The France e-invoicing mandate is being phased in. Since September 1, 2026, all companies established in France and subject to VAT must be able to receive electronic invoices, and large companies as well as mid-sized companies already issue theirs. For SMEs, small businesses and micro-enterprises, the decisive date remains September 1, 2027: from then on, they will have to issue their own invoices through this channel.

Here is where things stand on October 21, 2026, after the first official review, as a follow-up to our first guide to preparing for e-invoicing.

France e-invoicing mandate: who is affected and when

There has been no postponement. The timeline currently in force is as follows:

• Since September 1, 2026: mandatory receipt for all companies, whatever their size, through an approved platform. Large companies and mid-sized companies also issue their invoices to other businesses in electronic format and are subject to e-reporting.
• From September 1, 2027: mandatory issuance and e-reporting for SMEs and micro-enterprises, including those under the VAT franchise scheme (franchise en base de TVA, for businesses that do not charge VAT).

First review: three out of four companies have chosen their platform

The first monitoring committee for the reform met on October 8, 2026, chaired by David Amiel, Minister for Public Action and Accounts. According to the ministry’s press release of October 9, 2026 (in French), 75% of companies filing VAT returns had designated their receiving platform as of October 4, and more than 20 million invoices had been exchanged, worth over €70 billion. If you are in the remaining quarter, this is the priority, even before sending your invoices.

Professional organizations reported difficulties: clarity and cost of the offers, choosing or changing platforms, adapting software and procedures, and the needs of the smallest companies and of certain sectors. Large companies also mention some solutions that do not communicate well with each other and the transmission of invoice statuses (tracking how each invoice is processed). An update to the tax authorities’ getting-started guide was announced within two weeks.

The planned fines and the leniency announced for 2026

The loi de finances pour 2026 (2026 Finance Act, Law No. 2026-103 of February 19, 2026, Article 123; page in French) revised the fines:

• invoice not issued in electronic format: €50 per invoice, up to €15,000 per calendar year;
• no approved platform to receive your invoices: a formal notice (an official demand) to comply within three months, then a €500 fine, a new three-month formal notice, then €1,000 every three months for as long as the situation is not corrected;
• transaction and payment data not transmitted: €500 per missing transmission, up to €15,000 per calendar year.

A first offense in the current year and the three previous years is not penalized if it is corrected spontaneously or within thirty days of a first request from the tax authorities.

The October 9 press release also confirms that no penalties will be imposed before the end of 2026. This is a commitment by the minister, not a change to the law, and nothing has been announced for the period after that. This leniency applies to penalties, not to the obligation: a supplier invoice that does not arrive is still an accounting and cash flow problem.

Approved platform, directory, e-reporting: the terms to know

• The approved platform (plateforme agréée), formerly called PDP, is the only intermediary recognized by the tax authorities to issue, receive and transmit electronic invoices and their data.
• A compatible solution, for example invoicing or management software (ERP), is not registered by the tax authorities: it must be connected to an approved platform. “Plateforme agréée” (approved platform) and “Solution compatible” (compatible solution) logos make it possible to tell them apart.
• The e-invoicing directory (annuaire de la facturation électronique) shows, for each company, the platform that receives its invoices and its billing addresses.
• E-reporting covers sales to individuals and transactions with customers established abroad, which do not give rise to an electronic invoice: certain data, such as the transaction amount and the VAT charged, are sent to the tax authorities. An SME that sells to both businesses and individuals is therefore affected by both.

What your SME must finish before September 1, 2027

• Check your listing in the directory, then that of your main business customers.
• Have your vendor confirm that your invoicing or management software is connected to an approved platform and produces the required formats, then test it on a few real invoices.
• Add the four new mandatory details: the customer’s SIREN, the delivery address if it differs from the customer’s address, the nature of the transactions (goods, services or both) and, where applicable, “Option pour le paiement de la taxe d’après les débits” (option to pay VAT when invoiced rather than when paid).
• Check and correct your customer records (SIREN, company name, addresses), which are carried over as is into electronic invoices.
• Move invoices made in a spreadsheet or word processor into your software: between businesses, they will have to go through an approved platform, and a simple PDF sent by email will no longer be enough.
• List your transactions subject to e-reporting and check how your platform will transmit them.
• Organize the handling of incoming invoices (checking, approval, reporting anomalies) and appoint a person in charge.

