The Single Account lesson established that one ledger, in two sealed currencies, records everything — and that an allocation engine, not the taxpayer, decides what each payment settles. This lesson is about interrogating that ledger: the search pages that let a taxpayer find a payment, trace an allocation, reconstruct a balance at a past date, and export the evidence. The SSP spreads the search surfaces across two modules. In Payments: Payment History ("search and view payment history per tax return"), Single Account Transactions ("view single-account transactions in both USD and ZWG (ZiG) for a date range"), Balance (the position today "or for any earlier date by entering the date in the search field") and Withdrawal Application History (refund-withdrawal applications and their status). In Taxpayer Accounting: the Summary Report (net balance per tax type for a date range) and the Tax Type Report (the drill-down "showing every assessment, payment and adjustment in the period"). Returns themselves are searched under Tax Return Management → Submitted Tax Returns, with confirmed PDF export.

The legal frame is the record-keeping law, confirmed verbatim this run. Section 37B of the Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] obliges every person whose gross income is not solely employment compensation to keep "proper books and accounts of all his or her transactions" in English and to retain for 6 years from the date of the last entry "all ledgers, cash-books, journals, paid cheques, bank statements and deposit slips, stock sheets, invoices, and all other books of account" from which returns were prepared — on pain, under Section 37B(2), of a fine of the greater of level seven or 10% of taxable income, or imprisonment up to three months, or both (NYS v ZIMRA 19-HH-617). The VAT mirror is Section 57 of the VAT Act [Chapter 23:12]: registered operators must keep books of account (computer-generated records "retained in the form of a computer print-out"), specifically including records of all supplies with "all invoices, tax invoices, credit notes, debit notes, bank statements, deposit slips, stock lists and paid cheques," open them to inspection at all reasonable times (Section 57(2)), and retain them for 6 years (Section 57(3)), with the Commissioner able to authorise alternative retention forms other than ledgers, cash books, journals and paid cheques (Section 57(4); PIL (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-HH-213).

The doctrinal point that makes searching more than housekeeping: in any recovery dispute, ZIMRA's certified extract from its own records is conclusive evidence (ITA Section 79 and the VAT Section 42 twin, established verbatim in the civil-recovery lesson — Trek Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-SC-056). The taxpayer cannot out-argue the Commissioner's ledger in a recovery action; what the taxpayer can do is know that ledger as well as ZIMRA does, catch errors inside the objection window, and hold a six-year archive of its own — returns exported to PDF, transaction listings, payment confirmations — that meets the Section 37B/Section 57 standard and supports any objection, refund claim or audit response. The lesson's discipline: search per currency, search by date range against your own books, export monthly, and archive what you export.

A ledger nobody reads is just a liability generator. The previous lesson showed why: allocations run oldest-first, currencies never net, and one stale debt silently redirects every later payment. The defence was the monthly reconciliation — and every step of that routine is, mechanically, a search: pull the Summary Report for a date range; drill into the Tax Type Report; trace a payment through Single Account Transactions and Payment History; reconstruct the balance at the date the problem began.

Searching matters for four distinct jobs:

1. Reconciliation — marrying ZIMRA's ledger to your own books each month (the Single Account lesson's routine, operationalised here page by page).
2. Tracing — answering "where did that payment go?": which assessment(s) a given remittance was allocated to, in which currency, on what date.
3. Reconstruction — establishing the position as at a past date: when did this debt arise, what was the balance before the disputed assessment posted, what did the account look like at year-end. The Balance page's confirmed historical-date search exists precisely for this.
4. Evidence — building the archive that record-keeping law demands and disputes consume: exported returns, transaction listings, payment confirmations, withdrawal statuses.

Where this sits in the course: the Single Account lesson owns the concept and the allocation doctrine; the Account Balances & Statements lesson (next-but-one in the queue) will own the reporting outputs in depth; this lesson owns the search mechanics and the evidentiary discipline around them.

No statute mentions a search screen. What the law governs is the record — yours and ZIMRA's — and the consequences of each.

