Bahrain E Invoicing - Get prepared for 3 realisations
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the 1st one to introduce E-Invoicing in their territory. The project was divided into two phases, “Generation” & “Integration” with the deadlines of Dec 04, 2021, and Jan 01, 2023, respectively.
Other countries in GCC especially Bahrain and Oman are now following the lead and have started taking steps in that direction. The issuance of e-invoicing details by each country will obviously fully entail as to what it holds for organizations within the respective jurisdictions but based on our e-invoice implementations in KSA, here are the 3 realizations that one should be prepared for :
1- Current Invoices may not be 100% VAT Compliant
Technology is a great equalizer and here too in case of e invoicing it will make sure that each organization’s invoice is 100% VAT compliant. In a manual process there is nothing that restricts you to issue an invoice with some missing field etc, (and we observed the same during various implementations) but in case of e invoicing being non-compliant means an invoice will not get cleared by tax authority and hence would remain unissued to the customer.
2- Existing ERPs’ may be of little use
May seem an overstatement but in our multiple conversations with clients of various industry and sizes it was noted that though they were using top tier ERPs’, yet when it came to e invoicing, they were looking for other options. Below were the few reasons
- No specific module for e invoicing developed by the ERP Vendor
- Little room for modifications
- Too costly if there is something available
Based on peculiar circumstances of each entity, either they opted for integration with 3rd party solution provider or for a bulk upload into their system
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3- Great opportunity to improvise invoice process management
Let’s understand this with our real-life example.
One of our clients was issuing manual invoices through multiple locations before the requirements of e-invoicing came into being. They have been doing the same for ages without any automated solution, however, e-invoicing proved to be a blessing in disguise.
With our solution, now each user has been assigned his/her specific location in the system, workflow management is there for an invoice to be approved by the authorized personnel of that location, and customer-wise, and location-wise reports can be run. Moreover, access limits are also built in to ensure segregation of duties and the feature of an automatic translation from English to Arabic is icing on the cake.
This is what we mean when we say it’s not only compliance but an opportunity to make lives easier.
We wish entities in Bahrain the very best for an e-invoice journey coming ahead.