How Business Central Helps Ugandan Businesses Run Smarter in 2026

In Uganda, tax compliance now happens at the moment of sale. Since January 2021, VAT-registered businesses have had to issue e-invoices through URA's EFRIS. URA has also told businesses in twelve listed sectors to use it, effective 1 July 2025 (URA notice). Here is how Business Central (BC) helps you cope.

What is at stake

• Penalties: failing to use EFRIS where mandatory means a penal tax of double the tax due or ten currency points, whichever is higher . 
• Deductions: no income tax deduction is allowed for an expense not supported by an EFRIS invoice or receipt, where the supplier must use EFRIS.
• Cost: an EPRC survey found 51% of enterprises reported negative effects from EFRIS enforcement, and 65.5% of those noted higher compliance and operating costs (Nile Post).

Where Business Central helps

1. One system for the whole business

Microsoft describes BC as a solution for managing finance, manufacturing, sales, shipping, project management and services (Microsoft Learn). Its Essentials edition covers finance, sales, purchasing and inventory (Centric Consulting).

Illustration based on the Microsoft Learn and Centric Consulting descriptions above.

2. EFRIS straight from the invoice

One vendor notes that BC has no built-in EFRIS client. Its extension registers sales invoices and credit memos with URA and returns the Fiscal Document Number, verification code and QR onto the posted document (ECOSIRE). Businesses with an ERP only need to integrate it with EFRIS once (Storecove). URA also offers a free web portal, which suits low invoice volumes (VAT Update).

Illustration based on the ECOSIRE description above.

3. Faster bank reconciliation

BC can match bank statement lines to ledger entries automatically (Microsoft Learn), helping you find missing payments and bookkeeping errors. In BC online, Copilot adds AI-powered matching on top of rule-based matching, which reduces the transactions left for manual review (Microsoft Learn).

4. Calmer VAT returns

VAT returns and payment are due within 15 days after month-end. EFRIS pre-fills transaction data, but you must still review and submit the return (VAT Update).

5. More AI help arriving

BC 2026 release wave 2 (version 29) rolls out from October 2026 into March 2027 (HBP Group). It focuses on AI-assisted finance processes, easier reporting and manufacturing improvements (Rand Group).

Be realistic

Statista notes that the high cost of internet access and limited electricity remain challenges for Ugandan businesses (Statista). Plan for both before choosing how to run your system.

Over to you: which would help your business most: EFRIS, reconciliation or reporting? Tell me in the comments.

Fixing a Missing TCS Service in the EFRIS Offline Mode Enabler (URA) on Windows

 When installing the EFRIS Offline Mode Enabler on Windows, you may find that Apache Tomcat installs and runs as two services, but the Tax Control Service (TCS) itself never registers, it's absent from `services.msc`, and browsing to the TCS URL returns a 404 error. Here's how to resolve it.

Start Clean

If a previous install attempt left things in a questionable state, uninstall completely and delete the install folder (commonly `C:\TaxControlService`) before retrying. A partial install layered with a retry tends to mask the real problem.

Check Your Prerequisites' Architecture, Not Just Their Presence

The most common silent cause is an architecture mismatch between your JDK and your Visual C++ Redistributable. It's not enough to have some version of VC++ 2015–2022 installed, it needs to match your JDK's bitness.

Confirm in Control Panel → Programs and Features:

• JDK 8 (64-bit) — the actual JDK, not just a JRE

• VC++ 2013 Redistributable (x64)

• VC++ 2015–2022 Redistributable (x64) — many systems only end up with the x86 build installed as a side effect of other software, while the TCS native service wrapper needs x64. Tomcat itself installs fine either way, so this mismatch is easy to miss.

Confirm Administrator Rights

If Windows 11 signed you in with a Microsoft or Azure AD account, don't assume it's an admin by default. Check Settings → Accounts → Your info, or Control Panel → Change the account type (which will tell you outright if you're the sole administrator).

Even as an admin, always right-click the installer and choose "Run as administrator" rather than double-clicking it, service registration typically depends on that explicit elevation.

Get the JDK/JRE Paths Right

The setup wizard's "Tomcat set jdk and jre environment" screen asks for two paths. For JDK 8, the correct JRE path is the `\jre` subfolder nested inside the JDK install (e.g. `...\jdk1.8.0_202\jre`), not a separately installed standalone JRE, which many systems also have alongside the JDK. Use Browse to open that folder and confirm it's populated with `.dll` files before proceeding.

