Electronic invoicing in France: what founders need to do for 2026–2027

France’s reform applies broadly to entities established in France that are subject to VAT. That includes independents and businesses using the franchise en base exemption: not charging VAT does not, by itself, remove the obligation to receive and eventually issue through the new system.

Domestic sales of goods and services between VAT-subject businesses established in France generally fall within electronic invoicing. Exempt transactions can sit outside that scope. Public-sector, consumer, and international flows follow different routes or reporting rules, so classify the customer and transaction before deciding what to send.

The founder shortcut: identify who the customer is, where each party is established, and whether the transaction is VAT-exempt before choosing the workflow.

On 1 September 2026, every business in scope must be able to receive electronic invoices. This is true even if the business rarely issues invoices, sells mostly to consumers, or will not have to issue electronically until the following year.

Large companies and entreprises de taille intermédiaire (ETI) also start issuing electronic invoices on 1 September 2026. SMEs, very small businesses, and micro-enterprises start issuing on 1 September 2027. E-reporting follows the applicable issuance timetable.

A small company therefore has two readiness dates, not one: it needs an approved receiving route in 2026, then a tested outbound and reporting workflow by 2027.

E-invoicing covers qualifying domestic B2B transactions. The invoice moves between approved platforms in a standardized electronic form, and required invoice data is transmitted to the tax administration.

E-reporting covers transaction or payment data that is not carried by a domestic B2B electronic invoice. Important examples include many B2C transactions and international B2B transactions. Payment reporting can also apply to services where VAT becomes due on collection.

Do not treat e-reporting as a copy of every invoice. It is a separate data obligation whose content and timing depend on the transaction and VAT treatment.

The supplier may prepare an invoice directly in an approved platform or continue using compatible invoicing, accounting, ERP, cash-register, or industry software. A compatible solution still needs an approved platform to perform the regulated exchange.

The supplier’s approved platform validates and routes the electronic invoice to the approved platform associated with the customer’s electronic invoicing address. The customer then receives it through the workflow connected to that platform.

In parallel, the approved platform extracts the regulated invoice data and sends it to the tax administration. For transactions outside e-invoicing, it transmits the relevant transaction and payment data supplied by the business.

The reform’s common formats include UBL, CII, and Factur-X. UBL and CII are structured data formats. Factur-X combines a human-readable PDF/A-3 view with embedded structured XML, which can make it easier to bridge familiar approval workflows and automated processing.

An ordinary PDF attachment or a scan sent by email is not a compliant electronic invoice under the reform. The document must contain the required structured data and travel through the approved route.

Platforms also exchange lifecycle information. Statuses such as deposit, rejection, refusal, and collection help the parties distinguish technical routing, business acceptance, and payment. Decide who monitors each status and how exceptions return to the accounting record.

Continue to control the seller and customer identities, invoice date, unique chronological number, supply date, line descriptions, quantities, unit prices, discounts, VAT base and rate, totals, currency, payment due date, late-payment terms, and the fixed recovery charge where applicable.

The reform adds structured fields and four commonly highlighted mentions: the customer’s SIREN, the category of the transaction, the option to account for VAT on debits when applicable, and the full delivery address when it differs from the customer’s billing address.

Treat master data as part of compliance. Incorrect SIREN, VAT, address, or customer-routing data can reject a technically well-formed invoice or send it into manual repair.

A platform can validate fields and transmit data, but it cannot infer the correct VAT treatment from a copied invoice template. Confirm the parties, place of supply, exemption or reverse-charge basis, rates, and required wording from the actual transaction.

For an EU business customer, validate the VAT number through VIES and retain evidence with the transaction file. A valid number is an important fact, not the whole tax analysis.

Payment terms remain commercially and legally important. Keep the due date, bank route, currency, late-payment conditions, and collection status aligned between the invoice, customer approval, cash receipt, and accounting entry.

French businesses must preserve issued and received invoices as accounting records for ten years. The archive needs to maintain authenticity, integrity, and readability, together with the information needed to understand corrections and lifecycle events.

Retain the commercial evidence around the invoice as well: contract or order, delivery evidence, customer master-data checks, VAT analysis, platform identifiers and statuses, credit notes, and settlement reconciliation.

Before relying on a platform’s archive, document export and exit procedures. A compliant workflow should survive a provider change, an audit request, and the need to reconstruct a disputed invoice.

Confirm that the provider appears on the current official list of approved platforms, or that your existing software names the approved platform it uses. A “compatible solution” logo describes connectivity; it is not the same status as an approved platform.

Test the practical fit: inbound address management, the formats your system can create and consume, customer and supplier directory checks, lifecycle statuses, e-reporting coverage, accounting integration, permissions, audit exports, support, pricing, and migration terms.

A business may use more than one approved platform, but extra routes add master-data and reconciliation work. Keep the architecture as simple as the actual transaction flows allow.

First inventory inbound and outbound flows by customer type, geography, VAT treatment, volume, currency, and current software. The purpose is to expose which flows are domestic B2B e-invoicing, which require e-reporting, and which remain on an established route such as Chorus Pro.

Then select the approved platform relationship, clean legal and routing data, connect the accounting workflow, and test representative invoices and exceptions. Include credit notes, rejected invoices, mixed goods and services, deposits, and service-payment reporting where relevant.

Finally assign owners for daily monitoring, tax decisions, platform administration, customer and supplier data, rejection repair, payment-status reporting, and evidence retention. A platform project without operating ownership is not ready.

Do not wait until the 2027 issuing deadline to arrange 2026 receipt. Do not assume a PDF by email qualifies. Do not confuse a software vendor with an approved platform. Do not send every transaction through the domestic B2B route. Do not let platform validation replace the VAT decision. Do not leave rejected invoices and payment statuses without a named owner.

The safest implementation is deliberately boring: accurate master data, a documented route, representative testing, visible exception ownership, and records that reconcile to accounting and cash.