E-invoicing for French tradespeople: the checklist before 1 September 2027

If you are a tradesperson in France, you must already be able to receive electronic invoices since 1 September 2026, and you will have to issue your invoices to business customers in electronic format from 1 September 2027. The checklist has eight points: check your exact situation, choose your platform, appear in the directory, complete your customer file, move your invoices to Factur-X, prepare the e-reporting of your sales to private customers, test a real invoice, and bring your accountant into the loop. To find out in two minutes what applies to your business, use the eligibility test.

The two dates, and what they change for a tradesperson

Many tradespeople closed the file in September 2026 once they saw that their wholesalers' invoices were coming through. That is the first half of the road. The second half, issuing, requires data that receiving never asked of you. The difference between the two is detailed in issuing electronically in 2027: the real job for very small businesses.

Point 1: check your exact situation

Three questions decide everything. Are you subject to VAT, even under the exemption scheme? If so, both parts of the reform apply to you. Do you invoice businesses established in France? Those invoices will go through a platform from 1 September 2027. Do you invoice private customers? Those sales do not go through e-invoicing, but they fall under e-reporting on the same date. A tradesperson working 90 % for private customers is not out of scope: both mechanisms apply. The eligibility test gives you the answer from your SIREN number.

Point 2: choose a Plateforme Agréée or a Solution Compatible

Since the reform, invoices between businesses no longer travel directly: they go through a Plateforme Agréée (PA), an accredited platform registered by the DGFiP (the French tax administration), which delivers the invoice to the customer's platform and reports the data to the administration. You have two ways in: register directly with a PA, or use a Solution Compatible (SC), that is software connected to a PA that does the work for you. CashFacture is a Solution Compatible: you invoice in the software, transmission through the partner platform is included.

The official list of platforms is published on impots.gouv.fr. Choose calmly, before summer 2027, and check three things: that the tool produces Factur-X at the EN 16931 profile, that it is connected to a registered PA, and that it handles the particulars of your trade. The method is in checking that software is really connected to a Plateforme Agréée.

Point 3: appear in the directory

For a customer or supplier to send you an electronic invoice, your business must appear in the central directory, together with the platform that receives for you. Your platform or your Solution Compatible registers you there. If you are not in it, your suppliers cannot deliver their invoices, and you carry the risk of not receiving them. The case is covered in electronic invoice not received: check the directory.

Point 4: complete your customer file

This is the longest point, and the one that depends on no software. E-invoicing adds four mentions: the business customer's SIREN, the delivery address or the address where the service is performed when it differs from the billing address, the category of the transaction (supply of goods, supply of services, or both), and the option to pay VAT on a debits basis if you have taken it.

Three of these four mentions live in your customer file. Most tradespeople's files contain neither the SIREN nor the distinction between billing address and site address. Collecting the SIREN with every new quote over the months that remain costs nothing; rebuilding fifty records in August 2027 costs hours and mistakes. Each missing or inaccurate mention exposes you to a fine of 15 € per mention, capped at a quarter of the invoice amount.

Point 5: move your invoices to Factur-X

A PDF produced by a word processor or a spreadsheet is not an electronic invoice. The expected format is structured: Factur-X (a readable PDF with an embedded XML), UBL or CII. Two routes: software that issues directly in the right format, or converting your existing invoices, explained in converting a PDF invoice to Factur-X. For a tradesperson who invoices regularly, the first route removes all handling: the invoice is born compliant and leaves through the platform in the same action.

Check the particulars of your trade too. In construction, the reverse charge on subcontracting and the reduced rates of 10 % and 5.5 % with the customer's certificate must be carried correctly in the file: see e-invoicing in construction. A baker or pastry maker often mixes several rates on one invoice: see e-invoicing for bakeries.

Point 6: prepare the e-reporting of your sales to private customers

From 1 September 2027, your sales that do not fall under e-invoicing (private customers, foreign customers) and your payment data on supplies of services are transmitted to the administration, at a frequency linked to your VAT regime. Your customer sees nothing. If your software records your receipts, it prepares and transmits that data; if you invoice private customers outside any tool, you will have to key it in. The mechanism is explained in e-reporting in plain terms.

Point 7: test a real invoice

Before the deadline, issue at least one electronic invoice to a business customer that is already connected, and follow its cycle: deposit, transmission, receipt, and where applicable rejection or refusal. That is how you will discover a missing mention or a rate error, at a time when it costs nothing. You can also check an existing file with the invoice checker, which applies the EN 16931 rules and reports the failing rule.

Point 8: bring your accountant into the loop

Your accountant will receive your invoices as data, no more documents to re-key. Ask them now what they expect: an FEC export (the French standard accounting file), direct access to the file, a format for supporting documents. Software that keeps the books continuously and produces the FEC spares them the re-keying and spares you the year-end back and forth.

What you risk by waiting until August 2027

Failure to issue electronic invoices is penalised by a fine of 50 € per invoice, capped at 15,000 € per year. The tolerance announced by the DGFiP at the start of the reform targets real, documented difficulties, not a lack of preparation. Beyond the fine, the real cost is operational: a large customer refusing a PDF, an invoice rejected for a missing SIREN, a payment delayed by a month. The penalties are detailed in fines and penalties under French e-invoicing.

Doing the eight points in one go

CashFacture covers points 2 to 8 for a tradesperson: Solution Compatible connected to a Plateforme Agréée, directory registration, customer record with SIREN and site address, invoices issued in Factur-X EN 16931 with reverse charge and reduced rates, e-reporting prepared from receipts, built-in checker, FEC export for the accountant. And what the reform does not require but you expect: VAT set aside at every payment and on-site payment by NFC tag. The START plan is 9 € excluding VAT per month for 50 invoices, ESSENTIEL 29 € for 500, PRO 59 € unlimited, with a 7-day trial, card required, nothing charged before the end of the trial. Create your account and tick the eight points before summer.