Invoicing & ZATCA E-Invoicing

The Invoices tab is where you connect to ZATCA (Saudi Arabia's tax authority) and issue real, cryptographically signed, ZATCA-compliant e-invoices. Every invoice and every status shown here comes from the database or ZATCA's live gateway response — nothing on this screen is fabricated.

Before you start: what you need

To actually clear or report an invoice with ZATCA, you need:

• A registered Saudi business with a valid 15-digit VAT number (entered during account setup)
• A one-time passcode (OTP) from ZATCA's own Fatoora portal. You get this by logging into Fatoora yourself with your business's ZATCA credentials — SANAD OS cannot obtain this on your behalf. This is a deliberate anti-automation control on ZATCA's side, not a limitation of the software.

If you don't have Fatoora access yet, you can still explore everything else on this page — you just won't be able to complete step 2 of onboarding below until you do.

Part 1: Connecting to ZATCA (one-time setup)

At the top of the Invoices page is the ZATCA Onboarding panel, showing your current status (sandbox or production) and four sequential steps:

1. Generate CSR — click this first. SANAD OS generates a cryptographic key pair and a Certificate Signing Request on your behalf. This step needs nothing from you.
2. Compliance CSID — log into ZATCA's Fatoora portal in a separate tab, request a one-time passcode there, then paste it into the "OTP from Fatoora portal" field on this page and click this button. This exchanges your CSR for a compliance certificate.
3. Compliance Checks — click this to run ZATCA's required compliance-invoice checks, confirming your setup can produce valid invoices.
4. Production CSID — click this last to receive your production certificate, the one used to actually clear or report real invoices.

Each button only becomes clickable once the previous step has succeeded — you can't skip ahead. If a step fails, the error message appears at the top of the page in plain language.

Part 2: Creating an invoice

1. Click New Invoice.
2. Select the customer you're invoicing.
3. Choose the invoice type:
   • Simplified — for B2C-style transactions (most common for field-service work)
   • Standard — for B2B tax invoices
4. Add one or more line items: description, quantity, and unit price (VAT is calculated at 15% automatically).
5. Click + Add line for additional items, or the trash icon to remove one.
6. Click Save as Draft.

Your invoice now appears in the list below with a Draft status and its total in SAR.

Part 3: Submitting to ZATCA

Once your ZATCA connection (Part 1) is complete and you have a draft invoice:

1. Find the invoice in the list.
2. Click Submit to ZATCA.

SANAD OS builds the full invoice document, signs it cryptographically (UBL 2.1 XML with XAdES signing, per ZATCA's Phase-2 specification), and submits it through ZATCA's gateway. The invoice's status updates automatically based on ZATCA's real response:

A successfully submitted invoice shows its cryptographic hash (part of ZATCA's required audit chain) directly beneath its entry.

Sandbox vs. production

Everything above works identically in both modes. Use sandbox to safely test your whole invoicing flow with no legal effect. Switch to production (chosen during account setup, or reconfigure via a support ticket) only once you're ready to issue real, legally binding invoices.

If something goes wrong

Every error from either SANAD OS or ZATCA's own gateway is shown in plain text at the top of the page — never a generic failure. If a rejection message from ZATCA doesn't make sense, open a support ticket (see Support & Getting Help) with the invoice number and rejection code.