More and more B2B e-invoicing mandates are taking effect across European Union countries. The latest of these initiatives is France’s e-invoicing mandate.
There is a clear motivation for this mandate: less paperwork, fewer delays, streamlined VAT reporting. But it also has an impact for those who do business in France.
As a French buyer or supplier, consider the following to be better prepared:
01 Understand which transactions and use cases apply within your organization
The French e-invoicing mandate requires the use of e-invoices for all B2B domestic transactions. Buyers and suppliers must be able to issue, receive, and report status updates on domestic e-invoices. Also, selected international and B2C transactions must be reported together with payment data.
02 Map the requirements and use cases to back-office solutions
Before you can adapt your workflows, it’s important to know where you stand today. Going through the exercise of mapping your transaction and reporting requirements to your back office helps identify any gaps that you’ll need to address to align with the new requirements. This obligation also creates an opportunity for your business to automate operations and save costs.
03 Review current processes and workflows you might need to change
In the past, if you couldn’t accept a scanned invoice for some reason, you could ask for the correct one without registering it. Now, you must register disputed invoices.
When data is reported in near real time, ensuring data quality is important. You can no longer just make corrections when you see conflicting values between data sources. It’s a good idea to include control points in the process to detect inconsistent data before it is reported, thereby avoiding costly exception processes.
04 Choose how to connect to the French administrations: PPF or PDP
To comply with France’s e-invoicing mandate, buyers and suppliers need to connect with the public invoicing portal (PPF) or partner with a certified provider (PDP).
A benefit of working with a PDP is it offers greater flexibility and can better support the company’s existing automation flows, including outside of France. In contrast with the PPF, it can send B2B transactions in whatever format buyers expect.
05 Ensure your e-invoicing solution provider can offer support
When it becomes clear that you’re going to select a certified partner, make sure it has the resources and solutions needed to support you.
For one, it should be easy to connect back offices to the e-invoicing solution. Your provider should be able to manage exceptions easily with documentation flow control. It should also deliver real-time notifications so you can track lifecycle events for added comfort and control.
At Axway, our goal is to help buyers and suppliers feel as ready as possible for the rollout of France’s e-invoicing mandate.
Our approach to e-invoicing keeps you compliant and enables automation in your EDI/API operations. From day one, you can get the quality of service and expertise you need to meet expectations and deadlines now and in the future.
Learn more about how Axway simplifies compliance with France's e-invoicing mandate
