Understanding KRA eTIMS: What Every Kenyan Business Needs to Know

If you run a business in Kenya, you’ve heard the three letters by now: eTIMS.

The KRA’s electronic Tax Invoice Management System isn’t a “coming soon” initiative. It’s live. It’s mandatory. And if your business issues invoices without it, you’re exposed.

Here’s what you actually need to know.

What Is eTIMS?

eTIMS (electronic Tax Invoice Management System) is KRA’s real-time invoice reporting system. Every time you issue an invoice, it must be:

1. Generated in an approved system
2. Signed by KRA’s API in real-time
3. Sent to the customer with a QR code
4. Stored for audit purposes

There’s no “batch upload at end of month” option. It’s real-time or nothing.

Who Does This Apply To?

Everyone. If you issue invoices in Kenya — whether you’re a retail shop in Nairobi, a hardware store in Mombasa, or a school in Kisumu — eTIMS applies to you.

KRA has been phasing this in over the past few years:

If you think you’re too small to worry about this, you’re exactly who KRA is targeting next.

What Happens If You Don’t Comply?

KRA has been issuing penalties. The fines are not trivial:

• Late registration: KES 10,000–50,000
• Incorrect invoices: KES 10,000 per invoice
• Failure to issue e-invoices: Up to KES 100,000 per transaction
• Repeated violations: Possible business closure

An audit without eTIMS-compliant invoices is effectively a fine waiting to happen.

The Practical Problem

Here’s the reality most businesses face:

Your POS system doesn’t talk to KRA. Your accounting software doesn’t talk to your POS. Your inventory is tracked in Excel, if at all.

To comply with eTIMS, you need a system that:

• Tracks sales in real-time
• Generates KRA-compliant invoices
• Signs them via the KRA API
• Stores them for audit
• Integrates with your existing workflow

Most businesses solve this by buying an ETR (Electronic Tax Register) — a dedicated hardware device. That works, but now you have:

• Two systems to reconcile (POS + ETR)
• Manual data entry
• Reconciliation headaches
• Separate inventory tracking

Or you use a software-based solution that does it all in one place.

What Compliance Looks Like in Practice

A compliant invoice in Kenya must include:

• KRA-assigned serial number (OSCU or ETR serial)
• AIT (Automated Invoice Tax) number from KRA
• Seller’s KRA PIN
• Buyer’s KRA PIN (for B2B)
• Itemized goods/services with quantities
• Taxable value, VAT, and total
• A QR code for verification

When a customer asks for a receipt and you print one from your system, it should have all of these. If it doesn’t, it’s not a valid tax invoice.

How JengaStack Handles This

This is the part I care about most.

Every Odoo instance we deploy comes with eTIMS built in. Not as an add-on. Not as a “premium module.” As part of the base install.

Here’s what happens:

1. You raise an invoice in Odoo
2. Our jenga_etims module automatically sends it to KRA
3. KRA signs it and returns the AIT number
4. The invoice is stamped with the QR code
5. It’s sent to your customer
6. It’s logged for audit

All of this happens in the background. You just run your business.

We also handle:

• OSCU serial management (auto-generated, no hardware required)
• UNSPSC commodity code mapping for inventory items
• Failed sync retry with circuit breaker to prevent API hammering
• Daily compliance dashboard showing synced vs pending invoices

The Bottom Line

eTIMS isn’t optional. It’s the law.

The businesses that adapt early will have a significant advantage — not because they’re avoiding fines, but because the same system that achieves compliance can also give them real-time business intelligence, automated reconciliation, and better cash flow management.

Compliance is the floor. What you build on top of it is where the real value lives.

Running Odoo and need eTIMS compliance? Every JengaStack instance comes with it pre-installed. Get started →