> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.younium.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.younium.com/e-invoicing-integrations/french-e-invoicing.md).

# French E-invoicing

## Overview

French e-invoicing lets a French legal entity issue its posted invoices and credit notes as compliant electronic invoices. Younium builds the electronic invoice from the posted invoice, attaches the invoice PDF, and sends it on to be transmitted and reported to the French tax administration. Younium handles the transmission and the reporting, so you work with invoices as you normally would and Younium takes care of the compliance obligation behind them.

The feature covers both domestic and cross-border sales from one configuration. When your customer is a French business, the invoice is transmitted as a domestic electronic invoice and reported. When your customer is outside France, the transaction is reported instead of being transmitted as an invoice. You do not choose between the two — the destination is determined automatically from your customer's details.

Before you can send anything, the legal entity registers once as a supplier with the French authority. Registration involves an approval step you complete yourself through a link Younium gives you. Once it succeeds, French e-invoicing becomes the legal entity's only electronic delivery channel: posting an invoice sends it automatically, and Younium prevents you from posting an invoice that would not produce a compliant electronic invoice.

## How Younium delivers French e-invoicing

France requires businesses to send and report invoices through a platform approved by the French tax authority. Younium delivers French e-invoicing through **Invopop**, an officially approved *Plateforme Agréée* under the DGFiP mandate. Invopop transmits your invoices, registers your company in the French directory, and reports the required data to the tax authority on your behalf.

You do not need your own contract or credentials with Invopop. Younium manages the connection, so French e-invoicing is configured entirely within Younium.

You can verify Invopop's approval on the French tax authority's [official list of approved platforms](https://www.impots.gouv.fr/je-consulte-la-liste-des-plateformes-agreees), and review their security and compliance posture, including their ISO 27001 certification, in the [Invopop Trust Center](https://trust.invopop.com).

## Core concepts

### SIREN

The SIREN is the nine-digit French company registration number. You enter it on the French e-invoicing settings, and it becomes the registered identity of your company as a supplier. Younium checks that it is nine digits and that its checksum is valid. Your customers' SIREN numbers are read from the organisation number on their account.

### French VAT number

A French VAT number is derived from the SIREN, so for any valid SIREN there is exactly one correct VAT number. If you enter a VAT number that does not match the SIREN it belongs to, Younium tells you rather than letting the invoice be rejected later. If you leave it blank, Younium works it out from the SIREN.

### Routing address (the French directory)

Electronic invoices are delivered through the French directory (the Annuaire), which resolves a routing address to the platform that should receive the document. Your company's routing address, and each of your customers', is one of four shapes:

| Shape                        | Example                             | Routes to                                       |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| SIREN                        | `732829320`                         | The company as a whole                          |
| SIREN + SIRET                | `732829320_73282932000074`          | A specific establishment                        |
| SIREN + SIRET + routing code | `732829320_73282932000074_SERVICE1` | A site or department inside an establishment    |
| SIREN + suffix               | `824012173_YOUNIUM`                 | A distinct inbox attached directly to the SIREN |

A bare SIREN claims the company-level line in the directory, and that line can only be held by one platform. If your company's directory line is already registered elsewhere, you register a distinct routing address instead — otherwise your own routing address defaults to your SIREN and needs no configuration. Your customers work the same way: most are reachable on their bare SIREN, but a customer whose company-level line is already claimed publishes you a longer address to use instead, which you enter as their e-invoice address on the account. In every shape, the leading SIREN must match the company's own registration number — it is a routing address, not a substitute identity.

### Supplier registration

A one-off process that publishes your legal entity as a supplier to the French authority and on the Peppol network, so it can send and receive electronic invoices. It runs in the background and pauses partway through for you to complete an approval step. Each legal entity registers separately, and only one registration exists at a time.

### Domestic and cross-border transactions

A sale to a French business is a domestic transaction: the invoice is transmitted electronically to your customer over the Peppol network and reported. A sale to a customer in any other country is a cross-border transaction: it is reported, but no electronic invoice is transmitted. The classification comes from the country on the customer's invoice address.

## Getting set up

French e-invoicing becomes available once all of the following are true.

| Requirement                                            | How it is met                                              |
| ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| The e-invoicing add-on is enabled for the legal entity | Enabled by Younium — contact your administrator or Younium |
| The legal entity's address country is France           | Set on the legal entity                                    |
| E-invoicing is switched on for the legal entity        | Enabled in the E-invoicing settings                        |
| French e-invoicing is switched on                      | Enabled in the E-invoicing settings                        |

Until the add-on is enabled, the E-invoicing settings report the feature as unavailable and no settings appear. The legal entity's country determines which e-invoicing rules apply, so a French legal entity gets French e-invoicing and a Polish one gets KSeF.

