Get your company details ready
Every document sent to ZATCA carries your company details, so start there. In the side menu, under Setup, open Settings and complete:
- VAT number (1)
- National address (2): street, building number (4 digits), district, city and postal code (5 digits)
Without the VAT number, onboarding will not start. Without a complete national address it will not finish, and a red message on the connection screen names the missing fields.
Open the connection screen and check the environment
Under Setup open E-invoicing. Under Onboarding you will find the Environment field. It must read Production before you connect for real invoices.
The account owner, or someone holding the tax-filing permission, runs onboarding. Anyone else sees the steps without the buttons.
Each environment has its own key, certificate and numbering chain. Changing it starts a new onboarding and changes nothing already sent. Anything done outside Production is a rehearsal, not a legal filing.
Create the signing key
In the first step press Create the key. The key is the electronic stamp Books signs your invoices with. It is made on the server and never leaves your books.
Enter the code from the Fatoora portal
Sign in to the Fatoora portal with your company's account, add a new device, and copy the six-digit code. Back in Books, paste it into the field (1) and press Link the device (2).
If you see Onboarding failed, the message carries ZATCA's reply. Check the code, get a fresh one from the portal if needed, and try again.
Activate the production certificate
Press Activate. Books sends ZATCA six compliance documents: an invoice, a credit note and a debit note, in both the standard and the simplified type. Once ZATCA accepts them it issues the certificate that signs your real invoices.
- Signing key
- Portal code
- Compliance documents
- Production certificate
If ZATCA refuses a document, the list Compliance documents ZATCA checked shows the result of each one and the reason. Fix the cause, then press Activate again.
Check the result
The Connected chip appears at the top of the screen. From now on every invoice you issue goes to ZATCA by itself, with no button to press. Here you also find the status counters and the Submitted documents list.
Invoices issued before you connected that never reached ZATCA are sent as well, oldest first. If ZATCA refuses one it shows as rejected, and the customer keeps access to their copy. Opening balances carried over from your previous system are never sent.
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