E-invoicing providers are accredited under a new decision, without a pre-approval stage

A row of five jade paper seals on a deep teal ground, the middle one raised a little above the line

Every UAE company will send its e-invoices through an accredited service provider. The rules for who gets accredited were rewritten on 9 October, when the Ministry of Finance announced Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026, in force from 1 October 2026.

What it replaces

The decision repeals Ministerial Decision No. 64 of 2025 and Ministerial Decision No. 56 of 2026, the two earlier accreditation decisions. The ministry calls the result an updated regulatory framework, and says it was shaped by feedback from the providers who went through the earlier process.

No pre-approval stage

The pre-approval stage is removed. Under the old route a provider first obtained a preliminary approval, then built and proved its system, then applied for accreditation; the new route goes straight to accreditation against the published requirements.

Third-party Peppol products

Providers are now allowed to use third-party Peppol products rather than building the Peppol access point themselves. For a software vendor that already runs an invoicing platform, this is the clause that makes accreditation a procurement decision rather than a development one.

Thirty days for the ones already in

Firms holding a preliminary approval under the old decisions had 30 days from 1 October 2026 to meet the new requirements. That window closes at the end of October.

For a company choosing a provider, the useful consequence is a longer list. The old route rewarded firms that could build a Peppol access point from scratch, which is a small group; the new one lets an ERP vendor or a regional accounting platform buy that layer and get accredited on the strength of its invoicing product. Expect the accredited list to grow through the first quarter of 2027, and expect the firms that were already in to stay in. The decision to make now is not which provider but which of your systems issues the invoices, because that is the system the provider has to connect to.

Source: Ministry of Finance checked against the source

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