On the security side, according to the press release of September 1, 2026 (in French), approved platforms must report any cybersecurity incident to the tax authorities without delay and make penetration testing (simulated attacks) standard practice. Your part concerns the connection to the platform: access accounts, your software’s login credentials, user rights. Personal accounts, strong authentication (a check in addition to the password) and removing access when an employee leaves are a minimum, as explained in our article on IT security for SMEs.

A concrete example

Take, as an illustration, a 20-person trading SME: about 150 invoices a month to business customers, plus over-the-counter sales to individuals. Since September, it has been receiving electronic invoices from its main suppliers through the platform offered by its accounting software.

By September 2027, it must: check its customers’ SIREN numbers in the directory, add the nature of the transactions to its invoices, connect its sales management software to the same platform as its accounting software to avoid two separate channels, and clarify how over-the-counter sales are transmitted (e-reporting). The longest part is not technical: cleaning up customer records and assigning roles for approving incoming invoices. Started in fall 2026, this work follows the normal pace of business; started in June 2027, it is done under pressure.

Frequently asked questions

Can the September 2027 date still be pushed back?

No postponement has been announced. According to the October 9, 2026 press release, the monitoring committee is, on the contrary, preparing for the September 1, 2027 deadline and will meet again before the end of the year. It is wise to plan around this date.

I am under the VAT franchise scheme: am I affected?

Yes. You have been required to be able to receive electronic invoices since September 1, 2026 and will have to issue them from September 1, 2027. The official simulator “Évaluer son obligation de facturation électronique” (assess your e-invoicing obligation) lets you check your situation, and the tax authority (DGFiP) answers questions at 0 806 807 807.

I chose my platform in a hurry: can I switch?

Yes, at any time. According to the official page on compliance (in French), the new platform handles the process, and the change is recorded in the directory within fifteen working days at most after the former platform agrees; the former platform continues to provide certain services for one year. Compare offers based on your actual needs: invoice volume, connection with your tools, cost.

What should I do with an invoice received with an error?

The official page recommends checking each invoice on receipt, approving it if it is compliant and reporting any anomaly (error, non-compliance, disagreement) on the platform.

411bit supports small businesses, SMEs and mid-sized companies with this project: review of your invoicing processes, connection of your management software (ERP) or business software to the approved platform you have chosen, development of the necessary connectors (the links between software) and securing of access, with a fixed-price quote per deliverable and no dependence on a proprietary tool. If the reform leads you to change management software, our article on changing ERP without disrupting your business details the method. To review your situation, contact us: every request receives a reply within 24 business hours.

Choosing an ERP system is one of the most far-reaching IT decisions a company can make: the software will structure your sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting for ten years. Sales demos all look alike. The criteria that really matter lie elsewhere.

Criteria for choosing an ERP system

1. Total cost, not the license. Licenses, integration, data migration, training, annual maintenance: ask for the five-year cost, not the entry price.
2. Coverage of YOUR processes. List your ten most frequent daily operations and insist on seeing them in the software, with your data, not the demo data.
3. Reversibility. Will you be able to get your data back in a usable format if you leave? A vendor who dodges the question has given you the answer.
4. The ecosystem. Connectors to your online store, your bank, your industry-specific tools: an isolated ERP brings back the re-keying it was supposed to eliminate.
5. Local support. An ERP project rarely fails because of the software, and almost always because of a sloppy integration or untrained teams.

The most expensive mistake: deciding on the strength of the demo

A demo is designed to win you over. The salesperson knows the product by heart, the data shown is perfect, everything flows without a hitch. Your reality is different: special cases, exceptions, a customer who pays in three installments, a product sold both by the unit and in batches. Ask to test the software with your own data and your three trickiest cases. If the vendor refuses or keeps putting it off, you have your answer before you even sign.

A concrete example

Take a 15-person wholesale SME that is torn between two ERPs. The first has a license at €45 per user per month, the second at €70. On paper, the first one wins easily.
Let’s look at five years:

• The “cheap” ERP: €40,500 in licenses, but integration is billed as an extra, there is no connector to the online store (so data is re-keyed every day) and the data migration drags on. Real cost around €90,000, plus an hour of data entry lost every day.
• The “more expensive” ERP: €63,000 in licenses, but integration included and native connectors to the store and the bank. Real cost around €80,000, with no re-keying.

