There is a lot to be understood and navigated by businesses about the soon-to-be enforced mandatory transition to e-invoicing in France. In addition to “7 Things You Should Know about France’s E-invoicing Mandate”, here are a few more in-depth questions and answers to help you round out your e-invoicing knowledge before the big shift on July 1, 2024.

What other mandates has France put in place previously?

In France, e-invoicing has been implemented for companies doing business with public administration institutions as part of the EU Directive 2014/55/EU. A French governmental order dated 26 June 2014 requires all suppliers doing business with the public sector to exclusively transmit invoices electronically via the Chorus Pro platform. This measure was progressively enacted between 2017 and 2020, depending on company size.

The Chorus Pro platform was originally designed for B2G, and now the French Government wants to extend its use to the B2B world. In reality, this should be an extension of Chorus Pro, not a whole new system. You may hear the system be called the ‘PPF’ also.

How is this mandate similar/different from e-invoicing mandates in other countries?

French e-invoicing mandate has the same codes than other e-invoicing mandates in other countries (requiring the use of the national e-invoicing platform, using mandatory formats; but each country has its own platform and formats).

It’s not that different from other countries that introduced a “clearance model”. France studied the systems already in place in Italy and Mexico before choosing a model. They ultimately chose to follow the Mexican model, as France liked that invoices can be delivered directly using both government system and authorised third-party registered platforms.

How has this mandate affected Esker itself?

Esker will become a registered private operator and help existing customers and new customers to become fully compliant. We are building a dedicated solution to meet all the requirements to become a registered third party (PDP), ensuring that the high security requirements set by the French government are met. Esker is participating in the public consultations led by the French Tax Administration to help companies digitise their transactions as of July 1, 2024. Esker will be able to be an official candidate by May 2023 and will be registered two months after the government’s validation. Esker will be also candidate for the pilot phase starting from January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, before the official deadline of the mandate in July 1, 2024.

What other implications do you see stemming from this new mandate?

For international corporations, this mandate should not be seen as just another mandate to comply with. The increasing number of rules, formats, platforms and certificates bring a lot of complexity and nuance to compliance.

Companies that rely on multiple local services providers to ensure e-invoice compliance in different countries find it difficult to uphold rigid local specifications and manage numerous providers. Working with one provider and one solution is the preferred way to go as it increases visibility on global invoices, helps you anticipate new mandates in other countries, improves and streamlines your internal processes, and enhances overall user experience.

(Originally published on the Esker Inc. blog)

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In the past few years, France has been leading the charge in digital transformation efforts around the globe, with a focus on e-invoicing. The forced widespread adoption of e-invoicing is leaving companies with counterparts in France scrambling. Next year, the e-invoicing mandate will go into effect, requiring electronic invoicing for B2B transactions. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most asked questions regarding the mandate, including what it means for organisations and the benefits e-invoicing can have.

1. What does France’s 2023 e-invoicing mandate entail? How did it come about?

The mandate requires businesses to submit all domestic B2B invoices to the French Tax authority electronically via Chorus Pro or use a privately registered third party like Esker (called Partner Dematerialisation Platform or PDP).

This mandate is not solely about delivering invoices electronically, it is also a requirement to provide payment data and e-reporting data (international B2B and B2C transactions) to the government. In plain English, it is a condensed file with invoice header data/certain fields that the tax authority requires. 

This applies to companies that have a registered business in France. If you don’t have a subsidiary in France, you will not be impacted by this requirement at this time. If the French entity is sending or receiving invoices from other countries that must be reported.

The mandate will be phased in gradually. Businesses will be required to issue e-invoices according to the following schedule: 

• July 1, 2024: large companies
• January 1, 2025: mid-sized companies
• January 1, 2026: smaller companies

All business entities will be required to accept electronic invoices starting July 1, 2024, regardless of their size. The French government introduced this mandate to fight VAT fraud, strengthen competitiveness, improve company efficiency and facilitate VAT tax returns.

2. What new standards are being put in place that were not specified before now?

Today, invoicing in France is 80% done via paper mail, but that standard is going to change from a paper-based economy to an electronic one. Companies will need to use a format meeting the European standard (EN16931) to submit an invoice. Three formats have been selected by the tax authority: Factur-X (PDF with XML embedded in the PDF), UBL, UNCEFACT CII — think of the last two as similar to EDI schemas where there is no image just raw text data. Paper invoices or simple PDF invoices will no longer be accepted.

3. How will this mandate affect organisations in France? How will it affect organisations outside of France hoping to do business in the country?

