ZATCA: numbers, forms, credit notes and the e-invoice

Under ZATCA a draft never holds a number from the issued series, a Saudi tax document prints only on a ZATCA form, a credit note that looks like another is questioned, and the E-invoice action writes ZATCA's UBL 2.1 XML (not stamped, not cleared).

While ZATCA is switched on for your company, every draft AR invoice, credit note and debit note carries a provisional DRAFT- number. It takes its real number from the one series only when it is posted (issued), so the issued invoices run in order with no gap.

• Drafts made before ZATCA was switched on are given a DRAFT- number when it is switched on. The number each gave up is recorded as withdrawn unissued (with the reason) and shown in the draft's history, so an auditor can see why that number was never issued. The counter never goes back.
• A draft written by any other path (an import, a script, an integration) with a series number gets a DRAFT- number too.
• AR invoices and notes print only on the ZATCA forms (Tax invoice (ZATCA, bilingual) and Credit / debit note (ZATCA, bilingual)). The plain Tax invoice layouts are not offered, and asking for one by name is refused.
• The column headers of the ZATCA form are bilingual and wrap or shrink to fit their column, so they never overlap.

1. Raise a credit note against the invoice it corrects.
2. If another live credit note for the same customer, the same invoice (or none) and the same amount was raised in the last seven days, the note is held back and the other one is named.
3. Open the other note if it is the same credit. If it really is a separate credit, choose Create anyway and say why. The reason is kept on the note and in its history.
4. When the note is posted, all credit notes against the invoice, drafts included, may not together exceed the invoice plus its posted debit notes.