KRA eTIMS in 2026: Which Route Fits Your Business

Most businesses we speak to know they need eTIMS. Far fewer know which way of using it fits them, and that choice decides whether compliance takes your team five seconds per invoice or an hour every evening.

This guide is the plain version: why eTIMS now touches every business, the routes KRA offers, how to pick one, and what a good setup does that a rushed one does not.

It is not tax advice. Confirm how the rules apply to your business with your tax adviser.

Why it matters now

eTIMS - the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System - is how KRA wants every sale invoiced. It applies to businesses whether or not they are registered for VAT.

Two things turned it from a nice-to-have into something owners lose sleep over:

• Expenses need eTIMS invoices behind them. Since January 2024, a business expense that is not supported by a valid eTIMS invoice can be disallowed when you file, with some exemptions such as salaries, imports with customs entries and interest. A supplier who does not issue eTIMS invoices quietly costs you money.
• KRA checks your returns against eTIMS. From January 2026, KRA compares the income and expenses you declare with what eTIMS recorded. Gaps get noticed.

So eTIMS is no longer just about the invoices you send. It is also about the ones you receive, and whether the two sides of your books agree with what KRA can already see.

The routes, from lightest to heaviest

1. KRA's own tools: web, app and USSD

KRA offers eTIMS Lite on the web, a mobile app and a USSD option. You type each invoice in, and KRA records it. There is nothing to install or integrate.

Fits: a business raising a handful of invoices a month, usually one person doing the invoicing.

Breaks down when: volume grows and someone is retyping invoices from another system every evening, or several people need to invoice at once.

2. The eTIMS Client

A desktop application from KRA for businesses that want something more structured than the web tools, including working when the connection drops.

Fits: a small business with steady volume that does not run its own invoicing software.

3. OSCU - the Online Sales Control Unit

A system-to-system connection. Your own invoicing, POS or billing software sends each invoice to KRA as it is raised, and KRA's response - the control unit details and QR code - comes back and prints on the invoice.

KRA describes OSCU as suited to businesses whose invoicing is always online.

Fits: an online shop, a billing system or a POS that is connected most of the time.

4. VSCU - the Virtual Sales Control Unit

Also system-to-system, but the control unit runs in your own environment and syncs with KRA. KRA positions VSCU for bulk invoicing by businesses that are not always online.

Fits: high-volume invoicing - utilities, schools billing a whole term at once, subscription businesses - or operations with patchy connectivity.

5. Certified integrator or self-integration

For OSCU and VSCU you either use a product from a KRA-certified third-party integrator, or self-integrate: build the connection into your own software and take it through KRA's testing and certification.

Integrator product fits when your invoicing already runs on software that integrator supports.

Self-integration fits when you invoice from your own custom system, an ERP you have extended, or anything no ready-made connector understands.

How to choose in two minutes

| How you invoice today | Route that usually fits | |---|---| | A few invoices a month, by hand | KRA's web tools, app or USSD | | Steady volume, no invoicing software | eTIMS Client | | Online shop, POS or billing tool that is usually online | OSCU, via an integrator or self-integration | | Bulk billing, or connectivity you cannot rely on | VSCU | | Your own custom or heavily extended system | Self-integration, OSCU or VSCU |

If you are between two rows, pick the lighter one and move up when it starts to hurt. Moving from KRA's own tools to a connection is a normal step, not a failure.

What a good connection does that a rushed one does not

A connection that passes KRA's sandbox is not finished. These are the parts that decide whether it holds up in a real month:

• Items mapped once, properly. Every item carries its KRA item classification, packaging and tax type, so nobody on the till has to know the codes.
• Credit notes, not silent edits. A return or correction goes to KRA as a credit note against the original invoice. Editing an invoice after it was sent leaves two documents that do not agree.
• A queue for when KRA or the internet is down. Invoices are still raised, held, and sent when the connection returns - and never sent twice.
• Failures you can see. An invoice that did not go through is flagged on the invoice itself with the reason, and retried. It does not sit unsent until an assessment letter arrives.
• Every branch as its own device. Each branch or till registered separately and tied to the right company, warehouse and cost centre.
• Purchases pulled back in. Invoices your suppliers raise against your PIN fetched and matched to your purchase records, so you know which expenses are supported before you file, not after.
• Linked to payments. Where you take M-PESA, the invoice, its KRA record and the payment that settles it stay together, so one reconciliation covers all three.

The mistakes we see most

1. Retyping as a system. It works at twenty invoices a month and quietly fails at two hundred, usually during the busiest week.
2. One device for every branch. It looks simpler until KRA's view of your sales does not match any one branch's books.
3. No one watching. The connection works on launch day, a certificate or credential changes months later, and invoices stop reaching KRA without anyone noticing.
4. Ignoring the purchase side. Businesses focus on sending invoices and forget that unsupported expenses are where the money is lost.

Before you start: a short checklist

• How many invoices do you raise in a month, and from what?
• How many branches, tills or people invoice?
• Do you invoice in bulk, such as a whole term or a whole billing cycle at once?
• How reliable is your internet where invoicing happens?
• Who would notice, today, if invoices stopped reaching KRA?

Your answers point straight at a route in the table above.

Where we come in

• A handful of invoices a month? Setting you up on KRA's own tools and showing your team the routine is an Express job, done the same day.
• Invoicing from a POS, shop, billing tool, ERP or custom system? Our eTIMS service connects it to KRA, takes it through the sandbox and certification, and watches the first weeks.
• Already connected, but invoices go missing? A Launch Check finds where and why.

Not sure which route fits? Book a free scoping call and we will tell you - including when KRA's free tools are all you need.