For French-registered companies, the mandate will require changes to their invoicing and reporting processes. Here are some examples of impacts on organisations:

• Shift towards real-time or near-real-time invoicing and reporting, which may require changes to their internal processes and systems
• Choose between the Chorus Pro platform or a registered third-party provider (connected to Chorus Pro)
• New costs for companies, as they may need to invest in new software, or personnel to comply with the mandate. However, the shift towards electronic invoicing may result in long-term cost savings for these organisations
• Impacts on ERP system change (e.g., support of mandatory fields, connected to their private registered third party)
• Training for users on these new tools and processes
• Collection of all mandatory information for e-invoicing and e-reporting that will be required by the tax authority.

Organisations outside of France are not impacted by the mandate if they have no VAT-registered company in France.

4. What do you see being the biggest challenge for organisations striving to achieve compliance? How can organisations address that challenge?

In France, or other countries following suit, moving to e-invoicing is no longer an option for businesses, it’s now an obligation. The growing number of governments and corporations adopting e-invoicing means that companies need to send e-invoices if they want to do business and get paid. However, the increasing number of rules, formats, platforms and certifications brings a lot of complexity to compliance. While it might be tempting to sit back and wait for deadlines to draw near, businesses must embrace the shift to e-invoicing or risk being left behind.

How to address this challenge?

Organisations should start by analysing their existing systems and processes to identify invoice flows that need to be updated or changed. They should also consider working with software editors providing global e-invoicing and e-reporting solutions to comply with e-invoicing mandates worldwide, like Esker. Companies that rely on multiple local service providers to ensure e-invoice compliance in different countries find it difficult to uphold rigid local specifications and manage numerous providers. Working with one provider and one solution is the preferred way to go as it increased visibility on your global invoices, helps you anticipate new mandates in other countries, improves and streamlines your internal processes, and enhances user experience.

5. Based on conversations with Esker’s customers, how has this mandate affected them?

The French e-invoicing mandate is quite complex, and customers are struggling to know how to meet these requirements. They need to choose their platform (between Chorus Pro or a private registered third party) to submit their invoices to the tax authority. They also need to make sure that their ERP systems (and all of their information system) are prepared for this change (e.g. support of mandatory fields, connected to their private registered third party). In addition, once they implemented this new platform in their information system, users will need to be well-trained on new processes and new tools. One of the first steps for companies is to know how to collect all mandatory information from their customers that will be required by the tax authority in an invoice. Customers are facing a lot of change as they need to learn the new system and understand how they are going to invoice and report going forward.

6. How is Esker supporting organisations looking to achieve compliance?

Esker helps drive companies’ transition from paper to electronic invoicing by automating the processing of 100% of your invoices via any media (paper, e-invoice, EDI, etc.) to ensure your needs of today and tomorrow.

Esker delivers and receives compliant customer and supplier e-invoices on a global scale, and is capable of processing different invoice formats, as well as communicating with different public administration platforms to send and receive e-invoices and provide visibility on invoice status.

Through its partnership with SOVOS TrustWeaver, a leading e-invoicing compliance expert, Esker helps businesses achieve global e-invoicing compliance in over 60 countries, as well as provides e-invoice archiving.

In France, more specifically, Esker will provide a global and compliant solution with e-invoicing and e-reporting regulations. Esker aims at becoming a registered e-invoicing and e-reporting partner of the French tax authorities, as a Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP). Esker is participating in the public consultations led by the French Tax Administration to help companies digitise their transactions as of July 1, 2024.

7. Do you see France’s mandate and related mandates in other countries as part of a larger, global shift to digitisation? How will this trend affect regions that have not begun to prioritise digitisation?

Yes, France’s e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate, as well as related mandates in other countries, are part of a larger global shift towards digitisation.

Latin America was the first to enforce the use of e-invoicing in the late 2000s.
French B2G e-invoicing mandate was part of a European Directive on e-invoicing and public procurement [2014/55/EU] transposed by all EU member states. Many governments introduced legislation requiring vendors to send e-invoices to all public administrations.

Italy has gone even further to become the first European member state to mandate B2B and B2C e-invoicing for Italian businesses. Others seem willing to follow this lead: France, Spain, Belgium and Poland already announced a mandate for 2024. To harmonise invoicing and VAT reporting in the EU, the European Commission recently published a draft of measures to modernise the EU’s Value-Added Tax (VAT) system and promote digitalisation.

However, the increasing regulations bring a lot of complexity to compliance. Efforts have been made to standardise public procurement and simplify document exchanges between companies and public entities, notably with PEPPOL.

France’s e-invoicing mandate represents a significant shift towards a more digital and efficient way of conducting business. This adoption is expected to bring substantial benefits to both businesses and the environment, as it streamlines the invoicing process. While the mandate may come with some challenges, it also presents opportunities to improve business processes.

