Overview
Egypt’s tax authority has moved invoicing off paper and onto two connected systems: the e-invoice for business-to-business trade, and the electronic receipt for sales to consumers at point of sale. Nama ERP supports both, so a business selling to companies and to walk-in customers is covered by one system rather than two.
Sending invoices to the Authority periodically — and having them validated against the state’s standards — protects seller and buyer alike, and is how the Authority narrows the parallel economy. Nama ERP was built to hold the data those checks require, and refuses to submit an invoice whose mandatory data is missing rather than letting it fail downstream.
The e-invoice system
Electronic signature
Nama supports connecting to an HSM electronic signature device to verify the identity of the taxpayer, and thereby the identity of the party that issued the invoice.
Coding systems
Both coding systems recognised by the Egyptian Tax Authority are supported — GS1 and EGS. EGS suits taxpayers who already run an accounting system, since the items sold are coded and handled through invoices. Nama supports several ways of defining item classifications, sections and categories, which is what EGS depends on.
Notifications and follow-up
Notifications are sent on every event affecting an invoice: submission to the Authority, or informing the buyer that an invoice was issued, cancelled or amended. The system contacts the Authority periodically to follow up on submitted invoices, confirm successful transmission or identify the reason for rejection, and resend after the error is corrected.
That notification capability is not specific to tax: Nama was designed for real-time notification of any party — an authority, a customer, a supplier or an employee.
Required data, enforced at entry
Everything the Authority requires can be recorded in the system: taxpayer and buyer details, addresses and tax information. Nama will not submit an invoice while any of this is missing, which saves the time otherwise lost to rejected submissions.
The electronic receipt
Selling to consumers works differently. Each device used to issue receipts must be registered with the Tax Authority by serial number, along with its vendor and model, and activated before it can transmit.
Nama ERP handles that registration from the Register POS screen and stores the resulting credentials against the device. Businesses running a single till and businesses running many are both supported — each device is defined with its own serial number and credentials, and the invoice and returns book it belongs to.
Receipt or invoice, decided automatically
The document type follows the buyer’s legal entity. A sale to an individual is sent as a receipt; a sale to a private-sector entity is sent automatically as an invoice. Nobody has to make that call at the counter.
A practical rule for small sales
The Authority requires a national ID number for individual customers. Asking every customer for ID on a small purchase is impractical, so Nama lets you set a minimum receipt value above which the ID becomes mandatory — below the threshold the sale goes through without it, above it the system requires the number.
For private-sector buyers, the tax registration number is required.
In practice
Egypt was the first market where we implemented tax digitisation, and it remains the most complete of our e-invoicing integrations. The configuration guide is published in our documentation.
Good question — already answered
Is the electronic receipt just another name for the e-invoice?
No — they are two systems with two sets of rules. The e-invoice covers business-to-business trade and is submitted against the seller's tax registration. The electronic receipt covers sales to consumers at point of sale, and it is the till itself that has to be registered with the Authority. A business that sells both ways needs both, which is the practical reason to run them from one system rather than two.
Does every till have to be registered separately?
Yes. Each device is registered with the Tax Authority by serial number, along with its vendor and model, and comes back with its own client ID and secret. Nama ERP holds those credentials against the device and against the invoice and returns book it belongs to, so a business with forty branches is defining forty devices rather than running forty configurations.
Do we have to ask every walk-in customer for a national ID?
Only above a threshold you set. The Authority requires a national ID for individual buyers, which is impractical on a small purchase, so Nama lets you set a minimum receipt value above which the ID becomes mandatory. Below it the sale goes through; above it the system requires the number before the receipt can be issued.
GS1 or EGS — which coding system should we use?
Both are recognised and both are supported. EGS generally suits a business already running an accounting system, because the items being sold are already coded and moving through invoices; Nama supports the item classifications, sections and categories that EGS depends on. The decision is usually made with your tax advisor rather than with your ERP vendor.
Do we need signing hardware?
For the e-invoice system, yes — Nama connects to an HSM signing device, which is what establishes the identity of the taxpayer issuing the invoice. It is part of a standard Egyptian deployment rather than something you procure separately once the project is under way.
