LHDN e-Invoice for F&B in Malaysia: How Your POS Files It For You

If you run a restaurant, cafe, or any F&B business in Malaysia, LHDN e-invoicing has probably landed on your to-do list. Two questions matter first: does it apply to you yet, and if so, what do you actually have to do for a counter full of walk-in diners? This guide answers both, shows how the flow works, and explains how the right point-of-sale system handles the filing for you.

Does the e-invoice mandate apply to your restaurant yet?

e-Invoicing is being rolled out by LHDN (the Inland Revenue Board, IRBM) in phases, based on your annual turnover or revenue. The official timeline on hasil.gov.my is the source of truth, and as of its latest update (30 August 2026) the phases are:

Two points matter most for F&B, where a lot of cafes, kopitiams and small restaurants sit at the smaller end:

• If your annual turnover or revenue is below RM3 million, you are exempt. In a media statement on 30 August 2026, LHDN raised the exemption threshold from RM1 million to RM3 million, effective 1 September 2026. The exemption does not apply if a corporate shareholder, your holding company, or a related company or joint venture has turnover of RM3 million or more (e-Invoice Guideline v4.8, section 1.6.10). If you already issue e-invoices and are now exempt, LHDN says you can stop immediately without applying, or carry on voluntarily (LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, questions 17 to 20).

• If your turnover is RM3 million to RM5 million (Phase 4), e-invoicing has been mandatory since 1 January 2026, with a relaxation period to 31 December 2027. Under LHDN's e-Invoice Specific Guideline v4.9, section 16, you can put all your sales into monthly consolidated e-invoices during this period, and LHDN will not prosecute under section 120 of the Income Tax Act 1967 as long as you submit them. It is a relaxation with conditions, not a free pass, but it gives you time to get set up properly rather than in a panic.

A business that was below RM3 million in 2022 but reached it in 2023, 2024 or 2025 starts on 1 July 2026, with the same relaxation to 31 December 2027. If your turnover first reaches RM3 million in 2026 or later, e-invoicing starts on 1 January of the second year after that year (LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, questions 12, 100 and 113).

What happens if you miss it? Failing to issue an e-invoice is an offence under section 120(1)(d) of the Income Tax Act 1967, carrying a fine of RM200 to RM20,000, up to six months' imprisonment, or both, for each failure to comply (LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, question 41). That adds up quickly across a month of missed sales. There is relief too. Phase 4 businesses that submit monthly consolidated e-invoices will not be prosecuted until 31 December 2027. LHDN's Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme, running from 7 July 2026 to 31 December 2027, also lets businesses correct missed or wrong e-invoices without penalty, unless the disclosure involves fraud, wilful default or negligence (Specific Guideline v4.9, section 17). A POS that submits for you takes the routine submission work off your plate.

Because these dates and thresholds have shifted more than once, treat the table as a starting point and check the latest position for your turnover band directly with LHDN before you plan around it.

How e-invoicing works in a restaurant, in three situations

For a food and beverage business, most sales are walk-in and to individual customers, which shapes how this works day to day. It comes down to three situations.

1. The customer does not ask for an e-invoice. This is most walk-in dine-in and takeaway. You issue a normal receipt at the counter as usual. Those "no-request" sales are then bundled into a single monthly consolidated e-invoice and submitted to MyInvois within seven calendar days after the end of the month, under a designated General Public TIN (Specific Guideline v4.9, section 3.6). No e-invoice per teh tarik.

2. The customer asks for a full e-invoice. They provide their details, a TIN, or an NRIC/MyKad number for an individual, or a business registration number for a company, plus their name. They need to ask within the same month as the sale. The system generates an individual e-invoice for that sale and submits it to MyInvois, where IRBM validates it in near real time. During the Phase 4 relaxation to 31 December 2027, LHDN also allows these requested sales to go into the monthly consolidated e-invoice instead (section 16.2).

