ZATCA e‑invoicing, built into every payment.
Each paid booking produces a simplified tax invoice with its QR code and 15% VAT, signed with your own certificate and reported to ZATCA’s Fatoora platform. You connect once, from Settings. There is no second system to run and nothing to export at the end of the month.
- Phase 2: signed, with the QR code, and reported
- Arabic and English on every invoice
- Connected by you, in a few minutes
What happens in the seconds after a customer pays.
Nobody at your venue presses anything. This runs for every payment, whether it was made online or recorded at the desk.
21:15:02
The payment clears
mada, Apple Pay, a card, or cash recorded by reception. The invoice is for the amount that was actually paid.
21:15:02
The invoice is issued
A simplified tax invoice is built in the UBL 2.1 XML format ZATCA specifies, with 15% VAT calculated on each line.
21:15:03
It is signed
The invoice is stamped with your venue’s own cryptographic certificate and chained to the one before it, so none can be altered or removed unnoticed.
21:15:03
The QR code is added
The Phase 2 code with its nine fields goes on the PDF, on the customer’s invoice page and on the booking confirmation.
21:15:09
It is reported
The signed invoice is sent to the Fatoora platform, usually within moments. A simplified invoice has 24 hours to reach ZATCA, and a send that fails is tried again.
What ZATCA requires on a simplified tax invoice, and where it comes from.
A simplified tax invoice is the one a business gives a consumer. Every one VoM Flow issues carries these, filled in from what you already entered.
On the page
- Your name and VAT number
- As registered with ZATCA, from the details you confirm when you connect.
- Invoice number and time
- A number in sequence and the date and time of issue, to the second.
- What was sold
- Each service with its quantity and price, in Arabic and English.
- VAT at 15%
- Shown for each line and as a total, with the amount before and after tax.
- The QR code
- Scannable by the customer or an inspector, carrying the seller, the VAT number, the time, the totals and the signature.
Inside the file
- A unique identifier
- A UUID that identifies this invoice and no other.
- The invoice counter
- A number that rises by one with every document your venue issues.
- The previous invoice’s hash
- A fingerprint of the invoice before, which is what chains them together.
- The cryptographic stamp
- A signature made with your certificate that proves who issued it and that it has not changed.
Connect your venue to Fatoora once, from Settings.
You do this yourself. There is no integrator to hire and no file to upload. It takes a few minutes and the screen shows each step as it happens.
Step 1
Confirm your business details
Your name, VAT number and address as ZATCA holds them. They are what appears on every invoice.
Step 2
Enter a code from Fatoora
Sign in to ZATCA’s Fatoora portal, generate a one-time code for a new device, and type it in.
Step 3
The checks run by themselves
VoM Flow requests a compliance certificate, then signs and submits ZATCA’s sample documents to prove it does it correctly.
Step 4
You are connected
ZATCA issues your production certificate. From the next payment on, every invoice is signed with it and reported.
If a step fails, the screen says which one and why, and you can try it again or start over. Until you are connected, your customers still receive a tax invoice with a QR code; it is simply not reported.
Phase 1 and Phase 2 of ZATCA e-invoicing, in plain words.
E-invoicing (Fatoorah) came to Saudi Arabia in two phases. The second is the one that needs your system to talk to ZATCA’s.
Phase 1: generation
In force since 4 December 2021 for everyone who charges VAT. Invoices must be created and stored electronically, with the required fields and a QR code. Handwritten invoices and ones typed in a word processor no longer count.
Phase 2: integration
Began on 1 January 2023 and reaches businesses in waves by revenue. Your invoicing system must connect to the Fatoora platform, sign every invoice, and send each simplified invoice to ZATCA within 24 hours.
When it reaches you
ZATCA notifies each wave at least six months ahead of its date. Check your wave with ZATCA. VoM Flow is ready whenever yours is called, and connecting earlier does no harm.
What is covered, and what is not.
A booking business mostly sells to consumers, and that is what this is built for. It is better you read the limits here than discover them later.
