ERP for cross-border trade. Export paperwork, landed cost and FX in one set of books.
Landed cost and month-end FX in one set of books in your company currency, with the groundwork to prepare VAT on exports and imports for your return completed before launch. Invoicing in a foreign currency is not built. The UAE and Saudi Arabia edition covers this sector from December 2026.
From December 2026How does Kinnow help a cross-border trader? Imported goods carry their real landed cost into stock value, foreign-currency balances are revalued at month-end on rates you control, and exports are zero-rated and imports shown on their own row in the VAT return, whose groundwork is completed before launch. Invoicing in a foreign currency is not built; invoices are in the currency of the company, dirhams or riyals. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person.
Your business in one paragraph
A trader who imports and exports lives between two sets of books: the dirham or riyal books the tax authority reads, and the dollar or euro reality of the deal. Goods arrive with freight, duty and clearing bills that turn up weeks after the stock is sold. What customers owe you and what you owe suppliers sit in another currency, and their value in your books changes every day. Exports and imports are treated differently for VAT from a domestic sale. Kinnow covers this sector in the UAE and Saudi Arabia from December 2026, and we keep our claims narrow. Three things keep the owner awake.
Margin on imported stock is a guess
Landed cost gets added to a spreadsheet later, and the item margin you reported last month was wrong.
Month-end FX is a manual exercise
Open balances are revalued by hand, and the gain or loss reaches the books late or not at all.
Export paperwork lives in mail
Zero-rated sales, unpaid export invoices and remittance details are scattered across people.
Bring last quarter's import file and see the landed cost land in your item margin.
How your month runs on Kinnow
Cross-border trade runs on buying, selling and accounts, with landed cost and exchange rates added around them. Where a step is not built, the table says so.
| # | Step | Who | Application | Where a person signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Purchase order raised to the overseas supplier; large orders go for approval | Procurement officer | Buy | Large purchase orders need approval; the limit is set with you |
| 2 | Supplier invoice captured, with the amount checked before anything is saved | Data-entry operator | Account | Bill matched to order and receipt before it is paid |
| 3 | Goods received; freight, duty and clearing bills raised as a landed-cost voucher and allocated | Accounts executive | Buy, Stock & Ship | Voucher posted by a person |
| 4 | Landed cost added per unit to the stock value; the journal reaches the ledger | Automatic | Stock & Ship, Account | Journal above the limit needs approval |
| 5 | Proforma invoice for an advance | Sales executive | Sell | Proforma approved before it goes out |
| 6 | Sales invoice raised in the company currency; a sale to a customer outside the country is zero-rated for VAT automatically | Accounts executive | Sell | Invoice approval; a foreign-currency invoice is not built |
| 7 | Overseas customers' unpaid invoices show in the list of overdue payments | Accounts executive | Account | Finance head decides the follow-up on a late one |
| 8 | Exchange rates kept up to date; FX Rate Watch flags missing or old ones | Finance manager | Account | Rates entered by a person |
| 9 | Month-end: open foreign-currency balances revalued at the closing rate | Finance head | Account | Preview reviewed; journal visible |
| 10 | VAT return with exports and imports on their own rows (groundwork completed before launch), and month-end close | Finance head, tax adviser | Comply, Account | Return and close signed by a person |
What is configured with you
Cross-border trade has no ready-made industry setup of its own in the app, so we do not claim ready-made limits or reports for it. What exists:
- Extra rules for export and import, which can be added on top of the Manufacturing, Distribution or Capital goods setup. They add one rule: a large sales order needs commercial-manager approval, because an export order priced before you have seen the exchange-rate effect is a margin decision taken by accident. The limit is set with you, in your currency.
- The industry setup you choose carries the rest of the approvals, reports, ready-made routines and starter questions for Ask Kinnow for your trade.
- How landed cost is shared out (by value, quantity, weight or volume) for each voucher.
- Your exchange-rate table and refresh interval.
- Country for each company: a UAE company runs the UAE setup (VAT at 5 per cent, tax registration number, or TRN, on every invoice) and a Saudi company the Saudi setup (VAT at 15 per cent). Both arrive from December 2026.
Processes, built in
A full set of good-practice processes for your industry comes switched on: who owns each step, which steps Kinnow makes sure happen, and a time limit on every hand-off between departments. Print any of them as a written procedure (SOP).
Ask us to run one imported consignment through landed cost on your own bills.
Agents for cross-border trade
FX Revaluation
Revalues open foreign-currency balances at the closing rate. A preview shows what it would post, and a period already done is not posted twice.
FX Rate Watch
Flags a currency in use with no rate on file, a rate older than your refresh interval, and an automatic rate source that was asked for but is not connected.
3-way match
Matches the purchase order (PO), the goods receipt and the supplier's bill line by line, and holds the bill until any difference is sorted out.
AccountAI Invoice Extractor
Reads the text of a supplier invoice and fills in the bill for you, checking that the amounts add up before anything is saved.
Account / KnowCash-flow Forecaster
Builds a rolling cash forecast for the next 30, 60 and 90 days from post-dated cheques, bills due and how customers have paid in the past, with a range around each figure to show how sure it is.