Your legal entity also needs a complete address — street, city, postal code, and France as the country — because the electronic invoice cannot be issued without it. Younium reports any of these that are missing so you know what to fill in.

### Settings

| Setting                                               | Description                                                                                                      | Default |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| Enable e-invoicing                                    | Master switch for e-invoicing on the legal entity                                                                | Off     |
| Submit automatically when posting                     | Sends each invoice for e-invoicing as it is posted. When off, you send invoices manually                         | On      |
| Enable French e-invoicing                             | Switches on the French rules for this legal entity                                                               | Off     |
| SIREN                                                 | Your company's nine-digit French registration number                                                             | Empty   |
| French VAT number                                     | Optional. Derived from the SIREN when left blank                                                                 | Empty   |
| Routing address                                       | Optional. Your directory (Annuaire) address, in one of the four shapes above. Leave blank to use your bare SIREN | Empty   |
| Representative given name, surname, and identity code | Optional details of your company representative                                                                  | Empty   |

Representative details are only included when all three are filled in.

You also need **Attach PDF when posting** switched on in your invoice settings. The electronic invoice carries the exact PDF Younium produced when the invoice was posted, so without that setting there is no PDF to send.

> **Note on changing the SIREN:** Once you are registered, the SIREN is locked. Changing it would mean invoices going out under a different identity from the one that was registered. To change it, unregister the legal entity first.

> **Note on changing the routing address:** The routing address is locked in the same way and for the same reason as the SIREN — while you are registered (or a registration is in progress), unregister first to change it.

> **Note on saving settings:** Younium checks the shape of your routing address every time you save the E-invoicing settings, not only when you change it. If a previously saved address no longer meets the rule, saving any other setting on the page will also surface that problem so you can correct it.

## Registering as a supplier

Younium shows you what is still missing before you can register — typically that French e-invoicing is not switched on yet, that the SIREN is missing or invalid, that the VAT number does not match the SIREN, that a routing address you set is not a valid shape or does not match your SIREN, or that the legal entity's country is not France.

Registration then moves through these states:

| Status                | What it means                                                         | What you do                             |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- |
| Registration starting | Younium is submitting the registration                                | Nothing                                 |
| In progress           | The registration is running                                           | Nothing                                 |
| Awaiting approval     | An approval link is ready                                             | Open the link and complete the approval |
| In review             | The approval is complete and Younium is claiming your directory entry | Nothing                                 |
| Registered            | Registration is complete and you can send invoices                    | Nothing                                 |
| Unregistering         | An unregistration is in progress                                      | Nothing                                 |
| Unregistered          | Successfully unregistered                                             | Register again if needed                |
| Failed                | Registration did not complete                                         | Correct the cause and start again       |

When registration reaches the approval step, Younium notifies everyone on the legal entity who can view e-invoicing, and shows the approval link on the E-invoicing settings. Registration cannot finish until someone completes that step, and Younium will wait indefinitely for it rather than timing out.

Once you have completed the approval, registration moves to In review while Younium claims your company's line in the French directory. This is usually quick, but if that line is already held by another platform, Younium has to request it from them, which can take several days. Nothing further is required of you while registration is In review.

You can only start one registration at a time. If an attempt fails, or once you have unregistered, you can start again. If the status ever looks out of date, refreshing it re-reads the current state and retrieves the approval link if it has not appeared yet.

Unregistering removes your company from the French directory and the Peppol network, and is only possible once you are registered. If it succeeds, the legal entity moves to Unregistered and can register again. If it fails, you stay registered and Younium tells you why so you can retry.

## Sending invoices

### Posting

For a legal entity using French e-invoicing, posting an invoice submits it for e-invoicing automatically, and French e-invoicing becomes the only electronic channel — Younium does not also send the invoice through its other electronic invoice integrations.

Because every invoice must be capable of becoming a compliant electronic invoice, Younium checks the invoice before it is posted and **blocks the post** if it is not valid, explaining what needs correcting. This means problems surface while you can still fix them, rather than after the invoice is posted.

If an invoice is posted but cannot be sent — for example because registration is not finished — Younium notifies everyone on the legal entity who can view e-invoicing, naming the invoice and the reason, so you can resolve it and send the invoice manually.

### Sending and resending manually

You can send an invoice from the invoice itself, and resend one whose earlier attempt failed after correcting the underlying data. Resending an electronic invoice for a French legal entity goes through French e-invoicing rather than the other channels, and always sends the stored invoice PDF.