Verify After Install

Once the installer completes with correct prerequisites, admin rights, and paths set:

1. Check `services.msc` for the TCS/TaxControlService entry

2. Start it manually and watch for error popups

3. Check the install directory's `logs` folder for anything unexpected

Quick Checklist

Check	Why it matters
JDK 8 (64-bit), not just JRE	TCS setup needs the full JDK path
VC++ 2013 x64 VC++ 2015–2022 x64	Architecture mismatch silently breaks service registration
Administrator account confirmed	Service install needs elevated rights
Installer run via "Run as administrator"	Being an admin user ≠ running elevated
JDK/JRE paths correct and populated	Wrong/empty JRE path breaks Tomcat setup

 Hello reader,

If your Business Central extension makes outbound API calls and one day they all stop working with a cryptic error like the one below, this post could save you days of troubleshooting. It cost me plenty of time before I found the culprit, and the fix took less than a minute.

You get an error like this

The Symptom

An integration that has worked for a long time fails out of nowhere. Nothing in the code changed. The same request works perfectly when you send it from Postman, but from Business Central, HttpClient.Post() simply returns false. No HTTP status, no response, no useful log entry. The request never leaves the service tier.

The Root Cause

The "Allow HttpClient Requests" setting on the extension is turned OFF.

Every extension in Business Central has a per-extension permission controlling whether its AL code may make outbound HTTP calls. When it is off, every HttpClient call fails instantly and silently. The nasty part is that this flag can silently reset when the extension is re-published or upgraded, or when the environment is copied or restored. So a routine deployment quietly kills your integration, and the failure looks like an external API problem.

The Fix

1. Search for Extension Management
2. Locate your extension and open its details (or ... menu, then Configure)
3. Switch Allow HttpClient Requests to ON
4. Retry. No restart or re-publish needed

Lessons Learned

• After every publish or upgrade, verify the flag. Make it a deployment checklist item.
• Test the same request from Postman. If it succeeds outside BC but fails inside, suspect this flag before blaming the external API.

Business Central/NAV ERROR A server was not found at "net.tcp://localhost:__/ChromiumTEST/Service". Either the URL is incorrect or the server is currently not available.

I noticed that issue could be resolved by changing the service account login to Admin user account.

Access Business Central running inside Virtual Box over the internet(Host must have public IP)

 Hello reader,

It took me sometime to achieve the request.

Generally you have a physical server with a public IP. The server could be running many other services.

In my case the server is running an older version of windows server.

So i installed a Virtual Box with new windows server and install Business Central there.

But getting Business Central to be accessible to outside network over the internet is the trick.

If that is your problem then you are in the right place.

I assume you have already installed business central in the VM and it is running

Procedure

Setup Bridged Network to all VM share host’s internet/network

• You need to first switch off the VM
• Select the VM inside virtual box menu
• Select settings
• Select Network
• Select adapter 2
• Make sure network is enabled
• Select Attached to  = Bridged Adapter
• Select appropriate adapter in the name
• Click ok to save

 This step is well explained here

Setup the VM to use static IP address

• This is the usual process done in the network section

 

Configure Port forwarding between VM application & Host machine

• This is done using the NAT network on adapter 1
• Go back to where you setup the abridged network. 
• Select adapter 1
• Select Port forwarding
• Map the host/physical computer IP address(Local IP) to VM static IP set in preceeding step
• Map the port number for accessing Business Central in VM to a chosen port on the Host
• Make sure those ports are allowed through the VM firewall settings

 

Configure port forwarding on the Router and firewall for external access. This is done on the Host Network. It also depends on the firewall/router you are using.

Good luck

ERROR Changing Business Central to NAVUserPassword Authentication "login failed for user 'NT Service\SSISScaleOutMaster150'. Reason: could not find a login matching the name provided [CLIENT:]"

 

Hello reader, I got the above error while attempting to change my Business Central to use NAVUserpassword authentication.

I have gone through the procedure as described by Microsoft BC Manual

However the error kept on persisting. I had to do many things, i cant tell really what worked exactly.

• First ensure you -> Grant access to the Business Central Server service account. You may read for more on this process.
• Make sure NT NETWORK SERVICE & your WINDOWS ADMINISTRATOR(If this is the default account you use to login to your business central database instance) account has full access to your Business Central Database.
• Restart your Business Central Service

That should solve your problem hopefully.

ERROR installing windows server 2019 in Virtual Box "windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms.Make sure the installation sources are valid and restart the installation "

ERROR -windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms.Make sure the installation sources are valid and restart the installation 

Am not sure what caused the problem but various individuals on Microsoft Community say different stuff. 

Here is a solution that worked for me

It's possible the media is corrupt in which case I'd try downloading from another location to avoid the same copy ISP has cached on their systems. some hypervisors such as VMWare add an additional floppy drive that causes install media to look for licensing on floppy, in this case remove the virtual floppy from guest and try again. Also try;
Bypassing Easy Install

• First start VMware Workstation
• Create A New Virtual Machine
• Select the option “I will install the operating system later”
• Then your new virtual machine will be added to your virtual library.
• Double click on your new Virtual Machine to start it.
• Then it will prompt that an OS is not installed and provide an option to insert the OS installation media.
• Simply click on Change CD/DVD Settings to select your ISO media then Restart VM.

Good luck