ClariFi
Financial intelligence and decision support for Kenyan MSMEs.
- M-Pesa-aware
- Decision cards
- Free diagnostic
The contractor
Meet Otieno Builds
A growing MSME — not just a fundi on site, but a business owner juggling people, materials, and trust.
Otieno Builds
Former mason · Now managing small construction jobs
Athi River / Nairobi outskirts
House extensions, boundary walls, shop renovations, septic tanks, and apartment blocks.
Early start
Site checks before traffic
Daily checks
Progress, materials, labour
Calls & follow-ups
Clients, fundis, suppliers
Supplier negotiations
Credit, delivery, price
A day on site
Otieno's journey — hour by hour
The work is visible. The cash story usually is not — until you measure it.
Before dawn
Market & site checks
Confirm labour, deliveries, and pour schedule before traffic.
Mid-morning
Materials & fundis
Cement, steel, ballast — prices negotiated on trust and urgency.
Afternoon
Client follow-up
Progress photos unlock the next milestone payment.
Evening
Cash reconciliation
Notebook, WhatsApp, M-Pesa — is today building profit or burning cash?
Five forces
Reality on the ground
What every fundi manages before spreadsheets — cash, people, materials, records, and trust.
1 · Cash flow
Money comes in phases — deposits, milestones, final payment.
2 · Labour
Workers paid daily or weekly — cash leaves before client money arrives.
3 · Materials
Cement, steel, ballast, sand, timber — prices move mid-project.
4 · Records
Notebooks, WhatsApp threads, and memory — not one ledger.
5 · Client trust
Progress photos and site visits unlock the next payment.
The pressure
The Conflict: Why It's Hard
Otieno wins a contract worth KES 1.8 million to build a residential maisonette foundation and ground-floor structure.
Client pays late
Milestone due — transfer still pending.
Cement prices rise mid-project
Quote from last month no longer holds.
Workers demand weekly wages
Fundis will not wait for client payment.
Transport costs increase
Ballast runs and site deliveries add up.
Some purchases are not recorded
Emergency runs paid in cash on site.
“Is this project building profit or just consuming cash?”
Try it now
Interactive cash flow preview
Adjust Otieno's Syokimau project numbers — same logic as the live demo. See cash gap and profit risk in seconds.
- Contract KES 1.8M
- Gap KES −300K
Scroll to load the interactive calculator…
Before / after clarity
Dashboard visibility
When Otieno sees contract, received, spent, and owed in one view — decisions move from panic to plan.
Syokimau Maisonette — Ground Floor Works
Live demo data · Syokimau 2026
- Contract sum
- KSh 1,800,000
- Amount received
- KSh 950,000
- Balance due
- KSh 850,000
- Total expenses
- KSh 1,530,000
- Estimated profit
- KSh 270,000
- Profit margin
- 15%
Cash flow pulse
Expense breakdown
15%
- Materials47%
- Labour30%
- Other costs10%
- Transport13%
Interactive demo available — no signup to explore Otieno's data.
Questions ClariFi answers weekly
- How much has the client paid?
- How much has gone to materials?
- How much has gone to labour?
- What is the real profit left?
- Which supplier is owed?
- Which project is consuming cash?
The ClariFi loop
Diagnose → Decide → Deploy → Deliver
How contractors move from gut feel to weekly decisions — without leaving the site.
- Diagnose
See the cash gap
Contract vs received vs spent — one honest picture per project.
Explore → - Decide
Plan the next pour
Model labour weeks, material buys, and client milestones before money leaves.
Explore → - Deploy
Capture on site
Daily records from phone — even when the notebook stays on the truck.
Explore → - Deliver
Report with confidence
Supplier ledger, margins, and lender-ready evidence when growth needs capital.
Explore →
Plan. Measure. Perform.
ClariFi for contractors
How ClariFi engages & supports
Five ways to meet fundis where they are — expand to see each module.
Simplify business visibility
Turn scattered site records into one project view — contract, received, spent, owed.
Project dashboard →Improve cash flow through better planning
Model milestones, labour weeks, and material buys before cash leaves the account.
Cash flow planner →Contractors like Otieno
What changes once the numbers are visible
ClariFi's own account, not attributed to any customer: busy does not mean profitable, and these are the decisions project-level numbers make possible.
Which job is eating the cash
A busy site says nothing about margin. Tracking cash by project shows which job is draining money while Friday wages are still due.
Evidence a SACCO can read
When a lender asks for numbers, a project summary exported from the dashboard answers the question a folder of M-Pesa screenshots cannot.
Supplier obligations before they bite
Payables tracked by due date show who is owed and when, so a halted delivery is not the first warning that money ran short.
Share the story
Storytelling across platforms
One case study, many audiences — from TikTok fundis to donor briefs and policy rooms.
YouTube
Mini-documentary (8–12 min)
- Hook
- Follow Otieno from dawn site check to supplier call — where does the money go?
- Asset
- B-roll: pour, ledger, M-Pesa screen, empty wallet moment
TikTok
Short clips (30–60 sec)
- Hook
- “Kazi iko, lakini pesa haikai” — 3 numbers every fundi should know today
- Asset
- Text-on-screen dashboard mock + Swahili/English captions
Meta / Facebook
Carousel (5–7 cards)
- Hook
- One maisonette contract. Five cash pressures. One dashboard answer.
- Asset
- Infographic cards from this case study
Donor storytelling
Impact brief + photo essay
- Hook
- Small contractors employ neighbourhoods — visibility unlocks fair finance
- Asset
- Otieno persona + job-count callout
Policy advocacy
One-pager + talking points
- Hook
- Delayed payments and material shocks are MSME policy issues, not personal failure
- Asset
- Cash-gap chart + recommended MSME data standards
Closing message
“Small contractors build homes, shops, churches, schools, and rental units. But behind every wall is a business fighting to survive cash flow pressure.”
To engage them properly, we must not begin with products. We must begin with their reality.
- Trust
- Delayed payments
- Material shocks
- Worker pressure
- Daily courage of building