A 15-week Fatoora integration plan for the Wave 25 deadline

Wave 25 of ZATCA e-invoicing begins on 1 February 2027, and a workable Fatoora integration plan needs every one of the 104 days that are left. Counting from today, 20 October 2026, that is just under 15 weeks to confirm your wave, clean your invoice data, onboard your system, test clearance and reporting, and train the people who raise invoices every day.

This article turns that window into a week by week plan for a Saudi SME. It assumes you issue Phase 1 e-invoices today and your finance team is two or three people who also have a month end to close.

What Wave 25 actually asks of you

ZATCA set the Wave 25 criteria in Governor's decision number 1448-99-238, dated 7/2/1448 AH, which is 24 July 2026, and published it in Umm Al-Qura. The decision covers persons registered with the Authority for VAT purposes whose revenues exceed 187,500 Saudi Riyals, and it sets the start of the integration phase for that group at 1 February 2027. You can read the published decision and the announcement on SPA in full.

Two details drive the whole plan. First, ZATCA notifies the businesses that meet the criteria through its official communication channels, so the notice in your portal or your registered email is the document your dates hang on.

Second, 1 February 2027 is a start date and not a grace period. From that day your standard invoices need to be cleared before they reach the buyer, and your simplified invoices need to be reported inside the 24 hour window. If you are still checking whether the threshold reaches you, read our guide on who must integrate with Fatoora by 1 February 2027 before you spend anything.

Weeks 1 to 3: confirm the facts and name one owner

The first block is administrative, and skipping it is the most common reason these projects slip into January. Find the ZATCA notice, save it to a shared folder, and write the integration date at the top of the project file. Then name one owner who can decide and sign, usually the finance manager rather than an IT contractor.

In the same three weeks, list every place an invoice is born in your business. Most SMEs find more than they expected: the accounting system, a point of sale in the showroom, a spreadsheet the projects team uses for progress billing, and the occasional manual invoice typed by a branch manager. Every one of those paths has to end up inside the integrated system or stop being used.

Close the block with two decisions. Decide whether you integrate your current system or move invoicing into one that already handles the Fatoora path, and decide who signs off the test results in week 12.

Weeks 4 to 6: clean the data before you connect anything

Integration fails on data far more often than it fails on technology. A rejected invoice is usually a missing buyer VAT number, a wrong item unit, a tax rate applied to a line that should be zero rated, or an address field that is blank in Arabic. All of it is cheaper to fix now than during a live clearance call.

Work through a short, boring checklist across these three weeks:

• Buyer records: VAT registration numbers for every B2B customer, plus the national address fields.
• Your own details: the legal name in Arabic and English, VAT number, and the commercial registration exactly as ZATCA holds them.
• Item master: unit of measure and the correct VAT treatment on every line item, including exempt and zero rated goods.
• Numbering: one continuous invoice sequence per issuing point, with no gaps created by deleted drafts.
• Credit and debit notes: a reason code on each one, and a link back to the original invoice.

Give one person two hours a day on this rather than one long week at the end. Finance teams absorb that pace much better, and the errors you find in week 4 often repeat across hundreds of records.

Weeks 7 to 9: onboard your system and get the CSID

This is the technical heart of the project, and it is shorter than people fear. Onboarding means your invoicing system is registered on the Fatoora platform and receives a cryptographic stamp identifier, the CSID, which signs the invoices it issues from then on. Fatoora integration with Daftarix covers this step, the XML format with the cryptographic stamp, clearance for B2B tax invoices, and reporting of simplified invoices within 24 hours.

Three practical notes. Request the onboarding codes with the same ZATCA credentials you use for VAT returns, because a mismatch between the taxpayer identity and the device is the usual cause of a failed onboarding. Record which device or branch each CSID belongs to, since a company with three showrooms will manage three of them. And treat the credentials like bank credentials, with one custodian and no shared inbox.

Weeks 10 to 12: test clearance and 24 hour reporting

Now you test with real invoice shapes rather than samples. Build a list of the ten invoices your business actually issues most often and push each one through: a plain B2B tax invoice, one with a discount, one with mixed VAT rates, one in foreign currency, a progress billing, a cash sale at the counter, a credit note, a debit note, an invoice to an exempt customer, and the one odd case every company has.

Keep a simple result sheet with the invoice type, the response, and the error message word for word. Rejections are useful here, because each message points at one field. Fix the field in the item or customer record, not in the individual invoice, or you will fix it again next month.

Two checks people forget. Confirm that your B2B invoices are genuinely cleared before anyone sends the PDF to the buyer, because an uncleared invoice sitting in a customer's inbox is a compliance problem. And confirm the 24 hour reporting path for counter sales still works when your internet drops.

Weeks 13 to 15: train the team and rehearse go live

Technology that only the finance manager can operate is not ready. In week 13, write a one page instruction for each role: the cashier, the sales person who converts a quotation, and the accountant who issues credit notes. One page, screenshots, no jargon.

In week 14, run a dress rehearsal. Issue a full day of invoices through the integrated path while the old path stays available, then compare the day's VAT total in both. A gap tells you about a tax rate or a rounding rule before it tells ZATCA. In week 15, freeze changes, close the list of open errors, and agree who answers the phone on 1 February if something stops.

Leave the last three working days empty on purpose. Every project of this kind produces one surprise, and a plan with no slack turns it into a missed deadline.

The 15 week plan at a glance

Shift the whole table if your ZATCA notice gives you a different date. The ratios are what matter: roughly a fifth of the time on data, a fifth on onboarding, and a third on testing and training.

Five mistakes that cost businesses the deadline

• Waiting for the notice to arrive. If your revenues are near the threshold, start the data work now. Nothing in weeks 4 to 6 is wasted even if your date moves.
• Treating it as an IT task. The decisions are about tax treatment and invoice policy, which finance owns.
• Testing only clean invoices. Your messy cases are the ones that will be rejected in February.
• Leaving the showroom out. Simplified invoices at the counter have their own reporting path and their own training need.
• Booking go live in the same week as month end. Give your team one quiet week to start.

Frequently asked questions

How long does Fatoora integration really take for a small business?

A single branch with clean data and one invoicing system can be ready in four to six weeks of part time work. The 15 week plan here exists because most businesses also need to fix data, retire a second invoicing path, and train staff who are busy with daily work.

What happens if I have not integrated by 1 February 2027?

The integration phase obligation starts on that date for the businesses in the wave, so invoices issued outside the integrated path after it are not compliant. ZATCA publishes its own violation and penalty tables, so check the Authority's pages rather than second hand figures.

Does the 187,500 Saudi Riyals figure mean every VAT registered business is now included?

The decision for this wave applies to persons registered for VAT whose revenues exceed 187,500 Saudi Riyals, and ZATCA contacts those who meet the criteria through its official channels. Your notice is the authority on your own position, and it is worth confirming it rather than assuming either way.

Can I keep issuing invoices from a spreadsheet alongside the system?

No. Every tax invoice has to come from the compliant solution, with a continuous sequence and a cryptographic stamp. Retiring the side paths is part of weeks 1 to 3 for a reason.

Do I need a separate CSID for each branch?

Each invoicing device or unit that issues invoices is onboarded and carries its own cryptographic stamp identifier, so a business with three showrooms manages three. Keep a register of which identifier sits where.

Start the clock this week

Fifteen weeks is enough time, and it is not a lot of time. Daftarix takes an invoice from an accepted quotation through to a cleared tax invoice, with the XML and cryptographic stamp ZATCA requires, while your finance and sales staff work in Arabic or English. Book a demo and we will map your wave date and invoice volumes onto a plan like this one.