“I’ll pay you Friday.” Here’s how to make sure they do.

Why credit is worth doing right

Credit is how a lot of food businesses in Ghana keep their regulars: the office that eats every day and pays at month’s end, the mechanic who settles on Friday, the neighbour who’s short this week. Refusing all credit loses you those customers. Giving it loosely loses you the money.

The difference is almost never who you give it to. It’s how well it’s written down.

Who gets credit

• People you can find. Regulars who work or live nearby, whose name and number you know.
• People who’ve paid before. Start small with anybody new. Let the limit grow as they pay on time.
• Not the drawer. Credit is food on a tab, not cash lent from the drawer. Lending cash is a different thing, and it’s the one that ends friendships.

Set a limit before you start

Decide how much each person can owe at once, before the first plate, not after they’re already at ₵300. A small limit for someone new, a bigger one for someone who’s paid on time for months. When they reach it, the next plate waits until they’ve paid something. It’s much easier to say “we agreed ₵150” than to invent a rule on the spot.

Record every plate

A credit record needs four things for every item: the date, the name, what they took and the price. Not “Kofi ₵120”: a line for each time, so the total can be checked.

• Keep a separate book for credit, not the daily sales page. The daily page gets turned over; the credit book has to last.
• Move it every night. If a credit sale is written on the day’s page, copy it to the credit book at closing. The daily sales record has an “owes” column for exactly this.
• Add it up under each name, and keep a running total people can see.

With a till, this happens as you sell. In Tabworthy, you add the customer to the sale and set it aside instead of taking the money. It stays open under their name, every item at the price it was that day, and their page shows what they owe right now across everything open. Customers and credit shows how.

Agree the day

“Friday” is a date. “When I get paid” isn’t. Agree the day when you give the credit, and write it down next to their name.

Collecting without losing the customer

• Ask on the day you agreed, privately, not across a full counter.
• Show the list, not a number from memory. People argue with memories. They don’t argue with a list of what they ate and when.
• Let them pay part if that’s what they have, and write down what’s left.
• Stop adding when they’re late, kindly and clearly. “Let’s settle last week first.”

Taking the payment by MoMo prompt means there’s no “I’ve sent it” to chase afterwards; the money arrives or it doesn’t.

When someone doesn’t pay

It happens. Decide in advance how long you’ll wait before you stop giving them credit altogether, and stick to it. Keep the record either way: a debt that’s written down can still be settled next year. One that isn’t is gone.

The numbers to watch

Once a week, add up everything owed to you. If that number keeps growing, you’re funding your customers’ month with your stock money. That’s a decision you might make on purpose, for a while, for people you trust. It shouldn’t be one that just happens.