KAZI Glossary
Plain-language, honest definitions of the terms you meet running a business: payments and escrow, invoicing and accounting, South African tax and compliance, security, and what an all-in-one work ecosystem actually means. Each one is a direct answer, not a sales pitch.
Payments & escrow
How money is secured, released and processed on a job.
Escrow for freelancers
Escrow for freelancers is an arrangement where a client's payment is held in a secure, neutral account before work begins and released to the freelancer as agreed conditions are met. It protects both sides: the freelancer knows the money already exists, and the client knows funds are only released for work that has been delivered and approved.
Read definitionMilestone payment protection
Milestone payment protection breaks a project into stages, each with its own deliverable and payment. Funds for every stage are committed up front and released only once that stage is reviewed and approved. It keeps delivery and payment in step, so neither side carries the whole project on trust and disputes stay contained to a single milestone.
Read definitionIs Paystack safe?
Paystack is a licensed African payment processor, owned by Stripe, that handles card and bank payments for businesses in markets including South Africa and Nigeria. It is PCI-DSS compliant and encrypts card data, so card details are processed on Paystack's secure infrastructure rather than stored by the merchant. It is regulated in the markets where it operates.
Read definitionInvoicing & accounting
The documents and bookkeeping behind getting paid.
Proforma invoice
A proforma invoice is a preliminary bill of sale sent to a buyer before goods or services are delivered. It states the estimated price, quantities and terms, but it is not a demand for payment and is not recorded as a sale in your accounts. Buyers use it to arrange payment, financing or approvals; the seller issues a final tax invoice once the deal is confirmed.
Read definitionRecurring invoice
A recurring invoice is an invoice generated and sent automatically to a client on a fixed schedule — weekly, monthly or annually — for an ongoing product or service. It removes the need to create the same bill by hand each cycle, and is commonly used for subscriptions, retainers and memberships where the amount and client stay the same over time.
Read definitionRetainer invoice
A retainer invoice bills a client in advance for a set amount of work or availability over a period, usually a month. The client pays up front to reserve the freelancer's or agency's time, and work is drawn down against that balance. Retainers give both sides predictable income and a stable, ongoing working relationship rather than one-off jobs.
Read definitionCredit note
A credit note, also called a credit memo, is a document a seller issues to reduce the amount a buyer owes on a previously issued invoice. It is used to correct an overcharge, apply a refund, or account for returned goods or cancelled services. Unlike deleting an invoice, a credit note preserves the audit trail by recording the reduction as its own entry.
Read definitionDouble-entry accounting
Double-entry accounting is a bookkeeping method where every transaction is recorded in at least two accounts — one debit and one matching credit of equal value — so the books always balance. For example, paying rent decreases cash and increases an expense by the same amount. This built-in balance makes errors easier to catch and underpins formal financial statements.
Read definitionTax & compliance (South Africa)
Plain-language definitions of the SA tax and data terms you meet.
POPIA
POPIA is South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, the country's data-protection law. It sets conditions for how organisations may collect, store, use and share personal information, and gives individuals rights over their own data. It is broadly comparable to the EU's GDPR: businesses must process personal information lawfully, keep it secure, and use it only for the purpose it was collected for.
Read definitionProvisional taxpayer (South Africa)
A provisional taxpayer in South Africa is a person or business earning income that is not subject to standard PAYE withholding — typically freelancers, sole proprietors and company directors — who therefore pays income tax in advance instalments during the year rather than in one lump sum after assessment. Provisional tax spreads the liability across the year through periodic returns to SARS.
Read definitionVAT201
The VAT201 is the value-added tax return that VAT-registered businesses in South Africa submit to SARS. It declares the VAT charged on sales (output tax) and the VAT paid on purchases (input tax) for a tax period. The difference is either paid over to SARS or refunded. Returns are filed periodically according to the vendor's assigned VAT category.
Read definitionPAYE and UIF
PAYE (Pay As You Earn) and UIF (Unemployment Insurance Fund) are two payroll amounts South African employers withhold and pay over on behalf of employees. PAYE is the employee's income tax deducted from salary and paid to SARS. UIF is a contribution — shared between employer and employee — to a fund that pays benefits to workers who lose income. Employers report and pay these monthly.
Read definitionSecurity & trust
The safeguards that keep your data and funds protected.
Row Level Security (RLS)
Row Level Security (RLS) is a database feature that restricts which rows a user can read or change, enforced by the database itself rather than by application code. Each query is automatically filtered by a policy — for example, "a user can only see rows where the owner ID matches their own." It is a core defence against one tenant's data leaking to another in multi-tenant software.
Read definitionPCI-DSS Level 1
PCI-DSS Level 1 is the highest compliance tier of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the security framework governing how card data is handled. Level 1 applies to organisations processing the largest volumes of card transactions and requires the most rigorous audits. Payment processors typically hold this certification so that merchants using them do not have to store raw card data themselves.
Read definitionRead-only bank access
Read-only bank access is a secure connection that lets software view your bank transactions without any ability to move money or make payments. It is typically granted through a regulated open-banking provider that shares transaction data but never write access. Accounting tools use it to import and reconcile transactions automatically while keeping your funds untouchable.
Read definitionPlatform
What an all-in-one work ecosystem actually means.