Covered
- Simplified tax invoices (B2C) for every payment
- Credit notes when you refund, linked to the original invoice
- The Phase 2 QR code on the PDF, the invoice page and the confirmation
- Signing with your own certificate, and the invoice chain
- Reporting to Fatoora within the 24-hour window, with retries
- A stored copy of every signed XML file
Not covered
- Standard tax invoices (B2B), which ZATCA must clear before they are shared with the buyer
- Debit notes
- A separate device for each branch, or a branch under a different VAT number: a venue connects once, under one VAT number
- Reporting in a currency other than the riyal: those invoices are issued but not reported
- Renewing your certificate for you: when it expires, you connect again from Settings
After the invoice is issued.
An invoice is not finished when it is printed. These are the parts that usually need a person and a second system.
- The customer gets it
- A link opens the invoice on any phone with no login, and the PDF downloads with its QR code.
- Refunds make a credit note
- Refund a payment and a credit note is issued against the original invoice and reported the same way.
- You can see every status
- Each invoice shows whether it is waiting, reported, reported with warnings or rejected, and why.
- Failures are retried
- If Fatoora cannot be reached the report is sent again automatically, and you can resend one yourself.
- The files are kept
- Every signed XML document is archived as it was sent, and cannot be overwritten.
- The numbers agree
- Invoices are built from real payments, so your revenue report and your invoices tell the same story.
The words you will meet.
E-invoicing arrived with its own vocabulary. These are the terms on ZATCA’s portal and in this product.
- ZATCA
- The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, which sets and enforces the e-invoicing rules in Saudi Arabia.
- Fatoora
- ZATCA’s e-invoicing platform. Your system connects to it, and you sign in to its portal to authorise that.
- Simplified tax invoice
- The invoice a business gives a consumer (B2C). It is reported to ZATCA after it is issued.
- Standard tax invoice
- The invoice between two businesses (B2B). ZATCA must clear it before the buyer receives it.
- Reporting and clearance
- Reporting sends an issued invoice within 24 hours. Clearance asks ZATCA’s approval first.
- Cryptographic stamp (CSID)
- The certificate ZATCA issues to your system, used to sign each invoice.
- E-invoice generation solution
- ZATCA’s name for a registered invoicing device or system. Your venue’s connection is one.
- UBL 2.1 XML
- The file format of the invoice itself. The PDF is the copy people read.
- Credit note
- The document that reverses all or part of an invoice, issued when you refund.
Questions about ZATCA e-invoicing.
Does VoM Flow meet ZATCA Phase 2 requirements?
For the invoices a booking business issues to its customers, yes. VoM Flow generates simplified tax invoices in ZATCA’s XML format, signs them with a certificate ZATCA issues to your venue, adds the Phase 2 QR code and reports each one to the Fatoora platform within the required 24 hours.
Do I still need separate e-invoicing software?
Not for the bookings and payments you take through VoM Flow: their invoices are issued and reported here. You would need another solution for standard tax invoices to other businesses, which have to be cleared by ZATCA before they are sent, and for sales you make outside VoM Flow.
What do I need to connect to Fatoora?
Your VAT registration number, your business details as ZATCA holds them, and access to the Fatoora portal to generate a one-time code. You enter them under Settings, and the rest runs by itself in a few minutes.
What if my business is not in a Phase 2 wave yet?
Nothing stops working. Your customers receive a tax invoice with a QR code for every payment, which is what Phase 1 asks for. When ZATCA notifies you of your wave, you connect from Settings and invoices are signed and reported from then on.
What happens if an invoice cannot be reported?
The customer still gets their invoice straight away. The report is tried again automatically, the invoice shows its status in the Dashboard, and you can resend it yourself. Simplified invoices have 24 hours to reach ZATCA, so a short outage is normally made up well inside that window, and an invoice that needs your attention is marked in the Dashboard.
How are refunds handled?
A refund issues a credit note against the original invoice, for the full amount or part of it. The credit note is signed and reported the same way, so your records and ZATCA’s stay in step.
Can I issue tax invoices to companies?
Not standard (B2B) tax invoices. Those must be cleared by ZATCA before the buyer receives them, and VoM Flow does not do clearance. A company that books and pays like any other customer receives a simplified tax invoice.
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