France’s 2026 e-Invoicing mandate: Key updates from JFE 2025 and why Tradeshift is the smart PDP choice

By Ioana Ploesteanu, Product Marketing Manager, Tradeshift

At JFE 2025 in Paris, government agencies confirmed what finance leaders have been anticipating: the final technical specifications are out, the compliance clock is ticking, and certified PDPs will play a critical role.

If you’re a CFO or Accounts Payable leader operating in France, here’s what you need to know and how Tradeshift can help you get ahead of the curve.

What happened at JFE 2025?

Journée de la Facture Électronique (JFE) 2025 brought together nearly 2,000 participants from across the e-invoicing ecosystem — including DGFiP, AIFE, FNFE, OpenPeppol, and AFNOR — to lay out the current roadmap and clarify France’s approach to mandatory e-invoicing and e-reporting.

The government reiterated its support for businesses preparing for the 2026–2027 rollout, with a strong emphasis on interoperability, PDP registration, national directory usage, and harmonization with EU initiatives like ViDA.

The AFNOR commission released the long-awaited invoice and lifecycle format specifications during JFE 2025.

What’s new in the official AFNOR specs?

The AFNOR standard, now integrated into DGFiP’s v3.0 external specifications, defines how electronic invoices must be structured, exchanged, and tracked across platforms. It brings clarity and consistency for compliance with the 2026–2027 French e-invoicing mandate.

Key highlights:

• Three Accepted Formats: Only the following formats are officially accepted for e-invoicing:
  • UBL 2.1
  • CII (Cross Industry Invoice)
  • Factur-X (hybrid format)
• Mandatory Lifecycle Status Updates: Invoices must include standardized status codes to indicate processing stages such as:
  • Received
  • Rejected
  • Approved
  • Paid
• Data Integrity & Interoperability: The structure ensures compatibility across PDPs and with Peppol. All formats must include required metadata fields (like invoice type, buyer/supplier IDs, tax codes, etc.).
• Alignment with EN 16931: The standard complies fully with the European EN 16931 norm, allowing alignment with other EU member states and cross-border use.
• Structured Annexes & Credit Notes: Clear rules are defined for attachments, corrections, and adjustments such as credit notes and invoice cancellation.

👉 Check out how Tradeshift compares with other e-invoicing compliance providers in “Le Grand Benchmark des PDP” report by The Invoicing Hub.

Why Tradeshift is the PDP engineered for compliance at scale

Tradeshift isn’t just another PDP. It’s a global AP automation and e-Invoicing compliance platform built for high-volume, high-complexity organizations.

At the core of our solution is a powerful middleware that handles e-invoicing and e-reporting at scale:

• 42 million documents/month exchanged by 150,000+ companies across 200 countries
• Certified Peppol Access Point since 2014, with successful interoperability tests with other PDPs
• Proven public sector experience: Chorus Pro (France), Mercurius (Belgium), B2G platform (Luxembourg)

Built for global enterprises:

• Lifecycle management in 26 languages
• Ready-to-use compliance for e-invoicing in 60+ countries
• Clearance model support in 12 countries

Beyond compliance:

• AI-powered tools to automate AP processes
• Improve cash flow through smart invoice and payment solutions
• Boost supplier collaboration with end-to-end transparency

France’s e-invoicing reform is just the beginning. Tradeshift helps you scale globally with local compliance, enterprise readiness, and intelligent automation.