the number they are chatting from; change it if someone else is paying.
4. Press Send M-Pesa prompt. The customer’s phone shows the M-Pesa request, in the name your paybill or till is registered under; they enter their PIN.

The request shows in the conversation, and moves through:

• Sending the prompt, then Waiting for their PIN;
• Paid, with the M-Pesa receipt, marked in gold in the conversation and on its row in the list;
• or Not paid (a wrong PIN, not enough in M-Pesa, the prompt timed out) or Cancelled by the customer. Ask again if they want to retry.

Sema marks a payment paid only once M-Pesa itself confirms it, not on the customer’s word, and not on a message that merely looks like a receipt.

Sema takes 0.5% of each payment that goes through (at least KES 2, at most KES 50) from your credit. Nothing on a payment that fails or is cancelled. Your credit must cover the fee before the prompt can be sent.

Safaricom’s own charges on your paybill or till are between you and Safaricom, as they are today.

• In the conversation, and on the customer’s card under Paid in the chat.
• On Overview, the week’s review leads with the money collected.
• On the Credit page, each fee, as M-Pesa payment collected, in the recent activity and on the usage statement.
• For your own systems, a payment.received webhook with the amount, receipt, phone and reference. See webhooks.