The UAE is moving business invoices onto a national electronic invoicing system. Invoices and credit notes between businesses will travel as structured data through accredited service providers, and the tax data is reported to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) as each invoice is exchanged.
For most small and medium businesses, two dates matter: 31 March 2027 and 1 July 2027. This post gives you the dates and the basics. Our full e-invoicing guide has the details and links to the official sources.
The dates
Your phase depends on your revenue: the gross income of your most recent accounting period, from your financial statements (or other records the FTA accepts).
| Who | Appoint a provider by | Go live by |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue below AED 50 million | 31 March 2027 | 1 July 2027 |
| Revenue of AED 50 million or more | 30 October 2026 | 1 January 2027 |
| Government entities | 31 March 2027 | 1 October 2027 |
A pilot with selected businesses runs from 1 July 2026, and any business may start voluntarily.
The appointment date comes three months before the go-live date. If your revenue is below AED 50 million, the first job is choosing an accredited service provider before the end of March 2027.
Who is in scope
- Any person doing business in the UAE, for its sales to other businesses and to government. It is not limited to VAT-registered businesses.
- Sales to consumers are not in scope for now, and a business that sells only to consumers (B2C only) is not in scope either.
- Some transactions are excluded. The full guide lists them.
What an e-invoice is, and what it is not
An e-invoice is issued, sent and received in a structured electronic format that systems can process automatically. In the UAE that is an XML file following the Peppol PINT-AE specification.
A PDF, a scanned invoice or an invoice attached to an email is not an e-invoice, even though it is electronic.
Why you need an accredited service provider
E-invoices travel over the Peppol network, and only accredited service providers (ASPs) connect to it. A business cannot connect directly.
In practice: your accounting system sends the invoice data to your provider; your provider checks it, converts it to the UAE XML format and sends it to your customer's provider; and the providers report the tax data to the FTA. The Ministry of Finance publishes the list of accredited providers on its e-invoicing page.
Penalties
Cabinet Decision No. 106 of 2025 sets penalties for each month of delay in implementing the system or appointing a provider, and for e-invoices not issued and sent on time. The full guide has the amounts, and a note on a newer decision, so check the amounts in force before you plan around them.
What to do now
- Work out your revenue for your latest accounting period, so you know your phase and your dates.
- List where your invoices come from: your accounting software, other billing tools and anything issued by hand.
- Check that your customer and supplier records have the correct names, addresses and TRNs.
- Choose an accredited service provider from the Ministry of Finance list.
- Onboard with that provider through EmaraTax (you start this, not the provider), then test sending and receiving e-invoices well before your go-live date.
Where BOSS ERP Mini stands
To be clear about what our product does today: BOSS ERP Mini issues the tax invoices and credit notes the FTA asks for today. It does not send e-invoices yet. We are adding e-invoicing support before the 1 July 2027 date for businesses below AED 50 million.
BOSS ERP Mini is not an accredited service provider. You will still appoint an accredited provider yourself.