Job Description

Mercy Corps Consultancy to Develop a Custom Accounting Solution 2019

Organization: Mercy Corps Kenya

Scope of Work / Terms Of Reference

Project / Program: Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund

Assignment: Develop / Provide a Custom Accounting Solution

1. Programme Background

About Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund

Through the Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is looking to test and support innovations with the potential to stimulate large-scale job creation.

The Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund (KCJF) is a 4-year catalytic jobs fund that will, through a mix of technical assistance and grant support, test competitively selected innovations that have potential to unlock market constraints and create jobs, including for the most vulnerable, e.g. people living with disability.

The programme contains a strong emphasis on learning and evidence.

It seeks to generate knowledge, data and evidence on ways of addressing barriers to job creation and disseminate findings to relevant stakeholders, including potential investors. Mercy Corps is implementing the pilot phase of the KCJF programme.

About Savanna Circuit

Savanna Circuit Tech is a manufacturing and last-mile distribution company based off West Pokot. The company provides dairy farmers and cooperatives with portable solar milk chillers, quality control equipment and farmer management systems that give real-time data from milk collection points while cutting milk post-harvest losses for maximized profits through its leasing model.

Savanna Circuit manufacturers MaziwaPlus, a solar-powered, portable milk chiller. The company operates a leasing model where it leases out MaziwaPlus to dairy farmer cooperatives and acts as a collection agent for the cooperatives.

Currently, Savanna Circuit mounts MaziwaPlus on motorbikes to facilitate milk collection from smallholder dairy farmers across West Pokot. On collection, farmers receive an SMS notification on the amount of milk collected with payment made by the cooperatives.

The company works with 3 dairy milk cooperatives: Lelan Highland Dairies (5,100 members), Muruny Farmers Cooperative Sacco (1,400 members) and Kaptabuk Farmers Cooperative Sacco (3,300 members).

Purpose of engagement

Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund is looking for a qualified service provider to provide Savanna Circuit Tech with an ERP system with 3 main modules: Accounting, Human Resource and Inventory Management.

The ERP system MUST be cloud-based and should allow for users to work both online and offline.

1. Accounting module: The module will move the business financial records and systems from the current spreadsheets (MS Excel) to a digital system.

The system will include a basic accounting module with the following functions:

• General Ledgers & Chart of accounts: To keep track of all financial transactions including milk collection from farmers, payments by farmer cooperatives, payments e.g. supplier payments, utility bills, etc.


• Invoicing module: To automate billing, invoice generation and invoice tracking by due date for amounts due from dairy cooperatives and other clients.


• Accounts payable and receivables module: The modules will have functionalities to enter, monitor, maintain and process for payment of invoices and credit notes due to/from Savanna Circuit from suppliers and customers. The modules will also provide for a schedule of debtors and creditors include flagging of overdue debts.


• Bank Reconciliation module: The module should automatically reconcile bank statement transactions with transactions on the ERP in real-time or automatically after statement upload.


• Asset tracking module: To track the lifecycle and value of the asset from acquisition to disposal, including depreciation. These assets include motorcycles, tricycles, computers, phones, weighing scales etc.


• Fund management module: To track all the funding the company receives donors, investors and any other funding sources. The module should indicate in real-time current spending status, funding allocation, itemized budget, and expenditure details through analytical reports.


• Financial reporting module: To generate financial reports including: income statements, balance sheet statements, cash flow statements


• Business intelligence capabilities: Gather data from various sources and generate integrated real-time reports in various formats and dashboards (e.g.: liquidity ratios, profitability, tracking of return on investment, among other analyses)

2. Human resource module:

The system to include a human resource module with the following capabilities:

• Payroll processing: To manage payment of salaries and staff benefits

1. Salary Payments: To manage salary payments, including functionalities for varying compensation and generating payslips.


2. Staff Benefits: To allow for enrollment and remittance of statutory benefits as well as other benefits to the employees. This should include payment for NHIF, NSSF, HELB, Pension, etc.


3. Scheduled deductions and earnings: Should manage salary parameters such as loans and long-term advances that are period dependent.

• Timesheets management: To track an employee’s time and expenses by task and project to allow for accurate billing against project budgets.


• Personnel record management: To manage personnel records including employee contracts, payment modes, job grade and function, employee evaluations & reviews.


• Historical data: Enable users to access historical information based on defined history period(s).


