How we review

Updated 7 October 2026

Shop Books Guide is run by people connected to the team that makes Sellka, one of the apps we compare. We say this first because it matters to how you read everything here. We wrote down how apps are scored before scoring any of them, we apply it the same way to every app, Sellka included, and we show every score line by line so you can check it.

What we score, and how much it counts

What we score	Points	Full points when the app's listing or website says
Works with no internet	20	Daily recording works with no connection
Credit	15	It records what customers owe you (10) and what you owe suppliers (5)
Stock	15	It keeps a stock count (8) and warns when an item runs low (7)
Reports	10	A daily report (5) and reports for longer periods (5)
Easy start	10	You can start without an account (5), and it is written for shops rather than also for restaurants, services or factories (5)
Other languages	5	It names at least one language besides English
Price, as Play shows it	10	No ads (5), and no stated limit on everyday recording without paying (5)
Updated recently	5	An update in the 90 days before our reading
Privacy, as declared	10	Its Data safety section shares no data with other companies (5), and it collects no name, email or phone number (5)
Total	100

The criteria are the needs of a very small shop with one counter: working through a bad network, credit, stock, a daily total, an easy start, and knowing what the app costs you in ads and in data. That is also what Sellka was built for, so it is no surprise that it scores well. It also loses points for ads and for the data it declares.

Where our facts come from

Each app's Google Play listing: its title, developer, downloads, rating and number of ratings, last update, ads and in-app purchases.
Its Data safety section on Google Play, as the developer declares it.
Its own website and help pages.

We read Google Play from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana and record the date and country of each reading. The current readings are from 7 October 2026. We do not show logos or screenshots of other companies' apps.

"Not stated" scores zero

If an app's listing and website do not say it does something, it scores zero for that line, even if the app might do it. This is strict, and it can be unfair to an app with a short listing. When a reader or an app's maker shows us that an app does something, we check it and correct the score with the date. Write to us.

Testing on a phone

As of 7 October 2026 we have compared the apps from their listings and websites only. We have not yet installed and used them in a shop. When we do, each review will name the phone and the day, and say what we found.

Updates and corrections

We read every listing again each month and date every change on the page. To report a mistake, use the contact page. No app pays us for a place or a score, and the site has no affiliate links and no ads.

Which apps we include

We searched Google Play from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana for the words shop owners use: shop record book, duka, sales record, credit book, stock book, offline pos, record keeping, debt book and business record. We kept the apps that came back again and again and are made for keeping a shop's records. Some well known apps were left out because their listings are written for another country's tax and payment systems, or because they are not record books.