B.1 ITA Section 37B: the income tax record-keeping duty

Confirmed verbatim from the source Act:

"(1) Every person whose gross income does not consist solely of salary, wages or similar compensation for personal service, shall keep or cause to be kept in the English language, proper books and accounts of all his or her transactions and, unless otherwise authorised by a competent court or by the Commissioner, shall retain for a period of 6 years from the date of the last entry therein all ledgers, cash-books, journals, paid cheques, bank statements and deposit slips, stock sheets, invoices, and all other books of account relating to any trade carried on by him or her and recording the details from which his or her returns for the purposes of this Act were prepared."

The annotated case on the subsection is NYS v ZIMRA 19-HH-617. The penalty, Section 37B(2) (substituted by Act 8/2011 w.e.f. 1 January 2012; the section itself substituted by Act 3/2009): a fine not exceeding level seven or a fine equivalent to 10% of the person's taxable income, "whichever is the greater amount," or imprisonment not exceeding three months, or both. Three drafting details deserve emphasis. First, the duty excludes pure employees (gross income solely salary/wages) — every trader, professional, landlord and company is inside it. Second, the list expressly includes bank statements and deposit slips — the documents that prove what the SSP's Payment History should mirror. Third, the six years run from the date of the last entry, not from the transaction — a continuously used ledger keeps its whole history alive.

B.2 VAT Section 57: the operator's mirror duty

Confirmed verbatim from the source Act (Part X — Compliance):

"(1) Every registered operator shall keep such books of account (which books of account, where generated by means of a computer, shall be retained in the form of a computer print-out) or other records as may enable him to observe the requirements of this Act and enable the Commissioner to satisfy himself that the registered operator has observed such requirements…"

— followed by the particulars: (a) a record of all goods and services supplied by or to the operator, in sufficient detail to identify the goods, services and suppliers, "and all invoices, tax invoices, credit notes, debit notes, bank statements, deposit slips, stock lists and paid cheques relating thereto"; (b) importation records (linked to Section 15(2)(d)); (c) "the charts and codes of account, the accounting instruction manuals and the system and programme documentation which describe the accounting system used in each tax period"; and (d) documentary proof under Section 10(3). Then:

• Section 57(2): the records "shall at all reasonable times during the relevant period… be open for inspection by any person acting under the authority of the Commissioner."
• Section 57(3): retention for 6 years — from the date of the last entry where kept in book form; otherwise 6 years "after the completion of the transactions, acts or operations to which they relate."
• Section 57(4): the Commissioner may authorise retention "in a form acceptable to him" in lieu of originals — except ledgers, cash books, journals and paid cheques. The annotated case is PIL (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-HH-213.

Note Section 57(1)(c): the duty covers not just the data but the documentation of the accounting system itself — a detail audited entities forget.

B.3 The evidentiary asymmetry: Section 79 and VAT Section 42

Established verbatim in the Civil Recovery lesson and carried here because it is the reason searching is a defensive necessity: in recovery proceedings a certified extract from ZIMRA's records is conclusive evidence (ITA Section 79; VAT Section 42 is the twin), and Section 78(2) makes the correctness of an assessment unchallengeable in the recovery action itself even while an objection or appeal is pending (Trek Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-SC-056). The practical syllogism: ZIMRA's ledger wins the recovery forum; the only forums where the taxpayer can correct that ledger are the objection (30-day window, Case Management) and the allocation query (E-Messaging); and both depend on the taxpayer finding the error in time — which is what the search pages are for.

B.4 Adjacent machinery

ITA Section 44 (production of documents and evidence on oath) and the information-gathering powers in VAT Section 58 sit behind the inspection right — the Commissioner can compel what the taxpayer should already have organised. The refund and clearance machines from earlier lessons (Section 48; VAT Section 44; the ITF 263 real-time check) all read the same transaction record this lesson teaches you to search.

C.1 The search surfaces, mapped to questions

Each confirmed page answers a specific question. Learn them as a decision table:

C.2 The tracing method: following one payment end to end

The canonical search exercise — "we paid USD 5,000 on the 12th; where is it?" — runs in four confirmed hops:

1. Payment History: locate the remittance against the return it was lodged for; confirm date, amount, channel. If it is absent here, the problem is upstream (bank/intermediary — the FA Section 4B 24-hour rule, established) rather than allocation.
2. Single Account Transactions: set the date range around the payment date, in the correct currency; confirm the credit landed in the Single Account.
3. Tax Type Report: open the head you intended to pay, same range. If the payment shows there in full — done. If only part shows (or none), the allocation engine has applied it elsewhere: open the other heads' Tax Type Reports for the same range and find the absorbing debit (the Single Account lesson's oldest-first doctrine predicts it will be the oldest open item).
4. Resolve: an allocation you dispute goes to E-Messaging (the guide names "requests to allocate a misallocated payment" as a use case, confirmed); an underlying assessment you dispute goes to Case Management within the 30-day objection window. Export and file what you found at each hop.

