Short answer: no. Since Phase 1 began on 4 December 2021, ZATCA has required invoices to come from a compliant e-invoicing solution: an invoice written in a text editor such as Word is not an e-invoice, and a spreadsheet template cannot meet the rules either, because it lets anyone change an issued invoice or restart the numbering. Once your business reaches its Phase 2 wave, every invoice must also be an XML document with a UUID, a hash chain, a cryptographic stamp and a QR code, cleared or reported through ZATCA's Fatoora platform — none of which an Excel or Word file can produce.
What was required before Phase 2
Phase 1, the generation phase, applies to every business subject to VAT, non-resident taxpayers excluded. ZATCA's preparation page tells businesses to stop issuing manual invoices: handwritten invoices and invoices written with text-editing tools are not e-invoices, and neither is a paper invoice scanned into a file.
ZATCA's detailed e-invoicing guidelines then list functions a compliant solution must not have, and they describe a spreadsheet: altering or deleting an issued invoice, resetting the counter, running more than one invoice sequence, access without a unique login. An issued invoice is cancelled only by a credit note and a new invoice. And the readable invoice must be in Arabic, with any other language alongside.
What Phase 2 checks, and why a spreadsheet cannot produce it
Phase 2, the integration phase, has been applied in waves since 1 January 2023. It asks for a different kind of object: structured data, stamped, chained to the invoice before it, and seen by the Authority. Your clients are businesses, so what you issue is almost always a standard invoice, cleared before it reaches them.
| What Phase 2 requires | What an Excel or Word invoice has |
|---|---|
| An XML document; the PDF a client reads is only a rendering of it | An .xlsx or .docx file, or a PDF of one |
| A UUID generated for each document | Only the number you typed |
| An invoice counter that rises with every document and is never reset | A number that can be skipped, repeated or restarted |
| The previous invoice's hash, chaining each document to the one before | Files that know nothing of each other |
| A cryptographic stamp: by the solution on a simplified invoice, by the Authority when it clears a standard one | A logo and a scanned signature |
| A QR code of eight fields, three of which exist only after stamping | No code, or a Phase 1 code pasted in as a picture |
| Clearance before a standard invoice reaches the buyer; reporting within 24 hours for a simplified one | Emailed the moment it is saved |
| No editing or deleting once issued; corrections by credit or debit note | Anyone with the file can overwrite it |
| The signed XML kept for six years | A folder of files |
Are you in scope yet, and when
The Authority brings businesses into Phase 2 in groups, by VAT-taxable revenue. Crossing a group's threshold in any one of its reference years puts you in it, and a later fall in revenue does not take you out.
| Group | VAT-taxable revenue above | In any of | Integration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 375,000 SAR | 2022, 2023, 2024 | By 30 June 2026, now passed |
| 25 | 187,500 SAR | 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 | Before 1 February 2027 |
187,500 SAR a year is roughly 15,600 SAR a month; earlier groups had higher thresholds and earlier dates. ZATCA notifies the email address and mobile number registered for the establishment, not your personal inbox. You may connect before your date, and early is when an incomplete address or a mistyped VAT number costs nothing.
Below every threshold so far? Phase 2 has not reached you, but Phase 1 has, and the move you make now is the one Phase 2 will require anyway.
Three honest ways off the spreadsheet
- Accounting software connected to Fatoora. Right if you also need the bookkeeping: inventory, financial statements and returns built from your invoices, or an accountant who already works in a package. Otherwise you pay for a ledger you will not open.
- An invoicing service connected to Fatoora. Right if the template's real job was producing invoices and the books live elsewhere. It issues, stamps, clears and archives; your bookkeeping does not change. Phase 2 requires an invoicing solution, not a general ledger.
- Your own integration. Only if you run your own system and have a developer: certificates, XML signing, the counter and hash chain, renewals. What a direct integration really involves has the full list.
Not an option: keeping the template, adding a QR image and sending the PDF.
Moving from Excel: a checklist
- Your own details, from the national address. VAT number, commercial registration and all six address elements: street, building number, district, city, postal code, country. A missing element returns BR-KSA-09, a warning: the invoice clears with the gap on record.
- Your customer list. Legal name as registered, national address, and a VAT number of fifteen digits beginning and ending with 3. A malformed one rejects the invoice (BR-KSA-44, an error), so check any number you doubt with the VAT number lookup, which shows the name it is registered to. Keep the list as a sheet: it becomes your import file.
- What you bill. Service names, unit prices and the wording clients' accounts departments match against contracts: written once, picked each month.
- Numbering. Behind the number a client reads, a compliant system keeps its own counter: digits only, never reset, never typed by you (BR-KSA-33 and BR-KSA-34, both errors). Record your last spreadsheet number and the date you switched, tell regular clients if the number format changes, and stop issuing from the template that day.
- Your old invoices. Keep the files as issued: they are the record of those sales. Re-entering them would issue a second tax invoice for a sale that already has one. Correct old invoices before you switch: a new system may not accept a credit note against an invoice it never issued.
- Language. An English-only template has to go. Arabic is required; English can sit beside it.
Who this is not for
- Cafés, restaurants and walk-in shops. Counter sales take simplified receipts from a point-of-sale system that reports to the Authority itself. There is no gap here to fill.
- A business that needs full accounting. Take the first option above.
- A company already running an ERP. Connect it through an API rather than retyping its invoices.
Where ZATCA Tools fits
ZATCA Tools is the second option. Connecting takes one OTP from the Fatoora portal: we build the certificate request, run the compliance invoices and obtain the production certificate, and check your address before the code is spent. Standard invoices are cleared before you send them and simplified ones reported; the signed XML is archived for six years and downloadable; rejections come back with the official code, linked to a guide for the common ones.
For the checklist: customers import from CSV or .xlsx with a downloadable template, with English or Arabic headings, and a row with a malformed VAT number is listed by line instead of imported. Lines save as items. Invoices run from INV-2026-00001, starting again each year while the counter underneath never resets, and a draft takes its number only when issued. Quotations with a validity date and an acceptance link convert into invoice drafts. Credit and debit notes attach only to invoices issued here, never to spreadsheet-era ones. Receipt vouchers mark each invoice paid, partly paid or unpaid, and reports and per-customer statements export as CSV or PDF. Documents print in Arabic with English alongside, and you can issue from a phone's browser.
What it is not: an accounting system. No ledger, journals, inventory, payroll or recurring invoices, and SAR only. It starts free — 50 invoices or 30 days, whichever comes first, counted from the day you connect — then a paid plan. Start here, or read the Phase 2 walkthrough first.