What do I do if my ZATCA invoice counter has a gap?

The invoice counter is a technical security feature of the compliant E-Invoice Generation Solution. ZATCA requires the counter to be tamper-resistant, non-resettable and incremented for every generated electronic invoice or associated note.

A gap should therefore not simply be corrected by resetting or manually changing the counter. The first step is to determine why the counter advanced, for example because an invoice or note was generated but subsequently rejected, cancelled internally, or otherwise not transmitted.

ZATCA's guidance also distinguishes between the invoice counter and submission sequence. A rejected document that is regenerated after correcting its errors receives its own new hash and counter value, while the previous invoice hash is based on the immediately preceding document in the applicable sequence.

Key points

• The invoice counter must increment for every generated electronic invoice or note.
• The counter must not be manually reset or reformatted.
• Do not attempt to reuse an already consumed counter value.
• Investigate why the counter advanced without an accepted submission.
• Rejected documents follow ZATCA's prescribed resubmission process.
• Previous Invoice Hash must maintain the required document chain.
• Counter and hash handling should be controlled by the EGS rather than manually edited.