Electronic invoicing: the state chooses to retreat rather than fall

During his wishes for 2024, President Macron declared that he wanted to accelerate “our efforts even more and drastically simplify the lives of our entrepreneurs”. But the conduct of major state reforms and its modernization is not a simple matter.

The year 2023 was an illustration of this with the difficult implementation of the single window for companies, dissected by the Court of Auditors. In particular, the audit pinpoints an unrealistic initial deadline.

See you in September 2026

The reform of electronic invoicing suffers a priori from the same evils. During the summer of 2023, Bercy anticipated this time a failure of generalization in 2024 and decreed a postponement. This is enacted by the Finance Law published in the Official Journal at the very end of the year.

The generalization will therefore take place with a delay of two years compared to the initial schedule. An amendment to the bill adopted last October already announced the new timetable for the reform.

Large companies are required to be ready to issue electronic invoices as of September 1, 2026, and no longer on July 1, 2024. At the same deadline, the transmission of transaction and payment data will also be mandatory.

For mid-sized companies, these obligations will also apply on September 1, 2026. The reform initially foresaw an entry into force on January 1, 2025. Finally, for SMEs and micro-enterprises, the deadline is set for September 1, 2027.

The public late billing portal

“Note that SMEs and micro-enterprises must be able to receive electronic invoices from September 1, 2026”” the Finance Law also specifies. For the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, it is a question of “giving ourselves the necessary time for the success of this structuring reform for the economy.”

But also to allow the State to complete its own technical project, namely the commissioning of the platform intended to manage the electronic invoice flows of companies and to connect with PDP, partner dematerialization platforms.

The developments have been delayed, recalls our colleague from LMI. The opening of the Public Billing Portal (PPF) has been postponed to autumn 2024. It was in principle scheduled for the end of 2023. The pilot is announced for 2025 and the production will be launched in March 2026.

Would Bercy have taken note of the malfunctions throughout 2023 of the single window for companies? In its report, the Court of Auditors roundly criticizes the refusal to question the implementation date provided for by law.

She sees it as “an undoubtedly unreasonable risk-taking whose companies and state services have borne the serious consequences.”