On September 1, 2026, every French company enters the e-invoicing era

In under three months, on September 1, 2026, every VAT-registered company in France must be able to receive electronic invoices — regardless of size. Yet according to the 7th wave of the barometer run by the Ordre des experts-comptables (the French institute of chartered accountants) with OpinionWay and ECMA, published in May 2026, 38% of companies still aren't ready, and only 35% have chosen their invoicing platform.

If you run an SME or a small business in Sarthe or anywhere else in France, here's what the reform actually changes, what's required starting September 2026, and what only kicks in in 2027 — a distinction many business owners still get wrong. It's the third digital-compliance deadline to track this year, after GDPR and the e-commerce withdrawal button — reason enough to look at it on its own rather than as a footnote.

What does the reform actually require?

The generalization of e-invoicing between French VAT-registered companies rests on Ordinance n° 2021-1190 of September 15, 2021, which amends article 289 bis of the French General Tax Code (CGI). The calendar was postponed once, then confirmed with no further delay by a Budget Ministry announcement on October 15, 2024.

The reform covers two distinct obligations, often confused with each other: e-invoicing for domestic B2B exchanges, and e-reporting for everything that falls outside it. Both follow the same calendar by company size, but they don't cover the same transaction flows.

Who's affected, and from exactly when?

The calendar doesn't depend on the date alone — it depends on your company's size, which is where most of the confusion comes from. Under the INSEE/EU classification (Decree n° 2008-1354, harmonized at EU level):

Micro-business: fewer than 10 employees, revenue or balance sheet ≤ €2 million
SME: fewer than 250 employees, revenue ≤ €50 million or balance sheet ≤ €43 million
Mid-size and large companies: above these thresholds

From September 1, 2026: reception obligation for every company, no size exemption — plus an issuance obligation for large and mid-size companies.

From September 1, 2027: issuance obligation for SMEs and micro-businesses.

In practice: your SME must already be able to receive an electronic invoice from a mid-size supplier starting September 2026, even though it isn't yet required to issue its own invoices in that format until 2027.

The role of the approved platform (formerly "PDP")

To issue, receive, and transmit your e-invoices, you must go through a platform approved by the DGFiP (the French tax authority) — officially renamed "Plateforme Agréée" in July 2025, replacing the earlier term "PDP" (Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire). The Public Invoicing Portal (PPF), originally meant to offer a free option, had its issuance function scrapped in October 2024 by the Ministry of the Economy: it now only serves as a company directory and a data concentrator for the tax authority.

In practice, choosing e-invoicing software means choosing an approved platform — or a management tool already connected to one. Three things to check:

Presence on the official list of approved platforms, published and kept current on impots.gouv.fr.
Compatibility with the accepted formats and with your existing accounting software. Three formats are accepted: Factur-X (a human-readable PDF carrying invisible structured data — the simplest option for an SME issuing few invoices), and UBL and CII (pure XML formats, better suited to high volumes and ERP-to-ERP exchange).
Support for both e-invoicing and e-reporting, so you're not juggling two separate tools.

Per the May 2026 barometer, 40% of business owners don't even know this official list exists, and more than half of companies still haven't registered in the directory — two steps that require no technical development at all.

E-reporting: the other half, often overlooked

Not every sale goes through a standard B2B invoice: sales to individuals, professional clients based outside France, VAT-exempt associations. For these flows, e-reporting requires transmitting transaction and payment data to the tax authority, to pre-fill VAT returns and strengthen audit reliability.

The rules differ by flow: B2C transactions are reported aggregated by day (pre-tax amount and VAT broken down by rate), while international B2B transactions are reported invoice by invoice, with SIREN number, the foreign party's identifier, and both countries involved. Transmission frequency depends on your VAT regime: monthly before the 10th of the following month under the standard regime, between the 25th and 30th under the simplified regime, bimonthly under the VAT exemption threshold.

For an SME that also sells abroad or to individuals — common in trades, retail, or home services around Sarthe — e-reporting can end up being more compliance work than e-invoicing itself, since current management software isn't always set up to isolate these flows.

What does an unprepared SME actually risk on September 1, 2026?

For an SME, the immediate risk isn't a fine: an administrative tolerance period, running from September 2026 to mid-2027, favors guidance over penalties on the issuance side. The real risk is operational: if your SME can't receive electronic invoices from mid-size or large suppliers starting September 2026, you bottleneck your own accounting workflow — chasing documents, payment delays, manual re-entry.

Further out, once the issuance obligation applies to SMEs in 2027, failing to comply with article 289 bis carries a fine of €15 per non-compliant invoice, capped at €15,000 per calendar year. Approved platforms themselves risk a €15 fine per transmission failure, capped at €45,000 per year. None of these fines apply to a first offense within the current year and the three preceding it.

On the projects we run for SMEs around Sarthe, the most common bottleneck isn't choosing the platform itself — it's connecting it to the management software already in place, the same kind of integration work as a custom business application: poorly planned, it costs more to fix afterward than to get right upfront.

Checklist: what an SME needs in place before September 1, 2026

Have you chosen an approved platform from the official impots.gouv.fr list?
Are you registered in the company directory so you can receive electronic invoices?
Is your accounting or management software connected to that platform?
Can your accounting team process an invoice received in Factur-X or UBL format, rather than PDF or paper?
Have you planned ahead for the 2027 issuance obligation, even though it doesn't apply to you yet?

For SMEs and small businesses around Le Mans and Sarthe, getting this done now avoids the rush expected in June-July 2026, when platforms and accounting firms anticipate a last-minute surge.

Conclusion: a two-speed reform, but one immediate deadline

Mandatory e-invoicing doesn't yet require SMEs to issue invoices in the new format — that step arrives in 2027. But reception is mandatory for everyone starting September 1, 2026, and it requires having chosen and connected an approved platform before that date.

✅ Approved platform chosen and registered in the directory
✅ Accounting software connected and ready to receive structured invoices
✅ Team trained to read electronic invoices
✅ 2027 issuance obligation already planned for

Get your SME compliant before September 1, 2026

At NexIT, we help SMEs and small businesses across Sarthe choose their approved platform, connect their existing management software, and secure electronic invoice reception ahead of the deadline.

Camille Beaucher — Your partner for a digital transition without disruption.

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Mandatory E-Invoicing for French SMEs: 2026 Guide