This method turns the allocation engine from a black box into an auditable trail: you cannot direct the allocation, but you can always see it.

C.3 The reconstruction method: balances as at a date

The Balance page's historical-date search is the time machine. Three standard reconstructions:

• Debt-origin dating: step the date back until the disputed balance disappears; the first date it appears brackets the posting — then pull the Tax Type Report for that window to identify the instrument (assessment, penalty, interest, migrated balance). Interest under Section 71(2) (and the VAT Fifth Schedule rates per SI 25/2025, established) runs from due dates, so dating the origin also scopes the interest exposure.
• Pre-payment positioning (the Single Account lesson's "reconcile before you pay"): establish the position at today's date before releasing a payment run, so you know what the allocation engine will see.
• Year-end snapshot: balance per currency at 31 December, archived with the working papers — the figure your financial statements' tax balances should reconcile to.

C.4 The archive discipline: search outputs as Section 37B/Section 57 records

The statutes demand six-year retention of the records from which returns were prepared — and the SSP's outputs are part of that record set in practice: the exported return PDF (confirmed export under Submitted Tax Returns), the payment confirmations, the transaction listings that evidence allocation. The disciplined routine, derived from the confirmed monthly-reconciliation instruction:

1. Monthly, after reconciliation: export/print the Summary Report (per currency), the Tax Type Report for any head with movement, and the Single Account Transactions listing for the month.
2. File them with the month's bank statements and deposit slips — the very documents Section 37B(1) and Section 57(1)(a) name — so ZIMRA's ledger and the bank's ledger sit side by side in the same folder.
3. Retain six years (Section 37B: from last entry; Section 57(3): book/non-book variants). For VAT operators, remember Section 57(1)'s computer-print-out rule and Section 57(4)'s limited authorisation regime — ledgers, cash books, journals and paid cheques stay in original form absent authorisation.
4. Keep the systems documentation current (Section 57(1)(c)) — if your accounting package changed mid-year, the documentation of both systems belongs in the archive.

The payoff is asymmetric: the archive costs minutes monthly; its absence costs the Section 37B(2) penalty exposure (greater of level seven or 10% of taxable income), an evidence-poor objection, and a recovery action where ZIMRA's extract is conclusive and yours is missing.

C.5 Step-by-step: the monthly search-and-archive walkthrough

1. Log in; shift into the taxpayer (user → taxpayer mode, confirmed concept).
2. Taxpayer Accounting → Summary Report: set the closed month as the date range; run once per currency; compare each head's net balance to your books.
3. For each discrepancy: Tax Type Report (same range, affected head) → find the first divergent line.
4. Trace payments via Payments → Payment History (per return) and Single Account Transactions (date range, both currencies).
5. Reconstruct timing questions via Balance with a historical date.
6. Check Withdrawal Application History for any pending refund withdrawals, and Assessment Notices / Audit Assessment Notices for instruments you have not minuted.
7. Raise allocation queries (E-Messaging) and objections (Case Management, 30-day window) as the findings dictate.
8. Export/print and archive the month's outputs with the bank statements (C.4); minute the reconciliation.

D.1 Individual: the consultant's missing QPD

Rudo (recurring consultant) pays her 25 June QPD of USD 1,750 through e-banking on 24 June. Her September reconciliation shows the QPD head short by USD 1,750. The trace: Payment History shows the remittance against the ITF 12B; Single Account Transactions confirms the USD credit landed 24 June; the QPD head's Tax Type Report shows nothing — but the income tax head's report shows a USD 1,750 allocation against a prior-year balance she believed settled. The Balance page, stepped back, dates that balance to a migrated entry. She exports all four screens, raises the E-Messaging allocation query attaching them, and — because the underlying migrated entry is wrong — pursues the record correction (Old-Period lesson machinery). Without the trace, her December position would have shown a QPD deficit, and Section 72(10)'s deemed-unpaid rule (Redan, established) would have priced the error.

