# France E-Invoicing Mandate, 1 September 2026: What You Actually Have to Do > Every VAT-registered business in France must receive structured e-invoices from 1 September 2026. Large and mid-sized firms must issue from the same date, SMEs from 2027. What changed when the public portal was dropped, and what an approved platform actually does. From 1 September 2026 every VAT-registered business in France must be able to receive structured electronic invoices. Large and mid-sized companies must also issue them from that date. SMEs and micro-enterprises have until 1 September 2027 to start issuing. Exchange runs through certified approved platforms, not directly and not through Peppol. Two things about the French mandate catch teams out. The first is that the receiving obligation applies to everyone on day one, regardless of size, while most coverage focuses on the issuing timetable. The second is that the scheme was significantly redesigned in October 2024, and a lot of published guidance still describes the original plan. ## The dates | Date | Obligation | Who | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 September 2026 | **Receive** structured e-invoices | Every VAT-registered business in France | | 1 September 2026 | **Issue** structured e-invoices | Large and mid-sized companies | | 1 September 2027 | **Issue** structured e-invoices | SMEs and micro-enterprises | If you sell into France, your French customers must be able to receive from September 2026. If you are established in France and above the SME threshold, you must also issue from that date. ## What changed in October 2024 The original design had three parts: a central business directory, a channel for passing tax data to the DGFiP, and a free public portal called the Portail Public de Facturation (PPF) through which any business could issue and receive invoices at no cost. On 15 October 2024 the DGFiP [dropped the third part](https://www.rmboulanger.com/blog/news-2024-13/france-discontinuation-of-the-public-billing-portal-ppf-96) to protect the deployment calendar. There is no free government portal. The PPF still exists and still matters, but it now does two things: 1. **The directory (annuaire).** The authoritative register of VAT-registered businesses and their e-invoicing addresses. This is how a sender discovers where to route an invoice. 2. **The data concentrator.** The pipe that carries tax data from the platforms to the DGFiP. If you read guidance that describes signing up to the PPF to send invoices, it predates October 2024 and is wrong. ## What an approved platform is Because the free portal is gone, every invoice moves through a certified private provider. These were called Plateformes de Dématérialisation Partenaires, almost always shortened to PDP, and are now formally Plateformes Agréées. Both names are in active use, and the search volume still sits on "PDP". An approved platform does four jobs: - Converts your invoice into one of the accepted structured formats - Looks up the recipient in the PPF directory and routes to their platform - Passes the required tax data to the DGFiP - Reports lifecycle statuses back to you You pick one. Your customer picks one, possibly a different one. The two platforms interoperate. ## Which formats are accepted Three, all conforming to EN 16931: - **Factur-X**, a hybrid PDF/A-3 with XML embedded as an attachment. A human sees a normal PDF invoice, a machine reads the XML. Identical in construction to Germany's ZUGFeRD. - **UBL 2.1**, pure XML - **UN/CEFACT CII**, pure XML Factur-X is the most common choice for companies whose customers still want something a person can read. ## France does not mandate Peppol This trips up teams who solved Belgium first. Belgium designates the Peppol network. France designates its own approved-platform model. They are different mechanisms and Peppol membership does not make you compliant in France. Plenty of approved platforms also connect to Peppol, and that is genuinely useful if you trade in both countries. But it is a commercial feature of the platform, not the legal route. We cover the general distinction in [Peppol is not e-invoicing](/guides/e-invoicing/peppol-vs-e-invoicing-mandates). ## E-reporting is a second, separate obligation E-invoicing covers domestic B2B transactions between French businesses. E-reporting covers the rest: B2C sales, and transactions with businesses outside France. For those you do not send a structured invoice through a platform, but you do have to report the transaction data. Teams routinely scope for the first and forget the second. If you sell to French consumers, or you are a foreign business selling into France, e-reporting is the part that applies to you. ## A practical order of work 1. **Confirm your size classification.** It decides whether your issuing deadline is 2026 or 2027. Receiving is 2026 either way. 2. **Check your ERP first.** Some systems already emit Factur-X. Business Central ships native Peppol format support but, as of this writing, not for France. Our [ERP support guide](/guides/e-invoicing/does-your-erp-support-peppol) covers who ships what. 3. **Choose an approved platform.** Check it is certified, check the formats it emits, and check whether it also handles e-reporting. 4. **Fix your customer master data.** The directory routes on identifiers. SIREN and SIRET numbers that are missing or wrong will fail at routing, and that is a data cleanup job you want to do before September, not during it. 5. **Work out what happens to inbound.** Receiving is the obligation that hits first. A structured invoice arriving from a supplier still has to reach your accounts payable process. That last point generalises. A compliant invoice going out does not help with the purchase order that came in, and in France as everywhere else that order is still routinely a PDF attached to an email. Nothing in the mandate touches it. ## Sources - [DGFiP discontinuation of the public billing portal](https://www.rmboulanger.com/blog/news-2024-13/france-discontinuation-of-the-public-billing-portal-ppf-96), RM Boulanger - [PPF refocus around the directory](https://www.kerhis.com/2024/11/29/le-portail-public-de-facturation-ppf-un-recentrage-strategique-de-la-dgfip-autour-de-lannuaire/), KERHIS ## Related reading - [European e-invoicing mandate timeline](/e-invoicing) - [Peppol is not e-invoicing](/guides/e-invoicing/peppol-vs-e-invoicing-mandates) - [Poland KSeF](/guides/e-invoicing/ksef-poland-e-invoicing), if you also have a Polish entity - [EDI Inspector](/edi-inspector), free in-browser EDI file reader