The advanced, fully automated school management system for Africa.
Fees invoiced, paid and reconciled on WhatsApp, automatically, to the right student, class and term, with the receipt back in seconds. Results and report cards, timetables, attendance, homework, announcements, the school bus, staff clock in / clock out and visitor management (VMS) run in the same system, on the same thread.
A parent replies LANGUAGE or LUGHA to switch their own thread. Every later message arrives in that language.
R
Riverside Academy
Term 2 · 2026 · 5,012 students
CollectionsOutstandingCollection rateFamily fees per classLive
Collected this term
164,160,000
KES
Outstanding
46,309,000
KES
Collection rate
78.0
%
Families paid
3,909
of 5,012
Collections
updating live
KES 164,160,000
of KES 210,469,000 billed this term
Form 424,250,000
Form 324,020,000
Form 223,310,000
Form 122,980,000
Grade 919,350,000
Payments arriving
Waiting for the next payment
The problem
Money moves. Records don't.
Fees arrive all week from a dozen wallets and three banks. By Friday the office is reading messages against a ledger, guessing which payment belongs to which child, and telling parents a balance nobody fully trusts.
Payments arrive unnamed
A till number does not know a child. Somebody has to match every shilling by hand, from memory.
Balances go stale
The figure a parent is quoted at the gate is the figure from the last time somebody added it up.
Chasing costs the term
Reminders go out one phone call at a time, and the term ends before the arrears do.
Karo closes that gap: the invoice, the payment and the record are one event.
01 · What the school gets
Monday morning, already reconciled.
The finance team opens one screen, every payment matched, every balance current, nothing to hunt for.
Finance & control
Return on the term
Invoices land where families already are, and paying is one tap, not a queue at the school gate. One flat KES 299 per student, per term, no licence.
Accuracy & accountability
Every payment matched to a student, class and term, with an audit trail your board and auditor can read.
Control of the money
Mobile money, cards, bank and cash settle into one live ledger, and roles decide who bills, who refunds, who exports.
Billing to bank
The loop
Nobody goes anywhere.
The money makes the whole journey on its own.
01
At school
The term is billed
One run bills every class. No envelopes, no queue, nobody walks anywhere.
02
On WhatsApp
The invoice arrives
It lands in the chat the family already reads, pay link attached.
03
At home
The parent pays
M-Pesa, Airtel, MoMo, card or bank, from the sofa, in full or in part.
04
Back at school
Receipt out, money in
A QR-verifiable receipt returns in seconds and the payment reconciles itself.
05
What the school gets
Efficiency, in real time
Every shilling is matched as it lands, live balances, no cash desk, no end-of-day count.
01
At school
The term is billed
One run bills every class. No envelopes, no queue, nobody walks anywhere.
02
On WhatsApp
The invoice arrives
It lands in the chat the family already reads, pay link attached.
03
At home
The parent pays
M-Pesa, Airtel, MoMo, card or bank, from the sofa, in full or in part.
04
Back at school
Receipt out, money in
A QR-verifiable receipt returns in seconds and the payment reconciles itself.
05
What the school gets
Efficiency, in real time
Every shilling is matched as it lands, live balances, no cash desk, no end-of-day count.
Nobody goes anywhere.
The money makes the whole journey on its own.
Payment supported
Safaricom M-Pesa, STK push to the parent's phone
Airtel Money, Mobile money, same checkout
MTN MoMo, West and Central Africa
Visa, Any debit or credit card
Mastercard, Any debit or credit card
Bank & cash, Recorded and reconciled too
M-PESA
airtel
MoMo
VISA
M-PESA
airtel
MoMo
VISA
Safaricom M-PesaSTK push to the parent's phone
M-Pesa, Airtel Money, MTN MoMo and other mobile money · Visa and Mastercard cards · bank transfer and cash.
02 · What the parent gets
One thread, the whole term.
No portal to log into, no password to reset, no letter in a schoolbag. Everything a family needs for the term sits in one WhatsApp conversation they already read.
Nobody is left out
Families without WhatsApp get the identical invoice, receipt and reminder by email, automatically.
