E-invoicing readiness checklist UAE: 20 checks before go-live

Confirm the basics first:

• Revenue for the most recent accounting period, measured against AED 50 million.
• Your ASP appointment deadline and go-live date.
• Share of sales to businesses, government and consumers.
• Whether any flows are excluded: tax group members, exempt or zero-rated financial services, airline services.
• Whether you plan to adopt voluntarily before your date.

Then the appointment itself:

• Shortlist providers from the Ministry's accredited list.
• Compare them on the Ministry's selection points, including integration and price.
• Appoint one ASP for both sending and receiving.
• Confirm who holds the EmaraTax administrator role; onboarding starts from the e-invoicing tile there.
• Confirm your participant identifier: 0235 followed by your 10-digit TIN.

This is where most of the work sits:

• Every business customer has a legal name, TRN where registered, address, emirate and country.
• Products and services carry the right VAT category and unit of measure.
• Transaction types such as exports, margin scheme and free zone supplies are identifiable.
• Every credit note links to its original invoice.
• Invoice numbering is unique and sequential across entities.

Finish with the operating model. Define who fixes rejections and within what time. Test standard invoices, credit notes and corrections with a handful of customers. Decide how supplier e-invoices received through the ASP are posted as bills. Agree the retention period with your adviser: the guidelines describe five years after the tax period for taxable persons under the Tax Procedures Law, extended in some audit and dispute situations, while corporate tax records follow their own seven-year rule.

HelloBooks helps with the data checks. Ask the AI agent "list customers missing a TRN, address or emirate" and "show credit notes not linked to an invoice" and work through the results. HelloBooks does not transmit e-invoices; that is the role of your chosen ASP. Accounting firms preparing many clients can ask for a custom readiness report by emailing hello@hellobooks.ai.