French e-Invoicing is part of France’s nationwide digital transformation initiative aimed at modernising business-to-business (B2B) invoicing and tax reporting. The reform introduces the electronic exchange of invoice data and reporting of certain transactions to improve transparency, simplify tax compliance, and streamline business processes.
Under the French e-Invoicing framework, companies subject to VAT in France are required to issue, transmit, receive, and process invoices electronically using approved channels and formats. Depending on the nature of the transaction, businesses may also be required to submit e-reporting information to the French tax authorities.
In Exact Globe+, e-Invoicing (B2B) and e-Reporting (B2B foreign or cross-border and B2C) can be generated to the DGFiP (Direction Générale des Finances Publiques) for submissions.
E-Invoicing applies to the following:
E-Reporting applies to the following:
The topics are as follows:
The following settings are required:
The SIREN/SIRET field under the Digital certificate section must be defined at System > General > Settings > Company data settings.
Note: Select E-invoicing type identifier “0002” together with a valid company SIREN number (9 digits) at the SIREN/SIRET number field. The SIREN/SIRET number must be defined. Alternatively, the SIRET number must be defined in the France e-Invoicing form to create the ESS account. For more information on the forms, see e-Invoicing France - template forms for PA (Plateformes Agréées).
Select the 0002:SIREN or 0009:SIRET e-Invoicing type identifier at E-Invoicing type identifier in the VAT section under the Financial tab in the debtor (Finance > Accounts receivable > Maintain) and creditor (Finance > Accounts payable > Maintain) maintenance screens.
Note: If Electronically is selected at Send method, the e-Invoice will be sent to the PA (Approved Platforms) during the final processing of the e-Invoice. If Printer or Email is selected at Send method, the e-Invoice will not be sent to PA for submission.
During the invoice process, IGW will validate the participant number of the company with the buyer’s participant number before the invoice is sent. If the participant number does not match, an error message will be displayed. Example of participant number is 0002:36682761 (0002 + last 9 digit of VAT).
You have to return to the debtor maintenance and correct the E-invoicing type identifier to 0002 to match the actual registered identifier before proceeding to process the invoice.
The options at Trans. Category in the invoice conditions screen at Invoice > Entries > Invoices and Invoice > Reports > Invoice history will be based on the invoice debtor country code and private person value of the debtor. The options below will be displayed if the invoice debtor is “FR”.
The options below will be displayed if the invoice debtor is not “FR (B2B foreign)” or the private person of the debtor is selected (B2C).
Goods or Services should be selected at Classification ESL in the Item maintenance. The Trans. Category field will display S1 for B2B domestic by default, if the top 1 item in the invoice entry’s Classification ESL is Services, and TPS1 will be displayed for B2B foreign or B2C.
If the Classification ESL is not defined for the top 1 item in the Item maintenance in the Invoice entry, Goods (for example, B1 for B2B domestic and TLB1 for B2B foreign or B2C) will be displayed.
The defaulting logic in the Trans. Category will always follow the top 1 item line in the invoice to determine if it is B1/S1 or TLB1/TPS1.
The Nature field will be available in the VAT codes screen. This field displays the VAT category, and the options will be taken from the TaxNature.xml file in the XML folder.
The options in the Nature field are displayed based on the following conditions:
The invoice layout at System > General > Settings > Document settings contains the Transaction Category and Item Classification code fields.
The Transaction Category field at the header block is mapped to the transaction category selected in the invoice condition screen. The selected transaction category code and description will be printed on the invoice layout.
The Item Classification code field at the item block is mapped to the Classification ESL field in the item maintenance. If Classification ESL is blank, Goods will be displayed by default in the layout.
The e-Invoice generated is compliant with Factur-X (PDF/A-3). The embedded factur-x.xml file will contain a structured XML representation of the invoice data, whereby the XML file will be automatically embedded into the PDF during the final invoice processing with the Email and eInvoice checkboxes selected or based on the account (with Send method set to Electronically or Email with the eInvoice checkbox selected in the debtor maintenance screen) as a CII format e-Invoice. PDF will be generated without embedded XML for trial prints.
