FBR E-Invoicing for Restaurants, Salons & Service Businesses (SRO 288/2026)
FBR's SRO 288(I)/2026 brings restaurants, hotels, beauty parlours, clinics, clubs and other service businesses into mandatory e-invoicing for the first time. Here is what the rules require, who is covered, and how to prepare.
A new wave of businesses is being brought in
Until 2026, FBR's digital invoicing rollout focused mainly on goods — manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers. SRO 288(I)/2026, issued in February 2026 as a draft under the Income Tax Rules, 2002, adds a brand-new chapter on 'Online Integration of Businesses' that pulls a wide range of service enterprises into real-time invoicing for the first time.
For many of these businesses this is their first exposure to FBR integration, so the practical task is understanding what is required and getting ready before the rules take final effect.
Which service businesses are covered
The reported list of enterprises named in SRO 288(I)/2026 is broad: restaurants, hotels, hostels, motels, guest houses, marriage halls, marquees and clubs (including race clubs); personal-care providers such as beauty parlours and salons; clinics, medical practitioners, dentists, physiotherapists, veterinary doctors and pathological laboratories; courier and cargo services; inter-city road transport operators; chartered accountancy and professional firms; and private schools above a fee threshold.
Because the notification is still in draft, the exact scope and thresholds can change in the final version. Confirm whether your specific activity is named on the FBR portal or with your tax advisor before your category's date.
What the rules require you to do
Notified service businesses must register with FBR's central online system, declare their outlets and points of sale, and integrate their billing hardware and software so that every invoice is transmitted to FBR in real time and carries a QR code. The draft also introduces a five-year, non-transferable licence for integrators, real-time QR invoices, and — for some categories — CCTV at points of sale.
In practice, that means a restaurant, salon or clinic can no longer issue a plain printed bill: each sale must go through an integrated system that posts to FBR and returns a verifiable invoice.
Goods vs services: the invoice is similar
Whether you sell goods or a service, the digital invoice structure is largely the same — seller and buyer particulars, a description of what was supplied, the sale type, the applicable tax and the values. Services simply use a service sale type and rate rather than an HS-Code-driven goods line.
This is why a platform built for FBR's DI API handles service invoices without a separate system: the same validation, posting, IRN and QR-code flow applies.
How to prepare before your deadline
The safe approach is the same one goods businesses have used: register on IRIS if you have not already, choose a PRAL-certified integration, test in the sandbox against the scenarios that match your activity, and then post live so each invoice returns its IRN and QR code. Doing this early avoids last-minute configuration problems.
Digi Invoice is a PRAL-certified, FBR DI API v1.12 integration that supports both goods and service sale types, validates each invoice before submission, and stores every posted invoice in a built-in ledger — so a service business can get compliant without building any integration itself.