The school keeps the record
Every message sent, delivered and replied to is logged against the student, ready for any dispute.
Invoice with a pay link
Instant PDF receipt, verifiable by QR
Live balance and full statement
Every past receipt, any time
Term results
One bill for the whole family
03 · What the system does
Whatever your school can grow into.
The term is billed in a single run, and every way a family can pay settles back into the same live ledger.
Capacity
A hundred students or five thousand, one campus or several. Every class, stream and sibling resolves on its own, discounts and variables included, and the work takes the same minute either way.
Riverside Academy
New invoice run
Term 2 · 2026
Bill
Whole school · all 24 classes
Term 2 structure
Roster
1,284
students matched · 24 classes
Reaches them by
1,157 WhatsApp
127 email
Complete
1,284 of 1,284 invoices sent
Sent
Every family in the school has the invoice and a pay link.
Beyond fees
Fees are where it starts. Not where it stops.
The same number that sends the invoice also sends the announcement, the report card, the homework, the absence note and the bus alert. One thread per family, for the whole school day, with nothing to download and nothing to teach a parent.
Transport
Picked up. Dropped off. Confirmed.
The assistant signs each child on and off from a phone. The parent is messaged the moment it happens, so nobody waits at a gate wondering.
Security & check-ins
Cleared to leave. Not before.
Visitors, groups, deliveries and early pickups, booked at the gate, cleared by the school, logged once. Collect a child early and the parent is messaged as it happens.
A clock-in inside the school's own boundary is confirmed. One outside it is flagged, not silently accepted.
Announcements
One message to a class, a stream or the whole school. WhatsApp first, email and SMS behind it, with delivery counted.
Results
Marks entered by teachers, grades computed by your own scale, released the moment you approve.
Report cards
A branded, QR-verifiable PDF each parent downloads and keeps, and any school can check is real.
Assignments
Homework with a due date, sent to the class and downloadable by the parent on the same thread.
Attendance
An absence flagged in the register reaches the parent the same morning, not at the end of term.
Events & calendar
Sports day, closing day, parents' meeting, sent once and reminded automatically.
Timetabling
Give Karo your subjects, teachers, periods and lesson quotas. It builds a clash-free timetable for every class and drops each teacher's own copy into their account.
Staff attendance
Staff clock in / clock out from a phone, confirmed against the school's own location. Hours, lateness and missed clock-outs, visible to management without anyone chasing a register.
Visitor management (VMS)
The Visitor Management System (VMS) for visitors, groups, deliveries and early pickups, cleared by the school before anyone leaves, and logged once, properly. Nobody leaves on a guess.
Sick bay & health
The nurse records what happened, who saw the child and what was given. Send a child home and attendance updates itself, and the parent knows before you call.
Admissions
Every enquiry in one pipeline, from first call to accepted, with follow-ups that don't rely on someone remembering.
Bursaries & sponsors
Awards approved by two pairs of eyes, applied to the invoice automatically, and never chased in a reminder the family doesn't owe.
Discipline & behaviour
Incidents logged, actions recorded, the guardian informed the same day. One history per child instead of scattered notes.
Parent meetings (PTM)
Parents book their slot on WhatsApp and get reminded automatically. No sign-up sheet at the gate.
Staff leave & cover
Leave requested and approved in the system, and the class covered by someone who's actually free that period.
Reports & exports
Every screen exports, CSV or a clean PDF, by week or month, for the board, the audit or the ministry.
Sign in with your face
Staff sign in with biometrics or a passkey on their own phone, not a shared password. Devices lock themselves when idle.
Library
Books catalogued, issued and returned against the learner. An overdue book is followed up automatically, not written in a notebook.
Boarding
Dorms, rooms and beds assigned with occupancy in view. When a child is placed, the guardian is told where they sleep.
Lesson plans
Schemes and lesson plans per class and subject, reviewed in the system without chasing paper files.
Documents
Admission letters, offer letters and certificates generated, signed and delivered to the parent on the same thread.
Release for the day
Day scholars released at the gate and the guardian messaged the moment it happens. Nobody leaves on a guess.
