EGS Onboarding - ZATCA Phase-2 E-Invoicing

This blog is intended to explain the ZATCA's Phase-2 E-Invoicing process to a Taxpayer/EGS user in Saudi Arabia. So, I will address the "Taxpayer" as "you" throughout this blog.

Abbreviations used:

• EGS: E-Invoice Generation Solution
• ZATCA: General Authority for Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority​
• CSID: Cryptographic Stamp Identifier
• CSR: Certificate signing request
• TIN: Tax Identification Number
• ICE: E-Invoice Clearance Engine

Overview: With successful ZATCA Phase-1 E-Invoicing rolled out on 4 December 2021, Phase-2 is commencing in waves by January 1, 2022. Phase-2 E-Invoicing is also called the integration phase. The compliant EGS purchased by you in Phase-1 should now be integrated with ZATCA through the Fatoora Portal for reporting/clearance of invoices/notes. The integration process aims to automatically share the tax documents with ZATCA throughout the Financial year. ZATCA has published the detailed integration procedure for Phase-2 which involves several steps that should be completed by the given deadline. ZATCA portal will notify you 6 months prior time for the integration process being completed.

Integration procedure:

• Onboarding EGS in Fatoora Portal
• Reporting/Clearance with ZATCA through APIs
• Renewal/Revocation of the Production CSID

Let's discuss the Onboarding process in detail:

EGS Onboarding in simple terms is registering your EGS unit(s) on the Fatoora Portal with the TIN and identifier details about the EGS unit. On successful completion of the onboarding process, you'll receive a production CSID(Cryptographic Stamp Identifier).

Examples:

• Taxpayers can onboard a single EGS unit(has invoicing operation in one branch) with the Fatoora Portal with the identifier details of the EGS.
• Taxpayers(having one TIN) with multiple EGS(having invoicing operations in multiple branches) can onboard multiple EGS units with Fatoora Portal. Here, every EGS unit should be uniquely identifiable with the identifier details the taxpayer provides while onboarding.

Steps for onboarding the EGS unit with the Fatoora Portal:

• Obtain OTP from the Fatoora Portal
• Raise CSR request
• Clear the EGS compliance check by uploading sample invoices/notes
• Raise production CSID request

Obtain OTP from the Fatoora Portal:

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You can log in to the Fatoora Portal using the TIN or your registered email address and navigate to the Onboarding tab.

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Now, select the EGS onboarding option.

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Enter the number of EGS units you need to onboard.

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You'll now be able to see the OTPs. Copy this OTP for usage in the next step.

Raise CSR(Certificate signing request):

For raising CSR, you need to provide the below details along with the OTP obtained from Fatoora Portal in the previous step.

• Common Name
• EGS Serial Number
• Organization Identifier
• Organization Unit Name
• Organization Name
• Country Name
• Invoice Type
• Location
• Industry

You can provide the above details based on your EGS use case. The organization identifier is your TIN. Now, raise the CSR request and you should receive a compliance CSID.

Clear the EGS compliance check by uploading sample invoices/notes:

After receiving the compliance CSID, you should now clear the EGS compliance check by uploading a sample invoice/related note of the EGS with the compliance CSID.

Raise production CSID request:

With the compliance CSID, now raises a production CSID request to receive production CSID. This CSID will be valid for the next 1 year. You should securely store the production CSID and in case it is compromised/any security breach has occurred, you should not use it anymore for reporting/ clearance. Instead, a new production CSID should be raised and the old production CSID should be revoked. And, you should renew the CSID before it expires.

complyance seamless automation for onboarding your EGS with the Fatoora Portal: The complete onboarding process is automated by Antna's Invoice Clearance Engine through its simple UI.

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Once you sign up with us as a user, we'll redirect you to the Fatoora Portal UI and you need to login and get the OTP from the Portal and enter it in the Antna UI along with the other EGS unit details. After this, you can click the submit button and we'll automatically complete all the above-mentioned steps for onboarding the EGS unit and successfully get a production CSID and store it securely in a cloud vault for clearance/reporting usage.

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You can reach out to us for further assistance after this step.

Product Offerings:

1) E-Invoice Clearance Engine:

Taxpayers who already have a standard EGS(which can be an ERP or accounting software capable of generating compliant/non-compliant E-Invoices) can integrate with Antna's E-Invoice Clearance Engine(ICE) for ZATCA's Phase-2 E-Invoice compliance and integration. We'll integrate ICE with your Invoice Database, transform the invoice data to make it compliant, and share it with ZATCA's Fatoora Portal for Clearance/Reporting. Upon Clearance by ZATCA, you can share the cleared invoices with your customers.

2) Standalone EGS(without integration):

The standalone EGS will be launched in a few weeks with a free trial for small and medium enterprises with an unlimited number of invoices/notes that can be shared for clearance with ZATCA. You can start using it by self-signing up in the testing mode. Once ZATCA notifies you of Phase-2 E-Invoicing Integration, you can reach out to us for further go-live assistance. This free version cannot be integrated with any existing software like ERP or accounting solutions. However, your existing Customers/Items data can be imported using an excel file.

Reach out to us using the contact details for a personalized demo/further details regarding Antna's E-Invoice Clearance Engine integration.

We'll discuss the renewal/revocation and reporting/clearance process of ZATCA Phase-2 E-Invoicing Integration in the upcoming blogs.

Read our other blogs here

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