France e-invoicing mandate 2026: timeline and savings

Since September 1, 2026, every company that is subject to VAT and established in France must be able to receive electronic invoices through an approved platform (plateforme agréée). Since the same date, large and mid-sized companies must also issue their invoices electronically and send their data to the tax authority (e-reporting). SMEs and micro-enterprises will have both obligations by September 1, 2027 at the latest. A PDF sent by email is not an electronic invoice.

Pick your company size in the tool above to see your dates, then estimate the time you would save by automating your supplier invoices. The rules quoted here come from the French tax authority (DGFiP) pages listed at the end of this article, accessed on October 9, 2026. They are in French; the translations are ours.

The timeline by company size

The reform has three parts:

• Receiving: getting the invoices of your French suppliers in electronic format.
• Issuing: sending your own invoices in electronic format to business customers established in France.
• E-reporting: sending the tax authority the data of sales that do not go through an electronic invoice (consumers, foreign customers), plus some payment data.

Which category are you in?

The DGFiP uses the categories of the 2008 French law on the modernisation of the economy and its implementing decree:

Three details matter:

• Reference date: size is assessed as of January 1, 2025, on the last financial year closed before that date. A company that had not yet closed a financial year uses its first one closed afterwards.
• Legal unit: each SIREN number counts on its own, not the group.
• Moving up: you move to the higher category as soon as your headcount exceeds the threshold. Otherwise, only if both turnover and balance sheet exceed it.

Your VAT regime does not exempt you: a company under the VAT franchise (franchise en base) is concerned, at least for receiving.

An SME may start issuing earlier if it wishes. E-reporting is entered separately, by September 1, 2027 at the latest. Conversely, a customer cannot require electronic invoices from you under the reform before your date. But if a supplier sends you one, you must accept it.

Electronic invoice or e-reporting: it depends on the customer

For each sale, the DGFiP says to look first at who the customer is:

• a business established in France: you issue an electronic invoice;
• a consumer, or a person not subject to VAT, in France or abroad: you send data through e-reporting;
• a business established outside France: no mandatory electronic invoice, but e-reporting.

Operations that are VAT-exempt and exempt from invoicing (healthcare, education, insurance…) are outside issuing and e-reporting. The company that carries them out must still be able to receive electronic invoices from its suppliers.

Approved platforms, formerly PDP

An approved platform is the mandatory intermediary that issues, transmits and receives invoices between supplier and customer. It also sends the relevant data to the tax authority. It is registered by the DGFiP for three renewable years, audited, certified, and hosts its data in the European Union. The DGFiP booklet calls it a “dematerialisation platform partnering with the State” (plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire): hence the acronym PDP you will still come across.

What to know before choosing:

• The official list has been published on impots.gouv.fr since January 16, 2026. The DGFiP speaks of “around a hundred” platforms.
• Your software does not need to be a platform. It can be a “compatible solution”: it offers the required features and is connected to at least one approved platform.
• The choice is yours. You can use one or several platforms, one to issue and another to receive, and switch at any time.
• The designation agreement you sign records your receiving platform in the directory (annuaire). This central database, run by the tax authority, tells your suppliers where to send your invoices.

Formats: Factur-X, UBL, CII

Approved platforms transmit invoices in one of three formats. UBL and CII are structured data files, designed to be read by software. Factur-X is a mixed format: an XML data file plus a PDF that a person can read.

A plain PDF sent by email is not an electronic invoice under the reform. And your supplier cannot impose a format on you: you choose your receiving platform according to the formats that suit you.

The reform also adds four mandatory mentions on invoices, since September 1, 2026:

1. the customer’s SIREN number;
2. the category of the operation: supply of goods, supply of services, or both;
3. the option to pay VAT on an accruals basis (TVA sur les débits), where applicable;
4. the delivery address, if it differs from the billing address.

Each invoice then has a life cycle, tracked through statuses. Platforms must handle at least four: submitted, rejected, refused, paid (encaissée). A refusal must give a reason. It is not meant for a simple commercial dispute: provisional statuses exist to tell the supplier about a disagreement.

E-reporting in practice

• Sales to consumers: you send daily totals, not the detail of each sale.
• Sales to foreign businesses: you send some data, invoice by invoice.
• Payment data: it only concerns operations where VAT is due on receipt of payment, such as services. It is not required if you opted to pay VAT on an accruals basis.

The frequency depends on your VAT regime. Under the VAT franchise, data is sent every two months. Under the standard monthly regime (réel normal mensuel), transaction data goes three times a month and payment data once a month.

Penalties and the start-up period

The law provides for:

• €50 per invoice not issued electronically, capped at €15,000 per calendar year. The first offence is not penalised.
• €500 if you have not chosen a receiving platform, three months after a formal notice from the tax authority. The amount rises to €1,000 after each further three-month period without compliance.
• For e-reporting, the penalty regime of article 1788 D of the French General Tax Code (CGI).

For the start-up phase, the DGFiP published a practical guide in July 2026. It will not apply penalties to companies that face difficulties but are on a “serious compliance trajectory”, provided the difficulties are real, documented and followed by corrective action. The guide is explicit: this approach is “neither a postponement nor a suspension of the obligation”.

