Free Ventures OMS
The office management system for Free Ventures, a construction-materials business in Tanzania
that sells bricks, cement and sand, makes its own bricks, and moves stock between a store, a
warehouse and a yard.
Today that work runs on paper — order books, carbon-copy dispatch notes and a cash sheet. Paper
means nobody can say what stock is really there, money and goods can leave without a matching
record, and when something goes missing there is no reliable way to find out when it happened or who
agreed to it.
This system replaces that paper, and makes every movement of goods and money traceable. Each
action records who did it. When approval is required, the system also records who approved it.
Important business history is retained so changes remain traceable. Totals are worked out by the
system rather than typed, so the numbers cannot quietly drift.
Who uses it
| |
|---|
| Directors | Own the business. Set prices, approve what needs approving, and decide who has access |
| Managers | Run daily operations — receiving deliveries, production, releasing goods |
| Cashiers | Take payments and hand work on for dispatch |
| Sales Representatives | Create orders for customers and follow them through |
Everyone has exactly one role, and sees only the work that role does.
What it covers
- User accounts and access — who can sign in, what they are allowed to do, and a permanent
record of every change to it
- Products, suppliers and inventory — what is sold, what it costs, and how much is really in
each location
- Sales, orders and invoices — from a customer's order through to the document they are billed
on
- Payments and dispatch — money received, and goods released against it
- Brick production — batches made in the yard, curing, and what had to be rejected
- Imprest and expenses — cash advanced for running costs, and what it was actually spent on
- Reconciliation, reports and accountability history — daily counts, differences explained, and
a history that shows who did what
Available today: accounts and access, products, suppliers and inventory, sales, payments and
dispatch, brick production, the whole imprest workflow from funding to retirement, and the
scheduled daily report. Still being built: the till and stock counts, Directors' accountability
decisions, manual reports and the dashboard. CHANGELOG.md records what each release
adds. Staff accounts are not yet open for day-to-day use.
How it fits together
A Sales Representative creates an order for a customer, and the system produces the quotation and
then the invoice from it — nobody retypes the figures. A Cashier records money received. A fully
paid sale — or a partial-payment or credit sale approved under the company's rules — can then move
to dispatch. Stock falls only after the customer signs and the Manager confirms the release.
Bricks made in the yard enter stock the same way deliveries from suppliers do, so there is one
answer to "how much do we have" rather than several.
Cash for running costs is accounted for with receipts, or with a recorded reason when no receipt is
available. At the end of the day, what the system says should be there is compared with what is
actually there, and any difference has to be explained by someone.
Anything that needs a second pair of eyes waits for approval before it takes effect, and both the
request and the decision are kept.
Where it runs
It works on phones, tablets and computers, and is built for phones first — most staff use it in
a yard, not at a desk. On a phone it can be added to the home screen and opened like any other app.
It speaks English and everyday Tanzanian Swahili, and anyone can switch between them at any
time, including before signing in.
Release history is in CHANGELOG.md.
