B2B ELECTRONIC INVOICING

The purpose of e-invoicing

After the obligation to use electronic invoices with French institutions, it is the turn of French companies (domestic B2B) to comply with the obligation to exchange their invoices in dematerialized form.

The goal of e-invoicing is to speed up processing, to reduce payment delays and lower processing costs. For businesses, this allows the automation of the invoicing process with data validation and confirmation of their successful integrations. Ultimately, this will allow you to be paid faster and cheaper thanks to dynamic discount.

For the administration, this will ensure that all applicable VAT is collected, that the tax deductions correspond to the proper VAT, prevent and detect fraudulent behavior and ultimately support economic activity.

The calendar

Following Ordinance No. 2021-1190 of September 15, 2021 relating to the generalization of electronic invoicing, the schedule has been amended as follows:

All companies will have to accept the electronic invoice on July 1, 2024 (instead of January 1, 2023). That said, many points remain to be clarified, which formats? what data? This remains to be clarified, but it is certain that an invoice must contain structured data and that the standard EN16931 should play a role, as well as hybrid formats. Note that upon receipt, the simple PDF invoice will no longer be possible.

Gradually between 2024 and 2026 depending on the size of the company, it will be obligated to issue invoices in electronic form:

• July 1, 2024 for large companies.
• January 1, 2025 for mid-sized companies.
• January 1, 2026 for SMEs and VSEs.