Each send is recorded as a separate numbered attempt, so an invoice keeps a full history of what was tried and when. Younium prevents a second attempt while one is still in progress.

### Following an invoice's progress

Each invoice shows a timeline of its attempts.

| Status    | What it means                                           |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Preparing | Younium is assembling the invoice and its PDF           |
| Submitted | The invoice has been handed over and is being processed |
| Sent      | Transmitted to your customer, or recorded for reporting |
| Completed | Successfully processed — nothing further is needed      |
| Failed    | Something needs correcting; the reason is shown         |

Completed and Failed are final. Once an attempt has completed successfully, nothing later changes it — unless your customer or the platform later reports a problem with the delivered invoice, described next.

### When a customer refuses or a platform rejects an invoice

Sending an invoice successfully is not always the end of its story. After delivery, your customer can refuse the invoice, or the platform can reject it during its own checks. Either replaces the attempt's status on the timeline and comes with the reason given, so you know what to correct.

| Status   | What it means                                                                                                 |
| -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Refused  | Your customer refused the invoice after receiving it; the reason is shown                                     |
| Rejected | The platform rejected the invoice during its own validation, before your customer saw it; the reason is shown |

Both are final. Send a new attempt once you have corrected the invoice, in the same way as after a failed attempt — Younium keeps the refused or rejected attempt as a record of what happened and starts a fresh one.

## Reporting payments

Younium also reports payments to the French authority. When a payment is recorded against an invoice that was sent through French e-invoicing, Younium reports it automatically — you do not send anything yourself. The channel follows the same domestic/cross-border split as the invoice itself: for a French customer, the payment is reported as a receipt on the domestic channel; for a customer outside France, it is staged into the same periodic cross-border report as the invoice.

Each payment is reported once. Recording the same payment again, or a redelivered status update, does not produce a duplicate report. Reported payments appear alongside the invoice's own attempts in the same timeline, using the statuses described above.

> **Note on a missing customer country:** Payment reporting uses the country on your customer's invoice address at the time the payment is recorded. If that country is not set, Younium cannot classify the payment as domestic or cross-border and does not report it.

## Mandatory legal mentions

Every French invoice carries three legal mentions as invoice notes, in a fixed order, because French law requires them and the platform rejects any domestic invoice missing one:

* **Late-payment indemnity** (Art. D441-5 du Code de commerce) — the statutory fixed indemnity for recovery costs on a late payment.
* **Late-payment penalty** (Art. L441-10 du Code de commerce) — the penalty clause that applies when payment is late.
* **Early-payment discount** (Art. L441-9 du Code de commerce) — the terms of any discount you offer for early payment, or a statement that none is offered.

Younium ships default wording for all three, written for a seller who offers no early-payment discount and who refers customers to their own conditions of sale for the late-payment penalty rate. If your business offers an early-payment discount, or your conditions of sale set a different penalty rate, replace the corresponding mention with your own wording. Which three mentions are sent, and in what order, is fixed — only their wording can be changed, and only per legal entity.

> **Note on blank overrides:** Clearing a legal mention override does not remove it from the invoice — it reverts to Younium's default wording for that mention. All three mentions are always present on every French invoice.

### Settings

| Setting                     | Description                                                                          | Default                                             |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Late-payment indemnity note | Overrides the wording of the recovery-cost indemnity mention. Up to 1,000 characters | Younium's built-in wording (shown as a placeholder) |
| Late-payment penalty note   | Overrides the wording of the late-payment penalty mention. Up to 1,000 characters    | Younium's built-in wording (shown as a placeholder) |
| Early-payment discount note | Overrides the wording of the early-payment discount mention. Up to 1,000 characters  | Younium's built-in wording (shown as a placeholder) |

Each override is limited to 1,000 characters. Saving a longer one is rejected rather than shortened, so a mention is never sent to a customer half-written. The built-in wording for each mention is shown as placeholder text in the setting, so you can see exactly what will be sent before deciding whether to override it.

## What must be correct before sending

Younium checks all of the following and reports every problem at once, so you can fix them together rather than one at a time.

**Your setup** — the add-on enabled, French e-invoicing switched on, the legal entity's country set to France, your supplier registration completed, and **Attach PDF when posting** switched on in invoice settings.

**Your customer** — the account must exist and its invoice address must have a country. For French customers, the account's organisation number must be a valid nine-digit SIREN, and if it also carries a French VAT number, that number must match the SIREN. If the account has an e-invoice address set, it must be one of the four routing address shapes and must start with the same SIREN as the customer's organisation number. Customers outside France need none of this, because the transaction is reported rather than transmitted.

