The Stack

These are tools I’ve used, tested, or evaluated while running payment operations across Africa. Some I use daily. Some I’ve moved on from. If a link earns a commission, I’ll note it — but nothing is here because it pays. It’s here because it works.

Operations Infrastructure

Google Apps Script

Custom reconciliation automation, SOA generation, and exception tracking across partner settlement flows.

Google Sheets

The backbone of daily reconciliation sign-offs, wallet funding logs, and multi-corridor settlement tracking.

Metabase

Self-service dashboards for transaction monitoring, payout performance, and exception visibility across corridors.

n8n

Workflow automation for transaction status polling, partner notifications, and operational alerting.

Jira

Backlog management for back-office portal improvements, system bugs, and operational change requests.

Microsoft Excel

Partner statement generation, commission reconciliation, and ad-hoc financial analysis.

Operations & Project Management

ClickUp

Project and ops management. Good for teams that need visibility across corridors without building custom dashboards from scratch.

Automation & Workflow

Zapier vs Make

Both have their place in payment ops automation. Make handles complexity better; Zapier has wider integration coverage. Which one you need depends on your stack.

Knowledge & Documentation

AI Tools for Knowledge Management

Notion AI, Guru, Tettra, Confluence, Glean — a breakdown of what actually holds up for internal ops teams managing high-volume partner documentation.

Full Ops Stack Overview

The Ops Manager’s AI Stack (2025)

7 tools covering project management, automation, documentation, communication and more — built for teams that want to run leaner.