Fiscal Machines

Fiscal Machines

Fiscal machines are devices that are deployed by the tax authorities in some countries to monitor VAT liability. They are also known by various acronyms, such as  ESD (Electronic Signature Device).

These machines connect to the business system that generates sales invoices, which could be either ResRequest, POS or the accounting system. The machine is programmed to read each invoice, record the sales and VAT values and place a signature (a unique string of numbers) on the invoice. The recorded values can be stored in the memory of the device or transmitted electronically to the tax authority.

There is also a manual machine called an ETR (Electronic Transaction Register). Such a machine is not connected to the invoicing system. Instead, the sales figures are entered manually into the device. It is not legal to use an ETR if you are invoicing from an electronic system.

An Electronic Fiscal Printer (EFP) is a device used by computerised retail outlets (POS). It stores sales details in its memory.

Fiscal machines can only be distributed and programmed by government authorised vendors.

In order to claim an Input VAT deduction for a purchase, a customer has to produce an ESD signed tax invoice.

ResRequest interface

To interface with an ESD machine, ResRequest simply sends the invoice to the ESD instead of to a printer. The ESD performs its processing and then sends the invoice on to a printer, where the printed copy emerges with the electronic signature.

The ESD has to be able to interpret our invoices. This means that the invoice has to contain certain fields, such as TAX Invoice header, vendor’s tax number, total sales amount and VAT total. These fields have to always appear in the same relative position. The onus is on us to set up the default invoice to contain all of the required fields. The ESD consultant then programmes (or ‘trains’) the machine to recognise the structure of the invoice.

Ideally, the ESD needs to be able to handle the following situations:

• A single invoice (i.e. each invoice is sent individually to the ESD)
• A single PDF file containing multiple invoices.
  A batch file like this can be produced from the Folio / Invoice report when you list multiple invoices, select them and click Print.
  The ESD process needs to split the batch file into separate PDF files for each invoice and send them individually to the printer. The ability to achieve this is dependent on the skill of the ESD consultant and the supplier/model of the machine. We are aware of consultants having used a PDF Printer program, such as Bullzip, to achieve the splitting.
  Examples of clients where this has been achieved are Asilia, Selous, Elewana, and TWC.
• Multi-page invoices. The ESD machine needs to recognise that, although the required fields maintain a consistent relative position, they may be split over multiple pages.

ResRequest setup

• Ensure that the Invoicing Unit name, address and statutory fields are set up correctly.
• Set the Invoice Options for the invoicing unit.

• Show Tax = on
• Tax Table = on
• Amounts in GL Currency = on
• Hide Tax Rates = on

• Ensure that VAT is selected in the Tax Table and that it is positioned last in the list. (It is positioned last so that it’s position relative to the tax total remains constant.)