Paybill vs Till Number for Collecting Rent: Which Should a Landlord Use?

Both take money. Only one tells you whose money it was.

That sentence is the whole comparison, and it is why landlords who start on a till number usually move. The difference is not the fee or the speed. It is a single field.

At a glance

1 to till number, 6 to paybill. Counted from the rows below, and the count is not the decision.

Account number field
Till number
None. The payer enters an amount and nothing else.
Paybill
Yes. The payer enters a reference you control: a unit number, a tenant code.
Telling who paid
Till number
Only the sender's registered name and number.
Paybill
The reference, plus the name and number.
When a tenant pays from someone else's phone
Till number
Untraceable without asking.
Paybill
The reference still identifies the unit.
Setup
Till number
Simpler and quicker to obtain.
Paybill
More paperwork, usually a registered business.
Suited to
Till number
Over-the-counter sales where who paid does not matter afterwards.
Paybill
Recurring obligations against an account.
Reconciling a month of payments
Till number
Manual matching by name, amount and date. Slow and error-prone.
Paybill
Match on the reference.
Partial payments
Till number
Impossible to attribute confidently.
Paybill
Attributable, then allocated to specific charges.

Choose till number if

You have a very small number of tenants and know every one of their phone numbers by sight.
You cannot yet meet the requirements for a paybill and need to start collecting now.
Rent is always paid in full, on time, from the tenant's own registered line.

Choose paybill if

You have more than a few units.
Tenants sometimes pay in parts, or late, or from a relative's phone.
You need to hand a landlord or an accountant a reconciled statement.
You want arrears that are calculated rather than remembered.

The honest answer

Use a paybill, and treat the account number as the most important part of the setup rather than an afterthought.

The reference scheme matters more than most people expect. A unit number that is unique across the whole portfolio, rather than "3B", which exists in four of your blocks, turns reconciliation from a matching exercise into a lookup. Give tenants the reference in writing, print it on every bill, and repeat it in the reminder.

Two things to be clear about, whichever you use. An M-Pesa statement is not a rent ledger: it records that money arrived, not what it settled. And a payment that arrives without a usable reference is not reconciled by guessing. It sits unallocated until somebody confirms it, which is the honest state of affairs rather than an inconvenience.