How to Make Your Accounting System Talk to ZIMRA’s FDMS (Without Losing Your Mind)

If you’ve ever wanted your accounting, sales, or ERP system to magically send your invoices straight to ZIMRA without the need to print, scan, or sacrifice a small goat, you’ve come to the right place. Yes, fiscalisation is here, and yes, your system can do it—if you know the right tricks.

Step 1: Know Your Enemy (AKA ZIMRA FDMS)

ZIMRA’s Fiscal Data Management System (FDMS) is like that strict teacher who always wants your homework done exactly right. It expects your invoices in a certain format, with digital signatures, timestamps, and a lot of fields you didn’t even know existed.

Luckily, brave developers have already started decoding it. Two excellent starting points are:

• zimra-public by lordskyzw – Think of this as your cheat sheet for public FDMS endpoints.
• ZimraEGS by mabaega – A slightly more hands-on library for talking to FDMS from your code.

Step 2: Pick Your Weapon

Most modern systems speak JSON, REST, or SOAP. FDMS expects certain structured requests, usually over HTTPS, with a digital signature. If you’re using PHP, Python, or Java, you can integrate fairly easily.

Here’s a tiny PHP example using ZimraEGS:

require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use Zimra\Egs\EgsClient;

$client = new EgsClient([
    'api_key' => 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'env' => 'sandbox', // or 'production'
]);

$invoiceData = [
    'invoiceNumber' => 'INV-2025-001',
    'date' => '2025-09-30',
    'totalAmount' => 1250.50,
    'taxAmount' => 200.00,
    'customer' => [
        'name' => 'Dexter Wurayayi',
        'tin' => '1234567890'
    ],
    'items' => [
        ['description' => 'Laptop', 'quantity' => 1, 'unitPrice' => 1250.50]
    ]
];

$response = $client->submitInvoice($invoiceData);

if($response->success){
    echo "Invoice sent to ZIMRA successfully! 🎉";
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $response->message;
}

Pro Tip: Sandbox first. You don’t want your first invoice to be “Oops, I just sent a million-dollar invoice to ZIMRA”.

Step 3: Make Your ERP System Do the Talking

Now, your accounting system probably has some export feature. You can hook into it via:

• Database triggers: When a new invoice is added, call a script to send it to FDMS.
• Webhook approach: If your system supports webhooks, trigger the submission script automatically.
• Scheduled cron jobs: For batch uploads (perfect for lazy Fridays).

Example in Python using zimra-public endpoints:

import requests
import json

url = "https://sandbox.zimra.co.zw/fdms/api/v1/invoices"
payload = {
    "invoiceNumber": "INV-2025-002",
    "date": "2025-09-30",
    "totalAmount": 500.00,
    "taxAmount": 80.00,
    "customer": {
        "name": "Tech Geek Ltd",
        "tin": "9876543210"
    }
}
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.post(url, data=json.dumps(payload), headers=headers)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Invoice successfully sent!")
else:
    print("ZIMRA is angry. Status:", response.status_code, "Message:", response.text)

Step 4: Test, Debug, Repeat

• Log everything: FDMS will reject invoices silently if something is wrong. Logs are your lifeline.
• Sandbox is your friend: Test until your cat loses interest in walking across your keyboard.
• Error handling: Expect weird errors like Invalid TIN or Timestamp out of sync. Handle gracefully.

Step 5: Celebrate (Carefully)

Once you’ve connected your system, every invoice can flow automatically to ZIMRA. It’s like having a digital accountant that never sleeps—but don’t throw a party yet, compliance is serious business.

TL;DR

• FDMS = strict but programmable.
• Use zimra-public or ZimraEGS.
• Sandbox first, real invoices later.
• Hook into your ERP/accounting system using triggers, webhooks, or cron jobs.
• Log and debug everything.

Now your accounting system can speak ZIMRA fluently—without you needing to learn Shona or sign endless PDFs.