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ZATCA e-invoicing in Clix

Saudi Arabia's Phase 2 e-invoicing requires invoices to be produced by an accredited system, cryptographically signed, and sent to ZATCA. Clix is that system. This page explains what happens when you press Submit.

Two flows, not one

Which flow an invoice takes depends on who is buying, and the difference matters:

flowchart LR
    A["You submit"] --> B{"Buyer type"}
    B -->|Business, B2B| C["<b>Clearance</b><br/>ZATCA approves first"]
    B -->|Consumer, B2C| D["<b>Reporting</b><br/>issue now, report within 24h"]
    C --> E["Cleared"]
    D --> F["Reported"]
Clearance Reporting
Applies to Standard invoices (B2B) Simplified invoices (B2C)
Timing Before the invoice is valid After issue, within 24 hours
Final status Cleared Reported
If ZATCA refuses You have no valid invoice You have an invoice ZATCA rejected

A shop cannot wait for approval at the till, so consumer invoices are issued immediately and reported afterwards. A business invoice is not valid until ZATCA has cleared it.

What Clix does for you

On submit, Clix builds the UBL 2.1 XML, applies the cryptographic stamp and digital signature using the device's certificate, generates the QR code, and sends it to ZATCA. The response is stored against the invoice.

You never handle XML, keys or hashes. What you are responsible for is the accuracy of the content — the VAT number, the address, the VAT category on each line — because Clix signs and submits exactly what you entered.

Why it is asynchronous

Submission is a call to a government service. Clix accepts your invoice, queues it, and reports the outcome when ZATCA answers. That is why an invoice briefly shows as pending before it becomes Cleared or Reported.

Through the API this is explicit: POST /api/invoices/ returns 202 Accepted and a location to poll.

Warnings are not rejections

ZATCA can accept an invoice and attach warnings. Clix shows this as a distinct state — the status plus · warnings in amber, rather than red.

A warning means the invoice is valid and accepted, but something in it is not ideal. Read them; they are usually the early notice of something that will become a rejection.

Warnings are easy to miss on a phone

The mobile invoice card shows accepted and accepted-with-warnings identically. Check warnings on a full screen.

Once it is cleared, it is permanent

A cleared or reported invoice cannot be edited or deleted — not by you, not by support. Corrections are made by issuing a credit or debit note against it.

This is the point of the system rather than a limitation of it: the archive is trustworthy precisely because nobody can rewrite it.

The device is what ZATCA registered

ZATCA registers a device, not a company, and the device's certificate signs the invoice. No device, no invoices — and an expired certificate stops invoicing until it is renewed. See Devices, certificates and branches.