Year-end rollover
Promote a whole school in one pass: classes advance, leavers archive, and fee structures roll forward into the new year.
Dropped at home, 17:42 · Route B, signed off by the assistant.Visitor management at the gate: every visitor cleared, every arrival and departure logged, nothing on a clipboard.Clock in at the entrance, confirmed against the school's own location.And the rest of the school day: lessons, results, homework, attendance, timetables and the office, all in the same system.Sick bay: seen by the nurse at 10:12, the parent knew before the phone rang.Marks entered once by the subject teacher, graded on your own scale, released when you approve.
Who we are, and why us
One system for the whole school, delivered on WhatsApp.
Who we are
Karo is an advanced, fully automated school management system for schools, colleges and universities across Africa (CBC and 8·4·4, international and Cambridge, faith and community schools, TVETs and campuses). Fee payment and reconciliation on WhatsApp is what it does best and what it was built on. Results and report cards, timetables, attendance, transport, staff attendance (clock in / clock out) and a visitor management system (VMS) run in the same system, not as separate purchases.
The problem we solve
Money moves. Records don't. Fees arrive by mobile money all week and nobody can say, today, what has been collected against what was expected. The deeper problem is communication: results, homework, absences, bus runs and notices all travel by paper, phone calls and scattered class groups, so parents hear nothing until a child is sent home. Karo puts the money and the message on one thread, per family, per child.
Why Karo
One system instead of a billing tool, a messaging tool and three spreadsheets. For families there is no app to install, because it is WhatsApp, in English or Kiswahili by the parent's own choice. Money settles to your own bank account, never ours. One flat KES 299 per student per term, with every module included rather than sold separately.
What the school gets
One number for the term: collected today, against expected.
Every payment matched to a student, class and term automatically.
Results, homework, announcements and attendance delivered the same minute.
Every bus run logged, every child signed on and off.
Visitor management (VMS): every visitor, group and delivery cleared before they leave, on one auditable record.
Staff attendance: every clock in and clock out confirmed at the school, with lateness and missed clock-outs surfaced.
One office channel instead of a hundred class groups, with every message logged under the student.
Report cards and receipts issued as branded PDFs anyone can verify.
Teachers, clerks and owners each see only what their role allows.
What the parent gets
The invoice, the pay link and the receipt in one chat.
Pay by mobile money, card or bank, with nothing to install.
Their child's report card and homework, privately, per child.
A message the moment the bus leaves, arrives or drops off.
Nine quick actions on demand, day or night, with no office queue.
Messages in English or Kiswahili, chosen by the parent.
One thread per family, even with three children in three classes.
Built for every school
A whole school's student admin, in one place.
Primary & secondary
A whole class billed in one click.
International
Complex fee sheets, families anywhere.
Groups & universities
Every campus separate, one view across all.
Safe, and provably so
The money never touches Karo.
Fees settle straight into your school's own bank account. Karo carries the record, never the funds.
Your account, your money
Every payment settles into the school's own bank account. Karo never holds, pools or releases school funds.
One school, one vault
Each school's data is isolated and encrypted, with two-factor sign-in and no shared view between schools.
An audit trail that reads
Every invoice, payment, refund and message is logged against a named person and a timestamp your auditor can follow.
You can leave with everything
Invoices, payments and statements export for any period, in a format your accountant already opens.
Install Karo straight from this page, no download queue, no updates to chase. It opens full-screen from your home screen, on Android and iPhone, and on your laptop too. Native Android and iOS bundles are also configured and ready to build for the Play Store and App Store.
Open the browser menu and choose “Install app” / “Add to Home screen”.
iPhone / iPad, open karoschool.net in Safari, tap Share, then “Add to Home Screen”.
Android, tap “Install Karo” above, or Chrome menu → “Install app”. A Play Store build is ready in MOBILE_BUILD.md.
iOS, native App Store bundle ready to build; meanwhile use Safari → Share → “Add to Home Screen”.
Laptop, Chrome or Edge, install icon in the address bar.
Parents, nothing to install. Everything reaches them on WhatsApp.
