E-invoicing in Vietnam and Malaysia: what your POS or ERP has to do before the penalties start

Your accountant asks a simple question: "Can our till (or our ERP) send invoices to the tax authority by itself?" If the honest answer is "we type them into a portal afterwards," you have a problem that gets bigger every quarter.

Vietnam and Malaysia are both moving businesses from paper-style invoices to invoices that pass through a government system. The two countries do it differently, and the deadlines in Malaysia have moved more than once. This post sets out what each country asks of a small or mid-sized business, where the dates stand today, and what your invoicing system has to be able to do.

The two countries at a glance

	Vietnam	Malaysia
Main rule	Decree 70/2025, in force since 1 June 2025 (amends Decree 123/2020)	LHDN e-Invoice (MyInvois) rollout, phased by annual turnover
Who is hit hardest	Retail, food and drink, hotels, passenger transport, entertainment and personal services; exporters	Businesses in the smaller turnover bands, now in the final phase
Key date to remember	In force now	Relaxation period runs to 31 December 2027
Practical effect	Invoice data goes to the tax authority as sales happen	Invoices go through the LHDN e-Invoice platform, with monthly consolidation allowed for now

Vietnam: invoice data has to reach the tax authority

Decree 70/2025 took effect on 1 June 2025. Three parts matter most to a small business.

Point-of-sale invoices. Businesses in consumer-facing sectors must issue e-invoices from cash registers that are connected to the tax authority. The covered sectors include shopping centres, supermarkets and retail (excluding vehicle sales), restaurants and food and drink, hotels, passenger transport, entertainment and personal services. For household businesses and individual traders, the rule applies once annual revenue reaches VND 1 billion. For registered companies in these sectors, the rule is tied to the sector rather than to a revenue figure.

Export invoices. The seller chooses when to issue the invoice, but it must be issued no later than the next working day after customs clearance. A manual invoicing process that waits for month-end will miss this.

Corrections. Cancelling an invoice is no longer the route. Errors are fixed by adjustment or replacement, and for business-to-business corrections the seller and buyer need a written agreement that is kept on file.

Malaysia: phased by turnover, with a relaxation period

Malaysia’s e-invoice rollout has been phased by annual turnover. The last band, businesses with turnover up to RM5 million, was due to start on 1 January 2026.

Two things have softened the pressure for now. LHDN extended an interim relaxation period for these smaller taxpayers to 31 December 2027 (announced in April 2026). During that period they may issue consolidated e-invoices, instead of one per transaction, without penalty, provided the minimum consolidation requirements are met. Full enforcement is then due to begin on 1 January 2028.

There is also a turnover exemption for the smallest businesses, and the figure has changed more than once, with extra conditions for businesses linked to larger related companies. Check the current threshold on LHDN’s own pages before you rely on it.

Do not read "relaxation" as "nothing to do." Consolidated invoices still have to be produced, accurate, and reconcilable to your sales records. A business that starts building that process in late 2027 will be doing it under deadline pressure.

What your system has to do, in both countries

Whatever the local detail, the job for your POS or ERP is similar. Five things need to work.

1. Capture complete invoice data at the point of sale. Seller and buyer details, each item, price and tax, and the time of issue. Gaps here become rejected invoices later.
2. Issue at the right moment. Immediately for a till sale, by the next working day after customs clearance for a Vietnamese export, or consolidated monthly during the Malaysian relaxation period.
3. Send the invoice data to the government platform automatically. Typing it into a portal does not scale and invites errors. The platform’s response, such as a validation result or tax authority code, has to be stored against the invoice.
4. Handle corrections properly. Replacement and adjustment notices need to link back to the original invoice, with the agreement on file where one is required.
5. Keep records and reconcile. The invoice data held by the tax authority should match your accounting records, and you should be able to show that it does.

A 30-day starting plan

Week 1: find out which rules apply. Which country, which sector, which turnover band. Ask your accountant to confirm in writing.

Week 2: map how invoices are produced today. Which system creates them, who edits them, and where the data goes afterwards. Note every manual step.

Week 3: test the gaps. Take a sample of last month’s invoices and check each against the five points above. List what is missing: buyer identification, item detail, timing, correction records.

Week 4: decide the route. Either your current POS or ERP can be configured or upgraded to do this, or you need a connector between your system and the platform. Get quotes for both before choosing.

Common mistakes

• Treating the Malaysian relaxation period as an exemption. It reduces penalties and allows consolidation. It does not remove the requirement.
• Assuming the exemption applies to you without checking related companies. In Malaysia, linked businesses can lose the small-business exemption.
• Re-keying invoices by hand into a portal. It works at ten invoices a day and fails at a hundred.
• Waiting for the penalty date. Fixing a data model and testing a connection takes weeks, and platform rules change.
• Ignoring export timing in Vietnam. The next-working-day rule after clearance catches businesses that invoice weekly or monthly.

Where a connector helps

Many small businesses already have a POS or an ERP that works. The gap is the link between it and the government platform: mapping your invoice fields to the format the platform expects, sending each invoice, storing the response, and flagging the ones that fail.

That link is what Simplico builds. We connect ERP, POS and measurement systems for manufacturers and retailers, and our ERP integration work is a natural starting point if your invoices already live in an ERP. We do not sell a packaged e-invoicing product; we scope what you have, tell you what is missing, and give a fixed-scope quote for the connection.

Talk to us

Tell us which system issues your invoices today and which country you are in, and we will tell you what the connection would involve. A short scoping call is enough to start.

• Email: hello@simplico.net
• LINE: iiitum1984
• Phone: (+66) 97496 6397

For architecture and integration questions beyond ERP, see our system design and consulting service.

FAQ

Does Vietnam’s POS rule apply to my small shop?
If you are a household business or individual trader in a covered sector, it applies once annual revenue reaches VND 1 billion. If you are a registered company in a covered consumer-facing sector, the rule is tied to the sector, not to a revenue figure. Confirm your position with your accountant.

When do Malaysian penalties start for smaller businesses?
The relaxation period for businesses with turnover up to RM5 million runs to 31 December 2027, and full enforcement is due from 1 January 2028. LHDN has changed these dates before, so check its guidance rather than relying on this post.

Can I keep issuing one consolidated invoice per month in Malaysia?
During the relaxation period, yes, for the taxpayers it covers, if the minimum consolidation requirements are met. After it ends, expect per-transaction e-invoices.

I export from Vietnam. What changes for me?
The invoice must be issued no later than the next working day after customs clearance. If your invoicing runs on a monthly cycle, that process needs to change.

Do I need new software, or can my existing POS or ERP do this?
It depends on the system. Some can be configured or upgraded. Where they cannot, a connector between your system and the platform is often cheaper than replacing the system. Ask your vendor first, then get a quote for the connector.

Sources

• LHDN: e-Invoice implementation timeline
• LHDN: e-Invoice guidelines
• BDO Malaysia: e-Invoicing latest updates
• Vietnam Briefing: Decree 70 key amendments to invoice regulations
• Ascentium: Vietnam’s e-invoice regulations update

Regulation references: Decree 70/2025/ND-CP (Vietnam), amending Decree 123/2020/ND-CP; LHDN e-Invoice Guideline and e-Invoice Specific Guideline (Malaysia).