• Reporting: Should provide reports that are required by the users for example:

1. Management reports: Variance reports, payroll summaries etc.


2. Statutory reports: NSSF, KRA, NHIF, etc.


3. Payments reports: Bank transfers, Cash/ cheque lists, etc.


4. Employee reports: Payslips, statements, etc.

• Integration with other systems: The system can integrate with other systems, either HR or Financial systems, as long as they are running on relational databases.

3. Inventory Management module:

This module will allow for tracking of all the inventory used by Savanna Circuit, including fixed assets and manufacturing inventory in the company’s workshop.

• Track manufacturing inventory: The system will track all the inventory used in the manufacturing of the milk cooling chillers including aluminum and steel plates and accessory tools. The module will also allow users to:

1. Upload products, descriptions and prices both via a bulk file import and through single entries on the system


2. Organize stock by categories and variants


3. Provide real-time insight into stock levels (including maximum and minimum reorder levels), customer details, and supplier information.


4. Generate reports on inventory levels across the production process

Additionally;

• The system should be integrated with sub-systems communicating with each other i.e. when entering information in one module you do not have to enter it in the other modules.


• The system should be able to generate reports regularly e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly & annually etc.

In general, Savannah Circuit seeks a solution that is:

1. Intuitive to understand by administrators and end users.

2. Flexible to handle routine changes to our data or processes, such as adding a field, creating a report, or workflow process, with minimal or no outside assistance or fees.

3. Reflects the complex organizational structure in a way that allows the company to access or report data easily and in a variety of combinations.

4. Requires limited support from IT with all hardware included and is a cloud-based system. Upgrades would be included as part of the service.

To achieve the above, the following activities are envisioned:

• A one-day field study visit to Savanna Circuit, based West Pokot, to familiarize self with the existing system and firm up the proposed solution


• A design review of the proposed solution, in light of the defined scope of work and informed by the field study visit


• Handover and documentation of the process, key findings and recommendations, and handover of design assets

2. Deliverables:

The key deliverables from the project are:

1. A fully built and functional software system as per the scope defined in section 2 (Purpose of engagement)

2. A 2-pager style thought leadership document that provides actionable recommendations on accounting practice within the agritech business that can inform decision making within the broader industry (to be developed with support from the Mercy Corps team).

3. Application

To apply provide a brief proposal of no more than 10 pages/ slides containing the following:

• Individual/organization overview including team structure and brief bios of team members; if applying as a firm, include firm registration documents (certificate of registration)


• Proposed software solution, design framework and the level of support/maintenance to be provided. The solution should detail all the modules/functionalities that will be provided including system screenshots/link to a trial version of the system if it already exists. On support, the prospective service provider should highlight how they intend to provide support in light of Savanna Circuit’s location in West Pokot.


• References, web links or electronic copies of at least 5 examples of recently developed solutions. This list should include existing users of the developed software solution. Where this is not the case, it should be stated explicitly.


• Work plan for completing the project


• Detailed budget, clearly outlining the costs of each of the above modules. Costs MUST be itemized by the three modules outlined in section 2 above (Purpose of engagement). A one-off cost model is preferred. However, other pricing models will also be considered.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the criteria captured in the annex section.

Proposals must be sent digitally to ke-pr@mercycorps.org by Wednesday, 14th August 2019, End of Day.

Prospective service providers with questions or clarifications have up to Wednesday, 7th August 2019, end of day to share them with us. Questions/clarifications should be sent via email to
ke-pr@mercycorps.org and will be responded to duly. Mercy Corps will also hold an online information session on Thursday, 8th August 2019, at 2:00 pm. Prospective service providers interested in joining the information session should send in their email contact details to ke-pr@mercycorps.org and log in details for the information session will be sent to them.

4. Reporting Lines

The consultant shall work under the direct supervision of the COO, Savanna Circuit with strong liaison with the post investment and learning advisor, Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund.

5. Ownership and control of work/ publication

Ownership and control of all work products related to this scope of work and partner engagement shall belong to Savanna Circuit and while learning outputs shall belong to Mercy Corps. Any use of material, learnings or publications derived from the work product will require prior written approval from Savanna Circuit and Mercy Corps

6. Timeframes and Budgets

Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund anticipates that the assignment will take up to 6 weeks. The works shall be executed between 21th August 2019 and 18th September 2019. The total costs of the assignment will be negotiated with the service providers.

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