Start selling airtime at an existing shop

Start at one till. Before taking the first payment, make sure the cashier can sell the right airtime, find the supplier’s result and hand over a receipt. Put the shop manager in charge of float and unresolved sales. If the till goes quiet after a sale, staff need to know where to check it before trying again.

Launch checklist

Area Ready check
Supplier Account and current product list confirmed
Cashier Training and permitted actions recorded
Float Approved opening balance and replenishment owner
Receipt Customer receives useful sale evidence
Close Till totals matched to supplier records

By Freepaid · Published

Confirm the operating model

Decide what you intend to sell and how the customer receives it. Your chosen method may involve direct recharge to a specified number, a PIN or another documented fulfilment route. Confirm current availability and commercial terms with the supplier. Do not promise a network, value or delivery method until it is supported for your account.

Assign the shop manager as owner of account setup, staff permissions, float limits and exception review. Cashiers should only have the permissions required for their shift. Decide whether one manager approves funding and who covers that task when the manager is away.

Prepare the counter

Write a short cashier procedure that covers confirming value and recipient, submitting once, checking the outcome, issuing a receipt and recording the supplier reference. Include a stop instruction for unclear status: check the original reference and contact the approved support route instead of repeating the order. Post the instruction where staff can use it without exposing access details.

Say you fund the supplier account with R2,000. Record that as float. If confirmed debits come to R780, you’d expect R1,220 left before fees, pending orders or adjustments. Compare that figure with the supplier’s closing balance.

Train and test the process

Demonstrate the sale with a controlled case that has been approved for the account. Ask the cashier to explain the receipt and status evidence. Practise a successful result, an incorrect entry caught before submission, and an unclear result after submission. Keep the practice data fictional unless a test transaction has been authorised.

Teach staff to protect customer information, avoid writing down PINs or credentials in open areas, and never share individual logins. Keep a shift handover note for unresolved items with limited necessary information and a named next owner.

Rehearse a sale and a shift handover

Use one sample voucher sale and one direct recharge if both are available on your account. Ask the cashier to identify which product the customer chose and what the receipt proves. Then hand the till to a second operator with one order still awaiting a result. The incoming cashier should find the original reference and the support owner without re-entering the sale. Freepaid's point-of-sale page describes airtime on demand and online transaction reporting. Confirm the receipt and report available for your setup before going live. Freepaid point-of-sale airtime

Close and review each day

At close, compare till receipts and cash or card totals with completed supplier transactions. Separately list funding, pending orders, reversals and support cases. Do not classify a pending order as either completed sale or loss until it has been checked. Have a manager review differences and sign off the daily record.

Start with one counter or outlet and review exceptions daily during the initial period. Record cashier, time, value, product, internal receipt reference, supplier reference and result. Keep access personal, restrict approval rights and count cash separately from electronic float. For business counter context, see Freepaid point-of-sale airtime. Confirm the current workflow with the provider.

Run the first week at one counter

Limit the opening catalogue to the products staff have practised. Show the product and value to the customer and ask the operator to confirm the requested method. If the product is a direct recharge, verify the number before clicking the button that places the order. If a PIN is issued, use the receipt and instructions supplied for the product. The shop manager should decide whether any PIN stock can be reissued and who is authorised to do it.

At the start of the shift, record the operator, opening balance and previous unresolved items. At the end, capture the last receipt reference, the supplier report and actual takings. Include both confirmed sales and failures in the training review. A shift with no sales can still reveal a setup fault if cashiers could not identify the product or the wallet was not ready.

Suppose the first week contains 55 confirmed sales, three customer requests that the shop could not fulfil and two cases still awaiting a provider status. Keep those counts separate. The confirmed sales help estimate actual demand and cash flow. The unfulfilled requests help identify catalogue gaps. The two unresolved orders need original-reference follow-up before anyone decides whether more value is due. In the next week, check whether the same cause recurs.

What the manager should check before adding a till

Ask the manager and a second staff member to reproduce the daily close from the recorded evidence. They should be able to match a confirmed receipt, identify an unresolved transaction and explain the closing balance. Keep the limit low if this takes repeated intervention. Increase the scale only after the outlet can close without relying on one cashier's memory.

Use the first week to decide whether to increase float, improve the handover or clarify the product list. If staff spend more time resolving issues than expected, identify which one or two problems are most frequent and fix those before adding another till.

More in this series

Browse all Freepaid prepaid business guides