UAE e-invoicing: what your business must do, and when
UAE e-invoicing for business owners: the five-corner model, who must appoint an Accredited Service Provider and by when, and what your software does.
Published · By the product team at Pandoratech
The UAE is moving from PDF and paper tax invoices to structured e-invoices that are exchanged between businesses and reported to the Federal Tax Authority as they happen. The rules are set by the Ministry of Finance. This guide covers what changes, the dates, and what you need to arrange.
Dates below are as published by the Ministry of Finance, checked on 28 October 2026. The Ministry has already moved one deadline, so check its eInvoicing page before you plan around them.
How it works: the five-corner model
The UAE uses a “five-corner” model on the Peppol network, with invoices in the UAE standard format (PINT AE):
- You (the supplier) send the invoice data to your Accredited Service Provider (ASP).
- Your ASP validates it, converts it to the UAE standard format if needed, delivers it to the buyer’s ASP, and reports the tax data to the FTA.
- The buyer’s ASP validates it, confirms receipt, delivers it to the buyer, and reports its side to the FTA.
- The buyer receives the e-invoice in their own system.
- The FTA receives the tax data from both sides.
The key point: only an Accredited Service Provider, appointed by the Ministry, can transmit e-invoices on the network. Every business in scope has to appoint one.
Who must do it, and by when
Under Ministerial Decision No. 244 of 2025, as amended by Ministerial Decision No. 66 of 2026:
| Who | Appoint an ASP by | E-invoicing required from |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more | 30 October 2026 | 1 January 2027 |
| Businesses with revenue below AED 50 million | 31 March 2027 | 1 July 2027 |
| Government entities | 31 March 2027 | 1 October 2027 |
“Revenue” means gross income in your most recent financial statements. The first deadline was originally 31 July 2026. The Ministry moved it to 30 October 2026 in May 2026 and kept the 1 January 2027 start date.
A pilot programme with selected taxpayers started on 1 July 2026, and any business may adopt e-invoicing voluntarily from that date.
Business-to-consumer sales are outside the system for now: a business that only sells to consumers is not in scope until the Minister decides otherwise.
What to do now
- Work out your phase from last year’s revenue.
- Choose and appoint an Accredited Service Provider before your deadline, and check that it is accredited by the Ministry of Finance.
- Clean your master data. E-invoices are strict: your customers’ and suppliers’ TRNs, addresses with the right emirate, and the tax category of each item all have to be correct, or the invoice is rejected.
- Make sure your accounting software can hand invoices to your ASP, and receive the e-invoices your suppliers send you.
- Test before your start date. Send a few invoices end to end and check they are accepted.
What Sijilna does, and what it doesn’t
Sijilna is accounting software. It is not an Accredited Service Provider, and it does not report to the FTA itself. You appoint your ASP; Sijilna prepares your invoice data and connects to your ASP so that your invoices go out as e-invoices.
On the Plus and Premium plans, Sijilna:
- checks each invoice for missing e-invoicing data (customer TRN, emirate, tax category) and shows a readiness list to fix it;
- sends invoices to your ASP automatically when you confirm them, or when you choose to send them yourself;
- shows the status of each e-invoice on the document, and lets you retry one that was rejected after fixing the data;
- turns the e-invoices your suppliers send you into draft bills, matched to the supplier by TRN.
Plus includes up to 200 e-invoices a month and Premium up to 1,000. Ask us which ASPs Sijilna connects to today before you choose one.
Questions about your own timeline? Contact us, or compare plans on the pricing page.