Basware Customer Update - France 2024 e-invoicing mandate

France has announced it is delaying its 2024 invoice mandate, BUT we recommend organizations do not pause their preparation.  In this article we provide a short update on the mandate, explain how Basware will support you, provide a further explanation on the impact to your financial processes, and provide a checklist for you to review.

Update on the mandate

Initially announced as coming into effect on July 1^st 2024, that date is now delayed and, as of August 2023, we are awaiting confirmation for when the mandate will come into effect. The expectation is that a new timeline will be proposed in late September/early October. This will then be debated by the French legislature, with the goal of a decision by December. There are a number of caveats to that suggested timeline but as soon as we know more we will share with you.

What we do know is that the core requirements that make up the mandate and the associated invoicing framework are unlikely to change significantly and will regulate the following:

• The submission, reception, and transmission of e-invoices.
• The exchange of the invoice life cycle information.
• The transmission of e-reporting data to the tax authority in the context of international business-to-business transactions and transactions between businesses (B2B) and the end consumer (B2C) in France.

Depending on company size, the sending of B2B invoices in specified electronic formats will become mandatory most likely in a staggered approach. Based on previous plan outlined by the French government the mandate will first be applied to the largest companies and ending with small business owners.

Basware’s support to customers

As a Basware customer, with our help, you are well-positioned to ensure you will be compliant with the mandate. Basware has two different services that will be available to you:

• France OD Extension

• • This solution enables you to send and receive e-invoices, e-reporting, and lifecycle status updates with the public portal PPF.
  • For most customers, this service will fit the requirements.

• France PDP Extension
  • This solution enables you to exchange the same information as the OD Extension service.
  • In addition, you can exchange currently existing EDI invoice formats with your business partner if that business partner is also using a PDP service provider.

For Basware customers, even if they have a Basware sending/receiving solution, they will still be required to purchase one of the above options as an additional service. We recommend contacting your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager to determine the best service.

 Further explanation on how this will affect invoice processing

• Receiving e-invoices: Invoice data content stored in your AP solution and/or ERP must support the mandatory e-reporting requirements. These requirements must be considered when reviewing the invoice data captured as part of your AP process.
  
  Customers receiving invoices using Basware e-invoice for receiving service would need to submit a mandatory status message for every transaction. Basware will then create the life cycle status message to be submitted to the public portal (PPF).
  
• Sending e-invoices: Basware solution will perform the necessary data conversions and checks, a search in the directory of the French Public Invoicing Portal, Portail Public de Facturation (PPF) for routing the invoice and register the invoice in the PPF. Basware will at the same time deliver the invoice to the recipient(buyer).
  
  
  • The buyers using PPF for e-invoice receiving will receive an e-invoice as listed in their registration details with the PPF.

• • For buyers using a PDP service provider, the e-invoice will be sent to the buyer’s service provider, as defined in the French central directory.
    
    
• e-Reporting invoices: The supplier customer must report the non-domestic B2B invoices, B2C invoices, and all other B2C transactions. The customer is responsible for providing the e-report data to Basware according to the official reporting schedule defined by the French authorities.
  
  The reporting data can be exported from a suitable business system, AP solution, or from the ERP. Basware e-Invoice Sending France Extension supports the delivery of e-report data to PPF on behalf of the supplier-customer.
  
  For posting e-reporting data, Basware will offer a file transfer interface supporting the following protocols: SFTP, HTTPS, and AS2. For e-reporting, Basware supports the official French reporting format. Custom conversion is available as an add-on service.
  
  
• Invoice lifecycle status: The supplier and buyer must report the invoice status to the PPF. The customer's AP and AR process must provide at least the mandatory invoice and payment statuses to Basware, who will then create, control, and send the corresponding life-cycle messages to the PPF.
  
  For Accounts Payable status integration, Basware AP Automation internal or external status integration interfaces can be used. For Accounts Receivable statuses, external API and file interface is available. In all options, the statuses are stored into invoice metadata at Basware, and then used for triggering the life cycle message creation and sending.
  
  
• Standard invoice formats: There will be 3 core invoice formats: FacturX, UBL and CII. In addition, TEAPPSXML 3.0, PEPPOL BIS 3.0 and JSON (Basware REST API 4.0) will be accepted.
  
  
• Invoice data content: The minimum data content for the domestic B2B invoices is defined according to the French mandate deployment waves, it will be important that customers include all the data requirements in their invoice data to ensure compliance. You can find the full list of data requirements here

Checklist to prepare for France 2024

1. Audit your existing systems: We recommend establishing your invoice flow in and out of the French market. Assess the incoming and outgoing invoice volumes, the current formats (paper, EDI, PDF, etc.), and customer types (B2B or B2C), as well as identify any strategic/critical customers and suppliers.
   
   
2. Contact Basware to begin defining your solution: We recommend speaking with your Basware Account Manager as a priority to determine the correct solution for your organization, secure a price for the implementation, and establish a project schedule.
3. Begin enriching your Invoice data: The regulations now make it mandatory the following data items are included on all invoices:

• The delivery or service provision address
• The nature of the transaction (delivery of goods or provision of services)
• The purchaser’s SIREN(Unique identification number)
• A reference to the option to pay VAT on debits if selected

We have found this data has not been universally collected by organizations, so we highly recommend that Basware customers establish their readiness to include this information in their invoices.

 4    Begin communicating your requirements to stakeholders

The customer-supplier relationship is radically changing with this regulation. Both supplier and buyer will be obligated to report the invoice status to the public invoicing portal PPF. Given that invoices will not be directly exchanged between third parties, we strongly recommend that you communicate with your strategic/critical customers and suppliers to ensure they are aware of and preparing for this new mandate.

We also recommend ensuring that a change management plan is established to support internal stakeholders, this mandate will bring significant changes to many employees, and it is important they are aware of the new processes they will need to adhere to.