What FDMS is

FDMS stands for Fiscalisation Data Management System, ZIMRA's platform for receiving fiscal transaction data from businesses in Zimbabwe. ZIMRA defines fiscalisation as the configuring of fiscal devices to enable them to record and transmit sales and other tax information at the time of sale to the ZIMRA servers, for use by the authority in Value Added Tax administration (ZIMRA, Fiscalisation Explained). FDMS is the receiving end of that transmission.

Because the data leaves at the time of sale, fiscalisation lives inside daily trading. ZIMRA's guidance puts compliance with the requirements of FDMS on VAT registered operators, and the devices doing the recording sit where the invoices are raised: the shop floor, the back office, the server room.

Who has to fiscalise

ZIMRA states that all Value Added Tax registered operators should fiscalise as outlined in SI 104 of 2010 and must comply with the requirements of FDMS. Its guidance also sets out an obligation for all taxpayers to fiscalise in terms of Section 90 of the Income Tax Act [CAP 23:06], as read with Section 80D and Section 80DD of the same Act, and states that this obligation applies to taxpayers with an annual turnover below the VAT registration threshold of USD 25,000.00. Sitting under the threshold carries an obligation of its own.

How that lands on a particular business depends on how it is registered, what it sells and how it invoices. Read ZIMRA's published guidance and keep an eye on its public notices, because requirements in this area change; confirm your own position with ZIMRA or a qualified tax adviser before you plan around it. Nothing on this page is tax or legal advice.

Fiscal devices and fiscal memory

ZIMRA describes fiscal devices as electronic devices used in the recording of transactional data before it is sent to the ZIMRA servers, and they may be hardware based (physical devices) or software based (virtual devices). Built permanently into a fiscalised device is a fiscal memory, which ZIMRA defines as a special read only memory that stores tax information at the time of the sale.

The broad categories ZIMRA lists as available in the market are:

Fiscalised electronic registers, also referred to as cash registers or electronic tax registers (ETRs)
Fiscalised printers
Electronic signature devices (ESDs)
Virtual fiscal devices (VFDs)

The choice among them is yours. ZIMRA states that VAT registered operators and other taxpayers not registered for VAT are allowed to choose any fiscal devices they prefer, based on the nature of their business and their capacity to implement the chosen option. That choice decides most of the cost and most of the disruption, and it deserves more thought than it usually gets.

Virtual fiscalisation and the API

Virtual fiscalisation, in ZIMRA's description, is the use of software based virtual fiscal devices, an application programming interface, or POS software applications compatible with FDMS for recording, transmitting or interfacing with ZIMRA servers. The options it sets out are a direct interface from the taxpayer's server to the ZIMRA server, and a direct interface from the taxpayer's accounting or POS system to the ZIMRA server.

Any registered operator is eligible for virtual fiscalisation depending on taxpayer needs and the ability to develop APIs for interfacing with the ZIMRA FDMS. ZIMRA describes the route as suitable for medium to large taxpayers, especially those who process their transactions on connected servers, accounting systems and point of sale systems, and states that small traders can also use virtual fiscalisation through a mobile point of sale. The API for this option can be accessed by taxpayers free of charge from the ZIMRA website, where the fiscalisation API documentation is published.

Free access to an interface is a starting point. The development, configuration and testing that make your own system speak to it stay on your side of the line, and the ability to develop APIs for interfacing with FDMS is ZIMRA's own stated condition for this route. How much work that means depends on the system you invoice from, the version you run, and what it will let another application read.

Hardware and approved suppliers

ZIMRA states that hardware fiscal devices should be acquired from the approved suppliers, and that those suppliers will assist taxpayers in identifying appropriate devices, install the devices and provide training on appropriate usage (Fiscalisation Explained). "Approved supplier" is ZIMRA's own term for those hardware vendors, and it is worth being precise about, because it does not stretch to cover every business with something to sell in this market.

The gap that opens after a hardware installation is a familiar one: a device standing on the counter, an accounting system running behind it, and a person keying the same invoice into both. Closing that gap is integration work, separate from the supply of the device itself.

Incentives on acquisition

ZIMRA publishes incentives attached to acquiring fiscal devices. Registered operators can claim 50% of the cost of acquisition of the fiscal electronic registers as Input Tax on their VAT 7 Return, and the remaining 50% is spread over two years and claimed as SIA on the Income Tax Return (ITF 12C). For approved suppliers, ZIMRA lists a rebate of duty, no VAT on importation, and zero-rating of the local supply. The wording of each incentive sits on ZIMRA's Fiscalisation Explained page.

What non-compliance exposes you to

ZIMRA publishes the offences and penalties attached to fiscalisation, citing SI 104 of 2010 as read with SI 148 of 2016 and SI 153 of 2016. A person who fails to fiscalise in terms of section 3 is liable for a civil penalty of US$25.00 per point of sale, for each day the taxpayer remains in default, not exceeding a period of one hundred and eighty-one days. Where the person continues to be in default after 181 days, ZIMRA states they shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level seven or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment. The source is ZIMRA's Offences and Penalties in Fiscalisation page.

Read the per-point-of-sale wording closely, because a business running several tills is exposed several times over for the same day. The same ZIMRA page lists offences for manufacturing, selling or distributing unapproved fiscal devices, and for failure to comply with the Second Schedule. We have deliberately left out the current monetary value of a level seven fine, and you should not assume one.

Choosing an approach

The deciding questions are practical: where your invoices are created, how many locations and points of sale you run, how reliable connectivity is at each, and what your accounting system will let another application read. Two businesses running the same accounting product on different versions can face quite different work, which is why a compatibility assessment comes before any quote, and why a guaranteed go-live date from anyone deserves suspicion.

Africube supplies no fiscal hardware and holds no endorsement from ZIMRA. Our integration work is built to the ZIMRA FDMS specification, and access to your accounting data is read-only. We read, never write. Your books stay untouched. Sage Evolution, Sage Pastel and QuickBooks are the environments we work in.

Bring six things to a first conversation and it becomes a scoping exercise: your registration position as confirmed by ZIMRA; the system you invoice from, its version and where it is hosted; every location and point of sale, plus any fiscal devices you already own; your invoice workflow, including who raises credit notes; sample documents with confidential details removed; and the name of the person who will own the daily fiscalisation routine once you are live.

Read about Africube's ZIMRA FDMS integration, our Sage Evolution integration service, or tell us what you are running now.

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