Digital Bookkeeping and Working Capital Resilience in Women-Led Microenterprises: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Purpose: The article develops a conceptual explanation of how digital bookkeeping may support working capital resilience in women-led microenterprises. Method: A purposive narrative synthesis connects financial literacy, organisational capabilities, and SME development literature. It introduces no primary sample or estimated effect. Framework: Record completeness supports cash visibility; cash visibility can inform payment prioritisation, inventory decisions, and contingency planning. These pathways depend on interpretation skills, separation of household and business transactions, usable routines, and reliable access to records. Contribution: The paper distinguishes application adoption from the capability to translate records into timely decisions. It proposes control questions and candidate indicators for future evaluation. Implications: Support programmes should assess whether owners can reconcile balances, identify obligations, and explain cash shortfalls. Gender is treated as a context for examining resource and time constraints, not as a presumed deficit in managerial ability. The propositions require empirical testing across different enterprise settings.