Most Ghanaian small businesses don't fail from bad products — they fail from invisible numbers. The owner thinks the business is profitable because there's money in the till, then realises six months later that they've been quietly losing money on every order. Bookkeeping prevents that. You don't need expensive software or a hired accountant; you need five numbers, updated weekly.
The five numbers
- Cash in — every cedi that came into the business this week.
- Cash out — every cedi that left, including the owner's pocket withdrawals.
- Inventory value — what your stock would sell for at cost price.
- Receivables — money customers owe you (POD orders not yet collected, invoices not yet paid).
- Payables — money you owe (suppliers, rent, salaries due).
That's it. If you know these five every Sunday evening, you have 90% of what an accountant would track for you — at a fraction of the cost.
Why this works
A surprising amount of business decisions become obvious when these numbers are visible. "Should I take this discount from the supplier?" Look at cash in vs payables. "Can I afford to hire someone?" Look at the trend in cash in minus cash out.
How to actually record them
You have three options, ordered cheapest to most automated:
Option 1 — A ruled notebook
Date, description, in, out. One line per transaction. Sum every Sunday. Costs GH₵5. Works perfectly for businesses doing under 30 transactions a week.
Option 2 — A Google Sheet
Same five columns, but the totals calculate themselves. Free, syncs across phones, backed up. Add a tab per month so previous months stay readable.
Option 3 — Adwuma bookkeeping (recommended)
Every order you fulfil on Adwuma auto-records in your ledger. Every promotion you pay for, every subscription, every payout — all auto-reconciled. You only need to manually add transactions that happen off-platform (cash sales, supplier payments, rent). Then the five numbers compute themselves and you can export a lender-ready PDF any time.
Owner draw — the most common mistake
When you take GH₵100 from the till to buy lunch, that GH₵100 is not "the business spending money on food" — it's you paying yourself. Mixing the two is the single most common reason Ghanaian SMEs look unprofitable on paper when they're actually fine, and vice versa. Always record owner draws separately.
Pay yourself a salary
Pick a number — even GH₵400 a month at the start — and pay yourself on the same date every month. Everything you withdraw beyond that is either a profit distribution or a sign you can't actually afford your own withdrawals.
Cash vs accrual — which one for you?
Cash basis means you record income when money arrives and expenses when money leaves. Accrual basis means you record income when the sale happens (even if you'll be paid later) and expenses when incurred. For under-GH₵200k-annual-turnover businesses, cash basis is fine and much simpler. Above that, switch to accrual because it gives you a truer profit picture.
The 80/20: what to do this week
- Pick one of the three options above.
- Backfill the last 30 days from memory and MoMo SMS history. Even rough is OK.
- Set a recurring 30-minute Sunday slot to update it. Treat it like a workout — non-negotiable.
- After one month, look at the trend in cash in vs cash out. That tells you whether you have a business or an expensive hobby.