Give Every Client a Reference Number, Not a Phone Call
Beba is African Script's logistics and cargo tracking system,
built for freight forwarders, cargo agents and shipping companies that move goods
on behalf of their clients. One platform covers the shipment's whole journey - from
booking, through any origin country to any destination country, to delivery - so
clients stop calling to ask "where is my cargo" and start checking it themselves.
Most tracking pages bolted onto a logistics company's website are a thin lookup
form with no system behind it. Beba is the other way round: the tracking page is a
window into the same shipment record your ops team is actually updating, billed
correctly for air or sea freight, with M-Pesa payment collection and client
communication built in rather than handled on the side in WhatsApp and spreadsheets.
Any Route
// Any Origin, Any Destination
M-Pesa
// STK Push Payments
Air & Sea
// Correct Freight Billing
SMS + Portal
// Updates At Every Stage
Platform Overview
No switching between a tracking spreadsheet, an SMS
bundle bought separately, and a bookkeeper matching M-Pesa statements by hand.
Every module below runs against the same shipment and client records.
A client tracks a shipment by reference number alone - no account required.
- Public tracking page, looked up by reference number
- A clear status pipeline from booking through to delivery, covering collection, departure, transit, arrival and customs clearance
- SMS and portal notifications sent automatically as a shipment moves through each stage
- Customer-facing status wording kept separate from internal operational labels
See Shipment Tracking & Status Updates in detail.
Bring in a whole flight or container's worth of cargo at once, instead of typing in one shipment at a time.
- Bulk manifest import, turning a consignment's full load list into individual shipment records in one pass
- Separate air and sea freight modes, each with its own handling rules
- Shipments grouped under the consignment they travelled with, for faster reconciliation on arrival
A separate, secure sign-in for your clients - not the same login your staff use.
- Client sign-in with one-time code verification, and self-service password reset
- A client's full shipment list and account statement, in one place
- Shipment requests raised directly from the portal instead of over phone or email
- Downloadable invoices and payment receipts
See Customer Portal & Online Payments in detail.
Air and sea cargo are billed differently in the real world - Beba bills them correctly, not approximately.
- Air freight billed on the greater of actual or volumetric weight
- Sea freight billed per cubic metre
- Configurable rate cards per route and per freight mode
- Multi-currency amounts with centrally configured exchange rates
See Freight Rates & Reporting in detail.
Collect and reconcile client payments without a separate M-Pesa statement to match by hand.
- M-Pesa STK push payment prompts sent directly to the client's phone
- Payment confirmations posted back to the shipment automatically
- PDF invoices and payment receipts, downloadable from the portal or the office
Know what each shipment actually cost to handle, not just what it was billed.
- Operations, revenue and margin reports
- Expense tracking with an approval workflow and receipts
- Cost-to-handle reporting, comparing spend against work actually done
- An immutable audit trail of every status change and financial posting
Everyone signs into the same system, but each role sees only the
tiles and actions that match their job - denied by default
otherwise, not just hidden from the menu.
- Admin / Director - full visibility and control, including cost and margin figures, user and settings management, and the only role allowed to correct a shipment's status backwards or cancel it
- Manager - runs day-to-day operations: books and updates shipments, manages consignments and customers, sets client-facing rates, and approves the team's expense claims
- Finance - issues invoices and credit notes, records and allocates payments, issues receipts, and runs financial reports - without the ability to create or edit a shipment directly
- Warehouse Manager - confirms arrivals and records cargo movements at the warehouse, with no visibility into pricing or shipment value at all
- A versioned, bearer-token API for integration partners
Clients get their own separate sign-in entirely - see Customer Portal & Online Payments in detail.
Why Beba
Most tracking pages are a lookup form with nothing
real behind them. Beba is the system your team already uses to run the
shipment, with a tracking page attached.
01 Any Country to Any Country
Origins and destinations aren't hard-coded to one trade lane - add the routes you actually run, and keep adding them as you grow.
02 One Reference Number, Full Visibility
A client tracks their shipment from the moment it's booked, with no account to create and no call to your office needed.
03 Real Freight Billing Rules
Air cargo billed on actual vs. volumetric weight, sea cargo billed per cubic metre - handled correctly, not approximated in a spreadsheet.
04 M-Pesa Built In
Payment prompts and confirmations post straight to the shipment - no manual reconciliation against an M-Pesa statement.
05 Built for How Freight Forwarders Actually Run
Bulk manifest import, a real status pipeline and cost-to-handle reporting reflect real freight-forwarding operations, not a generic parcel tracker.
06 Owned by African Script
Developed and maintained by a Kenyan team. When you need a change, you're talking to the people who built the system.
Built-In Security
Client shipment details, payment records and
pricing data are sensitive. Beba protects every account and every action.
01 Role-Based Access Control
Permissions are checked against every action - staff see and do only what their role allows.
02 Deny-by-Default Permissions
Access isn't granted by omission - a permission has to be explicitly given, not assumed.
03 Director-Level Controls
Backward status corrections and shipment cancellations are restricted to director-level accounts.
04 Full Audit Trail
Status changes, payments and account actions are logged with user, timestamp and record, and kept immutable.
Full Module List
Beba ships with all of this in one subscription.
- Public Shipment Tracking by Reference Number
- Status Pipeline & Milestone Notifications (SMS + Portal)
- Bulk Manifest Import
- Air & Sea Freight Modes
- Customer Self-Service Portal with OTP Sign-In
- Account Statements & Shipment Requests
- Freight Rate Cards (Per-Kg / Per-CBM)
- Multi-Currency Support & Exchange Rates
- M-Pesa STK Push Payments
- PDF Invoices & Payment Receipts
- Expense Tracking with Approval Workflow
- Operations, Revenue, Margin & Cost-to-Handle Reports
- Role-Based Access Control & Audit Trail
- Versioned Partner API
Frequently Asked Questions
Beba is built for freight forwarders, cargo agents and logistics companies that move goods on behalf of their clients - by air or sea, between any origin and destination country you operate.
Yes. A client tracks their shipment by reference number on a public tracking page - no login required. The customer portal is there for clients who want their full shipment history, statements and invoices in one place.
Yes. Beba sends M-Pesa STK push prompts and posts the confirmed payment straight to the shipment once M-Pesa confirms it - no manual reconciliation against a statement.
Yes. Air freight is billed on the greater of actual or volumetric weight, and sea freight is billed per cubic metre - each mode billed by its own real-world rule, not a single approximate rate.
Beba starts from KES 5,000 per month. Installation and training is a one-off fee starting from KES 30,000. See our
pricing page or request a demo for a quote scoped to your routes and team size.
No. Admin/Director, Manager, Finance and Warehouse Manager accounts each see a dashboard shaped by their own role - a warehouse account, for example, confirms arrivals and records cargo movements but never sees pricing or shipment value. Clients never touch the staff system at all - they get their own separate Customer Portal.
Beba is one of African Script's business platforms. See the full Ustadi ERP overview, our Musyi Hotel Management System, or our School Management System for education-sector clients.