French e-Invoicing Mandate 2024
Everything you need to know
e-Invoicing Mandate in France 2024: Overview
E-invoicing is already fairly well established in France. To date, however, mandatory e-invoicing has only applied to French businesses issuing invoices to a government body.
That’s about to change.
With a view to combating VAT fraud, France has decided to move towards a “mixed continuous transaction controls (CTC) model” in 2024 which will include mandatory B2B e-invoicing and e-reporting.
This mandate impacts all companies operating in France.
Regardless of whether you are a buyer or supplier, the effect of the new regulations on your business, AP processes, financial systems, and resources will be considerable, so it’s important to understand how to prepare for what’s coming.
To remain compliant, companies in France will need to choose whether to connect independently and directly to the official government platform, the “Portail Public de Facturation” or PPF, or to use an appropriately certified third-party platform (The “Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire” or PDP).
Your guide to preparing for the e-Invoicing Mandate
Important timelines for the French e-invoicing mandate
France is delivering the e-invoicing mandate CTC in a three-phased approach over the coming three years.
The mandate will initially mean selected large businesses in 2024 will be required to issue invoices using the PPF with an eventual roll-out to smaller businesses by 2026. All companies (regardless of their size) must be capable of receiving e-invoices by July 1, 2024 and can use the PPF for submitting invoices on a voluntary basis if not yet required.
- July 1, 2024. LARGE TAXPAYERS (“grandes enterprises”) are required to issue e-invoices and comply with the e-reporting obligations where required (approximately 300 companies)
- January 1, 2025. COMPANIES OF INTERMEDIARY SIZE* are required to issue e-invoices and comply with the e-reporting obligations.
- Starting from January 1, 2026, SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES** are required to issue e-invoices and comply with the e-reporting obligations.
* Companies with more than 5.000 employees and an annual turnover larger than EUR 1.5B.
** Companies with more than 250 employees and an annual turnover of more than EUR 50M.
What businesses need to know to prepare for the French e-invoicing mandate
If you’re doing business in France, you need to assess which aspects of your internal invoice processes are impacted by the new e-invoicing regulations and how to implement the necessary changes. Here are a few critical aspects you need to consider:
- Change management with suppliers – Your suppliers will be affected by the mandate at different times. Understanding when they will start using the PPF will make the transition smoother. With any change there are bound to be teething problems, careful planning can help to build contingency plans so that your supply chain is not affected.
- Receiving and sending invoices – whether connecting directly or using a PDP to the PPF you will need to provide and receive data in an acceptable format that you might not support today(UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII, and Factur-X).
- Changes imposed by lifecycle requirements – You will need to be able to transmit chronological invoice status updates to the government platform PPF – (directly or via PDP) like invoices submitted, refused, rejected, and received.
- E-reporting requirements – Although e-invoicing will not be mandatory for B2C and cross-border invoices, the government does require French companies to send e-reporting files for these transactions with a similar set of data points in specified formats to the government platform. Some of these transactions may be managed differently and creating accurate reporting may require some effort.
- Performance and stability if using multiple ERPs – You need to make sure that all your ERP systems can process the mandated invoice formats in due time and that the PPF or PDP have a reliable connection to the respective ERP systems at all times.
- Managing change – Complying with new regulations will require teams to think differently and act more collaboratively across departments. Above all, businesses need to identify and break down silos regarding how relevant information is captured and updated, especially if you are a global player in the market.
How Tradeshift can help you stay compliant in France
Tradeshift is participating in the French Government-led PDP workgroup and is one of a select group of companies qualified to participate in the French PDP accreditation process. With the help of our specialists, we are developing a proof-of-concept for interoperability with the authorities and have had an initial engagement with compliance advisors. We received ISO 27001 certification in December 2022.
We have a deep understanding of the requirements and are well-placed to accommodate any changes to current and future changes to e-invoicing and e-reporting standards in France.
How Tradeshift can help your organization comply with the French 2024 e-invoicing mandate:
- Tradeshift is working with a reputable partner to validate our technical and legal approach to becoming a PDP. Our solution is being continuously evaluated and developed.
- As a PDP Tradeshift will help your supply chain to be able to send and receive documents helping to minimize change disruption.
- Tradeshift can ensure that your lifecycle and payment statuses will be reported accurately and offers guidance on these relating to your internal processes.
- Depending on the needs of your legal entities you can tailor a solution that’s right for you including e-invoicing, e-reporting, and AP automation.
- Tradeshift can offer support by providing e-reporting to the authorities including data formats and content requirements.
- Tradeshift can be a global solution – we have deployment and implementation capabilities worldwide.
FAQ about the e-invoicing mandate in France 2024
The French Tax Authority (DGFIP), in order to reduce the VAT gap, will mandate nationwide e-invoicing and e-reporting starting from 1 July 2024. All B2B invoices with French VAT IDs will go through the French Government’s portal(the PPF); all B2C and International B2B invoices will need to be declared in an e-reporting structure and sent to the PPF at programmed times.
As of July 1, 2024 all companies must be ready to receive e-invoices from the PPF. The largest 300 companies must also be ready to send them to the PPF at that date. January 1 2025 the next largest to medium companies will need to send their invoices, and finally on January 1 2026 all companies will be required to use the new system.
PORTAIL PUBLIC DE FACTURATION (PPF) is the name of the French government’s public invoicing portal (Chorus Pro is the name of B2G platform that has been in place).
As a Supplier you will need to ensure that your invoices contain all the mandatory fields that the government requires (in addition to any that your customers require). You will also need to send status messages to the PPF including when you’ve been paid.
As a Buyer depending on your size you may need to send e-invoices if you are not already doing this, structured PDFs will no longer be accepted after 2027. Status messages will need to be sent to update both the government and your suppliers when payments are made.
The PPF will only accept an electronic invoice in one of three formats: Factur-X, CII, or UBL2.0. This is a change from today when a PDF can be sent to Chorus Pro. By 2027 the PPF will no longer accept PDF invoices.
The concept of PDPs was introduced to ensure that companies with existing invoicing solutions can adapt to the changes with minimal disruption. These invoicing solutions often have the benefit of being able to improve other business processes. PDPs are partners of the authorities that are trusted to facilitate the exchange of documents and report on those transactions to the PPF. To become a PDP, service providers must demonstrate that they will be able to comply with all the requirements in French regulations. This includes security certifications such as ISO27001 and SecNumCloud for hosting providers. PDPs are entrusted to maintain and reference the Directory which is key to ensuring documents and status updates flow to businesses smoothly.
