This article covers the French e-invoicing reform, which applies to companies established in France and subject to French VAT.
On September 1, 2026, just days from now, e-invoicing becomes mandatory in France. Not in the same way for everyone, and that's where most agency owners get it wrong.
Two distinct obligations exist: receiving an e-invoice, and issuing your own. The first applies to every company subject to VAT from September 2026. The second arrives in stages.
Here's what this actually changes when you run a recruitment agency or an IT staffing firm, what you need to have done before the deadline, and where your recruitment tool's responsibility stops.
Timeline verified on August 17, 2026, following the publication of the decree of July 27, 2026. This article is updated whenever the timeline changes.
The essentials
- From September 1, 2026, every company subject to VAT must be able to receive an e-invoice. No exceptions, including VAT-exempt sole traders.
- On the same date, large companies and mid-caps must also issue their invoices in electronic format.
- From September 1, 2027, the issuing obligation extends to SMEs, small businesses, and micro-businesses. The vast majority of agencies and IT staffing firms fall into this category.
- A PDF sent by email will no longer be a valid invoice between businesses. You need a structured format transmitted via an approved platform.
- PDPs became approved platforms following the decree of July 27, 2026. The terminology changed, the function stayed the same.
- Your recruitment tool is not your approved platform. These are 2 separate building blocks, and you need to check how they talk to each other.
Mandatory e-invoicing: who is affected, and by when?
The reform applies to every company established in France and subject to VAT, on their business-to-business transactions. It plays out in 2 phases.
September 1, 2026: every company must be able to receive
This is the deadline many owners overlook, because they think it only affects them in 2027.
From this date, every company subject to VAT must be able to receive an e-invoice, regardless of size. A 4-person agency is affected just as much as a large group.
In practice, this means being registered with an approved platform so you can receive invoices from your suppliers, starting with the large companies that will themselves be issuing from September 2026. Your phone, energy, and software invoices will arrive through this channel.
September 1, 2026: large companies and mid-caps must issue
On the same date, large companies and mid-sized companies are required to issue their invoices in electronic format.
If you bill large accounts, this doesn't change your own issuing obligation. However, your large-account clients will be fully in the system, and many will demand structured exchanges from their suppliers before the law even requires it of you. That's commercial pressure, not regulatory pressure, but it will arrive faster than 2027.
September 1, 2027: SMEs and small businesses issue in turn
The issuing obligation extends to SMEs, small businesses, and micro-businesses. From this date, every company subject to VAT issues its invoices via an approved platform.
The transmission of transaction data to the tax authority, known as e-reporting, follows the same timeline.
The official timeline and the lists of platforms are published on impots.gouv.fr, and the entry into force was set by the decree of July 27, 2026.
The case of recruitment agencies and IT staffing firms
Barring exceptions, a recruitment agency or an IT staffing firm falls into the SME or small-business category. In practice, this means:
- Mandatory receiving from September 1, 2026. That's a matter of days away.
- Mandatory issuing from September 1, 2027. You have 12 months.
- Registration with an approved platform needed as early as 2026, even if you're not issuing yet.
The most common mistake is to remember only the 2027 date and do nothing until then. You would already be in default on receiving as of this fall.
What the reform changes in a recruitment agency
An agency bills placement fees, sometimes success-based, sometimes in several installments. Invoice volume stays moderate, but the stakes lie elsewhere.
The emailed PDF disappears. Sending an invoice as an attachment will no longer be enough between businesses. It's the end of a habit that's been in place for 20 years.
Invoice statuses become traceable. Submitted, received, accepted, rejected, paid: every step is timestamped in the system. It's one more constraint, but it also answers a real agency problem: the invoice a client claims never to have received.
Mandatory fields expand. Client company registration number, delivery address, transaction category, the option to pay VAT on collection. An incomplete invoice gets rejected by the platform, and therefore unpaid.
Reconciliation with accounting tightens. Data flows to the tax authority continuously. A gap between what you invoice and what you declare becomes immediately visible.
What it changes in an IT staffing firm, from timesheet to invoice
In an IT staffing firm, the stakes are higher, because invoice volume is greater and the chain is longer.
The cycle stays the same: the consultant logs their timesheet, the client validates it, the invoice goes out. Multiply that by 40 consultants and 12 months, and you get several hundred invoices a year, each now needing to be structured, transmitted through an approved platform, and tracked through its statuses.
Three friction points deserve your attention.
Timesheet data has to be accurate from entry. An invoice rejected by the platform for a missing field isn't just an administrative delay, it's a cash-flow gap on an assignment already completed. Timesheet software that produces the billing elements directly removes the re-entry step where errors slip in.
Multi-line invoices and rebilling. Expenses, on-call fees, overtime, negotiated discounts: these items need to be structured, not added as free-text comments.
Payment tracking becomes clearer. Standardized statuses tell you where each invoice stands. This is an opportunity for IT staffing firms, where payment terms weigh directly on cash flow.
One of our clients, an IT staffing firm with 80 consultants near Paris, puts this gain simply: the path from a validated timesheet to an invoice, which used to take 3 days, is now instant.
