How a payout run works
- 1
Register your cooperative and farmers
Create your organization, then import farmers from a spreadsheet or the national registry. Each farmer is matched to a phone number for M-Pesa.
- 2
Record deliveries or lots
Buying stations log each delivery by weight and grade from a phone, or you track auction lots from sale to bank release in the Lot Tracker.
- 3
Build a payout run
Shares are worked out from weight and price, with every levy and deduction named. Anything that doesn't add up is held with a reason.
- 4
Approve it: by a second person
Whoever builds the run can't approve it. The approver sees the full quote, fees included, before money moves.
- 5
Farmers get paid and receipted
Each farmer is paid to M-Pesa or their AutoPayKe wallet, and gets an SMS with their kilos, price, deductions and net amount, plus a link to check it.
Controls your board will ask about
- Maker-checker: the person who builds a run can never approve it.
- Holds with reasons: voided deliveries, mismatched details and screening hits stop that one payment until someone clears it.
- No double payments: retries after a timeout can't pay the same farmer twice.
- Weekly report: days to credit, late-payment share, farmer queries per 100 lots and receipt open rate, with a CSV.
Frequently asked questions
How do cooperatives pay farmers via M-Pesa in bulk?
With AutoPayKe, a cooperative builds a payout run from recorded deliveries or lot shares, a second person approves it against a locked quote, and each farmer is paid to their M-Pesa number with an SMS receipt. One farmer failing never holds up the others.
What is the 5-day payment rule for coffee farmers?
Farmers must be paid within five days of their lot selling at auction. The AutoPayKe Lot Tracker starts a clock for every lot at the sale date and shows what is on time, at risk and overdue.
Do farmers need a smartphone?
No. Receipts arrive by plain SMS in English or Swahili. Farmers can reply to keep the money in their wallet or send it to M-Pesa, or use the USSD menu.
Can the bank update payment status automatically?
Yes. A bank or broker can push each payment step (buyer paid, warrant issued, bank released, farmers paid) to the Lot Tracker through a status feed with its own key. The feed only records steps. It never moves money.
Can we only track payments without paying through AutoPayKe?
Yes. A records-only setting switches payout runs off, so you can use the Lot Tracker, receipts and weekly report while paying farmers through your existing bank.