ASP contract questions: what to settle before you sign

Why the contract matters

Your ASP becomes part of how you issue every invoice. The Ministry's guidelines say you must finalise your contract with the ASP before you onboard through EmaraTax. So the terms are set before anyone has tested your data.

Two rules make the contract matter more. You stay responsible for keeping your e-invoices even if the ASP stores them. And a rejected invoice has not been issued, which is a penalty under Cabinet Decision No. 173 of 2026. Use the questions below as a checklist in your review. Tick each one only when the answer is in the contract or its schedules.

1. Service levels and availability

• What uptime does the provider commit to, measured how, and over what period?
• What happens when uptime is missed: service credits, a right to terminate, or nothing?
• Are planned maintenance windows outside your invoicing hours, with notice in advance?
• How fast are invoices exchanged and reported in normal operation, and is that written down?

The Ministry's selection document tells businesses to look for defined SLAs for uptime and service availability. Ask for them as numbers, not adjectives.

2. Validation, rejections and error handling

• How does a failed validation come back to your ERP: API status, webhook, email or portal only?
• Does the message say which field failed and why, in a form your team can act on?
• Who fixes what: the provider for its own transformation errors, you for your data?
• How are rejections by the buyer's ASP handled and reported to you?
• How does the provider confirm that tax data reached the FTA, and how quickly?

The guidelines require ASPs to tell you, on an event-driven basis and without undue delay, that invoices have reached the authority. Get the format of that confirmation in writing so your ERP can record it.

3. PINT AE validation and specification updates

• Which PINT AE version does the provider validate against today?
• How much notice will you get before a specification change, and how long is the test window?
• Does the provider validate the full UAE rule set, including credit notes, exports, free zone and margin scheme scenarios?
• Who pays for connector changes when the specification changes?

OpenPeppol publishes PINT AE on docs.peppol.eu. Versions change, so the contract should say how changes reach you.

4. Peppol delivery and receiving

• Will the provider register your Peppol participant ID, based on your TIN, and keep the registration current?
• Does it receive supplier invoices for you and deliver them into your ERP, or only into its portal?
• For a VAT group, does it onboard each member with its own TIN?
• What happens when a customer is not reachable on the network?

Receiving matters as much as sending. Under the decision, a recipient that fails to keep its obligations after implementation can also be penalised.

5. Archiving and record keeping

• Does the provider store your e-invoices, credit notes and associated data, and for how long?
• Can records be retrieved and reproduced in complete, readable form for an FTA request?
• Where is the data stored, and how is its integrity protected?
• What happens to the archive if the contract ends?

The guidelines allow storage with the ASP where agreed in the contract. They also say the legal obligation stays with you. The base period is five years after the tax period, longer in some cases, such as seven years for real estate records.

6. Exit and data portability

• What notice period applies, and can you leave for a missed SLA?
• In what format do you get your invoices, credit notes and logs when you leave?
• Will the provider support a handover to a new ASP, including the Peppol registration?
• How long does the provider keep your data after exit, and how is it deleted?

Switching ASP later is possible, but only painless if the exit terms were written before you started.

7. Support hours and language

• What are the support hours, and do they cover your invoicing days and month-end?
• What are the response and resolution times by severity?
• Is support delivered by the provider itself or subcontracted?
• Is support available in Arabic and English?

The Ministry's selection document asks whether support is provided by the ASP or a third party, because outsourced support can slow resolution.

8. Onboarding, testing and go-live

• What does the provider do during onboarding, and what does it expect from you and your ERP partner?
• Is there a test environment, and for how long before go-live?
• Which scenarios will you test together, and who signs off?
• Is there an agreed governance model for errors during and after go-live?

The guidelines tell businesses to agree roles and responsibilities with the ASP for transmission oversight and error resolution before go-live.

9. Liability, fees and penalties

• If the provider's outage or error causes a missed invoice, who bears the penalty?
• Is liability capped, and is the cap meaningful against your invoice volume?
• Are all fees listed: set-up, per document, receiving, archive, connector, exit?
• Does the contract reflect the 100 free exchange and reporting services a year per end user under Ministerial Decision No. 168 of 2026?

The Ministry's document asks two direct questions: what the pricing model is, and whether there are hidden fees. Ask for every fee in writing.

10. Sub-processors and security

• Which sub-processors and hosting providers handle your data, and in which countries?
• Will the provider tell you before it adds or changes a sub-processor?
• Is the product the provider's own, or a white-label of another provider's platform?
• What security certifications and controls does it hold: encryption, access control, incident response?
• How fast will it notify you of a security incident or a service disruption?

The guidelines also say businesses should make sure the ASP notifies the FTA of service disruptions in time, and sends delayed invoices once service resumes.

Before you sign: the ERP check

Ask the provider to show its connector working with your ERP and version, using your own invoice data, before you commit. That one test answers half the questions above. We run it for clients on Odoo, Oracle NetSuite, SAP Business One, Dynamics 365 Business Central and Zoho, and we are independent of every provider. Use the ASP finder to check accreditation first.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

Sources

• Ministry of Finance: Considerations for selecting an Accredited Service Provider, v1.1, 28 Oct 2026 (PDF)
• UAE Electronic Invoicing Guidelines v2.0, 26 Oct 2026, sections 5.4, 13, 15 and 16 (PDF)
• Cabinet Decision No. 173 of 2026 on e-invoicing violations and penalties (PDF)
• OpenPeppol: PINT AE specifications

Last checked 6 November 2026 against the Ministry of Finance.