Why Is the Invoice Issued as a Simplified Tax Invoice? And How Do I Issue a Tax Invoice?

When Saudi e-invoicing is enabled, the system determines the invoice type automatically from the Client Type on the invoice: a Business client gets a Tax Invoice, and an Individual client, or a client with no type set, gets a Simplified Tax Invoice. So if your invoices are being issued as simplified, the reason is usually that the client type is Individual or not set.

The difference between a tax invoice and a simplified tax invoice

	Tax Invoice (standard)	Simplified Tax Invoice
Issued to	Businesses and companies (B2B).	Individuals and consumers (B2C).
When it appears	When the client type is Business.	When the client type is Individual, or not set.
Buyer details	Business name, tax number or C.R / unified number, and address.	Doesn’t require the buyer’s tax number.
Submission to ZATCA	Sent for clearance before it’s shared with the client.	Sent for reporting.
Printed title (when using the automatic variable)	Tax Invoice	Simplified Tax Invoice
Refund receipt (when using the automatic variable)	Tax Refund Receipt	Tax Refund Receipt Simplified

How do I issue a standard tax invoice?

1. Open the client from Clients and click Edit.
2. Set the Client Type to Business.
3. Enter the Business Name, the Tax Number or C.R / Unified Number, and the country and address, then save.
4. Create the invoice for this client; it’s issued as a standard Tax Invoice.

The required business client details, and the messages shown if they’re missing:

Detail	Message when missing or invalid
Country	Client’s Country is required
Client type	Client Type is required
Business name	Client’s Business Name is required
Tax number or commercial registration (for Saudi clients)	Client’s VAT Number or C.R / Unified Number is required
Building number (if entered)	Client’s Building Number must be 4 digits
Postal code (if entered)	Client’s Postal Code must be 5 digits

Change the invoice name manually from the invoice layouts

You can change the printed invoice name from Invoice/Estimate Layouts. The name is written in the Invoice Title field in the layout’s Title section, and it works in one of two ways:

• If you use the automatic variable {%sa_auto_invoice_title%}: the name changes according to the client type. An Individual client sees “Simplified Tax Invoice”, and a Business client sees “Tax Invoice”.
• If you want a fixed invoice name: delete the variable and type the name you want, such as “Tax Invoice”. This name appears on all invoices that use the layout, whatever the client type.

Steps to change the invoice name manually:

1. Open Invoice/Estimate Layouts.
2. Click Edit next to the layout you use.
3. From the side menu, click Title.
4. In the Invoice Title field, delete the {%sa_auto_invoice_title%} variable or the current text, and type the name you want, such as “Tax Invoice”.
5. To change the refund receipt’s name too, edit the Refund Receipt title field in the same section.
6. Click Save inside the section, then click Save at the bottom of the page.
7. Print a new invoice to check the name.

I issued a simplified invoice to a business client by mistake. What do I do?

• If ZATCA hasn’t cleared the invoice yet: change the client to Business and complete their details from the edit-client link shown on the invoice, then resend it.
• If the invoice was cleared: it can’t be edited or converted to a standard invoice. Issue a Credit Note against the simplified invoice for the same amount, then issue a new invoice after changing the client to Business.

Notes

• If the client type isn’t set, the invoice is sent to ZATCA as a simplified invoice, but the automatic variable prints “Tax Invoice”. So always set the client type.
• From Client Settings you can set the client type to Business Only, Individual Only or Both; if all your clients are companies, choose Business Only.
• POS invoices and cash sales without a specific client are issued as simplified.
• Changing the client type doesn’t change the type of previous invoices; it applies to new invoices only.