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You invoice business customers

Invoicing and getting paid

Issue an invoice that holds up legally, understand what mandatory e-invoicing changes from 1 September 2026, measure the working capital your customer credit ties up — and charge late-payment penalties once the deadline passes: 11 steps, from the required wording to collection.

Start here: Steering profitability and cash

Understand: profitability, cash and e-invoicing

  1. Step 1 of 11
    CoursePaid individually51 min

    Steering profitability and cash

    At what level of turnover does the business start making money, why a profitable company runs short of cash, and how to see it coming six months ahead. Three worked modules on Nadia's workshop. Second course of the management accounting series.
  2. Step 2 of 11
    CoursePaid individually25 min

    Mandatory electronic invoicing

    Receiving since 1 September 2026, issuing according to your size: the calendar, the four particulars added to the invoice, and the duty to go through an approved platform. Three modules following an 18-employee joinery firm. All the prose is free to read; only the quizzes are sold.
  3. Step 3 of 11
    CoursePaid individually26 min

    Facing your business's difficulties

    Recognising insolvency from two precise figures, understanding what a single date separates between safeguard and reorganisation, and knowing what liquidation changes for the director. Three modules following a joinery with €180,000 of overdue debt. All the prose is free to read; only the quizzes are sold.

Compute: working capital needs and cash forecast

  1. Step 4 of 11
    CalculatorFree result

    Working capital requirement (WCR)

    The operating working capital requirement is what your operating cycle ties up permanently: inventory + trade receivables − trade payables. Enter either the three balance-sheet items or your turnover periods: you get the amount, its equivalent in days of turnover, the item-by-item breakdown and, if you know your working capital, the resulting net cash position.
  2. Step 5 of 11
    CalculatorFree result

    Cash flow forecast

    Enter your opening balance, your monthly activity and your payment terms: you get each month's cash balance, the deepest dip and the month it happens.

Draw up: invoice, deposit invoice, pro forma, credit note, direct debit mandate

  1. Step 6 of 11
    FormFree15 min

    Compulsory particulars on a business-to-business invoice

    The particulars of article L441-9 of the French Commercial Code, item by item, the fine of up to €375,000, and why a pro forma invoice is not an invoice under French law. Generate a compliant invoice (up to three lines) as PDF and Word.
  2. Step 7 of 11
    FormFree12 min

    French advance-payment invoice (facture d'acompte)

    Issued when the advance is collected, it makes VAT chargeable immediately. The trap is not the advance but the balance: forgetting to deduct it means invoicing twice. Generate the advance-payment invoice as PDF and Word.
  3. Step 8 of 11
    FormFree12 min

    Pro forma invoice for export

    A priced document that is NOT an invoice: it collects no VAT and is never booked. What customs and the bank look for: the pro forma wording, the Incoterms 2020 rule with its named place, the HS code and the origin. Generate it as PDF and Word, in the contract currency.
  4. Step 9 of 11
    FormFree10 min

    French credit note (avoir) and corrective invoice

    Correct an issued invoice without breaking the audit trail: reference to the original invoice, VAT-exclusive amount of the reduction and the corresponding VAT — the three statements on which VAT recovery depends. Generate the credit note as PDF and Word.
  5. Step 10 of 11
    FormFree15 min

    Business-to-business SEPA direct debit mandate (B2B)

    The B2B mandate removes the eight-week refund and, uniquely, must be sent to the debtor's bank before the first debit — failing which the payment is rejected.

Get paid: late-payment penalties and the fixed recovery fee

  1. Step 11 of 11
    CalculatorFree result

    Late payment penalty calculator (business-to-business)

    A business paid late may claim, without any reminder, penalties at the ECB rate plus 10 points (or the contractual rate, never below three times the legal interest rate) and a €40 flat-rate recovery fee per invoice.

The other paths

A different procedure, the same principle: the three pillars in order.

Read in French