D.2 SME: surviving a VAT inspection on paper

Pamberi Hardware receives a Section 57(2)-style inspection visit: ZIMRA asks for the VAT records for an 18-month window. Because the monthly archive routine has run since the Single Account lesson's scare, the file for each month contains: the VAT 7 PDF export, the input-tax schedule, tax invoices, the bank statement, the Summary and Tax Type Reports, and the Single Account Transactions listing. The officer's queries — two payments whose allocation dates differ from the bank dates — are answered from the file in minutes (the FA Section 4B intermediary lag, documented by the bank's stamped confirmations). The counterfactual is the Section 37B(2)/Section 57 exposure plus an inspection that escalates because nothing reconciles on the spot. The archive is not bureaucracy; it is the inspection's exit door.

D.3 Large corporate: the dispute file built from searches

Mukonde Holdings receives an audit assessment (Audit Assessment Notices, own sequence — confirmed) on one subsidiary for USD 240,000. Group tax knows the recovery forum will treat ZIMRA's certified extract as conclusive (Section 79; Trek Petroleum), so the objection must carry the evidentiary load. The dispute file assembled in a day, entirely from searches: the Balance reconstruction showing the position before and after the assessment posted; the Tax Type Report isolating the assessment and its interest accruals; Payment History and Single Account Transactions proving every payment the audit alleged missing (with the absorbing allocations identified); the exported returns for the audited periods; and the six-year archive supplying the underlying invoices and bank statements. The objection is lodged through Case Management inside the 30-day window with the file attached. Whatever the merits, the company fights on evidence, not recollection — which is the entire design intent of Sections 37B/57.

No reported case addresses the SSP search pages — the construct is administrative. The directly annotated authorities on the governing duties, stated honestly and briefly: NYS v ZIMRA 19-HH-617 (annotated to Section 37B — the record-keeping duty) and PIL (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-HH-213 (annotated to VAT Section 57/Section 58 — records and the Commissioner's information powers); the source Act presents both as section annotations without facts, so this lesson cites them as markers rather than narrating holdings it cannot confirm. Contextually load-bearing and walked in earlier lessons: Trek Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-SC-056 (Section 79 certified extract conclusive; Section 78(2) assessment unchallengeable in recovery), and the Section 37A return-is-assessment line. The search-and-archive discipline is how a taxpayer lives safely under those authorities.

1. Searching one currency and concluding for both. Single Account Transactions reports both USD and ZWG; the Summary Report position must be established per currency. A clean USD search proves nothing about ZiG. Correct approach: every search runs twice.
2. Reading Payment History as the allocation record. It confirms what you paid per return — not what the engine did with it. Correct approach: allocation truth lives in the Tax Type Report; trace there before declaring a payment "applied."
3. Reconstructing from memory instead of the Balance page. Disputes about when a debt arose are settled by the historical-date search, not recollection. Correct approach: bracket the posting date by stepping the Balance date, then pull the Tax Type Report for the window.
4. Treating SSP availability as the archive. The portal is ZIMRA's record, displayed at ZIMRA's pleasure; Section 37B/Section 57 place the retention duty on you, for six years. Correct approach: monthly exports filed with bank statements; never rely on "it's on the portal."
5. Forgetting the systems documentation. VAT Section 57(1)(c) requires the charts of account, instruction manuals and system documentation per tax period. Correct approach: archive system documentation on every accounting-system change.
6. Finding an error and sitting on it. The objection window is 30 days from the assessment notice; allocation queries age badly as interest accrues. Correct approach: the search routine ends with E-Messaging/Case Management action in the same sitting, exports attached.
7. Confusing the inspection right with a request you can defer. Section 57(2) opens records to inspection "at all reasonable times." Correct approach: maintain the archive so inspection-readiness is the steady state, not a scramble.

Work through the questions one at a time. Choose an answer and it is graded immediately, with an explanation and the provision it comes from. Your progress is saved, so you can stop and resume.

