Clarification on IRN and Invoice Number Duplication Across Financial Years.

XML and business rules
1

In financial and accounting systems, it is standard practice to perform a year-end closing procedure. As part of this process, invoice numbering is typically reset at the beginning of each new financial year. However, the same EGS (Electronic Generation System) continues to be used across multiple years.

This raises a concern: an invoice issued in the financial year 2024 may have the same invoice number as another invoice issued in 2025, due to the reset in numbering.

My questions are:

  1. Is the IRN (Invoice Reference Number) visible to the buyer?

  2. If yes, does having identical invoice numbers across different financial years violate ZATCA compliance rules?

Appreciate any clarification from the community or ZATCA representatives on this matter.

2

@mnuaimi please consider below responses:

  1. Is the IRN (Invoice Reference Number) visible to the buyer?
    Yes, IRN must be displayed on the human readable form of invoices.

  2. If yes, does having identical invoice numbers across different financial years violate ZATCA compliance rules?
    You can assign a prefix or suffix with the year to make IRNs unique across different years.

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