As we approach July 1, 2024, it’s important that companies start preparing to ensure a smooth transition for compliance with France’s e-invoicing mandate. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to us! By taking action now you can ensure compliance with the mandate and position your business for success and achieve true positive-sum growth.

(Originally published on the Esker Inc. blog)

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Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, has strengthened its strategic partnership with Grant Thornton France. A leading audit and consulting firm in France and internationally, Grant Thornton is now an integrator of Esker solutions on the global market. The two companies are joining forces to accelerate the digital transformation of businesses and assist finance departments in understanding and preparing for France’s upcoming e-invoicing regulations in 2024.

Providing businesses with end-to-end support

As of July 2024, e-invoicing will be mandatory for all B2B exchanges. With 2 billion invoices issued in France every year and 4 million companies subject to VAT* , the move to e-invoicing is a huge undertaking, that, in the long run, will reduce processing costs as well as make the exchange of documents more secure and fluid. By digitising invoice processing, both suppliers and purchasers can be sure that invoices will be automatically and correctly sent, received and declared to the tax authorities.

Combining forces with Grant Thornton France, Esker is able to offer businesses a comprehensive set of services that include upstream consulting services such as IS VAT audit, platform reviews, master plan assessments and IS management, in addition to the end-to-end integration of its process automation solution suite.

“Esker is a provider of AI-driven solutions that make the work of finance staff easier and more effective. By partnering with Grant Thornton, we will be able to assist businesses in addressing the complexities of the upcoming e-invoicing reform in France,” said Jean-Michel Bérard, Esker CEO. “Grant Thornton’s broad functional coverage is a considerable asset and bolsters the strength of our business model. Additionally, at a time when companies are becoming increasingly interdependent, this collaboration will increase our ability to generate new development opportunities.”

“Our role at Grant Thornton is to support finance and IT departments in the deployment of effective and powerful solutions. Our roadmap includes the objective to better address the challenges that come with a company’s digital transformation, covering both the upstream and downstream phases of their projects,” said Christophe Radepont, Partner and National Director of Operational Consulting and Outsourcing at Grant Thornton France. “This evolution towards the integrator business includes expanding our collaboration with Esker, with whom we have had a solid and reliable relationship for several years now. We are looking to expand our team by recruiting new talent and training them on Esker solutions.” Business process management and consulting remains a high growth sector and is estimated to be worth 18 billion euros by 2025** , thus requiring a comprehensive approach. Grant Thornton’s expertise combined with Esker’s technological know-how will provide companies with the tools to tackle this key challenge by 2024.

“We decided to cement our cooperation with Esker as it became increasingly apparent the worldwide move towards e-invoicing will markedly reshape how business is conducted. The fundamental value of this partnership lies in the complementary nature of our respective competences, which means that we are able to offer our customers a high level of integration capabilities,” said Radepont. “Esker’s broad functional coverage of both the procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles will enable us to directly address international SMEs. Having been actively involved in the regulatory process for the 2024 e-invoicing reform in France, Esker’s value proposition also includes solutions that monitor and respond to local and global regulatory requirements for paperless invoicing. This is a great asset for Grant Thornton and makes them a strong partner for a consulting firm like ours.”

“This strategic partnership in France extends internationally as well, as we have also established partnerships in both the U.S. and Italy,” said Claire Valencony, Sr. Director, Global Strategic Alliances at Esker. “Working with Grant Thornton on an international scale is fully in line with our global strategy of growing Esker’s partner network worldwide.”

* Figures from the General Directorate of Public Finance
** Gartner data

Read full press release here.

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By selecting Esker’s Invoice Delivery and Collections Management solutions, the client can reduce repetitive, low-value activities associated with traditional collections. This will enable the company to increase effectiveness of its order-to-cash cycle, while gaining end-to-end visibility over the entire process.

Esker’s Invoice Delivery solution streamlines the sending and archiving of invoices according to customer preferences and in compliance with local regulations, whilst Esker’s Collections Management solution combines process automation and CRM properties to streamline the entire collections process. The customer can define their own automated collections strategy to organise collections tasks lists and automate the delivery of reminders by email or mail.

All post-sales related information is stored centrally and dashboards, customisable reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) provide complete visibility and control. A web portal facilitates communications, providing full visibility on all invoices, account statements and offers the ability to send messages or raise queries quickly and efficiently.

Alistair Nicholas, Managing Director at Esker Northern Europe said, “We are delighted that this Financial Services customer has selected Esker solutions and we look forward to working closely with them to streamline their order-to-cash cycle”

Throughout the implementation process Esker teams apply an Agile methodology to ensure success and once live will continue to work closely with the customer and provide post-implementation support and advice.

