Paybill vs Till Number: Which Is Better for Collecting Rent?

Both Paybill and Till (Buy Goods) numbers let tenants pay you through M-Pesa without using your personal line. But they're built for different jobs, and for rent the difference matters.

The key difference: the account number

When a customer pays a Paybill, M-Pesa asks for a business number and an account number. When they pay a Till, they only enter the till number and amount.

For a shop, that's perfect — nobody needs to say which customer they are. For rent, it's a problem. If ten tenants pay the same Till, you only see ten amounts and ten names. You then have to work out which name belongs to which house, and what to do when someone's brother or employer pays instead.

Side by side

• Identifies the unit: Paybill — yes, via the account number. Till — no.
• Works when someone else pays: Paybill — yes, the account number still points to the house. Till — hard to trace.
• Automatic reconciliation: Paybill — straightforward, because each payment carries a reference. Till — needs guesswork on names and amounts.
• Tenant experience: both are familiar to Kenyan tenants and work from any phone.

When a Till can still work

If you have one or two tenants who always pay from their own line, a Till is manageable. You'll recognise the names. Once you're past a handful of units — or you manage property for other landlords — the lack of an account number becomes the thing you spend most of your time fixing.

Our recommendation

For rent, use a Paybill and give every unit its own account number, such as KAR-A1. It costs you nothing in tenant convenience, and it turns every payment into a self-describing record that software can match automatically.

Read our step-by-step guide: How to collect rent with M-Pesa Paybill.