Every business registered for VAT in Rwanda has to issue fiscal receipts through the Rwanda Revenue Authority's Electronic Billing Machine (EBM) system. If you run a restaurant, bar, hotel or shop in Kigali or anywhere else in Rwanda, your point of sale has to talk to RRA for every sale. Here is how smartPOS Cloud does it, and what it means for your day-to-day work.

Hosted EBM: no device on site

Many EBM setups need a dedicated device or a server in the shop. smartPOS Cloud runs the RRA Virtual Sales Data Controller (VSDC) for you, as a hosted service. You enter the TIN, branch and device serial number RRA gave you, activate once, and your tills report sales to RRA through smartPOS Cloud.

You can set this up from the desktop app or from the smartPOS Cloud web portal, under EBM device. The portal also shows whether the EBM service and RRA are reachable.

Items registered with RRA

RRA needs to know every item you sell: its tax category, its RRA classification, its units and an item code. smartPOS Cloud's item tax setup guides you through each one, suggests the next free item code, and registers the item with RRA when you save it. Goods also take an opening stock, so RRA's stock records match yours from the first sale.

A receipt for every sale

When a bill is settled, smartPOS Cloud reports the sale to RRA and prints the fiscal receipt with RRA's signature, internal data and QR code. Reprints are clearly marked COPY, as RRA requires, so only one original exists. Business customers with a TIN are checked with RRA, and the till asks for their purchase code.

If a sale could not reach RRA - for example because the internet dropped - it is listed in EBM sale records with a button to report it, keeping the same invoice number so RRA never receives a sale twice.

X, Z and PLU reports

RRA expects daily reports from your system. smartPOS Cloud produces:

the X report, with the sales since the last close of day;
the Z report, which closes finished business days and is kept permanently;
the PLU report, listing every item sold over a period with the remaining stock.

You can print them at the till or view and export them from the web portal.

Offline-first, still

smartPOS Cloud is built to keep selling when the internet is down. The till saves the sale and syncs it as soon as the connection returns, and any sale that still needs its RRA receipt is waiting in EBM sale records to be reported. Owners follow every sale from the web portal and the smartPOS Central phone app.

If you would like to see it with your own items, book a demo or contact the team.