France will phase in its new B2B eInvoicing and e-Reporting system between 2024 and 2026 with different deadlines based on company size.
The French government opted for a Y-type approach which avoids disrupting existing B2B electronic invoicing that occurs without intermediation.
This ‘y-scheme’ eReporting model requires companies to use a partner dematerialization platform (Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire or PDP) to validate eInvoices before electronically reporting the VAT data to the government.
Already in 2017, France announced obligatory business-to-government (B2G) electronic invoicing and, from 2020, all public sector suppliers have in fact been required to issue and send invoices electronically via Chorus Pro.
Chorus Pro is the national invoicing portal that enables all public sector suppliers to send invoices, to track the status of any invoice, and to monitor payments.
Taxpayers can submit their electronic invoices to the Chorus Pro portal in multiple ways:
- via the Peppol eDelivery Network,
- via electronic data interchange (EDI) or
- via an application programming interface (API).
How does data exchange work with the Peppol system?
OpenPeppol, the non-profit association established in 2012 and co-funded by the European Community with the support of a consortium of 18 governmental bodies, presides over the Peppol network, a transnational eInvoicing and e-Procurement system.
Peppol was created to simplify the cross-border exchange of electronic business documents and make it simpler and safer to exchange electronic documents and messages, or to connect networks.
It consists of a comprehensive architecture based on the CEF eDelivery Network (the EU transport infrastructure) that uses common technical standards and protocols to safely interconnect different electronic procurement systems and exchange secure messages. The Peppol network is accessed via authorized Access Points across the EU, that allow suppliers to exchange electronic invoices, or contact other partners, enterprises or public agencies.
Peppol offers automatic participant discovery via SMP (Service Metadata Publisher), similar to a business address book, and SML (Service Metadata Locator), which works in much the same way as a search engine on the web, and is a centralized service for identifying and finding any participants in the network.
EESPA, the European E-Invoicing Service Provider Community, is an EU-wide trade association for organizations that offer services or enabling technologies for eInvoicing. EESPA’s Interoperability Network (EIN) uses the same European invoicing framework standard as the Peppol system for communication and document exchange.
While Peppol could fulfil most of the requirements for the exchange of invoices, not all companies use Peppol and therefore, not all communication will be via Peppol. Some PDPs (partner platforms) will probably offer to deliver invoices or statuses to the users of other protocols.
With respect to governance, the intention is not to make either the Peppol or the EESPA EIN a mandatory network protocol but rather an interoperability option so users can select their preferred solution.
Electronic invoicing solution for France from Comply
Comply provides an electronic invoicing solution natively integrated with SAP.
Comply:
- connects users to the Peppol network,
- sends electronic invoices to the Chorus Pro portal in the required electronic format
- manages all process steps (data extraction, mapping and transmission).
Comply enables you to easily meet the regulatory requirements for all your invoice exchanges with France.
We provide you with up-to-date information on the status of eInvoicing in France and, as a SaaS, we help you implement B2B or B2G eInvoicing quickly and easily, without the need for new systems or hardware, while ensuring the scalability you need in these challenging economic times.
