eTIMS Receipts
One record for every approved invoice, credit note and till receipt that has to reach the eTIMS system of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). A record answers three questions: was the document sent, if not — why, and what receipt KRA issued.
Records are created and changed only by the system — when a document is approved and on every sending attempt. People read them and manage the queue with two actions in the window menu.
Where to find it: Modules → eTIMS → Registers → eTIMS Receipts
A worked example
Invoice 77 was approved at 10:00. Its eTIMS Receipts record:
| Field | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | 77 |
the document the record is for |
| Type | sale |
a sale; a credit note and a till refund receipt are credit |
| eTIMS account | ET1 |
what the document was sent through |
| Status | sent |
in eTIMS; the other statuses are below |
| Attempts | 0 |
how many failed sending attempts there have been in a row; "Send again", "Not in eTIMS" and posting the document again reset the counter to 0 |
| Total, KES | 300 |
the request total the document went to KRA with |
| Customer PIN | P051234567X |
the PIN the document was sent to KRA with |
| CU invoice number, SCU ID, Receipt signature, QR code | … | the KRA receipt — the same one printed on the till receipt and on the invoice form |
Record statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
pending |
waiting to be sent: the first attempt has not gone through yet, the eTIMS server was busy, or a credit note is waiting for its invoice; the system will retry by itself |
sending |
being sent right now |
sent |
the document is in eTIMS: the KRA receipt is recorded, or a person marked «In eTIMS» after checking the KRA portal |
error |
an error: the intermediary refused, or data or settings are missing; the reason is in «Last error». The system does not retry it by itself. If «May already be in eTIMS» is set, the document may still be in KRA |
cancelled |
the document was unapproved before it was sent |
The «Last error» field is written in the language of whoever approved the document (after «Send again» — of whoever clicked it): «eTIMS sale 77: row 1: VAT code V16 has no eTIMS tax type in the account» tells you that what needs fixing is the VAT mapping in the account.
Two menu actions
«Send again» — for a record with an error or one that is waiting: it goes back into the queue and is sent at once. The answer is in your language. A record that has been sent, is being sent or whose document was unapproved will not be sent again, and the system says why.
«Resolve unknown result» — for a record marked «May already be in eTIMS»: the eTIMS response was lost, and it is unknown whether the document is in KRA. Check the document on the KRA portal and answer:
- «In eTIMS» — with the CU invoice number from the portal; the record becomes
sent, and the «Resolved by hand by» field gets your login; - «Not in eTIMS» — the record goes back into the queue, and the document is sent again.
The window closes only after the server answers: if it refuses, the number you entered stays. If no attempt got as far as the sale request, «In eTIMS» is refused — simply send such a record again.
Both actions are available to those with the right to change this register.
Typical situations
An invoice cannot be unapproved. If the record is sent, the document is already in KRA: correct it with a credit note. If the record is sending, try again in a minute. If «May already be in eTIMS» is ticked, resolve the result first.
A credit note is waiting. While its invoice is in the queue (pending or sending), the note stays pending and is sent after it. If the invoice's record is error or cancelled, or there is none, the note gets error: fiscalise the invoice first, then send the note again.
An account error at approval, the «eTIMS account» field is empty. Two «Company default» records, or the till's account is closed: the system could not choose what to send through. Fix the accounts and click «Send again» — the account is chosen by the same rule as at approval. A credit note always goes through the account of its invoice.
A sent record warns «KRA accepted an earlier attempt of invoice…». The answer of an old attempt arrived after the record had been put back into the queue (for example, after «Not in eTIMS» and approving the document again). The document in KRA has the amount shown in the record; if the invoice was changed since, correct the difference with a credit note.
«Receipt from KRA» is not ticked on a sent record. The record was set to sent by hand («In eTIMS»), or the intermediary answered success without a CU invoice number: the system never received the KRA receipt, so the record has no signature or QR code. If the late response to that attempt does arrive after all, the system fills in the receipt by itself.
What was sent to eTIMS and what the intermediary answered is in the eTIMS Exchange Log. Setup is in the eTIMS guide.