The first stage of the e-invoicing mandate in France took effect on 1 September 2026. Since then, every business established in France and subject to VAT must be able to receive electronic invoices, whatever its size, and large and mid-sized companies must also issue them and report their other transactions. SMEs and micro-businesses, sole traders included, start issuing and reporting on 1 September 2027. This guide covers who is concerned, how the system works and how to get ready, with a section for those who invoice between Spain and France and one on Spain's own rules.
What is the e-invoicing mandate in France?
The e-invoicing mandate is a French reform with two parts: B2B invoices, between businesses established in France, must be electronic, in a structured format, and go through platforms registered with the tax administration; for other transactions, the data must be reported to the tax authorities.
The French government's stated aims for this generalisation of electronic invoicing are to fight fraud, follow business activity in real time, speed up payments and, eventually, prefill VAT returns.
E-invoicing and e-reporting: two obligations
- E-invoicing applies to sales between businesses established in France: each invoice is an e-invoice and travels through a platform.
- E-reporting covers what e-invoicing does not, such as B2C sales and international transactions: businesses pass on data relating to each transaction, and payment data for services, to the tax authorities.
Both go through the same platform and start on the same date for each company size.
Who is concerned by the e-invoicing mandate?
Every business established in France and subject to VAT is concerned, whatever its size or legal form: companies, sole traders and micro-entrepreneurs alike. All of them must be able to receive e-invoices; issuing them becomes mandatory on a date that depends on company size.
The franchise en base does not exempt you from e-invoicing
A frequent misunderstanding is that it does. A micro-entrepreneur under the franchise en base is still a taxable person, and it is that status, not charging the tax, that triggers the e-invoicing requirements. The "TVA non applicable" mention stays on your invoices; only the way they travel is new.
Exempt operations: no e-invoices to send, but some to receive
Operations exempt from VAT, such as certain medical, paramedical or teaching services, are outside the obligation to issue e-invoices and the related e-reporting. A doctor or a physiotherapist remains a taxable person, though, and must still be equipped to receive their suppliers' electronic invoices. If your activity mixes exempt and taxable operations, ask your accountant how the rules apply to each part.
Businesses established outside France
A business with no establishment in France is outside this e-invoicing system, for sending and receiving alike. It may still have e-reporting obligations if it is registered for VAT there. If you invoice French clients from Spain, see the cross-border section below.
Key French e-invoicing deadlines in 2026 and 2027
The implementation is staged by company size, but receiving comes first for everyone:
| Obligation | Large and mid-sized companies | SMEs and micro-businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Receive e-invoices | 1 September 2026 | 1 September 2026 |
| Issue e-invoices | 1 September 2026 | 1 September 2027 |
| E-reporting | 1 September 2026 | 1 September 2027 |
These dates were set by French finance law after an earlier implementation calendar was postponed.
For a small business, the result is a transition period: it receives electronic invoices from its larger suppliers but can keep sending its own invoices as before until its turn comes.
You can also start sending e-invoices earlier, if your provider allows it: your business clients are already equipped, and a head start lets you run in your processes before the deadline.
Which category is your company in?
The categories are the official French company size categories: large companies, mid-sized ones (entreprises de taille intermédiaire, ETI), SMEs and micro-businesses, based on headcount and financial figures. Sole traders, micro-entrepreneurs and small companies are in the second group; if you are close to a threshold, ask your accountant.
Who does what in the e-invoicing system?
Every firm in scope needs a platform to exchange its electronic invoices, because the public portal (PPF) does not carry invoices between businesses: it runs the directory and collects data for the tax authorities.
Approved platforms (formerly PDP)
These platforms, plateformes agréées in French, were first called PDP (plateformes de dématérialisation partenaires). They are private service providers registered by the French tax administration, the Direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP), or Directorate General of Public Finances. Your platform:
- issues your e-invoices and delivers them to the businesses you invoice;
- receives those your suppliers send you;
- runs compliance checks on each invoice: required information present, accepted format;
- passes invoice data, transaction data and statuses to the PPF.
The DGFiP publishes the official list on impots.gouv.fr, and Service Public Entreprendre, the French administration's information site for entrepreneurs, has a page for consulting it.
Your invoicing software does not need to appear on that list itself: many tools are compatible solutions that work with an approved platform in the background. Ask your vendor which provider it uses.
The PPF: directory and data for the DGFiP
The public invoicing portal (portail public de facturation, PPF) was first meant to offer a free solution for exchanging invoices, but the French government changed course.
Today it runs the central directory, which records each business's chosen platform and receiving address, and gathers the data passed on by the platforms before it reaches the DGFiP. You will rarely deal with it directly: your provider registers you there.
How an e-invoice travels
- You create the invoice in your software, which passes it to your provider.
- The platform checks it, finds your client in the directory and forwards it to the client's provider.
- Your client receives it, and statuses come back as the invoice is accepted, refused or paid.
- Along the way, the required data goes to the PPF, then to the tax authorities.
Accepted formats: what counts as an e-invoice
A French e-invoice must use one of three structured formats that software can read without retyping. A simple PDF sent by email is not an e-invoice under the mandate, even when your software generated it.
- Factur-X: a hybrid file, a document people can read with the invoice data embedded in it.
- UBL (Universal Business Language): an XML standard also used for e-invoicing elsewhere in Europe.
- CII (Cross Industry Invoice): an XML standard from UN/CEFACT.
You don't need to read XML: compliant software handles the format for you. What matters is that yours meets the requirements: it should produce and accept at least one of these formats, with complete invoice information.
What every French invoice must contain
The usual information is still required on every invoice:
- a unique invoice number, in a chronological sequence, and the date of issue;
- the identity and address of the seller and the customer, with their identification numbers;
- the description, quantity and unit price excluding tax of each product or service;
- the VAT rate and amount, or the mention that explains its absence;
- when the sale or service took place, the payment terms and deadline, including late-payment penalties.
Additional mandatory mentions
The mandate also adds four mentions to B2B invoices:
- the customer's SIREN, the French company identification number;
- the delivery address of goods, when it differs from the customer's address;
- whether the invoice covers goods, services or both;
- the option for paying VAT on debits, if you have chosen it.
Update your template and client records now: the SIREN is also how a firm is found in the directory.
What does e-reporting cover?
E-reporting is the transmission of transaction data to the tax authorities for operations that e-invoicing does not cover. It follows the same calendar as the obligation to issue e-invoices, by company size.
- B2C transactions: sales to private customers, which need no e-invoice but whose data must be reported.
- International transactions: sales to businesses outside France and purchases from foreign suppliers.
- Payment data: for services, the amounts actually collected, since the tax on them generally becomes due when you are paid.
Your provider passes this data on with the rest, and the frequency depends on your tax regime. A micro-entrepreneur who only sells to private customers therefore still has e-reporting to do from 2027, even without business clients.
Statuses: tracking the life of each e-invoice
Every e-invoice carries a status that shows where it stands, from submission to settlement. Four statuses are mandatory and also reach the tax authorities:
- Submitted (déposée): the invoice has reached the seller's platform.
- Rejected (rejetée): it was turned down for a technical reason, such as a wrong format or an unknown recipient.
- Refused (refusée): the buyer disagrees with it, for example over the amount or an order it does not recognise.
- Paid (encaissée): the seller confirms it has been paid, which provides the data on payments.
Other statuses, such as in dispute, are optional but useful: they show whether an invoice is moving or stuck. A rejected or refused invoice has to be corrected and sent again, and the difference tells you who needs to act: you and your software, or you and your client.
B2G: Chorus Pro is already mandatory
If you invoice the State, a local authority or a public institution, such as a ministry, a town hall or a hospital, nothing changes: B2G e-invoicing has been mandatory for several years for every supplier, micro-businesses included, through the government's Chorus Pro portal, where suppliers submit their invoices. The new mandate does not replace it: your B2G invoices keep going through Chorus Pro.
Invoicing between Spain and France
Under the French mandate, what matters is where each party is established: e-invoicing only applies when both are established in France.
You are established in Spain and invoice French clients
If your business is established in Spain, with no establishment in France, the French obligation does not apply to you. A translator in Alicante who works for agencies in Lyon, for example, keeps invoicing under Spanish rules, including Verifactu for the software used, and those agencies will report the purchases through e-reporting.
If you have a French VAT number, or premises or staff in France, check your situation with an adviser.
You are established in France and invoice Spanish clients
Your invoices to clients established in Spain stay outside e-invoicing, but their data must be reported once your own deadline arrives. Wherever your customers are based, you still need a platform for your French suppliers' e-invoices. If you are moving the other way, our guide to becoming an autónomo in Spain as a foreigner covers the first steps.
What changes in your daily work
Day to day, the key change is that supplier bills stop arriving by email: they reach you through your platform, with their data already readable by your systems.
Receiving: one channel for e-invoices
Incoming bills land in your e-invoicing solution or in the accounting tool connected to it, where someone checks, approves or refuses each one.
Sending: from your software to your client
Once your deadline arrives, each invoice to a French business client goes through your platform and comes back with statuses. Sales to private customers and to foreign clients are reported, not e-invoiced.
Less retyping, if you use the data
The real benefit is not compliance, it is what compliance makes possible. An e-invoice no longer has to be keyed in again: the data arrives readable by your system, so invoice processing, filing and payment tracking can stop being manual. Many firms will install a tool to comply, then carry on copying everything by hand, and miss the part that mattered.
To decide where to begin, see which tasks to automate first; to put a figure on the hours involved, read what paperwork really costs a freelancer.
How to prepare for the e-invoicing mandate
To be ready, start with your software, then choose your e-invoicing solution and organise who handles invoices:
- Confirm your dates and your company category with your accountant.
- Ask your software vendor whether your tool meets the French requirements (accepted formats, connection to a platform): many vendors have rolled out updates without telling their customers.
- Choose your provider and sign up, so that your suppliers can reach you.
- Update your data: client SIREN numbers, invoice templates with the new mentions, numbering.
- Organise reception and validation: decide who receives incoming bills, who approves them and how errors get fixed.
- Test before your deadline with a few invoices, so that rejections show up before they matter.
The organisation of reception and validation is often what is missing, and no tool solves it on its own.
Choosing your e-invoicing provider: what to check
- it appears on the official list published by the DGFiP;
- it connects to your invoicing software and to your accountant's systems;
- it covers every flow: sending, receiving, transaction data and statuses;
- it stores your invoices in their original electronic form and lets you export your data;
- its price fits your invoice volume, and its support is easy to reach.
Penalties and practical risks
French law provides for fines per invoice not issued electronically and per missing e-reporting transmission; ask your accountant for the current amounts.
The more immediate risk is practical: e-invoices from your suppliers that never reach you, bills paid late and a rushed fix afterwards.
Spain: Verifactu and Crea y Crece, two separate rules
Unlike the French mandate, the Spanish obligations come from two separate rules, often confused, with different scopes and calendars.
Verifactu: requirements for your invoicing software
Verifactu governs the invoicing software itself and covers everything you invoice with it, including sales to private customers:
- each invoice produces a chained, unalterable billing record and carries a QR code;
- records are either sent to the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) or kept with stricter security requirements;
- the manufacturer must sign a declaración responsable, its statement of compliance.
It does not apply to:
- businesses that already use the SII;
- those whose fiscal address is in the Basque Country or Navarre, which have their own rules;
- those who invoice by hand.
Crea y Crece: e-invoices between businesses
The Crea y Crece law (Ley de creación y crecimiento de empresas) sets three requirements for invoices between businesses and professionals:
- an electronic, structured format such as Facturae;
- sending through digital channels;
- the status of each invoice (accepted, rejected or paid), reported to fight late payment.
B2C invoices are not covered, and those to Spanish public administrations already go through FACe.
Spanish dates are now set
Both Spanish rules have been postponed before, but each now has an official calendar. For Verifactu, according to an AEAT notice, companies must adapt their systems before 1 January 2027, and everyone else, freelancers included, before 1 July 2027.
For Crea y Crece, the deadlines in Royal Decree 238/2026 count from 6 October 2026, when Order HAC/1028/2026 took effect. According to the AEAT implementation calendar, e-invoicing between companies and professionals becomes compulsory on 6 October 2027 for those whose volume of operations exceeded 8 million euros, and on 6 October 2028 for everyone else, freelancers included. Reporting the status of each one follows on 6 October 2029 for individuals and for entities under the income attribution regime.
Our guide to mandatory electronic invoicing for freelancers in Spain covers the Spanish side in more detail.
France and Spain at a glance
- France: a single mandate, with fixed dates in 2026 and 2027.
- Spain: Verifactu for software, by 1 July 2027 for freelancers, and Crea y Crece for B2B e-invoicing, from 6 October 2028 for freelancers.
- Both: only a structured format counts as an e-invoice.
This reform is a good moment to look at what your invoicing actually costs you in time. We have built a free diagnostic that works out a task's annual cost in about two minutes, with four questions and the result on screen; six more questions tell you whether automating it is worth it or not. Sometimes the answer is no, and it says so too. For dates and your own situation, your accountant remains the right person to ask.