Who owes what, and since when

Verrier & Fils, a joinery firm with 18 employees, received an invoice for €4,800 on 3 September that none of its software could open. Its supplier, a mid-cap, has moved to electronic invoicing. The owner believed the reform started in 2027. Before reading on: which of the two has the wrong date, and why are both right?

Two duties, two dates

The reform does not switch over in one move. It separates receiving an electronic invoice from issuing one, and does not impose both at the same moment. That split is what catches businesses out: they believe themselves concerned later than they are.

The duty to receive applies to every business, whatever its size, since 1 September 2026. As soon as a supplier is required to issue in electronic form, its customer must be able to receive the invoice in that form.

The duty to issue, by contrast, rolls out in two stages by size. Large enterprises and mid-caps have been subject to it since 1 September 2026. Micro-enterprises, very small businesses and SMEs will be from 1 September 2027.

Data reporting comes with it

The reform therefore does not come down to changing the format of invoices. It also organises a flow of information towards the authority, which receives data as operations occur. That second leg explains the scale of the scheme and its anti-fraud purpose.

For large enterprises and mid-caps, that reporting has applied since 1 September 2026, at the same time as the duty to issue. Micro-enterprises, very small businesses and SMEs will join on 1 September 2027, again alongside their own issuing duty.

Why a reform on this scale

The stated aim is twofold. The first is control: an authority receiving data as operations occur spots discrepancies in tax without waiting for a return. The second is simplification, since a pre-filled return becomes possible from the same data.

A third effect gets less attention, and yet it is the one businesses notice first: the invoice stops being a free-form document and becomes a standardised message. What used to be drafted is now entered in fields, and what used to be tolerated is refused.

What to do now

A business that does not yet issue is not therefore free of duties. It already receives, and receiving assumes it can open a structured document, read it, check it against its own order, and archive it — four capabilities that neither an email inbox nor a paper binder provides on its own.

The gap before its own issuing deadline is not spare time: it is the time it has to choose a connection, clean up its customer data and train the people who invoice. None of those three improvises itself in the week of the deadline.

Training deserves a line of its own. The people who invoice are rarely the people who chose the software, and the new particulars have to be gathered by whoever meets the customer. A reform handled only by the finance function reaches the counter too late.

Scope: operations between taxable persons established in France

The electronic invoicing duty covers operations between persons subject to value added tax established or resident in France. It therefore does not, of itself, cover sales to consumers or cross-border operations: those fall under data reporting instead.