Your customers can have Arabic or English names: bilingual contacts and documents

When you add a customer or a vendor you write the name in Arabic or in English. Either one is enough. You may add the second name later if you want both, but the program never asks for it just to let you save.

The same goes for the address and the other fields: write them in the language you have.

An invoice can be printed in Arabic or in English. If the customer has a name in the language of the document, the document shows that name. If it does not, the document falls back to the other name, so the name is never empty. A customer saved only in Arabic still appears correctly on an English invoice, and the other way round.

Latin words and numbers inside Arabic text keep their own direction, so a company name like a Latin brand, a VAT number or an amount does not turn around or jump to the wrong side of the line.

• Customer with an Arabic name only: the English invoice shows the Arabic name.
• Customer with an English name only: the Arabic invoice shows the English name.
• Customer with both names: each document shows the name in its own language.

A standard tax invoice shows the buyer’s name, VAT number and address, and the e-invoice sent to ZATCA carries them too. ZATCA accepts the buyer’s name and address in either Arabic or English, so you do not have to translate a customer just to issue an invoice.

Please make sure the VAT number and the address are correct: they are the parts that identify the buyer. If you use the optional Phase 2 integration, try it first in ZATCA’s test environment with a customer that has only an Arabic name and one that has only an English name, and look at the result on the status screen.

The whole program can be used in Arabic or in English, and the Arabic screens are laid out from right to left. You can switch the language when you like. Staff who prefer Arabic and an accountant who prefers English can both work in the same company, each in their own language.

If you already keep your customers in a spreadsheet, you can import an XLSX or CSV file. Fill in whichever name column you have; rows with only an Arabic name and rows with only an English name can be in the same file. After the import, open a few customers and check the names, the VAT numbers and the addresses.

You can also export your customers to a file whenever you need a list for someone else.

Write each name the way it appears on the customer’s commercial registration or VAT certificate. That keeps your invoices consistent with the customer’s own papers, whichever language they chose.

Add two customers, one in each language, issue an invoice to each, and print it in both languages. It takes a few minutes and you will see exactly what your customers will see. See the install guide if you have not installed the program yet.