Changing, retiring or stopping your eTIMS system
The notices a Kenyan business owes KRA when it changes, retires or stops its eTIMS or TIMS system, and a changeover plan that avoids invoicing gaps.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Kenya
Invoicing systems do not last forever. An old TIMS electronic tax register reaches the end of its life. A business outgrows the online portal and moves to the eTIMS Client. A branch closes, or the whole business does. Each of these is a change to how sales reach KRA, and each comes with something KRA must be told.
The notices are short, but the timing is not flexible, and in some cases it runs before the change rather than after. This article sets out what the Electronic Tax Invoice Regulations and KRA's guidance require, and how to plan a changeover so no sale falls between two systems.
Thirty days' written notice before you discontinue
Regulation 6(2) of the Tax Procedures (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2024 requires a user to notify the Commissioner in writing thirty days before discontinuing the system.
That means the decision to stop using a system has to be made, and communicated, a month ahead. A business that switches off its old system on a Friday and tells KRA on Monday has already missed the requirement.
The Regulations also set out what users must do while a system is in use: keep it available at the point of sale, open to inspection and updated, and keep a maintenance ledger. Keep that ledger up to date until the day the system is retired, and keep it afterwards with your records.
You can read the Regulations in full on Kenya Law's copy of the Electronic Tax Invoice Regulations, including regulation 6 on discontinuing a system and regulation 4 on stock records.
The seven-day rule after an unplanned closure
Not every stop can be planned. Where a business closes unexpectedly, the Regulations require the written notice within seven days after the closure instead.
Write that into your emergency plans. If a branch is forced to shut by a fire, a flood or the end of a lease, someone needs to know that eTIMS notice is one of the first letters to send. For a full company wind-up, the eTIMS notices sit alongside the registry and VAT steps described in closing a Kenyan company properly.
Retiring a TIMS control unit device in iTax
Many VAT-registered businesses still use TIMS devices. KRA says taxpayers who adopted TIMS electronic tax register devices may keep using them. When a device does need to go, KRA says it is retired from the "TIMS Menu" in iTax, using "Retire Control Unit Device".
Before you retire the device:
- make sure every sale on it has been transmitted;
- note its serial number and the last invoice number it issued;
- confirm the replacement solution is working;
- send the written notice in time.
Why changing eTIMS Client devices needs KRA's help
Moving between different eTIMS solutions is fairly open. KRA says taxpayers can register on more than one eTIMS solution at the same time without KRA's approval. Moving within one solution is different: KRA says changing devices within the eTIMS Client solution needs KRA's help.
So replacing the computer that runs the eTIMS Client is not a job to do quietly over a weekend. Contact KRA before the old machine is wiped or sold. If you run several branches and tills, eTIMS for businesses with several branches or tills covers how the one-device rule affects your set-up.
Remember also that KRA says a credit note can only be generated from the solution where the original invoice was raised. If you move from one solution to another, keep access to the old one for as long as customers might need credit notes against its invoices.
Notifying current stock before closing, and counting it in Achekam
Where the change is a closure, stock comes into it. Regulation 4(3)(c) requires users to keep stock-in and stock-out records in the system, recording each local purchase and import, and to notify the Commissioner in writing of current stock within thirty days before closing the business. More on the stock rules is in eTIMS stock records.
That notice needs a reliable count. With Achekam's Warehousing add-on, a business keeps stock locations such as warehouses, stores, bins and vans, with the quantity on hand at each. A stock count sets a location's quantity to what was counted and records the difference as an adjustment, so the figure you notify is the figure you counted. Note that stock counts do not post to the general ledger; only till sales and till returns move the inventory account, so the accounting value of closing stock still needs its own journal.
Invoices issued through any eTIMS channel during the changeover should still be tied to your books. A Kenyan business records the control-unit invoice number, internal data and receipt signature in Achekam, and a second person verifies them before the invoice counts as fiscalised.
A changeover plan that avoids gaps
- Decide the change and the date, at least a month ahead.
- Send the written notice to the Commissioner thirty days before discontinuing.
- Set up and test the new solution while the old one is still working.
- Count stock if the change is a closure, and notify current stock in time.
- Run both in parallel briefly, so no sale is left without a valid invoice.
- Retire the old device through iTax, or contact KRA for an eTIMS Client device change.
- Keep the old solution available for credit notes on its invoices.
- File the maintenance ledger and notices with your records.
Put the thirty-day date in the diary the moment a change is discussed. Everything else in the plan can move; that one cannot.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
