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A ZATCA wave notification is the message the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority sends to the taxpayers it has selected for a wave of the e-invoicing integration phase, and it carries a date your invoicing has to be ready for. Many owners in Saudi Arabia are asking the same question after the twenty fifth wave was announced: am I in it, or not yet? You do not have to wait and wonder. The criterion is published, and you can test your own business against it in an afternoon.
This guide walks through that test, where to find the numbers inside your own records, how the notification reaches you, and what to do in the weeks after you confirm you are included. Every figure below comes from the authority's announcement and from the administrative decision published in the official gazette, and both are linked so you can check them yourself.
What a wave notification actually is
Phase 1 of e-invoicing applied to everyone at once. Phase 2, the integration phase, works differently: the authority selects groups of taxpayers, called waves, and each wave gets its own date by which its invoicing system must be connected to the Fatoora platform. From that date, standard tax invoices are cleared through the platform before they go to the buyer, and simplified invoices are reported to it.
The notification is how the authority tells you which wave you are in. It goes to the targeted taxpayers directly, through the contact details registered with the authority, which is one practical reason to keep the email address and mobile number on your tax profile current. The authority has also said it will inform following waves directly at least six months before their integration date, so a wave is not meant to arrive as a surprise.
One point confuses people often. The notification tells you the date, but it does not create the obligation on its own. The obligation comes from the published criterion, and a business that meets the criterion is in the wave whether or not the message has landed in the right inbox yet.
The Wave 25 criterion in plain numbers
For the twenty fifth wave, the authority set a single revenue test. All taxpayers whose revenues subject to VAT exceeded SAR 187,500 in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 must have their e-invoicing solution integrated with the Fatoora platform by no later than 1 February 2027.
The same rule is set out in the administrative decision published in Umm Al-Qura. It applies to persons registered with the authority for VAT purposes before the decision took effect, whose revenues exceed SAR 187,500, and it requires the authority to notify those persons through its approved communication methods.
| Question | Wave 25 answer |
|---|---|
| Which amount is the line | SAR 187,500 of revenue subject to VAT |
| Which years are tested | 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 |
| How many years must exceed it | Any one of them is enough |
| Who is covered | Persons registered for VAT before the decision took effect |
| Date to be integrated by | 1 February 2027 |
| How you are told | Directly, through the authority's approved channels |
If you want the background on the wave itself, the thresholds of earlier waves and the wider timeline, read our guide to ZATCA Wave 25 and who must integrate with Fatoora.
Four checks that settle the question
Work through these in order. The first one that comes back positive is your answer, and the rest are useful confirmation rather than extra work.
- Check the channels the authority uses. Look at the email account and the mobile number registered on your tax profile, including spam and archived folders, and sign in to your account on the authority's portal to read any notices waiting there.
- Run the revenue test yourself. Add up the revenue subject to VAT you declared for each of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and compare each annual total with SAR 187,500.
- Check whether you are already onboarded. If your invoicing system has a cryptographic stamp identifier issued through the Fatoora platform, someone has already started or completed your integration, which means your wave has arrived.
- Ask the authority if the picture is still unclear. Group structures, businesses registered mid year and branches under one registration are the cases where the published criterion needs a direct answer rather than an interpretation.
Read your VAT returns the way the authority does
Most of the confusion in this test is not about the threshold, it is about which number to compare. The figure that matters is revenue subject to VAT, not profit, not bank deposits and not the total of every invoice you issued. Take the standard rated and zero rated supplies you reported in your VAT returns for a calendar year and add them together.
If you file quarterly, that means four returns per year, so sixteen returns across the four tested years. If you file monthly, it is twelve per year. Line them up in a small sheet, one row per year, and you will see the answer immediately.
Two traps are worth naming. The first is a strong single year: a business that did SAR 240,000 in 2023 and SAR 150,000 in every other year is still in the wave, because one year above the line is enough. The second is exempt or out of scope income, which does not belong in the comparison at all. When in doubt, compare against what you actually declared, because that is the record the authority holds.
What being in a wave asks of your invoicing
Being included is not a paperwork exercise, it changes how invoices leave your business. Your system has to be onboarded to the Fatoora platform and hold a cryptographic stamp identifier. Standard tax invoices, the ones you issue to other businesses, are sent to the authority for clearance first and are given to the buyer afterwards. Simplified invoices, typically business to consumer, are reported to the platform within 24 hours.
The invoices themselves change format too. They are produced as XML, or as a PDF/A-3 file with the XML embedded, carrying the cryptographic stamp, a universally unique identifier, a hash of the previous invoice and a QR code. That is why a spreadsheet or a plain word processor template stops being workable once your wave starts.
A sensible plan once you confirm you are included
Count backwards from your date rather than forwards from today. Four clear steps fill the time well.
First, fix your master data in the month you confirm inclusion: the legal name, the VAT registration number, the national address and the customer records you will be sending to the authority. Second, choose and configure the invoicing system that will do the connecting, and complete onboarding so the stamp identifier is issued. Third, run real invoices through clearance and reporting in a test window while your old process still runs beside it. Fourth, switch over with a few weeks to spare, and keep an eye on rejections in the first fortnight.
Teams that leave onboarding to the final week are the ones that struggle, because a rejected invoice is a sale you cannot bill until it is fixed. Three weeks of overlap costs very little and removes almost all of that risk.
Where Daftarix fits
Daftarix is business software for companies in Saudi Arabia, and its Fatoora integration connects your invoices directly to the authority from inside your normal invoicing. It handles onboarding and the cryptographic stamp identifier, clearance for standard business to business tax invoices, and reporting for simplified business to consumer invoices within 24 hours, producing the XML with its cryptographic stamp.
Because quotations, invoices and support sit in one place, an invoice starts from the quotation your sales team already sent, and your help desk can look up the details of a cleared invoice when a customer calls about it. The interface works in Arabic and in English, with a proper right to left layout, so finance and sales can each work in the language they prefer. Daftarix helps your business issue e-invoices that comply with the authority's requirements, and your onboarding and clearance stay your own records inside the platform.
If you have run the test above and want help getting connected before your date, book a demo and we will walk through your invoice flow with you.
Frequently asked questions
What if I meet the criterion but never got a notification?
The published criterion is what places you in the wave. Check the email address and mobile number on your tax profile first, because notices go to the details registered with the authority, then contact the authority to confirm your status. Do not treat silence as an exemption.
My revenue was above SAR 187,500 once and has fallen since. Am I still included?
Yes. For the twenty fifth wave, exceeding SAR 187,500 in any one of 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 is enough, and a lower figure in the other years or today does not remove you.
How much notice will later waves get?
The authority has said it will inform following waves directly at least six months before their integration date, which is the planning window to assume if you are below the current line.
Does being in a wave mean I stop issuing Phase 1 e-invoices?
No. You keep issuing e-invoices, and from your integration date they additionally go through the Fatoora platform, cleared for standard tax invoices and reported for simplified ones.
Where can I read the official wording?
The announcement of the wave is on the authority's own media centre, and the binding text is the administrative decision published in Umm Al-Qura. See the ZATCA announcement of the twenty fifth wave and the decision as published in Umm Al-Qura.