The same guide answers a frequent question. An invoice received by email, as a PDF or on paper after September 1, 2026 can be processed, paid and give a right to deduct VAT, if it matches a real operation and carries the required mentions.

What an SME should do now

1. Check your category, for each SIREN number, on the last financial year closed before January 1, 2025.
2. Designate your receiving platform, directly or through your software, your accountant or your bank. This obligation has applied since September 1, 2026.
3. Map your flows. Purchases: suppliers already issuing electronically (large and mid-sized companies), suppliers who will by 2027, foreign suppliers. Sales: French business customers, consumers, foreign customers.
4. Update your invoice templates with the four new mentions, and collect the SIREN numbers of your business customers.
5. Check your VAT regime and your accruals option: they set your e-reporting frequency and whether payment data is required.
6. Organise approval of incoming invoices: who checks, who approves, how to avoid paying the same invoice twice.
7. Keep a dated record of your steps: platform contract, tests, exchanges with your software vendor. This is what the DGFiP asks for to assess your good faith.

Turning the obligation into a gain: automate supplier invoices

The reform sets the channel invoices travel through. It says nothing about what happens once an invoice reaches you. Yet that is where time is lost: re-keying, looking for the purchase order, chasing approvals, bookkeeping entries, filing. The DGFiP booklet itself lists, among the benefits of the reform, “shorter processing time” and “better cash management and accounting control”.

One point is often missed: your flows will stay mixed. Invoices from your large suppliers have arrived electronically since September 2026. Those from your SME suppliers may arrive as PDFs or on paper until September 1, 2027. And for your foreign suppliers, the DGFiP says it plainly: “nothing changes”. Automating only the platform flow is therefore not enough.

The five-step chain

1. Receiving: the approved platform receives electronic invoices; a dedicated mailbox collects the remaining PDFs.
2. Extraction: data in Factur-X, UBL and CII is read directly. For PDFs, an extraction tool reads the supplier, amounts, VAT and due date, with a human check on doubtful cases.
3. Approval: matching with the purchase order or delivery, approval workflow, duplicate detection, statuses sent back to the supplier.
4. Accounting export: entries proposed with the right account and VAT rate, sent to your accounting software or your accountant.
5. Dashboards and cash: supplier due dates, actual payment terms, invoices awaiting approval, a week-by-week cash forecast.

The last step is the one a managing director uses most. Supplier invoices recorded the day they arrive give an up-to-date payables balance, and so a reliable working capital figure. To choose what to track, see our article on the KPIs for a small business dashboard.

Fictional example: what the time saved is worth

Here is a fictional example, built to show the calculation. Replace each value with yours in the tool above.

• 80 supplier invoices a month;
• 6 minutes per invoice today, from receipt to filing;
• 2 minutes after automation, to check flagged cases;
• a loaded hourly cost of €32.

The calculation: 4 minutes saved × 80 invoices = 320 minutes a month, or 64 hours a year. At €32 an hour, that is about €2,050 a year. A €900 automation would pay for itself in a little over 5 months.

This calculation does not include the approved platform subscription, your software, or your team’s set-up time. For a reliable figure, time how long your invoices take for one week before deciding.

Mistakes to avoid

• Confusing a PDF with an electronic invoice. A PDF attached to an email does not meet the issuing obligation.
• Thinking nothing changes before 2027. Receiving has applied since September 1, 2026, whatever your size.
• Blocking an invoice because it arrives as a PDF. The DGFiP asks companies not to reject it for that reason alone if the operation is real.
• Paying the same invoice twice. If it arrives through the platform and by email, keep one reference invoice and mark the others as copies.
• Using a refusal for a commercial dispute. A refusal requires a reason and is limited to the grounds set by the standard.
• Choosing a platform without looking at what comes next. Check how it exports to your accounting and your dashboards.
• Documenting nothing. Without a dated record, it is hard to show your good faith during the start-up period.

Frequently asked questions

I am under the VAT franchise: am I concerned?

Yes. You must be able to receive electronic invoices since September 1, 2026. If you are an SME or a micro-enterprise, issuing and e-reporting apply by September 1, 2027 at the latest, with data sent every two months.

Can a customer require electronic invoices from me now?

Not under the reform. If your date is September 1, 2027, you can invoice as you do today until then, unless a contract says otherwise or specific rules apply to invoices sent to the public sector.

Can I change approved platform?

Yes, at any time. You can also use several.

Do my foreign suppliers’ invoices change?

No, they keep arriving as they do today. It is your sales to foreign customers that fall under e-reporting.

Is the gain in the example guaranteed?

No. It is a fictional example. Your gain depends on your volume, your current processing time and the quality of the invoices you receive.

What we do, and what we don’t

KAVDAL is not an approved platform: we do not send your invoices to the tax authority. We automate what happens before and after, connected to the platform you chose: collecting the remaining PDFs, extraction, approval workflow, accounting export, then dashboards and cash forecasting. Details are on our AI and automation page.

Our prices are public, on the pricing page: automation from €900, data diagnostic at €290, and a free 20-minute call to look at your case. Prices are net: VAT not applicable, art. 293 B of the CGI (French General Tax Code).