ZATCA Wave 25: what to do before 1 February 2027

Who does Wave 25 cover?

Wave 25 covers every taxpayer whose revenue subject to VAT exceeded SAR 187,500 in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025. One year above the threshold is enough. ZATCA announced the wave on 24 July 2026 and will notify each targeted taxpayer directly, so watch the e-mail and the portal account your company uses with ZATCA.

SAR 187,500 is also the threshold for voluntary VAT registration, which means Wave 25 reaches almost every business that is registered for VAT and was not already covered by an earlier wave. If your company was named in Wave 24 or before, the earlier deadline still applies to you.

What changes when your company integrates?

Since 4 December 2021 you have issued invoices electronically from compliant software, which ZATCA calls the generation phase. Integration adds three things: invoices are created as structured XML with extra fields, they carry a cryptographic stamp and a fuller QR code, and your software exchanges them with ZATCA's FATOORA platform as they are issued.

• A standard tax invoice, issued to another business, is sent to FATOORA for clearance. ZATCA checks and stamps it, and only then is it shared with the buyer.
• A simplified tax invoice, usually a sale to a consumer, is given to the customer straight away and reported to FATOORA within 24 hours of being generated.
• The QR code on a simplified invoice carries nine fields in the integration phase, including the invoice hash and the stamp's signature, not just the seller's name, VAT number, time, total and VAT.
• Credit and debit notes follow the same route as the invoice they correct, and must refer to it.

Integration does not change what a tax invoice must contain under the VAT rules. It changes the format of the invoice and how it reaches ZATCA.

What is the difference between clearance and reporting?

Clearance happens before the invoice exists for the buyer: your software sends the standard tax invoice to FATOORA, ZATCA validates it and returns it stamped, and you then share it. Reporting happens after the sale: the simplified invoice is printed or sent to the customer at once, and your software reports it to FATOORA within 24 hours.

In practice, clearance affects how you invoice business customers. If an invoice is rejected, it has not been issued, so someone must correct it and send it again before the customer can rely on it. Reporting affects the till and online sales: the sale is never held up, but every receipt must reach ZATCA within the day.

What should you do before the deadline?

Work back from 1 February 2027 and leave time for testing with real documents. The steps below take most of the effort out of the last weeks: confirm you are covered, make sure you can reach your FATOORA portal, set up software that integrates, onboard every e-invoicing unit and train the people who issue invoices.

1. Check your VAT revenue for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 against SAR 187,500, and keep an eye out for ZATCA's notification.
2. Confirm who in the company can sign in to the FATOORA portal, because the one-time codes for onboarding are requested there.
3. List every place that issues invoices: head office, each branch, each till, the online shop and any system that bills customers.
4. Choose invoicing software that integrates: it must create XML invoices, apply the stamp and QR code, send standard invoices for clearance and report simplified ones.
5. Onboard each e-invoicing unit with a one-time code from the FATOORA portal, so ZATCA issues its stamp identifier.
6. Issue test documents of every type you use, including credit and debit notes, and check the responses.
7. Agree who handles a rejected invoice and how quickly, and brief the sales team and cashiers.
8. Go live before the deadline and review the first week of cleared and reported documents.

What is an e-invoicing unit, and how many do you need?

An e-invoicing unit is each solution or device that generates your invoices, for example a till, a branch's invoicing screen or the system behind your online shop. Each one is onboarded separately with a one-time code from the FATOORA portal, receives its own stamp identifier from ZATCA and then signs the invoices it issues.

Count your units early. A shop with three tills and an office that invoices wholesale customers may need four or more. Onboarding is quick once the software is ready, but every unit needs a code from the portal, so plan who will request them and on which day.

Which mistakes cost businesses time?

Most delays come from leaving onboarding to the last weeks, forgetting a branch or till, and not deciding who fixes rejected invoices. Another common gap is customer data: a standard invoice needs the buyer's correct details, so incomplete customer records cause rejections that are easy to avoid if you clean them up now.

• Waiting for the notification before starting: the threshold is known, so you can prepare today.
• Treating credit notes as an afterthought: returns and discounts must follow the same route as the invoice.
• Keeping invoice templates outside the system, such as spreadsheets, which cannot be integrated.
• Not testing a simplified invoice end to end, from the till to the report on FATOORA.

How DynamoOS helps

Phase 2 is built into Dynamo Finance: clearance of standard invoices, reporting of simplified invoices, credit and debit notes, the QR code and the cryptographic stamp. Each e-invoicing unit is onboarded with the code from your FATOORA portal, and Dynamo Point of Sale receipts are simplified tax invoices reported through Dynamo Finance. Your company goes live after its own FATOORA onboarding.