The cheapest to buy becomes the most expensive to use. The license price tells you almost nothing about the real cost of the project.

Open source or proprietary?

Open source ERPs have a structural advantage: no per-user license fee, auditable code, and no dependence on a vendor’s commercial health. In return, the quality of the integrator becomes decisive: the integrator is the one who makes the project succeed.

A good ERP that is poorly integrated will do worse than an average ERP that is well integrated. Choose the support as carefully as the software.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an ERP cost for an SME?

It all depends on the scope, but always think in terms of the full cost over five years: licenses, integration, data migration, training and maintenance. For an SME, integration and support often weigh as much as the license itself.

How long does an ERP project take?

Expect three to nine months, depending on the size of the company and the number of processes to cover. A project promised “in a few weeks” usually hides a cut-rate integration that you will pay for later.

A full ERP or a simple industry-specific application?

If only one area is causing you pain, accounting or inventory for example, a well-connected specialized application is sometimes enough. An ERP really comes into its own when several departments need to share the same data without re-keying it.

Can you keep your accounting software?

Often, yes. Many companies connect their ERP to their accountant’s software rather than replacing everything. The real question is how to connect the tools, not whether to replace everything as a matter of course.

One last piece of advice before you sign

Have your quote reviewed by someone who has nothing to sell you. Within an hour, an outside eye will spot the vague lines, the “to be defined later” items and the missing connectors. That is often what prevents a €50,000 mistake.
To dig deeper: our method for running an ERP migration without interrupting your business, or tell us about your project.

E-invoicing in France is becoming mandatory for all French businesses subject to VAT. It is not just a PDF sent by email: it is a structured format, transmitted through approved platforms, with new data reporting obligations. Prepared for in advance, it is a formality that saves you time. Left to the last minute, it blocks your invoicing. Here are the essentials to get ready calmly.

What exactly are we talking about?

Two separate obligations are arriving at the same time, and they are often confused:

• Electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) covers your transactions between French businesses (B2B): every invoice will have to be issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format, through an approved platform.
• E-reporting covers the data from your other transactions: sales to consumers (B2C) and transactions with other countries. You do not invoice through the platform, but you send certain information to the tax authorities.

The French government has two goals: to fight VAT fraud and, eventually, to pre-fill your VAT returns from this data.

Timeline for e-invoicing in France

• September 1, 2026: all businesses, whatever their size, must be able to receive an electronic invoice. Large companies and mid-sized companies must also start issuing them.
• September 1, 2027: the obligation to issue e-invoices extends to SMEs, small businesses and micro-enterprises.

In other words: from September 2026, even a small business must be able to receive an invoice in the right format, since its suppliers (large companies) will start sending them. Nobody is entirely spared from the first deadline. The timeline has already been adjusted in the past: always check the current dates on the official French tax website (in French).

What changes in practice

1. Your invoices no longer go directly from you to your customer: they pass through a certified e-invoicing platform (PDP, for plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire) registered by the French government. Since the free public invoicing service originally planned has been abandoned, going through a PDP becomes unavoidable.
2. Your invoicing tools will have to produce structured formats (Factur-X, UBL or CII), not a plain PDF that a machine cannot read.
3. Your customer data must be flawless: one wrong SIREN (French company identification number) or an incomplete address, and the platform rejects the invoice.
4. Some transactions trigger e-reporting to the tax authorities (sales to consumers, international transactions).

A concrete example

Take a 12-person service SME that issues about a hundred invoices a month from its business management software, plus a few made “by hand” in Word for special cases.

• The 100 invoices from the software: if the vendor updates its tool (most do), they will go out automatically in the right format through a PDP. Almost no impact on day-to-day work.
• The “Word” invoices: they disappear. A homemade PDF can no longer be sent outside the platform. They will have to be entered in the software.
• On the cash management side: because the invoices received are structured, matching them in the accounts becomes automatic. Less data entry, faster payment.

So the real work is not technical: it is getting 100% of your invoicing through a single tool, with clean data.

How to prepare without stress

The good news: if your management processes are already digital, most of the way is covered. A four-point review is usually enough:

1. Will your software be compliant and connected to a PDP? Ask your vendor now.
2. Is your customer data up to date: SIREN, intra-EU VAT number, complete addresses?
3. Your “off-system” invoices (Word, Excel, paper): how will you bring them into the tool?
4. Choosing your PDP: directly through your software, or through an independent platform?