Read the full press release here.

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Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

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With an increasing number of ATR customers wanting to receive their invoices electronically, Esker was able to offer 100 per cent automated invoice and reminder letter delivery — of which, 80 per cent are sent via email and 20 per cent via Esker’s portal.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

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As you are probably aware, the Italian government recently changed the Italian invoicing rules by making B2B/B2G e-invoicing mandatory. All e-invoices now have to be transmitted through the SDI (Sistema De Intercambio) platform.

To quote Bruno Koch from Billentis, “Italy was the first country in the European Union to legislate mandatory e-invoicing between private businesses using a clearance model regime. The regulation was put in place to not only prevent VAT fraud, but also to simplify administrative processes. As of 1 January, 2019, businesses of any size must generate EDI invoices in a Fattura-PA format and submit them to the tax authority platform for delivery to their customers. They are also required to manage Fattura-PA invoices from their suppliers received via the tax authority platform. Businesses had to either find a partner to automate EDI-invoicing, manually key in invoices into a web portal, or build their own direct connection at their own expense. The sanctions for non-compliance result in heavy fines.”¹

If you wish to find out more about the ever changing e-invoicing rules and regulations, Esker’s clever compliance map can show the variations between different countries.

Or this handy video from TrustWeaver can help to make things a lot clearer. Furthermore, Esker can help! We can provide the solutions to make all of your organisation’s e-invoicing globally compliant.

Further to e-invoicing, a decree from the Italian Ministry of economy and finance (MEF) published at the end of 2018 means that e-ordering will also become mandatory for all Italian public hospitals (SSN or Servizio Sanitario Nazionale) from 1st February 2020.

Here is a brief overview of the new e-ordering rules:

• Electronic orders will have to be sent through the new NSO platform (Nodo Smistamento Ordini), and hospitals suppliers will also have to receive orders in electronic format
• The Italian government chose the PEPPOL BIS 3.0 format (UBL 3.0) for those electronic orders
• The NSO platform will be interconnected with the PEPPOL platform

Could this be one step further towards a fully digital O2C cycle for all businesses? It certainly seems as though Italy is well on its way to a digital O2C cycle.

Thankfully, Esker’s Order Management solution can provide compliance with these new rules, and take away the headache of keeping up to date with changes and updates to regulation.

If you would like to find out more about the new e-ordering rules in Italy, and how Esker can help your organisation to stay compliant, you might find it helpful to download and read the new e-Ordering in Italy Buyer’s Guide. Or get in touch with Esker today, we’d love to help you.

References: ¹Bruno Koch, The E-Invoicing Journey 2019-2025, (The Billentis Report 2019), p. 7

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

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Making sense of it all

Esker’s clever interactive e-invoicing compliance map shows the finer detail world-wide. In an ever changing landscape this can seem confusing and complicated – and you would be right to think this. Regulations vary from country to country, and within countries between government and business. Then when new mandates are introduced, will your business still be up to date?

It’s very easy to wonder how you will manage to keep up with it all.

Then there is data security. The EU GDPR Directive and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act define data protection and security compliance requirements both within a country and when sharing data across different countries.

Enter Esker

Esker can provide a solid solution to all of the complication and confusion of regulations and requirements, across different countries, continents and across the world, so that your business can stay 100% compliant with all e-invoicing requirements:

• E-signatures: Through its TrustWeaver partnership, Esker applies the appropriate e-signatures, time stamps and verifications in over 60 countries.
• BCAT: With specific controls in place from receipt and posting to dispatch and e-archiving, Esker’s audit trail and reporting capabilities keep track of all customer orders.
• Format (XML, EDIFACT, ANSI, etc.), secured exchange via any communication transport (AS2, VPN, SFTP, etc.), and interoperability with any platform.
• Archiving: Fully compliant with the EU Directive and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Esker’s e-archiving solution protects all invoices via a separate, secured infrastructure and web portal.

Helpful resources

Esker has plenty of resources around to help make sense of this evolving e-invoicing world; here are a few suggestions:

• Esker’s solution to e-invoicing regulations
• On demand webinar: E-Invoicing Regulations in Latin America
• On-demand webinar: Expert Advice on the E-Invoicing Mandate for B2B and B2C in Italy
• Trends and developments in the e-invoicing market – interview with Bruno Koch, Billentis
• 2017 Trustweaver White Paper: Tax-Compliant Global Electronic Invoice Life cycle Management
• 2017 Billentis Report: Significant Market Transition Lies Ahead
• Watch the short Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txXjYtYsfWY

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees