When we find a change that affects one of your invoicing functions, we email the person on your team who looks after it, with what changed for them and where it says so.
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On 28 July 2026, five weeks before go-live on 1 September, France published a decree and an order that we count as one change, with 11 rules that affect invoicing.
Journal officiel of 28 July 2026: the decree and the order, legifrance.gouv.fr
| 11 rules | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoicing functions | ||||||||||||
| Outbound invoicing | 7 | |||||||||||
| Inbound invoicing | 3 | |||||||||||
| Connectivity | 4 | |||||||||||
| Tax engine | 4 | |||||||||||
| Master data | 3 | |||||||||||
| Archiving | 2 | |||||||||||
| Total work items | 23 | |||||||||||
1 The invoice formats are written into law
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
The law now lists the formats invoices must travel in, defined in an AFNOR standard with no edition named.
2 Standards for connections and use cases
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
A platform must follow an AFNOR standard for any standard connection (API) it offers, and another for each kind of invoicing case it handles, again with no edition named.
3 Converting between formats
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
The sending platform converts an invoice into one of the listed formats. If the conversion cannot keep every detail, a readable copy of everything in the original must travel with it. The receiving platform has the same duty.
4 Every invoice number must be unique
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
Your certified platform now has to check that every invoice number is unique. A reused number would most likely come from how your own software numbers invoices.
5 A new entry in the invoice data
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
Price surcharges for fees and charges join the data a company has to transmit, so your invoices have to be able to carry them.
6 Two dates moved
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
Two dates in the rules on invoice data move to 1 September 2026 and 1 September 2027, so they now match the mandate's own timetable.
7 Sales and payment data redefined
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
The data you report on sales and payments is redefined, with the total amount becoming the total taxable base and the amount collected now reported in euros, while two entries go.
8 A fixed timetable for e-reporting
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
E-reporting follows a fixed timetable instead of a minimum frequency, and a period with no transactions needs no report. The timetable applies separately to each platform a company uses.
9 VAT groups in the directory
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
The central directory must now list the members of a VAT group, and each routing code gets a label.
10 Changing platform gets fixed deadlines
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
Moving to a new receiving platform becomes a set procedure, with two working days to tell the old platform and five for it to object. The directory is then updated within a set time. The signed agreement behind the move is kept for three years.
11 Stricter terms for certified platforms
What in this rule affects your outbound invoicing
Certified platforms face stricter conditions to register and stay certified, including security certification from an accredited body and connection tests with the directory and another platform.
One change, published on 28 July
Miss a change like it, and the first sign may be invoices rejected and payments left waiting.
France was still rewriting its e-invoicing rules a few weeks before go-live, so companies had to get ready against rules that hadn't settled.
We haven't counted a change to France's rules since go-live yet, but Belgium, which went live in January, kept changing its rules well after go-live.
We expect changes to France's rules to arrive within months.
France's rules come from Parliament and the government through the law, from AFNOR, France's standards body, and from the tax administration, each on its own calendar.
We've counted 10 changes since 1 January 2024, and this is where each of them came from.
Anyone watching only the law would have missed 8 of them.
Your certified platform and your other providers each look after what they supply, but checking that it all still works together is likely left to you.
After your first message, we send you a form, about an hour's work, where you tell us who looks after each of your invoicing functions.
We then have a short call with whoever signs off on your side, so they know what each person will hear from us and what we don't do.
When we find a change, each person it affects hears from us what to check or prepare, and where it says so. We keep a record of each change we find and who we sent it to, so it never rests on one person remembering.
Give legal or tax advice. What we send is our reading of what a change means for your invoicing, with the source beside it so you can check it.
Look beyond our sources. We read 29 of France's official sources every week, and we tell you about the changes we find there and nowhere else.
Decide for you. What to do about a change, and when, stays with you and the people who look after your invoicing.
Tell us who looks after your invoicing today, and whether that's one person, several, or a team for each function.
Thank you, your message is sent. You will get an answer by email.