**The invoice** — a currency must be set, every line's VAT rate must be one of the rates allowed for your customer's country: the statutory French rates for a French customer, or the wider cross-border set for a customer outside France, and no line may carry more than one VAT rate.

Because a customer outside France is reported rather than invoiced electronically, the SIREN rule does not apply to them, but their invoice lines are still checked against the cross-border VAT rate set — so that a rate reported on the invoice is one Younium can also report against when a payment against it is later recorded. Their own tax registration number is sent when present but is not yet validated per country.

### Allowed VAT rates

Invoice lines may only use VAT rates from an allowed set, and the set depends on whether your customer is French. Younium rejects anything outside the applicable set before the invoice is posted, naming the rates that need correcting.

For a French customer, only the current statutory rates are allowed:

| Rate | Description   |
| ---- | ------------- |
| 20%  | Standard      |
| 10%  | Intermediate  |
| 5.5% | Reduced       |
| 2.1% | Super-reduced |
| 0%   | Zero-rated    |

For a customer outside France, a wider set is allowed. It includes every rate above, plus historical French rates that can still appear on a cross-border transaction:

| Rate  | Status     |
| ----- | ---------- |
| 20.6% | Historical |
| 20%   | Current    |
| 19.6% | Historical |
| 13%   | Historical |
| 10%   | Current    |
| 9.6%  | Historical |
| 9.2%  | Historical |
| 8.5%  | Historical |
| 7%    | Historical |
| 5.5%  | Current    |
| 2.1%  | Current    |
| 1.75% | Historical |
| 1.05% | Historical |
| 0.9%  | Historical |
| 0%    | Current    |

A line with no tax at all is treated as exempt, which is permitted for either customer.

> **Note on multiple rates per line:** The electronic invoice can only report one VAT rate per line. If a line carries more than one, the second would simply disappear from the electronic invoice while remaining on the invoice itself, understating the VAT it declares — so Younium blocks posting instead and names the affected lines.

### How zero-rated lines are classified

A line with a 0% rate is not always reported the same way. For a domestic sale, it is reported as standard-rated at 0%, as before. For a sale outside France, Younium instead reports it as the specific kind of zero-rated supply it is, using the tax category assigned to the line together with your customer's country:

| Situation                                                                                     | Reported as                                     |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| The line charges any VAT rate above 0%                                                        | Standard-rated, whatever the customer's country |
| Zero-rated, tax category configured for EU sales, customer outside France                     | Intra-community supply                          |
| Zero-rated, tax category not configured for EU sales, customer outside France (country known) | Export                                          |
| Zero-rated, French customer, or customer's country not known                                  | Standard-rated at 0%, as before                 |

For an intra-community supply or an export, Younium also supplies the required exemption reason automatically, so nothing further is needed from you.

### Invoicing in other currencies

You do not have to invoice in euro. French invoices must report the VAT total in euro, so Younium converts it for you using the same rate the invoice was booked at — which keeps the reported figure consistent with your own accounts.

For this to work, exchange rates need to be available for both the invoice currency and euro against your base currency on the invoice's conversion date. If a rate cannot be found, Younium blocks the send and tells you which currency and date are missing so you can add the rates under **Settings > Financial > Currencies**, or switch on automatic rate updates.

## When something goes wrong

Validation problems reported back to Younium are technical, so Younium translates them into plain guidance about what to correct — for example that the customer's address is incomplete, that a SIREN and VAT number do not match, that a routing address is not one of the four valid shapes or does not match the SIREN it should, that invoice lines are missing a quantity or price, or that the totals do not add up. Where several things are wrong, you are shown the most relevant ones together. The full technical detail is retained behind the scenes so Younium support can help if the guidance is not enough.

Younium also recovers on its own from interruptions. If an invoice, a registration, or a reported payment stops receiving updates — because a message went missing or a connection dropped — Younium checks its true status periodically and brings it up to date, or marks it as needing to be sent again. You do not need to monitor for this, and a resend never results in the invoice being filed twice, nor a payment being reported twice.

## Current limitations

| Area                   | Current behaviour                                                                            |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Line VAT               | One VAT rate per invoice line                                                                |
| Document types         | Invoices and credit notes                                                                    |
| Payment terms          | A single due date for the full invoice amount                                                |
| Cross-border customers | Tax registration numbers are not validated per destination country                           |
| Invoice PDF            | The PDF stored when the invoice was posted is always the one sent, and cannot be substituted |


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