The essentials
- Since 1 September 2026, every company must be able to receive electronic invoices. The obligation to issue them only reaches SMBs and micro-businesses on 1 September 2027.
- An electronic invoice is not a PDF sent by email: it travels through an approved platform, which handles issuing, receiving and transmitting certain data to the tax administration.
- Companies must map their invoicing flows and adapt their internal procedures, on top of choosing a platform.
- The scope is limited: transactions between French VAT-registered businesses are covered, sales to individuals and foreign clients are not.
A supplier invoice arrives by email, with a PDF attached. Someone prints it, files it, then types the lines into the accounting software. That circuit was the norm for a long time. Since 1 September 2026, it is no longer the expected one: every company must be able to receive electronic invoices. Many business leaders remembered “2027” — the date that concerns them for issuing. Receiving is already here.
What is already in force
The calendar separates two obligations. Receiving: since 1 September 2026, for every company. Issuing: from the same date for large companies and mid-sized enterprises, then from 1 September 2027 for micro-businesses and SMBs. In other words: your large suppliers must already send their invoices through the electronic circuit, and your organisation must be able to receive them — even if you only issue from 2027 onwards.
An electronic invoice is not a PDF sent by email. It travels through an approved platform that handles issuing, receiving and transmitting certain data to the tax administration. Choosing that platform is part of the obligation, alongside mapping your flows and adapting internal procedures.
The real work is not the software
The temptation is to treat this as a configuration task: call the vendor, tick a box, wait. That does not hold for long. Before the tool, there is a simple and boring question: who invoices you, in what form, and who types what? A French VAT-registered supplier, a foreign supplier, a private customer, an expense claim: the circuits do not look alike, and they do not all fall under the same obligation.
In an SMB, that mapping often fits on two pages. Along the way it reveals double entry nobody had measured, invoices arriving in a personal mailbox, or a major supplier who has planned nothing. Those three findings cost more than the platform itself.
- Who invoices you in France, business to business and VAT-registered? That is the electronic invoicing scope.
- Who invoices you from abroad, or sells to you as a private individual? Those transactions fall under another obligation.
- Who receives, who checks, who enters the data today? That is the chain to describe before choosing any tool.
If this lands on your desk and you do not know where to start, we can map your flows and tell you what falls under electronic invoicing, what falls under data transmission, and what can wait.
Sources
This note was drafted with AI tools from the cited sources, then reviewed and published under the responsibility of Jordan FOUASSIER, publication director. We summarise the facts and add our reading; source text and images are not reproduced. An error? Write to contact@aigyrosgroup.com.