Fiji VAT Monitoring System

Owned by Mike Sheen
Last updated: Feb 16, 2023
9 min read



About

The Fiji Revenue & Customs Service (FRCS) has implemented a VAT Monitoring System (VMS).

The system requires all invoices and credits (refunds) to be submitted to the FRCS VMS Web Service (known as the Virtual Sales Data Controller or V-SDC) or a local device or service (known as an External Sales Data Controller or E-SDC), and a response containing the receipt to be made available to the customer for printing or emailing.

E-SDC Mode has only been tested with the following devices:

E-SDC vs V-SDC

The V-SDC method uses direct calls to the FRCS VMS web service.  This method relies solely on digital certificates obtained from FRCS.  If there is any event which prevents network connectivity to the FRCS VMS web service, then sales orders (invoices) and quotes (proforma invoices) will not be able to be printed or emailed.

The E-SDC method uses a web service or device installed or available on the local network, which uses a smart card obtained from FRCS.  The E-SDC web service or device will sign requests and then forward them to the FRCS VMS web service.  If the FRCS VMS web service is unreachable, the E-SDC web service or device will batch up requests and send them once the FRCS VMS web service is reachable again.

E-SDC will allow you to continue to trade during network connectivity interruptions, V-SDC will not.

For more information about VMS, visit https://www.frcs.org.fj/our-services/vat-monitoring-system-vms/ and https://www.frcs.org.fj/our-services/vat-monitoring-system-vms/efd-accreditation-instructions/



How Jiwa Can Comply

A plugin for Jiwa 07.02.01 SR2 or later makes Jiwa compliant with the requirements of the FRCS VMS.

Before a sales order, credit note or quote will be permitted to be printed or emailed, a successful response from the FRCS VMS Web Service (V-SDC) or an approved E-SDC device / service is required.  The plugin performs this request and processes the response - any errors are reported to the user and the processing is cancelled.

Successful requests will allow the printing or emailing to complete and the response stored in new tables, SO_History_FiscalReceipt and SO_History_FiscalReceipt_TaxItem for sales and QO_History_FiscalReceipt and QO_History_FiscalReceipt_TaxItem for quotes.  New reports attached to the plugin will print the required Fiscal Receipt or Proforma Invoice (quote) from the data in these new tables.



Configuration

Digital Certificates

Root and Intermediate digital certificates need to be installed into the certificate store.  For E-SDC this only needs to be done on the machine(s) connected to the E-SDC device / service.  For V-SDC this must be done on each machine.

Certificates to be installed in the Local Machine stores:

Name

Store

Certifcate

Name

Store

Certifcate

VMSRCA.cer

Trusted Root Certification Authorities

VMSRCAStaging.cer

Trusted Root Certification Authorities

VMSICA1.cer

Intermediate Certification Authorities 

VMSICA1Staging.cer

Intermediate Certification Authorities 

V-SDC mode will require also the digital certificates (staging and production) provided to you by FRCS to be added to the documents tab of the plugin.

Tax Rates Configuration

As each item sold may attract multiple tax rates, and the invoice or credit signing request is required to specify which tax rates each item attracts, some customisation to the tax maintenance form has been implemented and some configuration effort is required of the Jiwa user to setup the tax rates accordingly.

Each base tax rate should have it's Label field (a new column) set according to the following table:

Description

Rate

Label

Description

Rate

Label

ECAL

10.00

F

PB

0.00

P

STT

6.00

E

VAT

9.00

A



Composite rates will need to be created for rates which are to be used for items which attract multiple rates. This is done by using the lookup button to the right of the Rate % field, which allows you to select multiple sub rates to use for the composite rate:

The composite rate will automatically have it's Rate % locked and calculated to be the sum of the sub rates.

Note that when sales orders or credit notes are processed, the General Ledger Account to use for the posting of the tax amounts per line of the sales order will use the General Ledger Account of each sub-rate - the tax amount is dispersed across each sub rate, and the General Ledger Account of the parent rate is ignored.  You may wish to create and assign different General Ledger Accounts to each sub rate if you have not already done so.

For every GST Outwards Rate, you should have a matching GST Adjustments Outwards rate. The Labels and tax rates, subrates should match otherwise when crediting invoices using these rates errors will occur.



Inventory Maintenance

Products on the Inventory Maintenance form should have their tax rates set to the appropriate rates, either a composite rate or base rate.

Direct Tax (Plastic Bags)

Plastic bags in Fiji attract a flat $0.50 tax, regardless of price.  To achieve this in Jiwa, the tax rate on the tax maintenance form for use by Plastic bag products should have their rates set to a plastic bag rate (rate of 0.00% with a tax label of P) and each product which is to attract the flat rate Plastic Bag tax of $0.50 to have their Direct Tax set to 0.50.

Plugin Maintenance

The following steps must be performed in sequence

  1. Import the plugin Fiji Government VMS via the Plugin Maintenance form and save.

  2. On the Documents tab of the plugin, right click on the Fiji Government VML.sql document and save to the local file system

  3. Run the script saved in the previous step in SQL Management Studio against the database.

  4. On the Documents tab of the plugin, right click on the FRCS VMS POS Invoice 56mm.rpt document and save to local file system

  5. On the Documents tab of the plugin, right click on the FRCS VMS A4 Invoice Portrait.rpt document and save to local file system

  6. On the Documents tab of the plugin, right click on the FRCS VMS A4 Proforma Invoice Portrait.rpt document and save to local file system

  7. Open the Report Configuration form and select Refresh From Files tool from the ribbon and select the files saved in step 4. Save.

  8. Save the plugin.

  9. Exit Jiwa

  10. Open and login to Jiwa and open the System Configuration form - select the Fiji Government VMS tab.

If using the SDCMode of V-SDC :

  1. Set the SDCMode setting to be V-SDC

  2. Set the StagingBaseURL field to https://vsdc.staging.vms.frcs.org.fj/

  3. Set the StagingPAC field with the value provided by the FRCS.

  4. Set the StagingPFXPassword field with the value provided by the FRCS.

  5. Set the ProductionBaseURL field to https://vsdc.vms.frcs.org.fj/

  6. Set the ProductionPAC field with the value provided by the FRCS.

  7. Set the ProductionPFXPassword field with the value provided by the FRCS.

  8. Save the System Configuration form.

  9. Re-Open the Plugin Maintenance form and locate the Fiji Government VMS plugin.

  10. On the Documents tab of the plugin, set the Virtual Sales Data Controller (V-SDC) Production Mode Digital Certificate document by choosing the lookup button and selecting the certificate provided by the FRCS.

  11. On the Documents tab of the plugin, set the Virtual Sales Data Controller (V-SDC) Staging Mode Digital Certificate document by choosing the lookup button and selecting the certificate provided by the FRCS.

If using the SDCMode of E-SDC :

  1. Set the SDCMode setting to be E-SDC

  2. Set the StagingBaseURL to be the URL of the staging E-SDC device or service (eg: http://localhost:8180/)

  3. Set the ProductionBaseURL to be the URL of the production E-SDC device or service (eg: http://localhost:8180/)

  4. Save the System Configuration form.

Staff Maintenance

A custom field against the staff member has been added - the TIN (Tax Identification Number) - this must be set for each staff member which will be processing invoices or credits at it is a requirement that the users TIN be sent with each request.

Debtor Maintenance

The ABN field of debtor maintenance should be set to be the customers TIN (Tax Identification Number) - this can be optionally set for retail / cash customer accounts - but for business to business transactions the TIN of the customer must be provided - so this should be set for all account customers.

Sales Order Entry

The Printer Setup ribbon on the Sales Order entry form should be invoked to allow the new reports - FRCS VMS POS Invoice 56mm.rpt and / or FRCSS VMS A4 Invoice Portrait.rpt - to be configured as a report available for generation from sales orders / credit notes.

Sales Quote Entry

The Printer Setup ribbon on the Sales Quote entry form should be invoked to allow the new report - FRCSS VMS A4 Proforma Invoice Portrait.rpt - to be configured as a report available for generation from sales quotes.

Testing

Configuration

Open the System Configuration form, and on the Fiji Government VMS tab ensure the SDCMode is set to the desired mode - V-SDC or E-SDC.  V-SDC will require a digital certificate in PFX format to be provided on the documents tab of the plugin, and the PFX password to bet set.

Conversely, E-SDC requires a local device or service to be configured and the staging and production URLs to be set accordingly.

Ensure the StagingMode setting is checked.

When StagingMode is checked, the Staging settings are used as opposed to the Production settings.

Sales Orders Entry

Printing Invoice / Credit Note

Whenever any report of type Invoice is printed or the sales order, an Invoice Fiscalisation Request is sent to the FRCS VMS beforehand.

From the Ribbon on the Sales Order form, select the Print tool to open the Print Report dialog. Select the FRCS VMS A4 Invoice Portrait report or the FRCS VMS POS report added previously.

This will then print the report selected:

The QR Code on the report is a clickable hyperlink - so if the report is attached as a PDF to an email, the recipient will be able to click the QR Code instead of using a camera / QR Code scanner to visit the hyperlink - as per the Technical Instructions for Developers.

Sales Order Processing

Note that the general ledger journal posted for sales orders and credit notes are also modified to use the GL accounts associated with the taxation sub rates instead of the parent rate.

Sales Quote Entry

Printing a Sales Quote

Whenever a quote is printed, a Proforma Invoice Fiscalisation Request is sent to the FRCS VMS beforehand. Select the FRCS VMS A4 Proforma Invoice Portrait report to print a compliant proforma invoice.



Switching to Production

Having successfully tested StagingMode, the system can be switched to Production mode by opening the System Configuration form and on the Fiji Government VMS tab, uncheck the StagingMode setting and save.

Having turned StagingMode off, the Production system settings and digital certificate (stored on the documents tab of the plugin) are now used.



Plugin Download

Requires Jiwa 07.02.01 SR2

This plugin requires Jiwa 07.02.01 SR2 or later.



Click the link below to download the plugin xml file.  This is then imported into Jiwa via the Plugin Maintenance form.

Follow the instructions in the plugin description once imported.