Country deep dive
France's reform runs two parallel tracks — structured B2B e-invoicing and a separate "e-reporting" obligation for everything e-invoicing doesn't cover (B2C, cross-border). Both are phased by company size.
All suppliers to French public sector entities have been required to submit invoices electronically through Chorus Pro since 2020, ahead of the much larger B2B reform.
Over 100 Plateformes Agréées (PA) had received DGFiP accreditation by this point, giving businesses a genuine choice of certified provider ahead of the September go-live.
Article 123 of the Finance Law for 2026 (Law No. 2026-103) renamed "Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire (PDP)" to "Plateforme Agréée (PA)" and amended CGI Articles 289 bis, 289 E, 290, 1737 and 1788 D to set clearer, higher penalties for non-compliance.
Every VAT-registered business in France must be able to receive structured e-invoices from this date. Large enterprises (>5,000 employees or >€1.5bn turnover) and ETI mid-sized companies (250–5,000 employees) must additionally issue e-invoices and begin e-reporting for B2C/cross-border sales.
Small and medium enterprises (PME, under 250 employees) and micro-businesses (TPE, under 10 employees) must begin issuing e-invoices and e-reporting data, completing the phased rollout. This date was reconfirmed in April 2025 after the National Assembly rejected a proposed postponement.
France is unusually flexible on syntax — three different formats are all legally acceptable, as long as they carry the same underlying EN 16931 data.
Factur-X is the most distinctly "French" choice — the embedded PDF keeps a human-readable copy for staff who still open invoices by eye, while the XML layer does the machine processing.
AFNOR XP Z12-012 is the master reference — it defines the semantic model and syntax for every accepted format plus the e-reporting XML and lifecycle status messages, so any PA or in-house build should validate against it directly.
Every invoice must resolve to a correct SIRET-level routing address in the national directory — get this wrong and the PA can't deliver the invoice, regardless of whether the XML itself is valid.
Archiving the PDF rendering of a Factur-X invoice isn't sufficient on its own — the original structured file (with embedded XML) is what must be preserved for the full 10 years.
France's "Y-model" is deliberately decentralised: unlike Italy's single government clearance system, France licenses many private platforms to do the actual invoice exchange, with one shared public directory tying it all together.
The PPF itself doesn't exchange invoices anymore — it's the national directory and routing/reporting concentrator. All actual sending and receiving of structured invoices happens through your chosen PA (or an SC layered on top of one).
Every invoice must carry status updates through its life — this is what lets DGFiP pre-fill VAT returns in near real time.
E-reporting is not real-time — don't over-engineer for instant transmission. It runs on a 10-day-period cycle with a 7-day submission window, distinct from the invoice-level lifecycle statuses above.
If you switch providers, your former PA is legally required to keep serving you for at least a year — a safeguard against being locked into a platform that stops fitting your needs.
There's no single "sign up here" government portal for invoicing itself — registration happens through your chosen PA, which then notifies the national directory on your behalf.
Select from the DGFiP's published list of accredited platforms (100+ as of January 2026), based on format support, integration with your accounting software, and whether it also handles e-reporting. A "Solution Compatible" (SC) can sit on top of a PA if you prefer your existing software, but it cannot connect to the directory directly.
Your PA collects your legal entity identifiers, reception channel preference, and intended e-invoicing go-live date as part of onboarding.
Review and confirm your company information, chosen reception channel (your PA), e-invoicing address, and service start date. Your PA transmits this to AIFE (Agence pour l'Informatique Financière de l'État) and DGFiP, who populate the national directory used to route invoices to you.
Validate that your ERP or the PA's tooling can generate compliant Factur-X, UBL, or CII output, and that your systems correctly consume and emit lifecycle statuses (Deposited, Sent, Received, Approved/Rejected, Payment Due/Done).
Configure separate transmission for transactions outside the domestic B2B scope — these follow the 10-day-period/7-day-window e-reporting cadence rather than invoice-by-invoice lifecycle tracking.
If you switch PA or change your reception channel, update the directory promptly — your former PA must maintain a minimum one year of continuity, but the directory itself needs to reflect the change so invoices route correctly.
The Finance Law for 2026 raised the statutory fines considerably — but DGFiP has publicly signalled a lenient early-enforcement approach.