Electronic invoicing: rules and obligations

How do you invoice your services? Today, we take a look at electronic invoicing!

An electronic invoice is an invoice that is both sent and received in electronic format.

The use of this type of invoice requires the use of a system that guarantees the invoice's authenticity and the absolute integrity of its contents.

The official use of electronic invoices began on January 1, 2017, and all companies will have to accept electronic receipt of their invoices by 2020.

However, France is far from being the most advanced country, with Italy having already made this transformation in 2014.

Focus today on the rules and obligations relating to electronic invoicing!

What are the rules for using electronic invoicing?

In order to use electronic invoicing, several rules must be respected.

Indeed, it is imperative to be able to :

• Reassure you of its authenticity
• Guarantee the integrity of invoice content
• Ensuring legibility

In this respect, the company issuing the invoice can choose from a number of methods:

• Applying an electronic signature
• The use of anElectronic Data Interchange or EDI procedure to send invoices to the receiving entity.

The mandatory information to be included on invoices is identical to that required for paper invoices.

Rules for storing electronic invoices

Secondly, invoice retention rules must also be taken into account.

These are established by the tax authorities and are as follows:

• All invoices issued electronically must be stored on a computer server for a period of 3 years, followed by a period of storage on any other medium for a further 3 years.
• Invoices secured by electronic signature must be kept for 6 years in their original format.
• All information issued and received directly from invoices transmitted via EDI must be kept for 6 years, in their original format.

Finally, it's important to know that, as far as accounting law is concerned, an electronic invoice must be kept for 10 years.

News and upcoming legislation for the public and private sectors

Finally, there are a number of new developments to come in both the private and public sectors.

Initially, in the public sector, a 2014 ordinance set out the timetable for the introduction of electronic invoicing for professionals issuing invoices to the State, local authorities and other public establishments.

Thus :

• Electronic invoicing has been mandatory for large companies and public bodies since January 1, 2017. It should be noted that large companies correspond to companies with sales of over €1.5 billion or a workforce of over 5,000 employees.
• On January 1, 2018, it was the turn of mid-sized companies, which correspond to companies with fewer than 5,000 employees and a balance sheet of less than €2 billion.
• Since January 1, 2019, it's been the turn of small and medium-sized businesses, which are companies with fewer than 250 employees and sales of less than €50 million. 
• Finally, on January 1, 2020, it will be the turn of micro-businesses.

Secondly, with regard to the private sector and business-to-business electronic invoicing, it's the Macron law implemented on August 6, 2015 that is pushing companies to accept the receipt of electronic invoices issued by other private entities.

The timetable for the implementation of the law corresponds exactly to that set out above for public procurement.

For the time being, there is no legal requirement for companies to issue electronic invoices.

There is a clear trend towards the democratization of digitalization in business operations, and electronic invoicing is just one example.