ETA E-Invoicing Integration for Companies Operating in Egypt
Invoices leave the screen your team already uses, signed, coded, submitted and tracked automatically, with no retyping into the tax portal.
Every company registered with the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) must issue its invoices through the ETA e-invoicing platform. We connect your ERP or accounting system to it directly: document signing, item coding, submission and rejection handling. A written quote and an onboarding plan reach you within one business day of your technical estimate request.
Signing inside your ERP
Each document is signed with your company's eSeal certificate before submission, in the signature format the ETA requires.
Item codes before the first invoice
Every item mapped to a GS1 or EGS code, new code requests tracked to approval, and invoicing blocked for uncoded items.
Automatic submission and status
Submission when the invoice is issued, retries only on real errors, and every document's status and rejection reason shown to your accountant.
Checks before submission
Structure, buyer data, codes and totals are validated inside your system, so most rejection causes never reach the ETA.
Who has to comply
If your Egyptian entity is registered with the ETA, e-invoicing applies to it. The ETA announced that the mandate for all taxpayers registered at its tax offices across every governorate completes on 15 December 2022, and that from 1 April 2023 it recognises only electronic invoices when deducting or refunding VAT and when documenting costs in the tax return.
The ETA lists three conditions for joining the e-invoicing system:
- An electronic seal or electronic signature certificate.
- Goods and services coded against approved codes (GS1 or EGS).
- Electronic integration with the platform.
Retail sales to consumers fall under a separate system, the e-receipt. It is rolled out in its own phases by decisions of the ETA head, and the ETA requires a taxpayer to already be on e-invoicing before joining it. This page covers e-invoicing (B2B, government and B2C invoices); e-receipt scope is discussed per project.
For a group finance team this usually means one practical question: can the ERP you already run in Egypt submit signed documents to the ETA, or does someone keep typing invoices into the portal by hand?
The authority on mandate decisions, deadlines and penalties is the Egyptian Tax Authority website and your accountant. We deliver the technical integration and do not give tax or legal advice.
Systems we connect
- The accounting and ERP system we build and run for clients: see ERP systems and accounting system.
- ERPNext, whose core product has no ETA module, so the integration comes from an add-on app we install during the implementation.
- Custom systems built in Laravel or other stacks, after a code review in which we say plainly whether the integration is feasible or whether moving invoicing to a system we build is cheaper.
If you run a point-of-sale system for retail, we agree during scoping whether its invoices are included; anything concerning e-receipts is discussed per project.
How we quote
We do not publish a flat price for the integration because the effort varies a lot between companies. Four factors set the price:
- Document types: invoices, credit notes and debit notes only, or export documents as well.
- Source system: a system we build, ERPNext, or an existing system that needs review and development work to connect.
- Branches and entities: each tax entity has its own registration, eSeal and API credentials.
- Data cleanup: uncoded items and customers with missing registration numbers need work before the first invoice.
After the scoping session you receive a written quote within one business day that separates the one-time integration, monthly support after go-live, and third-party costs (the eSeal certificate and token, paid by you to the issuer). Get a technical estimate; the session is free and non-binding.
Web Pioneer is a software engineering and technology company founded in Cairo in 2014, commercial registration 206687, licensed by Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), License No. 1167. You own the code and the data; details on our Trust Center and company facts pages.
Why the ETA rejects documents, and what we do about it
The ETA runs every document through a chain of validators before it is accepted. These are the failures we plan for in every integration:
| ETA validator | Typical cause | Our handling |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Missing field or JSON/XML not matching the document type version | Validate inside the ERP before sending |
| Signature | Expired certificate, token offline, or signed content differs from sent content | Expiry alerts and a health check on the signing service |
| Taxpayer and national ID | Wrong buyer registration number, or missing national ID for a person buyer above the ETA threshold | Validate at customer creation, not at submission |
| Codes | Unapproved item code, unit or currency outside ETA code tables | Block invoicing for uncoded items |
| Calculations | Tax, discount or total not matching ETA formulas | Calculate tax with the same formulas in the ERP |
| Reference document | Credit note without a valid original invoice, or larger than it | Force every note to reference its invoice |
| Duplicate submission | Same batch sent again within 10 minutes | Retry only on real errors and store the submission ID |
The validation rules and API specification are published in the ETA developer documentation, which we re-read with every update the authority releases.
What the integration covers
Documents
Invoices, credit notes and debit notes. Export documents and point-of-sale e-receipts are defined in each project's scope.
Signing
The ETA requires each document to carry a CAdES-BES signature made with an eSeal certificate after a SHA-256 hash of the canonical document. We set up the signing service on your USB token; if your invoice volume calls for a different signing arrangement, we define it during scoping.
Item codes
Every item in your ERP is mapped to a GS1 code or an EGS code. Where you need new EGS codes, we raise the code requests through the ETA API and track their approval before go-live.
Registration and testing
ERP registration on the ETA taxpayer profile to obtain API credentials, done with your profile administrator, then full testing on the ETA pre-production environment before production.
Submission and status
Automatic submission when the invoice is issued. Access tokens are reused for their lifetime and retries happen only on real errors, so the ETA does not flag duplicates. Every document's status and rejection reason reach your accountant in plain language.
Cancellation and audit log
Cancellation inside the window the ETA sets per document type, a credit note once that window has passed, and a log of who issued each document, when it was sent and what the ETA answered.
Related services
How the project runs
- Review: your system, tax registration data, item master and portal status, followed by the written quote within one business day.
- eSeal and registration: your entity obtains its eSeal from an approved issuer; we help register the ERP on the ETA profile. Timing depends on the issuer, not only on us.
- Item coding: GS1 and EGS mapping, plus approval of any new EGS codes.
- Build and pre-production testing: the integration is built inside your system and test documents of every agreed type are submitted until all are accepted.
- Go-live and hypercare: the first real invoice cycle with our engineers on hand, then support under your plan.
Frequently asked questions
Our group already runs a global ERP. Do we need a new system in Egypt?
It depends on the ERP. If it can export invoice data or accept an extension, the integration is usually possible. We review it first and tell you plainly whether connecting it or running a separate Egyptian system is cheaper.
USB token or another signing arrangement: which one do we need?
Volume decides. A USB token suits a modest daily invoice count and needs a machine connected to it at all times, while automated high-volume submission needs a different signing setup. We recommend one after seeing your monthly invoice count.
What is the difference between an e-invoice and an e-receipt?
E-invoices cover business-to-business and government sales. E-receipts cover sales to consumers from points of sale. Each has its own mandate decisions, and the ETA requires a company to already be on e-invoicing before it joins e-receipts.
Who submits to the ETA, you or us?
Your entity does. Documents are signed with your eSeal and sent by your ERP under your credentials. We build and operate the integration and watch for errors; we do not issue invoices on your behalf.
What happens when a document is rejected?
The rejection reason appears in the ERP, your accountant corrects the data and reissues. A rejected document does not count with the ETA, so most causes are blocked by checks before submission.
How long does integration take?
The duration depends on the source system, the number of entities and how ready your item data is, and we write it into the quote after scoping. The slowest steps are often outside our hands: issuing the eSeal and approving new EGS codes.
Get a technical estimate for your ETA integration
The scoping session is free, and the written quote reaches you within one business day.
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