KnowAnomaly Detector
Checks nine business figures for unusual movements whenever an administrator or your scheduler starts a scan, and lists them in the Anomaly Feed, most serious first.
Each agent is checked with each client before it works on their books, and everything it produces waits for a person.
Tax and compliance calendar for a cross-border trader (UAE and Saudi Arabia)
Kinnow prepares; your people confirm and file. We do not print dates here because the tax authority sets them; Comply keeps your calendar.
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| UAE VAT return (VAT-201, quarterly) | The groundwork to build the return from posted sales and purchase invoices, split by emirate of supply, as a file for a person to upload to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) portal, completed before launch. Kinnow does not file | Accounts executive, finance head |
| Saudi VAT return | The groundwork to prepare the return from your books for a person to file, completed before launch. We check which figure goes in which box with each client before first use | Accounts executive, finance head |
| Zero-rated exports | Sales to a customer outside the country are zero-rated for VAT and reported as zero-rated supplies in the return | Accounts executive, tax adviser |
| Imports and reverse charge | Imported goods are picked up from purchase bills marked as imports and shown on their own row of the return; the VAT is accounted for by reverse charge (you declare it yourself instead of the supplier charging it) | Accounts executive, tax adviser |
| E-invoicing | UAE: basic groundwork for Peppol (the e-invoicing network) is built; live submission is not in the first release. Saudi Arabia: e-invoicing with ZATCA (the Saudi tax authority) is planned after launch | Finance head |
| Customs duty and bill of entry | Not filed by Kinnow. Duty paid is recorded as a landed-cost line | Customs agent, finance head |
What the owner sees
Questions you type into Ask Kinnow, answered from the reports behind your industry setup, with the source and cost shown before it runs. Examples from the setups it sits on:
- What did we sell by product line, domestic and export? (Sales register)
- Which customers are over their credit limit? Which receivables are more than 90 days old? (Receivables ageing)
- What is my stock worth right now? (Stock valuation)
- Which orders are booked but not yet despatched? (Pending sales orders)
Illustration · sample data
| Currency | Open balance | Rate on file | Value in AED | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | 12,000 | 3.6725 | 44,070 | Within refresh interval |
| EUR | 9,500 | 3.98 | 37,810 | Revalued at 4.02 (+380) |
| GBP | 4,200 | 4.66 | 19,572 | Rate 9 days old |
Numbers that matter
| Number | Where you read it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Landed cost per unit against purchase price | Landed-cost vouchers and stock valuation | The real margin on imported stock |
| Open foreign-currency balances and their revaluation | Revaluation run and exposure | What a rate move did to the books this month |
| Currencies with no rate or a stale rate | FX Rate Watch | Entries booked without conversion |
| Export invoices unpaid | Export realisation list | Cash you are waiting on from abroad |
| Receivables over 90 days | Receivables ageing | Whether large invoices are being collected |
See open foreign balances and a revaluation preview on your own ledger.
Applications switched on
| Generic term | In your Kinnow |
|---|---|
| export without VAT | zero-rated supply |
| special zone | free-zone code on the company |
| import cost | landed cost |
| advance bill | proforma invoice |
Questions
Can I invoice in USD?
No. Multi-currency invoicing is not built. Sales invoices are raised and held in the currency of the company, dirhams for a UAE company and riyals for a Saudi one. What Kinnow does cover is the cost side and the books: landed cost on imports, exchange rates you keep, and the revaluation of open foreign-currency balances. If your buyers are billed in dollars, the dollar invoice is prepared outside Kinnow for now.
Does Kinnow handle landed cost?
Yes. A landed-cost voucher takes freight, duty, clearing and insurance, spreads them across the lines of a receipt by value, quantity, weight or volume, and adds them to the stock value of each unit when the voucher is posted. Item margins then reflect what the goods really cost.
Where do exchange rates come from?
You keep them. There is a rate table the company maintains day by day, and no automatic rate feed is connected. FX Rate Watch tells you when a currency in use has no rate, or the rate is older than your own refresh interval, so postings are not quietly booked one-for-one.
What does the month-end FX revaluation do?
It revalues open foreign-currency balances at the closing rate and posts the gain or loss. It runs in the first days of the month, skips a period already done, will not post on a rate more than 5 days old, and leaves closed periods alone. A preview shows what it would post before you apply it.
Does Kinnow handle export paperwork?
In part. Kinnow zero-rates a sale to a customer outside the country and the return shows it as a zero-rated supply. Goods you import are picked up from purchase bills marked as imports and shown on their own row, because the VAT on them is accounted for by reverse charge. Customs filings, shipping bills and letters of credit are not handled, and duty you pay is recorded as a landed-cost line.
Can a UAE company and a Saudi company run together?
Each company runs its own country setup: VAT at 5 per cent with a TRN for the UAE, VAT at 15 per cent for Saudi Arabia. Both arrive from December 2026. UAE e-invoicing has only basic groundwork, and ZATCA e-invoicing and Saudi payroll are not in the first release.
How long to set up?
About two weeks to first results for one company. There is no ready-made industry setup for cross-border trade; we set it up with you on the Manufacturing, Distribution or Capital goods setup closest to your business.
Show me Kinnow for cross-border trade.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.