On 1 September 2026, France switched on the first phase of its B2B e-invoicing reform. Every VAT-registered business in France must now be able to receive electronic invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must issue them. Small and micro businesses follow on the issuing side in September 2027. If you send or receive invoices in France, the plain PDF invoice you email today is on its way out.
What counts as an e-invoice now
A PDF file sent by email is not an e-invoice under the French reform, even if it was generated by accounting software. An e-invoice is a structured file that a machine can read without guessing. The reform accepts three base formats:
- UBL and UN/CEFACT CII, which are pure XML files.
- Factur-X, a hybrid: a PDF/A-3 document that people can read, with the same invoice data embedded as XML inside it.
Factur-X is the reason PDF still matters in France. The visible page stays familiar for the customer, while the XML attachment carries the legally authoritative data. See Factur-X explained for how the two layers fit together.
Invoices travel through approved platforms
Invoices are no longer sent directly from supplier to customer by email. They pass through a plateforme agréée (an approved platform, previously called a PDP), which validates the file, routes it to the buyer's platform, and reports the tax data to the administration. Businesses choose their own platform, often through their accounting or ERP vendor.
Alongside e-invoicing, the reform introduces e-reporting: transaction data for sales that are not domestic B2B, such as sales to consumers or foreign customers, is reported to the tax authority through the same platforms.
What it means if you are a small business
If you are a small company or a freelancer, the timeline gives you a year before you must issue e-invoices, but you are already a receiver. Practically, that means:
- Pick a platform now. You need a platform to receive invoices from larger suppliers, and the same one will issue yours from 2027.
- Clean your customer data. E-invoices require accurate SIREN numbers and addresses. A typo that a human ignored will be rejected by validation.
- Stop treating the PDF as the record. In a Factur-X invoice the XML is the source of truth. Editing the visible PDF afterwards creates a mismatch between what the customer sees and what the tax authority receives.
Can you still edit or annotate a received invoice?
You can read, comment on, and file a received Factur-X invoice like any PDF. But treat it as a sealed record. Do not edit amounts, dates, or line items in a PDF editor, because the embedded XML will not change with them, and the platform has already reported the original data. If something is wrong, ask the supplier for a credit note and a corrected invoice.
For your own internal workflow, it is still fine to stamp a copy "approved" or "paid", add an approver's initials, or merge an invoice with its purchase order for an approval pack. Keep the original file untouched in your archive and work on a copy. Browser tools like Docento.app let you annotate that copy without uploading it anywhere.
Archiving
French e-invoices still need to be kept for the statutory period, and the original electronic format is what counts. Store the file exactly as received, keep the PDF/A-3 container intact (it is designed for long-term archiving), and avoid "print to PDF" copies that strip the embedded XML. Our guide to document retention policies covers how to structure that archive.
Takeaway
France has joined Italy, Poland, and Belgium in requiring structured invoices, and Germany is close behind. If you work with French customers or suppliers, the job for the next twelve months is simple: choose a platform, fix your master data, and learn to tell a hybrid PDF invoice from a plain one. For neighbouring mandates, see Belgium's Peppol requirement and Germany's 2027 deadline.
