Your customer wants a PDF that also carries a machine-readable XML layer following the European EN 16931 standard. That is a Factur-X invoice. Their accounting system reads the XML, so nobody types your amounts by hand. As a supplier outside France you are not subject to the French mandate and you do not need a French platform: you produce the file and email it. You can build it from the PDF you already send with the PDF to Factur-X converter, or from scratch with the invoice form, and check it with the validator before it goes.
Why the request arrives now
On 1 September 2026 France switched domestic B2B invoicing to a network of accredited platforms (Plateformes Agréées). Large and mid-sized French companies now issue and receive invoices as structured files, and their accounts payable software expects every invoice, domestic or not, to arrive that way. A plain PDF from abroad becomes a manual exception: someone keys it in, someone checks it, payment waits. Procurement departments are updating supplier requirements accordingly, and the wording is always similar: send Factur-X, or expect delays.
The mandate itself applies to businesses established in France. Your customer's expectations apply to you.
What you do not need
- A French platform. The network is for invoices between two French businesses. Your invoice reaches your customer by email, as before, and their platform is not involved.
- A French entity, SIREN or VAT registration. You invoice as you always have, from your own country, under your own identifiers.
- New software. A Factur-X is a PDF/A-3 with an XML attachment. The converter builds it from your existing PDF.
- To report anything to the French tax authority. Your customer does that: they declare the purchase through e-reporting, which is why they may ask for your VAT number on the invoice.
What the file must contain
French platforms and accounting systems check the XML layer, not the page. A Factur-X that passes has:
- the EN 16931 profile (MINIMUM and BASIC WL carry no line items and are not enough for a B2B invoice);
- your customer's SIREN (their nine-digit company number, printed on their documents) as the buyer's legal identifier, and their VAT number;
- your own identifiers, including your VAT number, and the operation category France requires: goods, services or both;
- the VAT treatment: for a cross-border service to a French business this is usually reverse charge, coded AE in the XML with the customary "Autoliquidation" mention, so the invoice carries no VAT;
- consistent totals per VAT category, and a valid PDF/A-3 container with the XML attached.
The validator runs the official EN 16931 rules plus the French business rules and lists, in plain words, what is missing. A file that passes here will not bounce.
Ten minutes, step by step
- Ask for the SIREN if you do not have it. The SIREN lookup confirms the company's identity from the number.
- Drop your PDF into the converter. Seller, buyer, lines, VAT and totals are extracted; review them, add the SIREN and the operation category if they are missing. We walk through each step of the conversion in a separate guide.
- Check with the validator, French rules on.
- Email the file to your customer, as you always did. If they are a public body (a ministry, a hospital, a city), they use Chorus Pro, France's public invoicing portal, which also accepts Factur-X.
Every tool is free and needs no account; the Essential plan removes the GetFacturX line from the PDFs if you want the file to carry only your brand.
The invoices you send are the same, only the file changes
Your numbering, your layout, your terms and your archive do not change. What changes is that the PDF now carries its own data. If your billing system can export a UBL or CII XML, the embed tool merges it with your PDF into the hybrid file; if it produces only a PDF, the converter does the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Does the French e-invoicing mandate apply to my company?
Not if your company is not established in France. The mandate covers businesses established in France, and their obligations, not their suppliers'. A foreign company with a French establishment is in scope for that establishment; a foreign company registered for French VAT only is outside e-invoicing but has e-reporting duties on sales located in France.
Can I send the Factur-X by email?
Yes. That is exactly what your customer's accounts payable can ingest. The French network is only for invoices between two French businesses.
My customer asked me to send the invoice "through their platform". What do they mean?
Their platform is where their domestic invoices arrive. As a foreign supplier you cannot register on the French network, and you do not need to: a compliant file by email lands in the same accounts payable workflow. Say so, and send the file.
What is the difference between Factur-X and ZUGFeRD?
None that matters: the same hybrid format, developed jointly by France and Germany. A ZUGFeRD 2.x file with the EN 16931 profile is a Factur-X file. German suppliers can send what they already produce.
Do I need to add a SIREN to every invoice?
For a French business customer, yes: it is one of the mentions the French reform made mandatory, and platforms check for it. Your customer's SIREN is on their purchase order, their contract, or the legal notice of their website.
What if my customer's system rejects the file?
The rejection names the rule that failed. Open the file in the Factur-X editor, fix the field, download and resend. Running the validator before sending avoids nearly all of these round trips.
Published 4 September 2026. GetFacturX is not an accredited platform (Plateforme Agréée); transmission over the French network, which foreign suppliers do not need, is operated by an accredited partner platform. This article is not tax or legal advice. Dates, frequencies and amounts are those known at publication and may change; check them before relying on them.