What actually changes
Four things, and only one of them is about tax.
Invoices stop being documents
Today an invoice is a PDF you email. Under the new regime it is a structured record exchanged machine-to-machine in the PINT AE format over the Peppol network, through an accredited service provider. A PDF becomes a human-readable copy of something else.
One invoice record, not four
Most businesses raise invoices from more than one place — the ERP, the storefront, a billing tool, sometimes a spreadsheet. Each needs to agree on the same record. Deciding which system owns it is the first and hardest decision.
Reporting becomes continuous
Rather than a periodic return assembled from your own records, data flows as transactions happen. Anything your finance team currently fixes by hand before filing has to be correct at the point of issue instead.
Master data has to be clean
Tax registration numbers, line-item tax treatment, units, currency. Fields that have been tolerantly wrong for years start getting rejected.
We are software engineers, not tax advisers. We build the integration and the data work; your tax adviser confirms what your business is obliged to do and by when. The UAE Ministry of Finance is the authority on scope and timing.
What we do
Six pieces of work, in this order.
The first two are the Discovery Sprint. The rest is priced from what it finds, not from what we assume.
Map where invoices are actually created
Not where the process diagram says. We trace every system and manual step that can produce an invoice, including the ones finance set up themselves.
Pick the system of record
One place owns the invoice. We write down which, what it owns, and what the others become — with the consequences of each option priced, not asserted.
Build the integration
Your ERP or commerce platform to the accredited service provider, in the required format, with the retries, idempotency and failure handling that machine-to-machine exchange demands.
Clean the master data
A reconciliation pass over customer tax registrations, tax treatment per line type and currency handling, with a report of what we found.
Build the exception path
Rejections will happen. Someone has to see them, understand them and fix them before a customer chases payment. That queue is part of the build, not an afterthought.
Prove it before go-live
Test exchange against real invoice shapes from your own history, including the awkward ones — credit notes, part-shipments, multi-currency, intercompany.
Who this is for
Bespoke or fragmented invoicing.
- Distribution and wholesale businesses invoicing from an ERP that was customised years ago
- Retailers whose storefront, POS and accounting system each hold part of the truth
- Logistics and freight businesses raising invoices from several operational systems at once
- Any UAE business whose invoicing runs through bespoke software rather than an off-the-shelf product that will be updated for them
If you run a standard, supported product and your vendor has committed to the UAE format in writing, you probably do not need us. We will say so on the first call.
Where to start
A two-week Discovery Sprint.
A fixed price, quoted before it begins
Credited in full against the build if you continue with us.
- A map of every system and manual step that creates an invoice
- A recommended system of record, with the alternatives and what each costs
- A requirements document and scope boundary
- A master-data findings report
- A risk register
- A fixed quote for the build
If the artefacts do not meet the criteria we agree on day one, you do not pay for the Discovery. That is clause 6.
Questions
The questions UAE finance teams ask first.
When does this actually start?
It depends on your revenue — the rollout is phased, with larger businesses first. The UAE Ministry of Finance is the authority on scope and timing, and the detail has moved before, so confirm your own dates with your tax adviser rather than with a vendor website. What is not in doubt is that integration work of this kind takes months rather than weeks, so the useful question is not when the deadline is but how long your own systems will take.
We have appointed our service provider. Are we done?
That is the part that had a deadline, not the part that takes the time. Your provider moves documents; it does not clean your master data, decide which of your systems owns the invoice record, or handle a rejection at eleven at night before a customer chases payment. That is the work, and it is where the months go.
Our ERP vendor says they will handle it. Do we need you?
Possibly not. If you run a standard, supported, up-to-date product and your vendor has committed to the UAE format in writing, take that route. The businesses that need us are the ones running customised or older systems, or raising invoices from several places at once. We will tell you on the first call which of those you are.
What does it cost?
We start with a fixed-price Discovery Sprint, quoted before it begins. You get a requirements document, a map of every system that creates an invoice, a recommended system of record, a risk register and a fixed quote for the build. If you build with us, the Discovery fee is credited in full. If you do not, the documents are still yours.
Can you work with our accredited service provider?
Yes. We integrate to whichever provider you appoint. We are not a provider ourselves and we do not take a commission on that choice, so our advice on it is not for sale.
Who holds the data?
You do. We work inside your cloud account and your repositories from day one, and you can remove our access at any time. Where data sits is agreed in writing before the build starts.
How long does the integration take?
The Discovery is two weeks and gives you a fixed quote for the rest. The build depends on how many systems create invoices and how clean the master data is — which is exactly what the Discovery exists to find out, rather than us guessing at it now.
Find out how big this is for you, in two weeks.
Most businesses discover that invoices come out of more places than anyone thought. Better to find that out now than in the last quarter before go-live.
- First response within one business day
- NDA in place before any disclosure
- Scoped proposal, not a generic quote
