Aqid ERPBill the year, earn it month by month
Invoice a 12-month licence or support contract in one go. The line is held in deferred revenue and moved into income each month by a nightly job, so the P&L follows the contract, not the billing date.
Professional services
Accounting for IT services and software companies in the UAE
Aqid ERP is cloud accounting for UAE software houses, IT service firms and system integrators. It invoices annual contracts up front and recognises them monthly, bills subscriptions on schedule, books foreign cloud and licence bills under the reverse charge, costs each implementation, and lays out the VAT 201 from the ledger.
Start now for free No credit card needed — invoice in minutes
Starts set up for Services and consulting
Sign up as this kind of business and the books start with the accounts it posts to, beyond the country's chart:
- 4130 — Professional fees
- 1230 — Unbilled time and fees
- 5140 — Subcontracted services
It also sets the invoice terms, whether prices include VAT, and the setup steps that matter for it. You can change it later, and nothing you have is removed.
Start with this setupIn short
Aqid ERP is cloud accounting for UAE software houses, IT service firms and system integrators. It invoices annual contracts up front and recognises them monthly, bills subscriptions on schedule, books foreign cloud and licence bills under the reverse charge, costs each implementation, and lays out the VAT 201 from the ledger. Aqid ERP lays out the FTA's VAT 201 from the books, generates every invoice as signed PINT AE XML for the 2027 e-invoicing mandate and runs payroll in dirhams with a WPS salary file and end-of-service gratuity. The Growth plan fits, at AED 109 a month, with a 60-day free trial. Not built yet: Aqid ERP does not bill from timesheets or usage, so time-and-materials and metered work are invoiced from your own records.
At a glance
| For | IT and software companies |
|---|---|
| E-invoicing | PINT AE: signed UBL XML kept with each invoice; sending through an accredited service provider is not yet live (the mandate starts in 2027) |
| VAT | 5% standard rate; the VAT 201 is laid out from the books, sales by emirate |
| Payroll | A WPS salary file, end-of-service gratuity, GPSSA pension for Emirati staff, payslips in Arabic and English |
| Stock | Not needed by most businesses of this kind |
| Recommended plan | Growth (AED 109 a month before VAT): multi-currency for foreign vendors and clients, the public API, and payroll with no headcount limit. |
| Price | AED 109 a month before VAT · 60-day free trial today, no card |
| Not built yet | Aqid ERP does not bill from timesheets or usage, so time-and-materials and metered work are invoiced from your own records. |
How it runs
Subscriptions on a schedule
Hosting, support and licence fees run as recurring invoices, monthly or yearly, each emailed as a tax invoice with 5% VAT. Overdue ones get automatic email reminders, and a payment link appears once you connect a payment provider.
Foreign SaaS and cloud bills
Enter a bill from a vendor abroad in euros or dollars. The 5% reverse charge is posted on both sides, the exchange difference is booked when you pay, and open balances are revalued at month end.
Each implementation as a project
Tag stage invoices, subcontractor bills and travel claims to the client's implementation, and move the team's payroll cost onto it with a re-tag or an allocation journal. Its P&L shows whether the fixed fee covered the work.
A month at an IT company in Abu Dhabi (example)
- Say an Abu Dhabi client signs a 12-month support contract worth AED 48,000.00 in January. You invoice it in full: AED 48,000.00 plus 5% VAT of AED 2,400.00, a total of AED 50,400.00, with the AED 48,000.00 held in deferred revenue.
- At the end of January AED 4,000.00 moves into income; AED 44,000.00 waits to be recognised over the next eleven months.
- You finish stage one of an ERP rollout for another client and invoice a fixed fee of AED 65,000.00 plus AED 3,250.00 VAT, a total of AED 68,250.00, tagged to that implementation.
- A European cloud vendor bills EUR 2,500. At 4.20 that is AED 10,500.00, with reverse-charge VAT of AED 525.00 posted as output and input. You pay when the rate is 4.16, so AED 10,400.00 leaves the bank and an exchange gain of AED 100.00 is posted.
- Two engineers spend the month on the rollout and AED 30,000.00 of payroll is moved onto it: AED 65,000.00 of revenue against AED 30,000.00 of cost so far. The VAT 201 shows AED 5,650.00 of output VAT against Abu Dhabi in box 1a, and the AED 525.00 in box 3 and again in box 10.
