The short answer
There is no single number, and anyone quoting you one without asking what you sell and how you invoice is guessing. The cost splits into four separate things - what KRA charges, what software costs, what hardware costs, and what the change costs you in time - and only the first is the same for everyone. We do not publish figures for any of them that we have not verified, so the useful thing this page can do is tell you what to ask about and in what order. For general shops specifically, that plays out against how the trade already sells and to whom.
What eTIMS costs for general shops
A few hundred fast-moving lines bought in small quantities from nearby wholesalers, often restocked several times a week, with unga and cooking oil turning fastest. That is the background against which what etims costs has to work in this trade.
What invoicing actually looks like here
Nearly every sale is a small cash or M-Pesa transaction to a walk-in customer. A duka that is not VAT-registered still faces the question when a nearby business or a landlord asks for a proper invoice, and when its own suppliers start issuing eTIMS invoices that must be kept for the shop's own records.
What the rules say
Stated by the publisher from the cited KRA material. Our reviewer has not yet re-checked it against the source, so confirm anything you are about to act on with KRA directly.
KRA identifies several categories of eTIMS solution, among them eTIMS Online, the eTIMS Client, eTIMS Lite, system-to-system integration, reverse invoicing and buyer-initiated invoicing. Which one suits a business depends on how it issues invoices rather than on what it sells.
Tax rules in Kenya change with each Finance Act and with regulations made during the year. Before acting on any figure, deadline or threshold, check the current position on KRA's own website.
This page explains how a requirement generally works. It is not tax advice, and it cannot account for the specifics of any one business. For a position you intend to rely on, confirm with KRA directly or with a registered tax agent.
What we are not stating here. Some of the specific requirements relating to this topic have not yet been verified against their primary source by our reviewer, so they are withheld from this page rather than stated from memory. That means you will not find a threshold, rate, deadline or penalty figure below. For those, check KRA directly. Everything else on this page explains how the mechanism works and is not affected.
Four different costs, usually quoted as one
When a business asks what eTIMS costs it is usually asking one question, and it is usually four. What, if anything, KRA charges. What software costs, whether that is a channel you pay for or a system you already run. What hardware costs, which for some businesses is nothing and for others is a machine on the counter. And what the change costs in time - the hours spent onboarding, the staff training, the first fortnight when everything is slower. The fourth is the one nobody quotes and frequently the largest. It is also the one you can estimate yourself, because you know what an hour of your time and your staff's time is worth.
What we will not tell you
We do not publish current government charges here. Those are KRA's to state, they change, and a figure that was right when it was written keeps being quoted long after it stops being right. Take them from KRA directly - the same applies to any figure you find on any site, including one quoting a number confidently. We also do not publish software prices, because they depend on what a vendor is selling you and change per business.
Why a quote varies so much between businesses
A consultant issuing four invoices a month and a supermarket with six tills are buying different things even when they use the same words. The consultant needs a way to produce a document occasionally. The supermarket needs invoicing joined to a price list, a stock system and several counters that must behave identically, plus somebody to call when one of them stops. That is why the honest answer to "what does it cost" starts with questions rather than a number. A quote that arrives without those questions having been asked is priced on an assumption about your business that may not hold.
What to ask before you pay anything
Ask what happens during an outage, because a setup that cannot sell when the connection drops has a cost that does not appear on the invoice. Ask what is included after go-live: who fixes it, how fast, and whether that is a separate line. Ask what happens to your records if you stop paying or move to a different channel, which matters more than people expect - corrections have to come from the channel that raised the original document. And get the total across a year rather than a monthly figure. Per-month pricing makes two very different offers look similar.
The cheapest option is not always the lowest price
The lightest channels cost the least and suit businesses issuing few invoices. For a busy counter they are not cheap at all: they are slow at exactly the moment slowness costs money, and the usual outcome is that staff stop using them under pressure, which is the most expensive failure available. Match the tool to how you actually trade first, then compare prices within the options that fit. Comparing across categories produces a number that looks better and a setup that does not survive a busy Saturday.
Where this goes wrong
- Goods leaving on informal credit that is never written down
- Cash and M-Pesa mixed with household money
- Not knowing real margin after wholesaler price changes
Common questions
Does a general shop need to issue a tax invoice for every sale?
Nearly every sale is a small cash or M-Pesa transaction to a walk-in customer. A duka that is not VAT-registered still faces the question when a nearby business or a landlord asks for a proper invoice, and when its own suppliers start issuing eTIMS invoices that must be kept for the shop's own records.
What usually goes wrong with records in a general shop?
The recurring problems in this trade are goods leaving on informal credit that is never written down; cash and m-pesa mixed with household money; not knowing real margin after wholesaler price changes; stockouts on the fastest lines. Each of them shows up in the records before it shows up in the bank balance.
How should a general shop keep stock records?
A few hundred fast-moving lines bought in small quantities from nearby wholesalers, often restocked several times a week, with unga and cooking oil turning fastest. Records that do not reflect that pattern will not tell you anything useful, whatever system produces them.
How much does eTIMS cost?
KRA identifies several categories of eTIMS solution, among them eTIMS Online, the eTIMS Client, eTIMS Lite, system-to-system integration, reverse invoicing and buyer-initiated invoicing. Which one suits a business depends on how it issues invoices rather than on what it sells.
How do I know this information is current?
Tax rules in Kenya change with each Finance Act and with regulations made during the year. Before acting on any figure, deadline or threshold, check the current position on KRA's own website.
Sources
- officialeTIMS (Electronic Tax Invoice Management System) — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialeTIMS taxpayer portal — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialTax Procedures Act, 2015 (Act No. 29 of 2015) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18
- officialKenya Revenue Authority — Kenya Revenue Authority, checked 2026-09-18
- officialIncome Tax Act (Cap. 470) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18
- officialValue Added Tax Act, 2013 (Act No. 35 of 2013) — National Council for Law Reporting (Kenya Law), checked 2026-09-18