Which e-Invoice route fits your business.

Most e-Invoice advice starts with a product name. That is backwards. The route that fits you falls out of three plain questions about how your business already runs, so start there.

1. How many invoices do you raise?

This one question settles most of the decision. If you issue a handful of invoices a month, the MyInvois portal by hand is genuinely the right answer: nothing to build, no software cost, available today. Anyone selling you an integration at that volume is selling you a project you do not need.

The moment someone is re-typing invoices to keep up with sales, the portal has become the bottleneck. Manual re-entry is also where wrong tax numbers and wrong buyer details come from, and it leaves two systems holding your invoice data that will sooner or later disagree. Above that line, the question becomes which system does the submitting for you.

2. How many systems raise invoices today?

Count the places an invoice can be created. If everything is billed out of one accounting package that has added e-Invoice support, using what that package ships is usually the cheapest workable option, and the vendor maintains it as the rules change. The cost is that it only covers invoices raised inside that package, and you inherit the vendor's reading of the awkward cases.

If several systems raise invoices, or a storefront sits alongside manual billing, one package cannot see all of it. Then the choice is between a middleware that sits in front of everything and talks to LHDN for you, or a direct integration from the system you already own. Both put a single point in charge of submission. They differ mostly in who carries the ongoing cost and the maintenance.

3. What will you not tolerate?

The last question is about trade-offs you are willing to live with:

• Re-typing, or two sources of truth. If that is unacceptable, the portal is out at any real volume, and the answer is a system that submits automatically.
• A per-document fee, forever. Middleware usually charges per document. That is fine until volume makes it expensive, and it puts another vendor between you and your own data.
• Owning the maintenance. A direct integration has the highest upfront cost and you own the upkeep when the specification changes, which it will. In exchange there is no per-document fee and the invoice is submitted the moment it is raised.

The four routes, in one line each

Here is where the three answers usually land you. The full trade-off table, with what each route argues for and against, is on the main guide.

• The MyInvois portal, by hand. A handful of invoices a month, and no appetite for a project.
• Whatever your accounting software ships. You already run a package that has added e-Invoice support and your invoicing lives there.
• A middleware or service provider. Several systems raise invoices and you want one place that talks to LHDN.
• Direct integration from your own system. Your orders and invoices already live in a system you own, and re-typing is not acceptable.

Where our own option is the wrong choice

A direct integration from your own system is what we build, and it is only worth it above a certain volume. Below that line the portal is the honest answer, and we will tell you if that is where you are rather than quote you a project you would regret. That is the whole point of laying the routes out like this: the goal is the right route for your volume, not the biggest one.

The turnover and penalty figures behind this topic live on the main guide and were last checked on 31 July 2026. Confirm your own position with a tax agent, not a web page.