I run a small or medium business — when exactly does the mandatory e-invoicing date apply to me?

The UAE's e-invoicing system rolls out in two waves by revenue size, after a voluntary pilot phase starting July 2026. Large businesses (AED 50 million or more in revenue) form the first wave: they must select an accredited service provider by 31 July 2026 and go fully live by 1 January 2027. The second wave, covering most small and medium businesses (revenue under AED 50 million), has a later provider-selection deadline — end of March 2027 — with mandatory go-live from 1 July 2027.

That later date has made it easy for a lot of SME owners to shelve the topic entirely, and that's exactly the wrong move. The details of this rollout are still being finalised as the system progresses, so it's worth tracking with your advisor rather than relying on one piece of information you read months ago.

What you should be doing now, well before your date arrives: confirm whether your accounting software can even output invoices as PINT AE-compliant XML, and whether your data captures the required fields — tax registration number, transaction classification, and line-item detail. If your current system doesn't support this format, an upgrade or replacement takes longer than most owners expect, and it's worth starting early rather than finding yourself racing the clock two months out.

RASEEKH tracks the details of this rollout as they're published, and helps our SME clients get their data and systems ready ahead of time, so the actual connection day is a final test rather than a scramble.