Getting ready for Fatoora Phase 2: what to do now
Preparation work for Phase 2 breaks into four pieces any trade firm can do months ahead of its date: checking its wave, tidying its client data, arranging the connection solution, and making the daily routine automatic. This guide walks those four pieces in order.
First: know your wave and your date
Everything starts with the test ZATCA set. Wave 24 covers businesses with VAT-taxable revenue of more than SAR 375,000 in any of the years 2022–2024 (the deadline was 30 June 2026, now passed). Wave 25 covers businesses with revenue exceeding SAR 187,500 in any of the years 2022–2025, and they must integrate before 1 February 2027. Run the wave checker on this site and get your position in less than a minute — nobody can prepare for a date they don't know.
Second: prepare your business clients' data
A standard tax invoice is cleared before issue, and it carries the business client's tax number and legal name as registered. A wrong or differently-spelled number means a rejected invoice at the moment the truck is loaded. A tidy client list — name as registered, tax number, and usual invoice category (standard or simplified) — is the cheapest thing a firm can do now and costs nothing, and saves panic on launch day.
Third: arrange the connection and its stamp
The cryptographic stamp (CSID) is your system's identity with ZATCA. It should not be generated on your behalf by a third party you do not control — see the CSID guide on this site for the full sequence, from one-time password to production stamp.
- Hold active access to the Fatoora portal under your business identity — nothing starts without it.
- Prepare the tax number and business name exactly as registered, so the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) can be generated.
- Plan the cryptographic stamp activation well before your date — compliance-stamp firms pass before production stamps in the connection sequence.
- Decide who in the firm will hold the production stamp credentials going forward.
Fourth: make clearance, reporting and notes routine
Behaviourally, three things change day-to-day once you are active. Invoices are never edited after clearance or reporting: errors are corrected with a credit or debit note referencing the original document. Simplified household invoices are reported within 24 hours, making same-day in-system invoice creation the norm. And keeping customer approvals and measurements alongside each document becomes habit, because the cleared document is the official record.
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Read →Asked often, answered straight.
I invoice from a normal accounting system — is that enough?+
A Fatoora-connected system makes the connection part of issuing the invoice — clearance happens inside the invoicing process rather than after it. If you currently invoice from a basic system, you will need to upgrade to an integration solution before your wave date. Switching early this year is much cheaper than switching in January 2027, when every support team is full.
Do I have to complete any forms for ZATCA?+
A directly integrated business needs an electronic invoicing solution connected to Fatoora that generates invoices or notices conforming to the requirements, and connects to ZATCA's servers for clearance and reporting. There is no separate form to complete — your obligation is fulfilled through the integration solution itself and its cryptographic stamp certificate once it becomes active.
My firm is small and not VAT-registered — do I need to do anything?+
Largely nothing if you are under both the Wave 24 and Wave 25 lines and remain unregistered for VAT — the Phase 2 obligation follows tax registration and wave scope. But if you are registered for VAT, even voluntarily, or exceeded SAR 187,500 in any of the specified years, integration applies. And waves will keep descending, so a position of "I am not in any published wave yet" can change with later schedules.
What if I have only just started in January 2027?+
Expect limited time, full queues, and slower onboarding. January 2027 is peak demand for every provider's support team. Firms that start early get a calm slot; firms that start late join the same queue with a fixed deadline — and the penalty waiver also ends on 31 December 2026, a month before the deadline.