Since 1 September 2026, businesses established in France and within the scope of the reform have had to be able to receive e-invoices through an Approved Platform (Plateforme Agréée, or PA). The deadline has passed, but plenty of finance teams are still running on a contract and a hope: the platform is signed, yet nobody has pushed a real supplier invoice through to the ERP and checked what comes out the other end.
That gap matters. The Ministry of Finance has announced a good-faith approach to implementation difficulties during the start-up phase, covering the end of 2026. This is not a postponement of the legal deadline. An active project, documented testing, logged issues and corrective action help demonstrate your efforts to comply. Test your e-invoice receipt process properly, and keep the evidence.
This guide walks you through how to do that, step by step, with a checklist you can hand to your AP team today.
What the receipt obligation actually requires
Receiving an e-invoice is not the same as receiving a PDF by email. Under the French model, a compliant receipt process has four moving parts:
- An Approved Platform (PA). Invoices travel between the supplier’s PA and yours. The public portal (PPF) acts as the central directory and data hub for the tax authority, but it is not a free alternative for receiving invoices. Check your provider against the official PA list on impots.gouv.fr.
- A correct directory entry. Your SIREN, relevant active SIRET numbers and routing details must be right, or invoices addressed to you may not reach the intended receiving endpoint.
- Structured formats. Your receiving setup must support the French core formats Factur-X, UBL and CII, using the applicable EN 16931 and French specifications. Confirm which formats your PA exchanges and which format your ERP receives.
- Lifecycle statuses. Received invoices carry statuses such as deposited, rejected, refused, approved and paid. Mandatory reporting depends on the status and transaction type; distinguish required statuses from optional business statuses and assign responsibility for each.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1 September 2026 | All in-scope businesses must be able to receive e-invoices via a PA. Large companies and mid-sized companies (ETIs) must also issue and e-report for transactions within the relevant scope. |
| End of 2026 | The announced start-up phase of good-faith administrative tolerance covers the end of the year; it does not postpone the obligations. |
| 1 September 2027 | SMEs and micro-enterprises must start issuing e-invoices and e-reporting for in-scope transactions. |
If you are an SME, the September 2027 issuance deadline is your next hard stop. You’ll build it on a receipt process that already works, so testing that process now is the smartest way to prepare for electronic invoicing in 2026 and 2027.
How to test your e-invoice receipt process in 6 steps
- Confirm your directory data. Check that every SIREN and relevant active SIRET is correct and that each receiving endpoint points to the right PA. If you run several entities or sites, decide which one receives which invoices before you test anything else.
- Run Approved Platform testing. Ask your PA for a test or sandbox environment and send test invoices in all three formats: Factur-X using an agreed compliant profile, UBL and CII. Confirm each one is received, validated and stored, and that the platform returns the right status.
- Run an ERP e-invoice test end to end. A file sitting on the platform is not a pass. Check that the invoice lands in your ERP or AP tool as a usable record: supplier matched, VAT rates and amounts correct, order reference and due date mapped to the right fields.
- Test the awkward cases. Use your own real invoice samples in a controlled test environment, not only canned data. Include credit notes, partial payments, mixed VAT rates, multi-line invoices and foreign-currency invoices. Negative tests matter too: send deliberately broken invoices in the test environment and check they are rejected cleanly.
- Test your status workflow. Trigger technical rejection and business refusal in the relevant test scenarios, approve an invoice and test payment-status reporting where applicable. Check each required status flows through the PA and that the right person in your team owns the action within your internal deadline.
- Document everything. Keep test logs, error messages, support tickets and the fixes you made. This record helps demonstrate your efforts to comply if the tax authority asks.
Your invoice receipt checklist
Work through this with your AP lead and your IT or ERP owner. Every item you can’t confirm is a gap to close while the reform is ramping up.
Set-up
- Signed contract with a PA from the official list, with a confirmed connection date
- SIREN, relevant SIRET, legal name and receiving establishment verified in the directory
- Written confirmation from your PA of which formats it accepts and how it passes them to your ERP
Testing
- Test invoices received in Factur-X, UBL and CII
- Invoices appear in the ERP as usable records, not just attached files
- VAT, totals, order references and due dates map to the correct fields
- Credit notes, partial payments and mixed VAT rates tested
- Broken invoices rejected with a clear error
Process
- Named owner and backup for incoming e-invoices, with platform access
- Internal rules for who handles rejection or refusal, and the deadline to do it
- Plan for duplicates arriving by both PA and email: link the copies, retain the required original and prevent duplicate posting
- Key suppliers, your accountant and relevant customers informed of your new set-up
Evidence
- Test results, error logs, tickets and fixes stored in one place
Common failures and how to fix them
| What goes wrong | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier says they sent it, you never got it | Wrong or inactive directory or routing data | Correct your directory entry via your PA and resend a test |
| Invoice arrives but won’t post in the ERP | Field mapping gaps between PA output and ERP | Map VAT, totals, order and supplier fields, then re-test with real samples |
| Factur-X rejected | Profile, mandatory data or embedded XML does not meet the agreed specifications | Read the validation report and test a compliant EN 16931 or applicable extended profile with your PA; a profile name alone does not prove compliance |
| Same invoice booked twice | Received by both PA and email | Link copies to the same invoice, preserve the required original and flag duplicates |
| Rejections sit unanswered | No owner or deadline for statuses | Assign an owner, a backup and a review rhythm; daily works for most teams |
Test it now, not when the tolerance ends
The start-up tolerance covers the end of 2026, and SMEs face the issuance deadline in September 2027. A receipt process you have tested, fixed and documented supports you on both fronts. It also shortens the path to compliant issuing, because your directory data, formats and ERP mapping are already proven.
Docnova by Melasoft connects your ERP to compliant e-invoicing flows across 30+ countries, including France. Our team can run a test with you on your real invoices: we check your formats, your ERP mapping and your status handling, then show you where the gaps are.
For SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA, explore the Melasoft SAP e-invoicing Add-On.
Book a Docnova demo and test session and find out in one call whether your e-invoice receipt process is ready.
FAQ
Is it too late to test my e-invoice receipt process?
No. The receipt obligation has applied since 1 September 2026. The administration has announced a good-faith approach to implementation difficulties during the start-up phase covering the end of 2026. Testing now and documenting corrective action helps demonstrate your efforts to comply.
Can I receive e-invoices through the public portal for free?
No. The PPF is the central directory and data hub. You need an Approved Platform, directly or through a compatible solution, to receive invoices under the reform.
Are PDF invoices by email still valid?
A plain PDF sent by email does not by itself satisfy the structured e-invoicing obligation for an in-scope transaction. Treatment of an invoice received outside the required channel, including payment, accounting and VAT deduction, depends on the applicable rules and start-up guidance. Resolve the transmission issue with your supplier and PA, retain the required original and prevent duplicate booking.
What should an ERP e-invoice test prove?
That an incoming invoice becomes a usable record in your ERP, with the right supplier, VAT, amounts, references and due date, and that required statuses flow back through the PA.
Official references: French Ministry of Finance reform guidance; DGFiP implementation timeline; FNFE-MPE Factur-X documentation.