A buyer raised an eTIMS invoice for you: what next
What a small Kenyan seller should check before accepting a buyer-initiated eTIMS invoice, the thirty-day window, and how mistakes are corrected.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
You deliver a load of milk to the processor, or a week's supply of vegetables to a hotel, and a day later an SMS arrives on your phone. It says a buyer has raised an invoice in your name and asks you to accept or reject it. You did not write that invoice. Should you accept it?
This is buyer-initiated invoicing, part of KRA's eTIMS system, and for many small suppliers it is the main way their sales get onto KRA's records. Accepting is usually right, but only after you have checked what the buyer wrote. This article explains what the message means, what to check, how long you have, and how to fix a mistake.
Why the buyer is invoicing for you
KRA says that where a supply comes from a small business or small-scale farmer whose annual turnover does not exceed five million shillings, the purchaser must issue the tax invoice on the seller's behalf, using the Buyer Initiated Invoicing solution on eCitizen.
KRA describes the arrangement as being for sellers who cannot issue an invoice themselves: small-scale farmers supplying processors or exporters, and informal traders without invoicing systems. The buyer needs a valid eTIMS invoice to claim the purchase as a business expense, so the buyer raises it, and you, the seller, confirm it.
The buyer's side of the process is covered in buyer-initiated invoices for small suppliers and farmers.
How you will hear about it
KRA says the seller is notified by SMS or USSD. You do not need a computer or an internet connection to respond; the USSD route works from a basic phone.
Treat the message like any other request about your money. Read it fully, and do not accept it just to make the message go away.
What to check before you accept
The invoice is in your name, so its details become part of your tax record. Before accepting, check each of these against what you actually supplied:
- The buyer. Is this a business you really sold to?
- Your details. Is it your ID or PIN? KRA's guidelines describe a valid KRA PIN as 11 characters: the letter A for individuals and sole proprietors or P for companies, then 9 digits, then a letter, for example P123456789Z.
- The goods. Is the description right: milk, maize, tomatoes, transport?
- The quantity. Litres, kilograms, crates or trips, as delivered, not as ordered.
- The price. Is the unit price what you agreed, and does the total add up?
- The date. Does it match the delivery?
If everything matches, accept it. If something is wrong, do not accept an invoice you would not have written yourself.
KRA's page on buyer-initiated invoicing explains how the notification works, the time allowed to respond and how errors are corrected.
The thirty-day window
KRA says the seller has thirty days to accept or reject a buyer-initiated invoice. If you do nothing, it is automatically rejected after that. Once approved, the invoice goes to eTIMS in real time.
Automatic rejection is not a neutral outcome. Your buyer is left without a valid invoice for the purchase, which may delay your payment or sour the relationship. If you cannot check the details straight away, set a reminder rather than letting the window close.
Correcting a mistake with a credit note
KRA says sellers correct errors by generating credit notes, and that this applies to sellers using the USSD option as well. If you accepted an invoice and later spot that the quantity or price was wrong, the correction is a credit note, not a phone call asking the buyer to delete it.
Talk to the buyer first so you both agree what the right figures were. Then make the correction and keep a note of both invoice numbers.
Why VAT-registered sellers never receive one
KRA says the eTIMS system blocks buyer-initiated invoices for VAT-registered sellers. If you are registered for VAT, you issue your own electronic tax invoices, and a buyer cannot do it for you. If you are not registered for VAT and want to issue your own invoices instead of relying on buyers, see eTIMS Lite on eCitizen, USSD and the app.
Matching the buyer's invoice to the sale in your Achekam books
If you keep your books in Achekam, the buyer's invoice should line up with a sale you have recorded yourself. Create an invoice to that buyer for the same goods, quantity and price. When it is issued, it takes the next number in your sequence and posts to the ledger as debtors and sales, so your income and the amount the buyer owes are both in the books. Keep the buyer's eTIMS invoice number with your copy, so the two records can be matched later.
When the buyer pays, record the payment against that invoice. A part payment leaves the invoice part-paid, and anything extra is held on the buyer's account.
For invoices you raise yourself through eTIMS Lite or the eTIMS Client, Achekam lets you record the control-unit invoice number, internal data and receipt signature you received, and a second person verifies them before the invoice counts as fiscalised.
A quick routine for every notification
- Open the message the day it arrives.
- Compare it with your delivery note or record of the sale.
- Accept if it matches; reject if it does not, and tell the buyer why.
- Record the sale in your books with the buyer's invoice number.
- If you find a mistake later, agree it with the buyer and issue a credit note.
Keep your delivery records in one place, a notebook or your books, so checking each message takes a minute rather than an argument.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