3. The single sale is more than RM10,000. From 1 January 2026, any single transaction above RM10,000 needs its own e-invoice and cannot go into the monthly consolidated batch (section 3.7). The relaxation text in section 16.2 appears to let Phase 4 businesses consolidate these too until 31 December 2027. But LHDN's 20 June 2026 media statement tells all taxpayers to issue an e-invoice for every sale above RM10,000, so the safe course is to issue an individual e-invoice for each of them. For most F&B that means catering jobs, event and banquet bookings, and large bulk orders.

The mechanics are not complicated in theory. The pain is in the volume and the deadlines. A busy outlet rings up hundreds of transactions a day, and doing this by hand at month end is exactly the kind of task that slips until it becomes a scramble.

What about delivery orders and supplier bills?

Two more situations come up constantly in F&B, so they are worth stating plainly.

• Delivery-platform orders. Under LHDN's rules for e-commerce platforms, the platform issues the e-invoice (or a receipt) to the customer for orders placed through it, and a self-billed e-invoice to you for the sales it pays out, so you do not issue one yourself for those orders. You do need to give the platform your TIN details (Specific Guideline v4.9, sections 14.4 and 14.5; LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, questions 106 and 110). LHDN's guideline does not name specific apps, so confirm how GrabFood, foodpanda or ShopeeFood handle it for your account.

• Your own purchases. The commission and fees a platform charges you are covered by an e-invoice the platform issues to you (section 14.6), not by a self-billed e-invoice from your side. Self-billing is only allowed in the cases listed in section 8.3 of the Specific Guideline, such as buying from individuals who are not running a business or paying foreign suppliers. You cannot self-bill a supplier just because they have not sent you an e-invoice (LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, questions 27 and 28). It is a narrower area, so confirm what applies to you with LHDN or your accountant.

Why doing it by hand hurts F&B

Two patterns cause most of the grief.

The first is the month-end scramble. If your POS does not talk to MyInvois, someone has to compile the period's transactions and submit them by hand, inside that seven-day window. That is time you do not have during service, so it lands on a Sunday night.

The second is customer requests that slip through. A diner who wants an e-invoice has to ask within the same month as the sale, because once the month ends, that sale goes into your consolidated e-invoice (Specific Guideline v4.9, section 3.6.8). If requests are noted on paper or in a WhatsApp chat, some get missed, and you are the one fielding the complaint.

Neither is how it should work. The point of an e-invoice-ready POS is that the system does the filing, not you.

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How StoreHub files it for you

StoreHub's e-invoice integration submits your transactions to LHDN on your behalf, covering both flows above: the individual e-invoice when a customer requests one at the counter, and the monthly consolidated e-invoice for all the walk-in sales that do not. You set up your company profile once and switch on automatic monthly consolidation. StoreHub then groups the "no-request" sales into the monthly batch and submits it within LHDN's seven-day window, so there are no MyInvois logins during service and no 11pm compile at month end. Sales above RM10,000 are left out of the batch, so for those you still need the customer's details for an individual e-invoice. StoreHub's own help guide on e-invoice status and consolidation walks through how it groups and submits them. The legal responsibility for compliance stays with your business even when a system submits for you (LHDN e-Invoice FAQ, question 30), which is why it helps that every submission is tracked in one place. Because the POS keeps taking orders in offline mode when the internet drops and syncs when it returns, a wifi outage during service does not break your record for the batch.

Razali, who runs Aperture Café in Kuala Lumpur, came from a background where the admin was all manual: "I started from a street food business, so everything was manual. With StoreHub, it helps a lot with day-to-day operation, and everything is very fast." Compliance is part of that day-to-day. When the system files the e-invoices, that is one more manual job off the owner's plate.

What to look for in an e-invoice-ready POS

• It files for you. The system should submit to MyInvois on your behalf, covering both the on-request e-invoices and the consolidated monthly flow, not leave the submission to you.

