The identity each kind of customer needs — transcript

Presentation 2 of 6 in Get your customers ready for e-invoice · about 13 minutes · for the whole-system operator — you run the books.

Play this as a presentation — one slide per step, with the same narration. Every word of every step is on this page.

This lesson is for you if you are setting up or cleaning a GadgetSphere customer and want the identity fields right the first time. It covers the three cases you will meet most often — a company, a Malaysian individual, and an individual who is not Malaysian — because getting that field group wrong is the single largest cause of rejections in e-invoicing. About thirteen minutes.

Step 1 — Learn the rule that prevents most rejections

Every e-invoice carries the buyer’s tax number together with an identity document type and the number that goes with it. That group causes more rejections than everything else in e-invoicing put together, and the rule is short. Passport for an individual who is not Malaysian. Business registration number for a company, Malaysian or foreign — the passport rule is about people, not about foreignness. National identity number only for a Malaysian individual, and only as twelve digits with no dashes in them. And one habit matters as much as the rule: type the number, never paste it. A number copied out of a browser or a PDF can bring an invisible character with it, and the field will look perfectly right on screen while LHDN rejects it every single time.

Reference: E-Invoice Validation Rules & Troubleshooting — Get the buyer’s identity right — this is where most rejections come from

Step 2 — Put the numbers on the tab that actually goes to LHDN

After this step you will stop filling the wrong half of the customer record. A BigLedger customer holds tax numbers in two places, the Main tab and the E-Invoice tab, and only the E-Invoice tab is read when an e-invoice is built. Neither screen says so. Both show an identity type, an identity number and a service tax number, and they look like the same fields twice. Fill the Main tab beautifully, leave the E-Invoice tab empty, and an individual sale to that customer fails or parks in a pool. Ordinary consolidated counter receipts never read the tab at all, which is exactly why the problem hides until your first named sale to that buyer.

Screen: the customer’s E-Invoice tab with the buyer’s name, tax number, identity type and identity number filled in above the e-invoice address block

Reference: Customer Maintenance — Edit customer — E-Invoice

Step 3 — Set up a Malaysian company

After this step your corporate customers will submit without anyone chasing a number. A company gets identity type business registration number — BRN — with the registration number itself in the identity field, never in a national identity field. Then give it a real tax number. There is one piece of help and it has a condition: on a sale of ten thousand ringgit or more where the identity type is a business registration number and the tax number is blank, BigLedger searches LHDN by that registration number and writes the tax number back onto the customer, the document and the e-invoice. Below ten thousand nothing is searched, which is exactly why a small corporate sale with a blank number simply parks in a pool.

Reference: My E-Invoice Admin Applet — 2 posting queue to irb or a pool cron e_invoice_generic_document_to_irb_processor

Step 4 — Set up a Malaysian individual

After this step you will know exactly when the general public tax number is allowed and when it is not. A Malaysian person gets identity type national identity number — NRIC — twelve digits, no dashes. If they genuinely have no tax number, LHDN’s general public number may stand in for it on an individual e-invoice, and only on those terms: identity type national identity number, and a valid twelve-digit number to go with it. Any other combination is returned invalid. It is not available with a business registration number, where the answer is the company’s real tax number or, for a local buyer under ten thousand, letting the sale be consolidated instead. The government number is not a stand-in either.

Reference: E-Invoice Validation Rules & Troubleshooting — General TINs — when you don’t have the buyer’s TIN

Step 5 — Set up a foreign customer, and ask while they are still there

After this step you will stop expecting a rescue that does not exist. An individual who is not Malaysian gets identity type passport; a company outside Malaysia still takes its business registration number, because the passport rule is about people rather than about foreignness. With a passport, neither escape route is open. BigLedger substitutes the general public tax number only for a national identity number, so it substitutes nothing here, and a consolidated e-invoice cannot carry a foreign buyer at all. A passport holder with no tax number on the document is therefore not submitted at all: the sale parks in the Individual Pool and stays there. The board does publish a general tax number for foreign buyers, but you have to key it onto the document yourself. So ask at the counter, not at month end.

Reference: E-Invoice Pools & Submission Routing — The monthly consolidation cycle

Step 6 — Fill the three fields that fail exactly like identity

After this step you will stop losing documents to fields nobody thinks of as identity. The contact number is accepted only at eight to twenty characters, so a short mobile number or a field padded with the letters N and A fails validation just as a wrong tax number does, and it is mandatory. The buyer’s name goes to the board as you typed it, and special characters in it have caused rejections, so key the registered name plainly. And one thing works in your favour: a buyer who has a tax number but no identity value gets twelve zeros filled in automatically, which LHDN accepts.

Reference: My E-Invoice Admin Applet — Fields

How the steps fit together

    flowchart TD
  s1["Step 1 — Learn the rule that prevents most rejections"]
  s2["Step 2 — Put the numbers on the tab that actually goes to LHDN"]
  s3["Step 3 — Set up a Malaysian company"]
  s4["Step 4 — Set up a Malaysian individual"]
  s5["Step 5 — Set up a foreign customer, and ask while they are still there"]
  s6["Step 6 — Fill the three fields that fail exactly like identity"]
  s1 --> s2
  s2 --> s3
  s3 --> s4
  s4 --> s5
  s5 --> s6

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

1. Where do the buyer's tax number and identity go so that an e-invoice reads them? The Main tab, which is the master copy the E-Invoice tab inherits
The E-Invoice tab — that is the block read when the e-invoice is built
Either one; the record is read as a whole

2. A corporate customer buys RM 24,000 of laptops and their tax number is blank on the record. What happens? BigLedger searches LHDN by their registration number and writes the tax number back onto the customer
The document is submitted with the general public tax number
The document is consolidated with the month's retail receipts

3. A Malaysian shopper wants their own e-invoice and has no tax number. What may go on it? The general public tax number with their passport number
The general public tax number, with identity type national identity number and a valid twelve-digit number
The government tax number, which covers buyers without one

4. A tourist pays by card and gives you a passport but no tax number. Where does that sale end up? Consolidated with the month's other counter receipts
Submitted individually with the general public tax number substituted
In the Individual Pool, unsubmitted, until somebody obtains a real tax number

5. What length must the buyer's contact number be for LHDN to accept it? Any length, as long as it carries a country code
Between eight and twenty characters
Exactly ten or eleven digits, Malaysian format

Answer key

The E-Invoice tab — that is the block read when the e-invoice is built — Customer Maintenance — Where it fits
BigLedger searches LHDN by their registration number and writes the tax number back onto the customer — My E-Invoice Admin Applet — 2 posting queue to irb or a pool cron e_invoice_generic_document_to_irb_processor
The general public tax number, with identity type national identity number and a valid twelve-digit number — E-Invoice Validation Rules & Troubleshooting — General TINs — when you don't have the buyer's TIN
In the Individual Pool, unsubmitted, until somebody obtains a real tax number — E-Invoice Validation Rules & Troubleshooting — General TINs — when you don't have the buyer's TIN
Between eight and twenty characters — My E-Invoice Admin Applet — Fields

This is a self-check. Your answers are marked in your browser and stay there — nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is recorded, and the marking is readable in the page source, so it is not a credential. Open the answer key at any time.

Next: The address BigLedger actually sends · Back to the series · Play this as a presentation

Last updated on September 17, 2026

The identity each kind of customer needs The address BigLedger actually sends