France - 2019 eInvoicing Country Sheet

Legislation

The Ordinance No. 2014-697 of 26 June 2014 on the development of electronic invoicing stipulates that economic operators involved in public procurement should submit eInvoices, which have to be accepted by all public administrations.

The mandatory submission of eInvoices started, on a gradual basis, from January 2017. According to the ordinance, the date of enforcement of the law for the suppliers varies according to the company size:

• 01/01/2017 for any company including more than 5000 employees
• 01/01/2018 for any company including 250 to 5000 employees
• 01/01/2019 for any company including 10 to 250 employees
• 01/01/2020 for any company including less than 10 employees

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

In France, due to compulsory legislation concerning e-invoicing, a national unique invoicing portal called "Chorus Pro" has been developed by the Agence pour l'Informatique Financière de l’État (AIFE), the french national public agency for IT, depending of the Ministry for the Economy and Finance.

With the exception of a few contracting authorities (for example : SNCF, SNCF Réseau, SNCF Mobilités, Caisse des dépôts et consignations), Chorus Pro supports all suppliers of the public sector to submit their invoices, to check on their current status of the invoice and the payments.

Usage of Chorus Pro is free of charge for suppliers and contracting authorities.

In order to adapt to the capacities and needs of the suppliers concerned, the portal offers three modes of sending: the manual entry of invoices directly on the platform, the downloading of PDF or XML invoices (signed or not) from the portal, and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) in direct connection or via a service operator.

Chorus Pro allows the use of the UBL Invoice 2.1 standard for different types of formats (including structured UBL and minimal UBL). As from April, it will also allow the use of standard CII 16B

Status on the implementation of the European Standard on eInvoicing (EN)

The draft law on the Growth and Transformation of enterprises (PACTE), which was submitted to Parliament on 19 June 2018. It was passed by the Assemblé Nationale and was transmitted to the Senate for its first reading in the upper chamber on 1 October 2018[1]. It should empower the government to take legislative measures to ensure the transposition of Directive 2014/55/EU of 16 April 2014 on electronic invoicing in the context of public procurement.[SM1] 

The national centralised eInvoicing infrastructure Chorus Pro already supports UN/CEFACT CII and UBL. The EN will have no real technical impact. The EN will have no impact on public administration as Chorus Pro is provided at no cost for administrations or suppliers.

As mentioned above, from 1 January 2019, SMEs with between 10 to 250 employees will be mandated to send eInvoices to public entities on the ChorusPro portal. The transposition will ensure that the obligations are the same for all contracting authorities.

The platform in place, ChorusPro, is used by all contracting authorities and suppliers. ChorusPro facilitated the sending of 11 million eInvoices in 2017. In 2018, there were 13 million eInvoices sent through the platform. Currently, there are 80,00 public entities and 150,000 suppliers using ChorusPro. A a specific eInvoice format based on the EN was developped to be processed through ChorusPro. Moreover, access to PEPPOL, which will be enabled through ChorusPro, will also facilitate the cross-border exchange of eInvoices. ChorusPro uses CII with Factur-X, the Franco-German standard for mixed electronic invoicing.

France provided specific support to onboard SMEs, e.g. the portal ChorusPro offers functionalities such as downloading PDF/XML eInvoices and indirect data exchanges with EDI through a service provider, among others.

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

The Agency for State Financial Information is responsible for operating the (single hub) eInvoicing platform (Chorus Pro).

Economic operators submitting eInvoices and public entities receiving and processing eInvoices are connected to the Chorus Pro, a three-corner operating model. France is currently developing APIs to connect to its Chorus Pro platform to facilitate the pre-award processes in the public procurement life-cycle.

Use of Core Invoicing Usage Specifications (CIUS) at national level

France is expected to develop and establish a national CIUS.

Additional information

The French e-invoicing forum (Forum national de la facture électronique et des marches publics électroniques – FNFE-MPE) and the German Forum (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland – FeRD) have developed Factur-X, a hybrid invoice based on the EN16931. Factur-X is now implemented in Chorus Pro. Any supplier can send its invoices in Factur-X format to all contracting authorities.

[1] http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/15/dossiers/Croissance_transformation_des_entreprises

Last updated:  Dec 20, 2019 17:18