What software for a UAE contractor has to get right.
Most accounting software is built for a business that invoices once and gets paid. A joinery, fit-out or MEP business quotes against a BOQ, takes an advance, bills in stages, holds retention for years and declares VAT at each of those points. This is the checklist to test any system against, Mizarah included.
By Muhammad Arslan, founder of Mizarah, who kept a UAE joinery's books for thirteen years · 7 minute read · Updated 24 October 2026 · Practical guidance, not tax advice: confirm anything that matters for your business with your tax agent or the Federal Tax Authority.
Software for a UAE contractor that bills in stages should raise an advance tax invoice when the money lands, bill progress claims that take off the advance and retention under one VAT method, stop a contract at exactly 100%, track retention until it is released, print tax invoices in Arabic and English, and lay out the VAT 201. The quickest test is a contract you have already billed: put it through and compare every figure.
General software expects one invoice per sale.
Shop-style accounting software treats a sale as one invoice, paid once. A contract is different: an advance first, then claims as the work is certified, each one taking back part of the advance and holding back retention, and a release invoice months or years later.
When the software cannot follow the contract, the contract moves into a spreadsheet beside it, and the two drift apart. That is where the advance's VAT is missed, a claim takes the advance twice, and retention is never invoiced back.
- The contract, not the single invoice, is what has to be tracked.
- Every document on it has to agree with the ones before it.
- VAT is declared at several points, each exactly once.
Ten things it has to do for a contractor.
Ask for each of these to be shown on a real contract, not described. If the answer is "you can do that in a spreadsheet", the software does not do it.
| # | It must | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raise a tax invoice when an advance is received | Receiving payment is a date of supply (Article 25); its tax invoice is due within 14 days (Article 67) |
| 2 | Bill progress claims from the work certified | The claim has to match the certificate the main contractor signs |
| 3 | Apply one VAT method to every deduction | Before VAT or after VAT, never mixed, or the figures match neither |
| 4 | Take the advance back exactly once | Its VAT was declared on the advance tax invoice and must not be declared again |
| 5 | Hold retention on its own account, per contract | Releases fall due long after handover and are easy to forget |
| 6 | Refuse a claim that bills past 100% | Across all its invoices a contract bills exactly its value |
| 7 | Print tax invoices in Arabic and English | With your TRN and your customer's, in the language your customer reads |
| 8 | Quote from your BOQ sheet | The quotation's lines are the lines every claim is certified against |
| 9 | Link deliveries and purchases to the job | So you know what was delivered and what the job cost |
| 10 | Lay out the VAT 201 from posted documents | So the return equals the VAT in your books |
Put a contract you have already billed through it.
Take a contract whose figures you know: the contract value, the advance, the retention and each claim. Bill it again in the software you are testing and compare every document with what you actually issued.
Whichever VAT method you use, the totals at the end must be the same. On the 1,000,000 reference contract, with a 30% advance, 10% retention and the work billed 30% / 40% / 30%:
| Check | Must equal |
|---|---|
| Work billed, all documents | 1,000,000.00 |
| VAT declared, all documents | 50,000.00 |
| Payable, all documents | 1,050,000.00 |
| Advance left to recover | 0.00 |
| Retention left to release | 0.00 |
And a fourth claim on the same contract is refused: it would bill past 100%.
A careful spreadsheet can bill one contract. It struggles with five.
If you run one or two contracts at a time and one person does the billing, a well-built spreadsheet can get every figure right. The free progress bill calculator and Excel template on this site follow the same rules as this guide.
The signs it is time to move are the ones below. Each is a place where a sheet copied forward month after month starts to disagree with itself.
- Several contracts running at once.
- More than one person changing the figures.
- Retention from past years still to invoice.
- The VAT return rebuilt by hand from the sheet each period.
Mizarah was built against this list.
Mizarah is job accounting software for UAE contractors that bill in stages: joinery, fit-out, aluminium and glass, steel, MEP, gypsum, furniture, marble, signage and painting. It was built by an accountant who kept a UAE joinery's books for thirteen years.
It costs $49 a month or $399 a year for one company with ten staff logins, runs in the browser (cloud only, nothing to install), and has a 14-day free trial with no card.
In Mizarah an advance raises its tax invoice when it is recorded, each claim applies your company's VAT method to every deduction, the contract refuses a claim past 100%, retention sits on its own account until each release invoice, documents print in English, English and Arabic, or Arabic, and the VAT 201 is laid out box by box from your posted documents.
Common questions.
- What software do UAE joinery and fit-out companies use for progress billing?
- Many small contractors still build each progress claim in Excel beside a general accounting package. Software built for stage billing keeps the quotation, the advance, the claims, the retention and the VAT on the contract itself. Mizarah is one, built for UAE contractors.
- Can I move a contract that is already part-billed?
- Yes. You bring its starting position (work billed to date, the advance received and recovered, the retention held and the method the old claims used) instead of re-entering every old claim.
- Is Mizarah installed on our own computer or server?
- No. Mizarah is cloud only: it runs in the browser on a computer or a phone, there is nothing to install, and your data is backed up every day.
- How much does Mizarah cost?
- $49 a month or $399 a year for one company, with ten staff logins included, after a 14-day free trial that needs no card.
Read next: Moving a part-billed contract · Progress bills in Excel · Pricing
See your own contract worked out this way.
Put a contract you have already billed through the trial and check the figures against what you invoiced. No card needed, and nothing you enter is deleted when the trial ends.