The stokvel book, on everybody's phone

Contributions, arrears and payouts in one place, so the whole group sees the same numbers the treasurer sees.

See what it costs

What it costs the group

One price for the whole group, not per member. The treasurer pays it, and most groups take it out of the joining fee.

Umgalelo

R0 forever

Up to 12 members
Contributions and arrears on one list
One payout rotation, set at the start
A statement to WhatsApp after each meeting

Start free

Isikhwama

R79 a month, per group

Up to 60 members
Two signatories approve every payout
Loans and interest tracked per member
Cycle summary as a PDF for the file
Export to Excel for the AGM

Start this one

Umbutho

R199 a month, per group

No limit on members
Several groups under one committee
Burial society claims and benefits
Bank statement imported and matched off
A person to phone, not a help centre

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The book used to live in one person's bag

Sikhwama exists because of a grocery stokvel in Katlehong that ran for nine years out of a hardcover notebook. Twenty-two women, R350 a month each, and one book that went home in Mama Dlamini's bag every second Sunday. Nobody doubted her for a minute. But when she went to Ladysmith for a funeral in March, not one person in that group could tell you what was in the account. So we built the book again, on a phone. The treasurer still runs the group — she still records who paid and who is short, and she still holds the room. The only difference is that the other twenty-one can open the same page on a Tuesday night without phoning her.

What the treasurer stops doing on a Sunday

Writing the same twenty-two names into a fresh column
Working out the arrears with a calculator and a pencil
Sending the balance to eleven people, one WhatsApp at a time
Counting cash at the table while the whole room watches
Explaining last month's total to whoever missed the meeting
Carrying the book home and hoping nothing happens to it

It works on the phone she already has

Sikhwama runs on any Android from about 2018 onward, and it opens in a browser on anything older. The app is under 9 MB, and the pages you look at most open with the data switched off.

Get it on the phone

What it does

One member list

Everyone in the group, what they have paid this cycle and what they still owe. The treasurer edits it. Everybody else can see it.

Contributions marked off

Tick a payment as it lands and every total moves on its own. No new column, no calculator, no argument about the last figure.

The rotation, set once

Agree the order in January and the app says whose payout is next and what date the money leaves. Swap two names and it re-does the rest.

Two people sign off

A payout is only recorded once the treasurer and one other signatory have approved it, each on their own phone. Nobody can do it alone.

Statements by WhatsApp

After every meeting the group gets one message: the balance, the arrears and who is next. It goes to the whole list at once.

The book cannot be lost

The record is kept on our servers in Johannesburg as well as on the treasurer's phone. If the phone goes, nine years of it do not go with it.

How a round works

The group agrees the amount, the meeting date and the payout order. That goes in once, at the start of the year.
On payday each member pays into the group's account the way they always have — EFT, cash at the meeting, whatever the constitution says.
The treasurer marks each payment off as it comes in. Anyone still short shows in red, on everyone's screen, not only on hers.
Two days before the meeting the app reminds whoever has not paid. One message, from the group, not from her.
At the meeting the payout is approved by the treasurer and one other signatory, each on their own phone, in front of everybody.
The money goes out, the round closes, the summary is filed and the next name on the rotation comes up on its own.

The questions we always get

Do you hold our money?

No. Not for a day, not for an hour. Sikhwama never touches the group's account and there is nowhere in the app to send money from. Contributions go into the bank account the group already has, in the group's own name, and only the signatories on that account can move anything out of it. We keep the record. The bank keeps the money.

What happens when the treasurer changes?

She hands the group over inside the app and it takes about two minutes. Every past cycle stays exactly where it is. The new treasurer gets the editing rights, the old one keeps a view of the years she ran, and nothing has to be copied out by hand into a new book. This is the part groups lose most often on paper, so it is the part we built first.

Does it work if someone has no airtime?

The member list, the balances and the last three cycles are stored on the phone itself, so they open with the data off. Anything new syncs the next time that phone finds signal or wi-fi. And every group gets the WhatsApp statement, which costs the person receiving it nothing at all.

Can we still keep the paper book?

Plenty of groups do for the first year and we have never argued with one of them. Print the cycle summary at the end of each round, paste it in, and let the constitution catch up in its own time. Some groups never stop. The book just stops being the only copy of nine years.

Start your group

Tell us roughly how many members you are and we set the first month up with you on a call. No card needed. Sikhwama · 32 Fox Street, Marshalltown, Johannesburg 2001 · 010 025 8814 · WhatsApp 076 441 2209 · sawubona@sikhwama.co.za. We phone between 17:00 and 20:00 on weekdays and on Saturday mornings, because that is when a treasurer is actually free.