Software onboarding · United Arab Emirates
The right accounting system, configured properly, and a team that can use it
Selection, migration, VAT and e-invoicing configuration, and training that sticks. We have implemented on every major platform in this market and we have no reseller commission to defend.
- Independent selection — we sell no licences
- Historical data migrated and reconciled
- VAT codes and invoice formats configured
- Ready for the 2027 e-invoicing mandate
- Live training for your team, plus written procedures
Speak to a specialist
Free 30-minute consultation. Written proposal within one business day.
The problem
e-Invoicing turns software choice into a compliance decision
Until recently, the accounting platform a UAE business used was a matter of preference. That has changed. The Ministry of Finance is rolling out a Peppol five-corner e-invoicing model in phases: a pilot from 1 July 2026, mandatory operation from 1 January 2027 for businesses with revenue of AED 50 million or more, and 1 July 2027 for everyone below that. Businesses under AED 50 million must appoint an Accredited Service Provider by 31 March 2027.
The requirement is structured XML built to the PINT AE schema, transmitted through an accredited provider, with 51 mandatory fields on a standard invoice. A PDF emailed to a customer will not satisfy it. Systems that cannot produce compliant structured output will have to be replaced or bridged, and the businesses that leave that discovery until 2027 will be paying emergency rates for a migration that could have been planned.
e-Invoicing timeline: pilot from 1 July 2026 · mandatory 1 January 2027 for revenue of AED 50m or more · provider appointment by 31 March 2027 for everyone else · go-live 1 July 2027. Non-implementation penalties run to AED 5,000 a month, plus AED 100 per non-compliant invoice.
Scope
What is included
Selection & migration
- Requirements review against volume, sector and reporting needs
- Platform recommendation with costs, independent of any vendor
- Chart of accounts designed or rebuilt
- Opening balances and historical transactions migrated and reconciled
- Parallel run before the old system is retired
Configuration & training
- VAT tax codes, reverse charge and designated zone treatment
- Invoice templates that meet FTA content requirements
- e-Invoicing readiness assessment and provider selection
- Bank feeds, approval workflows and user permissions
- Live training sessions plus a written procedures document
How it works
Four steps
Assess
Your volume, sector, existing data and reporting requirements, plus your e-invoicing phase.
Recommend
A platform and a cost, with the reasoning written down. You own the licence, not us.
Migrate
Data moved, balances reconciled to the prior system, parallel run to prove it.
Train
Your team taught on your own data, with written procedures they can refer back to.
Pricing
What it costs
Published, fixed, and quoted in writing before we start. All fees exclude 5% UAE VAT.
| Service | Basis | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Software setup, migration & training | Project | from AED 3,500 |
| e-Invoicing readiness assessment | Project | from AED 2,500 |
| Additional training day | Per day, on site or remote | from AED 1,500 |
| Training a new in-house accountant | Per month, minimum three months | AED 1,500 |
| Partner platforms | Zoho Books, Wafeq, XYRA AI | Implementation included |
| Ongoing software support | Included in Growth package | AED 2,000/month |
Questions
Accounting Software Onboarding & Training — frequently asked
Which accounting software is best for a UAE SME?
There is no single answer, and any firm that gives you one without asking about your volume, your inventory and your invoicing is selling something. Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online suit most service businesses under a few hundred transactions a month. Xero handles multi-currency well. Tally remains strong where inventory and trading dominate. Sage, SAP, Oracle and Dynamics come into play at scale or where manufacturing costing matters.
Will I lose data in a migration?
Not if it is done properly. We migrate opening balances and transaction history, reconcile the new system back to the old one line by line, and run both in parallel until the numbers agree. The old system stays accessible until you are satisfied.
How long does an implementation take?
A clean setup for a small service company takes one to two weeks. A migration with two or three years of history, inventory and multi-currency runs four to eight weeks. The variable is almost always the state of the data you are migrating from.
Do you sell the software licences?
No. You buy your own licence directly from the vendor, in your own name, and you keep control of it. We take no reseller margin, which is the only way our recommendation is worth anything.
Is my current system ready for e-invoicing?
Most cloud platforms are building PINT AE support; most on-premise and legacy systems are not. We run a readiness assessment against the 51 mandatory fields and the structured XML requirement, and tell you whether you need a replacement, a middleware bridge, or nothing at all.
We already use Zoho Books. Can you check whether it is set up correctly?
Yes — that is exactly what the free Zoho Books Health Check does. We run around 24 checks across VAT treatment, duplicates, posting errors and audit trail, and send you a report of what we found. The first review costs nothing.
Can you train staff who have never used accounting software?
Yes, and it is a large part of the work. Training is run on your own live data rather than a demo file, in sessions sized for the people doing the job, and it ends with a written procedure document so the knowledge survives staff turnover.
Next step
Thirty minutes, no obligation
Tell us where you are. We will tell you what is required, what it costs, and whether anything is already overdue — before you have paid us anything.
Prefer to see numbers first? Take the 3-minute assessment — package, indicative fee and your own filing deadlines, no contact details required.
Request a call back
A senior advisor, not a call centre.