The companies that will struggle are not the ones with old tools: they are the ones that start three months before the deadline.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to change my invoicing software?

Not necessarily. Most serious software vendors are building the reform into their products and connecting to a PDP. Check with yours: if it has nothing planned, that is the signal to consider a change before the deadline.

Is the traditional PDF sent by email a thing of the past?

For your B2B invoices in France, yes. An unstructured PDF will no longer be a valid invoice. Factur-X looks like a PDF but carries machine-readable data: this hybrid format bridges the old world and the new.

What is a PDP, in practice?

A Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire (partner dematerialization platform): a private operator registered by the French authorities, through which your invoices pass. It is the equivalent of an approved “post office” for your electronic invoices.

What is the risk of not being ready?

Quite simply, blocked invoicing: you can no longer issue invoices, so you can no longer get paid, nor properly process your suppliers’ invoices. Financial penalties are also planned. The risk is not theoretical, it is operational.

Take stock now, not in August 2026

411bit supports your compliance from start to finish: review of your current setup, selection or adaptation of tools, customer data cleanup, connection to a PDP and to your sales management system. The goal: a switchover your teams do not even notice. Let’s review your invoicing. A few weeks are more than enough when you plan ahead.

ERP migration is the IT project business owners dread most, and for good reason: inventory, orders, invoicing, everything runs through this one tool. Yet a well-prepared migration can be done without closing for a single day. Here is the method.

An aging ERP always ends up costing more than modernizing it: manual re-keying, inaccurate inventory, late invoices. But the fear is legitimate. How do you change the engine without stopping the car?

Why migrations fail

• Sloppy data migration: duplicates and incomplete histories carry over into the new system
• An abrupt switchover: everyone changes tools on the same day, with no safety net
• Untrained teams: the new ERP is better, but nobody knows how to use it
• A vague scope: the project keeps growing along the way and never ends

How to run a successful ERP migration

1. Map the existing setup: flows, data, users, habits
2. Clean the data before migrating it, never after
3. Run both systems in parallel on a test scope
4. Train teams on real cases from their daily work
5. Switch over on a Friday evening, check over the weekend, open on Monday
6. Keep the old system accessible in read-only mode during the warranty period

We changed ERP without closing for a single day. The switchover took place over a weekend, and on Monday morning the teams were working in the new system.

A concrete case: switching over in one weekend

Take a 20-person distribution company with 12,000 items in stock and a fifteen-year-old ERP that keeps getting slower. The owner’s fear fits in one sentence: losing a day of orders means losing customers.
The sequence that worked:

• Six weeks of preparation: mapping the flows, cleaning up the 12,000 product records (nearly 800 duplicates removed along the way), configuring the new system.
• Two weeks of parallel testing on a sample of real orders, to catch special cases before they could do damage.
• Team training on their own orders, not on a generic manual.
• The switchover on a Friday at 6 p.m., checks on Saturday, and opening on Monday like any other day.

Zero days closed. On Monday morning, orders were flowing again through the new system, with the old one still available in read-only mode for the entire warranty period, just in case.

How long does it take, and what does it cost?

A migration usually takes two to four months to prepare, depending on the size of the company and how clean its data is. The most underestimated item is not the software, it is the data migration: that is where success is decided, and that is where the rigor has to go. A firm quote, with the scope written down in black and white, protects you from a project that keeps swelling and never ends.

The real gain comes after the migration

A modern, well-integrated ERP eliminates re-keying between sales management, the online store and accounting. Every hour of data entry saved ends up in your margin.

Frequently asked questions

Can you really migrate without closing?

Yes, provided you switch over during a quiet period (most often a weekend) and have tested beforehand. What forces a company to close is not the migration, it is an improvised migration.

What happens to the data in the old ERP?

We clean it, migrate what is useful, and keep the old system accessible in read-only mode for several months. You lose none of your history.

When should you start the project?

Before the old tool becomes a burden. If your teams keep adding spreadsheet workarounds to make up for its limits, the warning light is already red.

Do you have to change everything at once?

No. On large scopes, the switchover is often done module by module or site by site, to reduce risk. The goal stays the same: no business interruption, ever.
This is exactly what we do at 411bit: an assessment, a firm quote, a switchover without interruption. Let’s talk about your migration project.
See also: managed IT services or in-house IT, which should you choose?