ZATCA e-invoicing Phase 2: every wave, threshold and deadline

Phase 2, the Integration Phase, is the second stage of Saudi Arabia's e-invoicing mandate. It requires the invoicing system of each taxpayer to integrate with ZATCA's Fatoora platform: invoices are produced as signed UBL 2.1 XML documents with a UUID, counter and hash chain; standard (B2B) invoices are cleared by ZATCA in real time before they are issued, and simplified (B2C) invoices are reported within 24 hours. It began on 1 January 2023 and is applied in waves by VAT-liable revenue.

Compare your VAT-liable revenue in the reference years against the threshold for each wave in the table on this page. ZATCA also notifies businesses in each wave directly, at least six months ahead of the deadline. As of 10 September 2026, every business with revenue above SAR 375,000 in 2022, 2023 or 2024 should already be integrated (Wave 24, 30 June 2026), and businesses above SAR 187,500 in any year from 2022 to 2025 are in Wave 25 with a deadline of 1 February 2027.

Wave 25, announced on 24 Jul 2026: VAT-liable revenue above SAR 187,500 in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025, integration deadline 1 Feb 2027. It is the first wave below the SAR 375,000 mandatory VAT registration threshold, which means voluntarily registered small businesses are now in scope.

Failure to integrate is a listed violation. ZATCA's approach is warning-first: a first violation normally draws a warning, and repeated violations within twelve months are fined on an escalating schedule up to SAR 50,000. Integrate as soon as possible and keep a dated record of the steps you have taken; that is a far better position than waiting for a notice.

Clearance is real-time approval before issue and applies to standard tax invoices: ZATCA validates, stamps and returns the invoice, and only the cleared version may be given to the customer. Reporting is after-the-fact notification and applies to simplified tax invoices: your system stamps and issues the invoice immediately and reports it to ZATCA within 24 hours.

A Cryptographic Stamp Identifier is the certificate ZATCA issues to an invoicing unit so it can sign invoices. The Compliance CSID is temporary and is used only to pass ZATCA's compliance checks with sample documents. The Production CSID is issued afterwards and is used for real clearance and reporting. Both are obtained with a one-time password generated in the Fatoora portal by the taxpayer.

Yes. Onboarding is per e-invoice generation solution unit. A trading company with one ERP instance onboards one unit; a retailer with five tills onboards five. Each unit holds its own CSID, keeps its own invoice counter and hash chain, and must be renewed and, if replaced, re-onboarded.

XML following ZATCA's UBL 2.1 implementation standard, or a PDF/A-3 file with that XML embedded. The XML carries the mandatory fields, the invoice type code (distinguishing standard from simplified, and invoices from notes), the UUID, the counter, the previous-invoice hash, the digital signature and, for simplified invoices, the QR code data.

Nine TLV tags: the five Phase 1 tags (seller name, VAT number, timestamp, total with VAT, VAT total) plus the invoice XML hash, the ECDSA signature, the unit's ECDSA public key and, on simplified invoices, ZATCA's signature of that public key. Our free decoder shows every tag from a scanned QR.

Yes — the reporting model was designed for it. Simplified invoices are stamped locally and issued immediately, then reported once connectivity returns, within 24 hours of issue. Standard invoices are different: they need clearance before issue, so a B2B invoice cannot be finalised offline.

No. Everything Phase 1 requires — electronic generation, mandatory fields, Arabic, no editing or deleting, electronic storage — continues to apply. Phase 2 adds the XML format, the cryptographic controls and the live connection to Fatoora.

Yes. AmalERP issues bilingual Arabic/English tax and simplified invoices with the Phase 1 QR code, and integrates with ZATCA's Fatoora platform for Phase 2 — standard invoices are cleared in real time and simplified invoices are reported within 24 hours, from a unit onboarded with a Production CSID. We are not listed in ZATCA's solution-provider directory and do not call ourselves 'ZATCA-approved', because ZATCA says listing is not an approval; what matters is your onboarding, which we walk you through.