• It is built in, not a paid add-on stack. Some free POS systems rely on a paid third-party app for LHDN e-invoicing. Loyverse, for example, lists e-invoicing apps such as MyInvoice2U in its app marketplace, from RM45 a month in October 2026. Factor that into the real cost when you compare.

• It fits the rest of your operation. E-invoicing should sit inside the same POS that runs your floor, kitchen, and delivery, so your compliance data comes from the same source as your sales, with no double entry.

When you might not need a POS to do this

Not every business needs a POS to stay compliant. If your turnover is below the RM3 million threshold and none of the group conditions apply, you do not have to issue e-invoices at all. If you do have to comply but run a very small single-outlet operation with only a handful of transactions a day, LHDN's free MyInvois portal, app or e-POS may be enough for now, as may a free POS plus a separate compliance add-on. The maths changes with volume. Once you are ringing up hundreds of transactions a day, across one or more outlets, the manual route becomes the Sunday-night scramble this guide opened with, and a POS that files for you earns back the time quickly. StoreHub is built for that second case.

StoreHub pricing for F&B businesses

e-Invoice filing is included on every StoreHub plan, not a paid add-on. See StoreHub Pricing for exactly what each plan includes, payment rates, and multi-year savings.

Frequently asked questions

1. Does the LHDN e-invoice mandate apply to my restaurant yet?

   It depends on your annual turnover or revenue. Since 1 September 2026, businesses below RM3 million are exempt, unless a corporate shareholder, holding company or related company has RM3 million or more in turnover. Businesses with RM3 million to RM5 million in turnover (Phase 4) have been covered since 1 January 2026, with a relaxation period to 31 December 2027. During it, they can submit monthly consolidated e-invoices, and LHDN will not prosecute as long as they do. Check the official timeline on hasil.gov.my for the position that applies to your turnover band.

2. How does a restaurant handle e-invoicing for walk-in customers?

   Most walk-in customers do not request an e-invoice, so you issue a normal receipt and those sales are bundled into one monthly consolidated e-invoice submitted to MyInvois within seven days of month-end. When a customer does request one within the same month, they give their TIN (or NRIC/MyKad, or company registration number) and the system generates an individual e-invoice for that sale.

3. How are GrabFood, foodpanda and ShopeeFood orders e-invoiced?

   Under LHDN's rules for e-commerce platforms, the platform issues the e-invoice (or a receipt) to the customer and a self-billed e-invoice to you, so the restaurant does not issue one for those orders. You need to give the platform your TIN details, and the platform issues you a separate e-invoice for the commission and fees it charges. LHDN does not name specific apps, so confirm the details with each platform.

4. Does StoreHub handle LHDN e-invoicing, and does it keep working offline?

   Yes. StoreHub files your LHDN e-invoice submissions to MyInvois in the background once your company profile is set up and automatic monthly consolidation is switched on, covering both individual on-request e-invoices and the monthly consolidated flow. The POS keeps taking orders in offline mode when the internet drops and syncs when it returns, so an outage during service does not break your records.

5. What if my POS does not support LHDN e-invoicing?

   Some systems, free POS options among them, rely on a paid third-party app to handle LHDN e-invoicing, which adds cost and another moving part. LHDN's free MyInvois portal and app are another option. An e-invoice-ready POS that files for you keeps compliance inside the same system as your sales.

Sources and further reading

• LHDN (IRBM) e-Invoice implementation timeline, updated 30 August 2026: hasil.gov.my

• LHDN media statement HASiL/2026/08/30-44, exemption threshold raised to RM3 million (in Malay): hasil.gov.my

• LHDN (IRBM) e-Invoice Guideline v4.8, 30 August 2026: hasil.gov.my

• LHDN (IRBM) e-Invoice Specific Guideline v4.9, 7 September 2026: hasil.gov.my

• LHDN (IRBM) e-Invoice General FAQ, updated 4 September 2026 (official PDF): hasil.gov.my

• StoreHub Care, understanding e-invoice status and consolidation: care.storehub.com

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Confirm your obligations and dates with LHDN or a qualified adviser.

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