The embedded XML will follow the FRCIIExport.xsl stylesheet. The PDF file name will be <InvoiceNumber>_<InvoiceDate>(yyyyMMdd).pdf.
VAT CategoryCode will be as follows if the Nature field in the VAT code is not defined:
ExemptionReason will be defaulted based on the codes below followed by the CategoryCode:
Additional <InvoiceReferencedDocument> block will be displayed when the credit note XML is generated. This will reference back to the original sales invoice number.
If the Include additional attachment in XML checkbox is selected in the Print invoice screen, multiple attachments will be included in the XML.
The following formats for the attachments are supported:
You can select PDF or XML file at Finance > Entries > Purchase and import the Faktur-X PDF, CII, and UBL XML files into Exact Globe+.
When importing the e-Invoice, the system will check whether the <ram:SpecifiedLegalOrganization>/<ram:ID> value is in the XML file or the XML that was embedded in the PDF file. This value will be used to find the creditor based on the following priority:
Electronic sending is available when the debtor’s send method is Electronically. However, the conditions below must be met:
You can check the status of the processed invoice at Invoice > Reports > Electronic Invoicing Service.
Sent invoices will be displayed at Invoice > Reports > Outgoing e-Invoices.
The CDAR 47 Payment Received lifecycle message is generated to notify the French Tax Authority when the eligible payment is received and applied to a debtor invoice. This message is based on the 212 status in the French e-Invoicing lifecycle and confirms that the supplier or invoice issuer has received full or partial payment, marking the completion of the payment event for the invoice lifecycle. Reporting status 212 to the Public Invoice Portal (PPF) is mandatory only for businesses operating under a cash-based VAT regime where VAT becomes due upon payment collection rather than invoice issuance. The CDAR 47 generation is a matching process in which a payment transaction is matched to a sales invoice or prepayment invoice through manual or bank import matching. CDAR 47 can also be generated when the existing payment match is reversed through unmatching, irreconciliation, or unlink actions. Based on the match, the system evaluates the applicable payment amounts and generates the CDAR 47 XML message for reporting purposes. The message supports the French cash-based VAT reporting requirements by reporting the portion of the payment amount attributable to the invoice lines that are subject to cash-based VAT.
Select the CDAR Settings checkbox under the General section at System > General > Settings > General ledger settings if you want the system to generate and send a CDAR XML message when a payment is matched or unmatched from a sales invoice or prepayment invoice.
Note: Select the CDAR Settings checkbox if your organisation is required to report payments through CDAR messages for French cash-based VAT reporting.
The CDAR generation functionality only applies to the following scenarios:
The functionality does not apply to:
CDAR XML files are automatically generated for the following payment and matching scenarios:
For collection payments processed at Cash flow > Collections > Collections:
A CDAR XML file is generated at Cash flow > Entries > Bank import when:
CDAR XML generation is supported for manual matching (at Cash flow > Entries > Cash flow and Cash flow > Entries > To be matched) between payment terms (S terms) and invoice terms (W terms), including matching scenarios involving deduction management.
CDAR XML files are generated when payments are automatically matched to sales invoices or manually matched using the Our ref field during payment processing at Finance > Entries > Bank/Cash and Finance > Entries > General journal.
CDAR XML generation is supported when matching or unmatching transactions directly from the debtor card at Finance > Accounts receivable > Cards.
One CDAR XML file is generated for each payment term (S term). When a single payment term is matched to multiple invoice terms (W terms), multiple invoice references are included within the <ram:ReferenceReferencedDocument> block of the generated CDAR XML. The number of <ram:ReferenceReferencedDocument> blocks corresponds to the number of matched invoices.
When generating CDAR, the system will create one or more <ram:SpecifiedDocumentCharacteristics> nodes and <ram:SpecifiedDocumentStatus> based on the cash-based VAT rates applicable to the invoice. For each cash-based VAT rate on the invoice, the system will generate the following:
The CDAR XML file will contain the following filename: