Salla ZATCA e-invoice XML: what to check

The file Mutabiq needs

Mutabiq checks the e-invoice itself: the UBL 2.1 XML generated for each invoice, credit note and debit note under Phase 2 of e-invoicing with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), whether your system generates it or an e-invoicing add-on or integration connected to it does. A PDF with the invoice XML embedded in it (PDF/A-3) works as well. A PDF without that XML, a printout, a spreadsheet export or a screenshot carries nothing Mutabiq can check.

What Salla documents

Salla links a store to Fatoora through a free app of its own, which its help centre calls the Zakat and Tax app and describes as uploading the store’s tax invoices to the Authority directly. Its article gives the path as a merchant sees it: install the app from the store’s app market, or from Store Settings, Value Added Tax, the direct link with the Authority; then grant the permission and start the link; then, in Fatoora, generate an activation code under “Onboard new solution unit/device”, valid for one hour, and enter it in Salla. The app is for stores with a tax number, on the Pro and Special plans, with an approved commercial registration, a verified store and a complete national address on the default branch (الربط مع هيئة الزكاة والضريبة; the English article: How to activate the ZATCA e-invoicing integration).
Salla documents viewing and printing e-invoices: from the order’s payment section, “Issue invoice”, then print it; or print several orders’ invoices at once; with the invoice settings under Store Settings, Store Invoice Settings (View and print e-invoices; the Arabic article: عرض وطباعة الفواتير الإلكترونية).
Neither article says whether the invoices are simplified or standard, and neither documents a field for a customer’s VAT number at checkout. The safe reading is that a Salla store issues simplified invoices to its buyers; a standard (B2B) invoice from Salla is not documented and is not claimed here.

Where the file usually is

Where the XML is kept depends on how your system is connected to ZATCA, not only on which system it is, and this guide names a screen or menu only where the vendor's own documentation states it, cited and dated. The usual places to look:

The e-invoicing or ZATCA section of your system, or of the add-on that handles e-invoicing for it, which may list each document with its status and let you view or download its XML.
The portal of your e-invoicing solution provider, if a provider sends your documents to ZATCA for you: the XML is often kept there beside each document’s clearance or reporting result.
An export or download of the document after it was cleared or reported, sometimes packaged with the PDF sent to the customer.
Your provider or implementer. If none of these shows the file, ask for the UBL XML of the document exactly as it was generated for ZATCA.

Check the file as your system generated it. A copy opened and saved again in another program may no longer be the file ZATCA receives.

Where do I get the XML file from Salla?

Salla does not publish a path to it. On 2026-10-15 its activation article and its printing article, in both languages, described the link with Fatoora and the printing of invoices, and said nothing about viewing, downloading or exporting the invoice’s XML, or about a PDF/A-3 copy that carries it. The activation article also carried a notice that it may be old, so a newer one may exist. What a Salla merchant has in hand is the printed or PDF invoice given to the buyer, which is lawful for a simplified invoice and holds nothing Mutabiq can check (what Mutabiq checks in a PDF).

If you need the file, there are two places it can come from. If an accounting or e-invoicing system is connected to your store and issues the invoices to Fatoora, the XML is in that system, not in Salla: see that system’s guide, or ask its support for the invoice’s XML exactly as it was sent to the Authority. If Salla’s own app issues them, ask Salla support for the XML of the invoice, or for a PDF/A-3 that carries it, and check that file. Mutabiq has not verified these screens itself. Vendor documentation changes: if Salla lets you download the XML, use it.

What to check in the XML

The seller’s data, which comes from the store’s settings and not from the order: confirm the seller’s cac:PartyTaxScheme/cbc:CompanyID is the 15 digits alone, beginning and ending in 3 (MTB-BR-KSA-40 reports an empty one), and that cbc:StreetName under the seller’s cac:PostalAddress is present (MTB-BR-KSA-09): a national address stored as one line of free text is the usual cause.
The simplified-invoice shape: confirm cbc:InvoiceTypeCode is 388 on a sale and 381 on a refund, with a name attribute beginning 02 (MTB-STRUCT-01 reports the attribute), and that the QR document reference is present with a non-empty base64 payload (MTB-BR-KSA-27).
The rate: confirm every standard-rated breakdown carries cbc:Percent of 15; MTB-BR-KSA-84 reports any other rate under category S.
Refunds: a refunded order goes out as a credit note. Confirm it carries a reason in cac:PaymentMeans/cbc:InstructionNote (MTB-BR-KSA-17) and the original invoice’s number in cac:BillingReference/cac:InvoiceDocumentReference/cbc:ID (MTB-BR-KSA-56).

A merchant on a hosted platform changes the store’s name, VAT number and address and nothing else. A finding on anything else is not yours to fix: send the report to the platform’s support with the rule id and the element’s path.

What to do with the findings

Fix the source, not the file. Each finding names an element of the XML, and the value in it came from your system: a setting, a master record such as the company, the customer, the item or the tax code, or the mapping that writes the XML. Correct it there, so the next document is generated right.
Do not edit the XML by hand and send the edited copy. The file that goes to ZATCA is the one your system generates and signs, and an edited copy is not that file.
Where the mapping itself is wrong, take the finding to whoever maintains your e-invoicing: the ERP vendor, the add-on or integration provider, or your implementer. The rule id, the element’s path and the rule’s page are what they need to find it.
A document that has already been cleared or reported is not corrected by sending it again. Ask your accountant or provider how your system corrects it; usually that is a credit or debit note and, where needed, a new document.
Once the source is fixed, check the next file your system generates.

Sources

All four pages were read on 2026-10-15; the English articles were last updated by Salla on 2026-08-30 and 2026-08-29, the Arabic ones on 2026-08-22. Vendor documentation changes.

Salla: checking the ZATCA e-invoice XML