ZATCA has been rolling out Phase 2 (the integration phase) in successive waves since January 2023, notifying taxpayers of their wave date in advance. In this phase the invoicing system must connect to the FATOORA platform, and invoices must be issued in an approved electronic format with a cryptographic stamp and QR code.
This article is guidance, not a substitute for the official requirements published by ZATCA, which you should always consult.
What changes in practice
- Business-to-business tax invoices are sent to the platform for clearance before being shared with the customer.
- Simplified (B2C) invoices are reported to the platform within a set period after issue.
- Credit and debit notes follow the same rules and must reference the original invoice.
The Odoo checklist
- Company data: VAT number, CR number and the full national address.
- Business customer data: VAT number and address, because missing fields block clearance.
- Tax setup: rates, exempt and zero-rated cases, and exemption reasons.
- Onboarding of devices or issuing points and obtaining certificates from the ZATCA environment.
- A full sandbox test: tax invoice, simplified invoice, credit note, debit note.
- Point of sale: confirm simplified invoices are issued and reported from every branch.
- A clear procedure for handling and resubmitting rejected invoices.
Common mistakes
What most often breaks integration is incomplete customer data, manual invoices issued outside the system, and editing invoices after issue instead of raising a note. Fixing these before your wave date is far easier than after.
MUNSAQ projects include e-invoicing setup and sandbox testing in the core scope, because we treat it as part of accounting, not an add-on.