The parts you will use
Deferred revenue
Prepaid licences and support contracts recognised month by month, with the unearned balance shown as a liability on the balance sheet.
Recurring invoices and payment links
Monthly or annual subscriptions issued on schedule and emailed, or shared on WhatsApp from your phone, with automatic email reminders and online payment once a payment provider is connected.
Multi-currency
Invoices and bills in dollars, euros or other currencies with the AED equivalent on the tax invoice, exchange differences on payment and month-end revaluation. Growth and Premium.
Projects and cost centres
A P&L for each implementation or product line, from the invoices, subcontractor bills and claims tagged to it and the payroll cost moved onto it.
Payroll
Monthly payroll in AED with a WPS SIF salary file, end-of-service gratuity accrued monthly, bilingual payslips and expiry alerts for Emirates IDs, residence visas, work permits and passports.
Fixed assets
Laptops, servers and network kit in an asset register, depreciated when you run depreciation up to the month end.
VAT 201 and e-invoicing for IT companies
Software, support and implementation fees billed in the UAE carry VAT at 5%. When you invoice a year in advance, VAT is normally charged on the full invoice even though the revenue is spread over twelve months; confirm the tax point on prepayments with your adviser. Licences and cloud services bought from abroad go through the reverse charge, box 3 of the VAT 201, recovered in box 10 under the normal rules.
Services supplied to clients outside the UAE may be treated differently; the answer depends on the service and the client, so agree it with your adviser and set the tax code on each line. Aqid ERP keeps zero-rated, exempt and standard-rated lines apart in their own boxes, and you enter the return on EmaraTax.
Every invoice and credit note is generated as signed PINT AE XML and kept with it. Below AED 50 million of revenue you appoint an accredited service provider by 31 March 2027 and transmit from 1 July 2027. Aqid ERP is not a provider, and its connection to one is still in progress.
Plans for IT and software companies
Starter
For small businesses that need compliant invoicing
77 د.إ / month
- Compliant tax invoices
- Customers & quotes
- Payroll and WPS file for up to 5 employees
Growth
For teams that want the full books, not only invoices
109 د.إ / month
- Everything in Starter
- Full ledger & reports
- Unlimited payroll, inventory and consolidation
Premium
For companies with branches, devices and volume
214 د.إ / month
- Everything in Growth
- Branches & devices
- Your own versioned metrics, consolidation & API
Questions
Does Aqid ERP handle deferred revenue on annual licences?
Yes. Invoice the whole contract, and the revenue is recognised month by month from deferred revenue automatically.
How is VAT handled on our AWS, Azure or other foreign software bills?
If the vendor bills from outside the UAE, you account for 5% VAT under the reverse charge in box 3 of the VAT 201 and, under the normal rules, recover it in box 10. Aqid ERP posts both sides from the bill, and since 1 January 2026 no self-invoice is required.
We are in a free zone. How does corporate tax work in Aqid ERP?
Aqid ERP records whether the company is a Qualifying Free Zone Person and then leaves Small Business Relief off its estimate. It does not yet split qualifying from non-qualifying income, so the estimate is at the standard rates and is a starting point for your adviser, not the tax due. Keeping the two kinds of revenue in separate income accounts helps.
Can I bill by the hour from timesheets?
No. There are no timesheets or hourly billing yet. Bill fixed fees, stage invoices you raise yourself, or recurring subscriptions.
Are our invoices ready for UAE e-invoicing?
Each invoice is kept with signed PINT AE XML today. Transmission through an accredited service provider is not yet live, and Aqid ERP is not itself a provider. Businesses under AED 50 million appoint one by 31 March 2027 and go live on 1 July 2027.
Is there an API to connect our own platform?
Yes. The public API is available on Growth and Premium.
Other industries
Healthcare
Professional services
Property & construction
Trade, stock & production
Hospitality & lifestyle
Workforce & operations
Education
Groups of companies
Aqid ERP in the UAE
Set up for the UAE's rules from the first day.
- Plans from 77 د.إ a month
- UAE e-invoicing (2027)
- VAT 5 %
- Corporate tax
- WPS