The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has launched a national electronic business invoicing platform (e-Invoicing) called “Isal,” with the aim of streamlining the payment process between government agencies, various business sectors, and the suppliers that do business with these agencies.
The “Isal” platform will help reduce financial transaction costs and enhance institutional efficiency by streamlining invoicing processes for suppliers to government agencies and various business sectors and enabling electronic payments.
The new platform improves the management of invoiced payments through additional features it offers users, such as clarifying the payment status of issued invoices, graphical representations and payment analysis, and auditing the matching and reconciliation of collected amounts through an integrated electronic dashboard, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and the objectives of the Financial Sector Development Program to increase the rate of digital financial transactions,in addition to helping reduce the need for cash collection, which will save on associated costs.
The services provided by the E-Sal platform cover the entire invoice lifecycle, from invoice creation, viewing, and payment, and settlement, enabling users to fully automate these processes. This will particularly benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in the Kingdom by promoting improved cash flow management.
Hashim Al-Hogail, Deputy Governor for Banking Operations at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), said: “Through the payment systems it oversees, the Authority is always committed to increasing the proportion of cashless transactions, expanding financial inclusion for small and medium-sized enterprises, and adopting modern and innovative technologies that contribute to achieving our goals. The world has recently witnessed the spread of electronic invoicing systems at the national level, especially as their benefits have become clearly evident in a number of countries in Europe and Latin America, Therefore, we have been working over the past period to develop a suitable platform that supports businesses and will contribute to the prosperity of the Saudi economy, With plans to add other services to this platform next year aimed at improving business-to-business operations, we are confident that the “Esal” platform will play a vital role in promoting the Kingdom’s growth in line with the Vision’s goals and outcomes.”