• The SSP's search surfaces — Payment History, Single Account Transactions, Balance (with historical dates), Summary Report, Tax Type Report, Submitted Tax Returns, Withdrawal Application History, Assessment Notices — each answer one question; learn them as a decision table and always search per currency.
• The four-hop trace (Payment History → Single Account Transactions → Tax Type Report → E-Messaging/Case Management) turns the allocation engine into an auditable trail; the Balance time machine dates any debt's origin.
• ITA Section 37B: six-year retention from last entry, English-language books, bank statements expressly included; penalty the greater of level seven or 10% of taxable income, up to three months' imprisonment (NYS 19-HH-617 annotated).
• VAT Section 57: the operator's mirror — supplies records with bank statements and paid cheques, importation records, systems documentation (Section 57(1)(c)), computer print-out rule, inspection at all reasonable times (Section 57(2)), six years (Section 57(3)), limited alternative-form authorisation excluding ledgers/cash books/journals/paid cheques (Section 57(4); PIL 17-HH-213).
• ZIMRA's extract is conclusive in recovery (Section 79; VAT Section 42) — so errors must be found and fought in the objection window (30 days) and the allocation-query channel while they are open. Searching is the early-warning system.
• The portal is ZIMRA's record, not your archive: export monthly, file with the bank statements the statutes name, retain six years. Inspection-readiness as a steady state.

Search page → question → evidence produced

The two record-keeping duties side by side

The trace-and-resolve flow

flowchart TD
 A[Discrepancy or query arises] --> B[Payment History - was it paid, against which return?]
 B -->|Not there| C[Upstream: bank or intermediary - FA Section 4B trail]
 B -->|There| D[Single Account Transactions - did the credit land? Correct currency?]
 D --> E[Tax Type Report - where was it allocated?]
 E -->|Allocated as intended| F[Close: export and archive]
 E -->|Allocated elsewhere| G{Is the absorbing debit valid?}
 G -->|Yes - genuine old debt| H[Accept allocation; cure the now-short head; tighten routine]
 G -->|Disputed allocation| I[E-Messaging allocation query with exports attached]
 G -->|Disputed assessment| J[Case Management objection within 30 days]
 H --> F
 I --> F
 J --> F

Statutes & sections

• Income Tax Act [Chapter 23:06] — Section 37B(1) (duty to keep records; six-year retention from last entry; bank statements named — confirmed verbatim; substituted Act 3/2009); Section 37B(2) (penalty: greater of level seven or 10% of taxable income; ≤3 months; substituted Act 8/2011 w.e.f. 1 Jan 2012 — confirmed verbatim); Section 44 (production of documents/evidence on oath — contents-level); Section 71(2) (interest context — established); Sections 78(2)/79 (recovery-forum conclusiveness — established in the Civil Recovery lesson).
• VAT Act [Chapter 23:12] — Section 57(1)–(4) (records, particulars incl. bank statements and systems documentation, print-out rule, inspection, six-year retention, alternative-form authorisation — confirmed verbatim); Section 58 (information powers — confirmed in part); Section 42 (conclusive-evidence twin — established).
• Finance Act [Chapter 23:04] — Section 4B (24-hour intermediary remittance; upstream leg of the payment trail — established).

Case law

• NYS v ZIMRA 19-HH-617 — annotated in the source Act to Section 37B (record-keeping duty); cited as a marker, facts not narrated in the source.
• PIL (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-HH-213 — annotated to VAT Part X (Sections 57–58 records/information powers); cited as a marker.
• Trek Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd v ZIMRA 17-SC-056 — Section 79 certified-extract conclusiveness; walked in the Civil Recovery lesson.
• None on the SSP search machinery itself — stated honestly.

ZIMRA guidance

• Comprehensive Guide to the ZIMRA Self-Service Portal (local source): Payments module pages (Balance incl. historical-date search; Payment History per return; Single Account Transactions both currencies; Withdrawal Application History); Taxpayer Accounting pages (Summary Report; Tax Type Report; Assessment/Audit Assessment Notices); Submitted Tax Returns PDF export; monthly-reconciliation instruction; E-Messaging allocation-query use case; 30-day objection routing via Case Management.
• Official SSP online help (https://mytaxselfservice.zimra.co.zw/help/ssp/en/default.htm) — unreachable this run; screen-level specifics flagged throughout.