Approved platform, PPF, e-reporting: the vocabulary to know
The terminology has changed recently, and a lot of content online still uses the old terms. Here are the up-to-date definitions.
Approved platform (PA). The mandatory intermediary through which your e-invoices must pass. These platforms used to be called PDPs, for partner dematerialization platforms, before the decree of July 27, 2026. The DGFiP publishes the official list of registered platforms.
PPF, the public invoicing portal. The public service that maintains the business directory and centralizes data for the tax authority. It's not a free invoicing platform for businesses: you still need to go through an approved platform.
Structured format. An e-invoice isn't a PDF. It's a machine-readable file, in one of the formats accepted by the reform: Factur-X, UBL, or CII.
E-invoicing. The transmission of invoices between French companies subject to VAT.
E-reporting. The transmission to the tax authority of transaction data not covered by e-invoicing, notably transactions with foreign clients or private individuals.
Invoice statuses. The standardized states an invoice moves through in the system. They become the reference in the event of a dispute over receipt or payment.
Where your recruitment tool stops, and your approved platform starts
This is the question nobody addresses clearly, and it's the only one that matters to you.
These are 2 separate building blocks. Your ATS or your billing tool produces the invoice from your activity: a signed placement, a validated timesheet, an ongoing contract. Your approved platform transmits it in the regulatory format and manages its statuses.
A recruitment software vendor isn't automatically an approved platform, and isn't meant to become one. Be wary of blanket compliance claims: what matters is that the 2 building blocks talk to each other properly.
On our end, here's what Cash does today, without extrapolation:
- The invoice is generated automatically on placement or on a validated timesheet, from data already present in Desk. No re-entry between the pipeline and billing.
- Reminders go out automatically based on your due dates.
- Accounting export is available, with a Pennylane integration to avoid double entry on your accountant's side.
On the regulatory side proper, transmission via an approved platform and structured formats, that question is handled with your approved platform and your accountant. We'd rather tell you this clearly than sell you compliance that doesn't depend on us.
What you gain from having billing in the same tool as recruitment happens upstream: the data feeding the invoice is already accurate, because it comes from the placement or the timesheet, not from a spreadsheet copied over at month's end.
5 questions to ask your vendors before September 1
Ask your billing vendor, your accountant, and your recruitment software vendor. The answers will tell you where you actually stand.
- Which approved platform will my invoices go through? Ask for the name, and check that it's on the list published by the DGFiP.
- Am I already able to receive an e-invoice? That's the September 2026 obligation, the one people forget.
- Do my invoices contain all the now-required fields? An incomplete invoice gets rejected, and therefore unpaid.
- How does data move from my activity to my invoice? If the answer involves manual copying, that's where rejections will happen.
- What happens when an invoice is rejected? Who gets alerted, within what timeframe, and how it gets fixed.
If you run an IT staffing firm, add a sixth question about how the timesheet connects to the invoice. We've covered it in detail in our article on ERP for IT staffing firms.
Mandatory e-invoicing: our conclusion
Remember 2 dates. September 1, 2026, you need to be able to receive. September 1, 2027, you'll need to issue. Between the two, you have 12 months to prepare the full chain, and that's not much when you need to pick a platform, check your tools, and train your teams.
The real work isn't regulatory, it's upstream. An accurate invoice is one whose data comes directly from the activity: the placement, the validated timesheet, the ongoing contract. That's where rejections, late payments, and time spent fixing things happen.
If you want to see concretely how a placement or a validated timesheet produces an invoice with no re-entry, show us your current cycle in 30 minutes.
FAQ
Who is affected by mandatory e-invoicing?
Every company established in France and subject to French VAT, on their transactions with other businesses. This includes sole traders, micro-businesses, SMEs, mid-caps, and large companies. Only the issuing timeline varies by size.
Does a recruitment agency have to issue e-invoices starting September 2026?
No, unless it's a mid-cap or a large company. Most agencies fall into the SME or micro-business category, with an issuing obligation from September 1, 2027. The obligation to receive, however, applies from September 1, 2026, with no exception.
Is a PDF sent by email still a valid invoice?
Not between businesses. The reform requires an invoice in a structured format, transmitted via an approved platform. A regular PDF sent as an attachment doesn't meet this requirement.
What is an approved platform?
It's the mandatory intermediary through which e-invoices must pass. These platforms were called PDPs (partner dematerialization platforms) before the decree of July 27, 2026. The French tax authority (DGFiP) publishes the list of registered platforms.
Is my recruitment software enough to be compliant?
No, and you should be wary of claims to the contrary. A recruitment or billing tool produces the invoice from your activity, but the regulatory transmission is the job of an approved platform. These are 2 separate building blocks, and the question to ask is how they connect.
What is e-reporting, and am I affected?
E-reporting is the transmission to the tax authority of transaction data not covered by e-invoicing, notably transactions with clients established abroad. An IT staffing firm billing clients outside France is affected, and the timeline follows the issuing obligation.
What happens if an invoice is rejected by the platform?
It isn't considered transmitted, so it won't be paid until it's corrected and resent. That's why the quality of upstream data, at the moment of placement or timesheet validation, becomes a cash-flow issue, not just an administrative one.
