Services and products under eTIMS
A salon earns from two streams: services like cuts, braids and treatments, and retail products such as shampoos and styling goods. Both are sales that should be invoiced. Services and products may carry different VAT considerations, and a compliant invoice records each correctly.
Most salon customers pay by M-Pesa, and the M-Pesa message is not an invoice. You still issue a compliant eTIMS invoice for the service or product. For business customers, for example a company booking grooming for staff, that compliant invoice is what lets them claim the cost.
Many Kenyan salons run a mix of employed and chair-renting stylists, which blurs who actually makes each sale. eTIMS does not care about that arrangement, but you should: recording every service against the stylist who performed it keeps both your compliant invoicing and your commission or rent calculations honest.
Running eTIMS in a salon
Set it up once and a busy chair stays compliant without slowing the client down.
- 1
List your services and products
Set up each service and retail item with its price and correct VAT treatment so every sale invoices accurately.
- 2
Issue an invoice per transaction
Whether it is a haircut or a bottle of shampoo, generate a compliant invoice, not just an M-Pesa confirmation.
- 3
Reconcile M-Pesa to sales
Match payments to invoices so your records and your M-Pesa settlement line up at the end of the day.
- 4
Track per-stylist activity
Use staff logins so you can see who served whom, which helps with commissions and accountability.
- 5
Price for profit after fees
M-Pesa fees and product costs eat into margins. Price services and retail deliberately so the salon stays profitable.
Salon eTIMS mistakes
Treating M-Pesa messages as invoices
A payment confirmation is not a tax invoice. Issue a compliant eTIMS invoice for the service or product.
Not separating services from retail
Lumping everything together muddies your records. Set up services and products distinctly.
No per-stylist tracking
Without staff logins, commissions and accountability get messy. Track who took each sale.
Skipping invoices on small cash jobs
A quick KES 200 trim feels too small to invoice, but those add up. Leaving them out understates your sales and leaves gaps an audit will notice. Every service is a sale.
A salon day handled cleanly
A client pays KES 2,500 for braiding and buys a KES 800 hair product, paying both by M-Pesa. The salon issues a compliant invoice covering the service and the product, with the correct treatment on each, rather than relying on the two M-Pesa messages.
At day end, every invoice reconciles to the M-Pesa payments, and the owner can see each stylist’s sales for commission. The salon pricing calculator helps set service prices that cover product and labour cost, and the M-Pesa fee calculator shows the cost per payment so margins are protected.
Over a week, the salon’s busiest stylist handles dozens of these mixed service-and-retail tickets. Because each one is invoiced and tied to her login, the owner pays commission on real figures and restocks the retail shelf from accurate sales data rather than guesswork.
Trading without eTIMS-compliant tax invoices risks KRA penalties, blocked VAT input claims for your customers, and receipts a business buyer cannot expense.
Veira signs every sale to KRA eTIMS automatically, so each receipt is compliant the moment it prints, with no separate device to reconcile.
Veira for salons and spas
Veira invoices services and retail products compliantly, reconciles M-Pesa payments to sales, and gives each stylist a login so you can track activity and commissions. Compliance and day-to-day management come together.
It runs on the phone you already own plus a free handheld terminal, so even a small salon gets clean, compliant invoicing and clear records without extra hardware.
It also keeps services and retail in one running record, so at month end the owner sees exactly what each stylist sold, how much retail moved, and what M-Pesa fees cost, without piecing it together from payment messages.
Frequently asked questions
Do salons need eTIMS in Kenya?
Is an M-Pesa message enough for a salon sale?
How do I invoice both services and products?
Can I track sales by stylist?
How do M-Pesa fees affect my salon?
How do I price services profitably?
How do I handle chair-renting stylists under eTIMS?
Do I invoice small cash services like a quick trim?
For salons, barbershops and spas, eTIMS is about invoicing services and products cleanly while M-Pesa handles the money. Issue compliant invoices, reconcile payments, track stylists, and price for profit after fees. Set prices with the salon calculator, check fees with the M-Pesa tool, or book a free demo to bring it all together.