How to make a bilingual Arabic and English invoice

A bilingual Arabic and English invoice is a single invoice that shows the same information in both languages: the labels (invoice number, date, tax, total), the names and addresses of the two parties, and the description of what was sold. The English reads left to right, the Arabic right to left, and every figure is the same on both sides. You do not issue two invoices, and you do not translate the numbers.

With the BuzPulse Invoice Generator you switch the Language setting from English only to English + Arabic, fill in the Arabic beside the English where you want it, and download the PDF.

It depends on who reads the invoice. A Saudi customer's accounts team, a bank, a government buyer or an auditor may want Arabic; an overseas supplier or a foreign-owned customer may want English. One document that carries both saves you keeping two versions that could drift apart.

1. 1

   Open the Invoice Generator

   The free builder at the invoice generator works without an account.

2. 2

   Set the language to English + Arabic

   In the builder this adds an Arabic field next to each English one. In English-only mode the Arabic fields are not shown at all.

3. 3

   Fill in the English, then the Arabic

   Business name, address, customer and each item name. You can type the Arabic yourself, or, signed in, use Translate on a field.

4. 4

   Check the preview, then download the PDF

   Read the Arabic side against the English side, especially names and numbers, before sending.

On the printed invoice the English sits on the left and the Arabic on the right, the column headings and totals carry both languages, and the document title reads as English followed by its Arabic equivalent. The Arabic text uses a font that also covers Latin letters, so a mixed line such as an item name with a size in it prints cleanly.

Quantities, prices, tax rates and totals always print in Western digits (1,150.00), in both language modes. They are the part that someone has to reconcile against a purchase order, a bank statement or a tax return, and showing them in a second numeral system would make that harder.

Digits inside Arabic text on the Arabic side, such as a street number in an Arabic address, print as Arabic-Indic digits (١٤٠). Anything that has to stay machine-readable, such as an email address or a code with letters in it, is left exactly as you typed it.

Translate is optional and works only when you are signed in. It proposes a translation for you to accept, edit or discard; nothing is written into the invoice until you accept, and it is labelled as AI translation to be checked. It has a daily allowance, and when the AI provider is unavailable the message tells you to type the Arabic yourself.

• Arabic-only invoices. The choice is English only, or English + Arabic. There is no Arabic-only layout.
• Print every Arabic field you can fill in. The printed PDF has Arabic for the names, addresses, item names, bank details and notes. The Arabic item description, Arabic payment terms and Arabic payment instructions can be entered on the form but are not printed on the PDF, so put anything the customer must see in the item name or the notes.
• Guarantee a correct translation. A machine translation is a draft. You are responsible for what the invoice says.
• Make the invoice ZATCA Phase 2 compliant. The invoice carries the Phase 1 QR code, and BuzPulse is not connected to ZATCA's FATOORA platform. The language setting does not change that. See the ZATCA QR code guide.

The language does not change which fields an invoice needs. For the full list, including the tax fields for Saudi Arabia, see what to put on an invoice. A bilingual invoice is that same invoice with a second language laid alongside it.