Choosing accounting software in Saudi Arabia: a buyer's checklist

Look for software that issues ZATCA e-invoices in both phases, prints Arabic invoices, reports VAT clearly, lets you export your own data and shows a price you understand. Everything else is a bonus. A cafe also needs a till for simplified invoices; a wholesaler needs clean tax invoices for shops. Write your own must-have list before you watch any demo.

The checklist runs from legal duties to daily work to commercial terms: e-invoicing, Arabic and VAT first, then the point of sale and cloud access, then data, the trial, price and support. Score each option yes, no or unclear, and treat unclear as no until the vendor answers in writing, since a spoken promise is hard to rely on.

Phase 1 has applied since 4 December 2021: invoices are created and stored electronically in a structured form, and simplified invoices carry a QR code. Phase 2 connects your system to ZATCA's Fatoora platform, in waves that ZATCA selects and announces. Follow its announcements to learn your wave, and choose software that already supports Phase 2, so you need not switch later.

Be clear about who does the onboarding. Connecting to ZATCA is done by the taxpayer, not the vendor: you generate a one-time password (OTP) in the Fatoora portal, and the software then requests certificates and passes compliance checks with sample invoices. A vendor can guide you but cannot do it for you, so be wary of anyone who promises otherwise and ask these questions.

• Which onboarding steps happen in the product, and which on the Fatoora portal?
• Can I practise in ZATCA's simulation environment first?
• How are several tills or branches registered?
• Where do I see an invoice that was rejected or not yet reported?

Invoices in Saudi Arabia must be in Arabic, and a second language may be added, so Arabic is the baseline, not a nice extra. Look past the invoice: does the whole screen run right to left, including tables, menus and totals, or is Arabic just translated labels in a left-to-right layout? Your cashier and accountant will feel the difference daily.

Test with your own data. Enter a long Arabic customer name and an item mixing Arabic and English text, then print the invoice and open the PDF. Check that numbers, dates and the QR code sit where you expect and nothing is cut off. If you deal with partners abroad, ask whether one invoice can show both languages.

The standard VAT rate is 15%, and some supplies are zero-rated or exempt. The software should keep these apart and show output VAT on sales and input VAT on purchases for each tax period, in a report your accountant can use. Then ask: does it file the return? The taxpayer files it on ZATCA's own portal, so expect a report that feeds it.

If you sell at a counter, such as a cafe, a pharmacy window or a shop, you need a point of sale that issues a simplified invoice at once and reports it to ZATCA within 24 hours. Check that the till shares one system with your accounts, so sales appear there without being entered twice, and ask what happens to a sale when the internet drops in the shop.

Ask who owns the data and whether you can take it with you. Invoices and tax records are your business's records and are generally kept for six years, so confirm your case with your accountant and make sure you can export invoices with their XML files, customers and payments in standard formats. Ask what happens to your data, and how long it stays available to you, if you cancel.

Cloud access means you work in a browser: the owner checks the day's sales from home, the accountant works without visiting the shop, and the vendor installs updates when requirements change. Ask where backups are kept. Then insist on a real trial with your own items and customers, using ZATCA's simulation environment, where test invoices have no tax effect.

Ask for the price in writing and read what it covers: per month or per year, per user or per branch, whether the point of sale and onboarding help are included, and what extra branches cost. Above all, ask whether VAT is added. A price of SAR 100 excluding VAT becomes SAR 115 at 15%, which matters when you compare two offers.

Support matters most on the day an invoice is rejected or a deadline is close, so ask whether you can reach a person in Arabic during your working hours, and through which channel. Then bring the list below to every demo and have the vendor show each item on screen rather than describe it, because what you see is clearer than what you hear.

• Issue a standard and a simplified invoice in Arabic, with the QR code.
• Show a credit note linked to its original invoice.
• Show the VAT report for one tax period.
• Show how I export all my invoices and customers.
• Show what happens when ZATCA rejects an invoice.