KRA eTIMS compliance for SaaS products: what Kenyan developers need to know

The Kenya Revenue Authority's eTIMS requirement means that every VAT invoice generated by a business system must be transmitted to KRA in real time. For SaaS products that handle invoicing, this is not optional.

What eTIMS Requires

Every tax invoice must be signed and submitted to KRA's eTIMS server before it is issued to a customer. KRA returns a control unit serial number and a QR code that must appear on the invoice. An invoice without this is not a valid tax invoice.

Integration Approaches

KRA provides a VSCU (Virtual Sales Control Unit) software that runs on your server and acts as a local signing proxy. Your application sends invoice data to the VSCU, which signs it and forwards to KRA's servers.

Alternatively, certified eTIMS integrators provide API wrappers that simplify the process — useful if you want to avoid managing the VSCU infrastructure yourself.

What to Implement

At minimum: invoice submission before issuance, storage of KRA's response (control unit number, signed invoice data), QR code display on invoices, and a mechanism to handle KRA server downtime gracefully (offline signing with later sync).

Practical Considerations

KRA's systems have downtime. Your application must handle this — either queue invoices for retry or use offline signing. Do not block invoice issuance because KRA is down.

Test thoroughly in the sandbox environment before going live. The production and sandbox APIs behave differently in edge cases.

Keep your eTIMS integration logs. KRA audits require you to demonstrate that all invoices were properly transmitted.