How eTIMS and Tally connect
Tally is widely used in Kenya for bookkeeping and billing; eTIMS is KRA's invoicing and compliance layer. Integration means a bridge that takes invoices from Tally, signs and transmits them to eTIMS, and records the control number back.
Many businesses that use Tally for the till end up re-typing daily totals into Tally by hand from a printed report. Veira removes that step: it integrates with Tally directly, bringing structured sales and payment data into Tally rather than requiring manual entry.
It helps to be precise about what the bridge actually moves. An eTIMS submission is not a copy of your Tally invoice; it is a structured payload with fields KRA defines: seller PIN, buyer PIN where the buyer wants to claim input VAT, an item classification code per line, quantity, unit price, tax rate and tax amount. Your control unit signs that payload and KRA returns an invoice number and a verification reference. The bridge's job is to translate a Tally invoice into those fields, and to write the returned reference back so your books can show which invoices are cleared.
That translation is where the work sits. Tally item names are written for humans; eTIMS wants a classification code per line. Tally tax ledgers are structured the way your accountant set them up years ago; eTIMS wants a defined tax rate. Neither system is wrong, but nothing maps itself, and an unmapped line is a rejected invoice.
There are two routes, and it is worth being clear about which problem each one solves. A certified integrator bridges Tally to eTIMS and leaves your counter as it is. A POS that handles eTIMS at the point of sale clears the invoice as the sale happens, then feeds Tally structured records. If your invoices are raised in an office after the fact, the first route fits. If they are raised at a till in front of a customer, the second is usually closer to how the business actually runs.
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Sign UpHow to set up eTIMS with Tally
The general path for a certified bridge:
- 1
Confirm eTIMS registration and control unit
Your business needs to be registered on eTIMS with a working control unit before any integration can sign invoices.
- 2
Choose a KRA-certified integrator that supports Tally
Confirm certification and a working Tally connection before committing.
- 3
Map items, tax codes and ledgers
Align Tally's item codes, tax types and ledger accounts to what eTIMS expects.
- 4
Test in the sandbox
Run test invoices before the integration touches real sales.
- 5
Go live and reconcile
Confirm control numbers flow back into Tally once live, so records show compliance status.
- 6
Agree how credit notes and returns are handled
A credit note has to reference the original eTIMS invoice it reverses, so returns and corrections need a defined path through the bridge, not an ad-hoc adjustment typed into Tally afterwards. Settle this before go-live: it is the step most often left until the first return happens.
- 7
Decide what happens when the connection drops
Internet is not continuous everywhere in Kenya. Establish what the setup does when eTIMS is unreachable mid-day, whether invoices queue and transmit on reconnection, and how you confirm the queue actually cleared rather than assuming it did.
- 8
Set a monthly reconciliation habit
Once a month, compare the invoices in Tally against what eTIMS shows for the same period. The point is to catch a silent gap early, while it is a handful of invoices, rather than at filing time.
Mistakes to avoid
Re-typing till totals by hand
A common but avoidable step: a POS that brings structured sales data into Tally removes the transposition-error risk of manual entry.
Skipping sandbox testing
Test before going live, not after.
Mismatched item or tax codes
These cause rejected invoices between Tally and eTIMS.
Treating a rejected invoice as a Tally problem
A rejection usually comes from the payload, not the ledger: a missing classification code, a tax rate eTIMS does not recognise, a buyer PIN in the wrong format. Read the rejection reason before changing anything in Tally.
Leaving credit notes undefined
Returns happen in week one, not month six. If there is no agreed path for a credit note that references the original invoice, someone will quietly adjust the ledger instead, and the books and eTIMS diverge from then on.
Assuming certification once means certification now
Integrator certification and eTIMS requirements both change. Confirm current status with KRA rather than relying on a claim on a website, including this one.
A worked example
A trader closed the till each evening by manually entering totals from a printed report into Tally, a process prone to transposition errors.
Switching the till to Veira meant sales, payment method and eTIMS invoice references were captured automatically and brought into Tally as structured data, removing the manual step and the errors that came with it.
The part worth noticing is what stopped being a daily decision. Under manual entry, someone chose each evening how to summarise a day of sales into a Tally entry, and that choice was invisible once typed. With structured records arriving per sale, the eTIMS invoice number travels with the line, so an auditor's question about a specific sale has an answer that takes seconds rather than a search through printed reports.
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.
How Veira helps
Veira records each sale, payment and eTIMS invoice number as it happens and integrates with Tally, bringing that structured data into your existing Tally setup instead of leaving you to re-key it.
See how Veira works, or book a demo to see it against your own till reports.
Frequently asked questions
Does Tally handle eTIMS on its own?
Is this the same as comparing Veira and Tally as alternatives?
Does Veira remove manual till-total entry into Tally?
What actually gets sent to eTIMS from a Tally invoice?
How are credit notes and returns handled?
What happens if the internet drops mid-day?
Do I have to move off Tally to comply with eTIMS?
Which route is cheaper?
eTIMS Tally integration is about bridging bookkeeping and compliance, whether through certified middleware or a POS that already brings structured data into Tally. Veira does the latter, from KES 2,999 a month. See how Veira works, or book a free demo. For eTIMS access itself, see [Veira's KRA eTIMS login guide](/blog/kra-etims-login).
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