A Factur-X from a French supplier is a normal PDF with the invoice's structured data embedded as XML, and sometimes the supplier sends the XML alone, in the CII or UBL syntax. Either way the XML is the invoice: it carries every amount, date and identifier in machine-readable form, and it is what French systems treat as authoritative. You can read it as an ordinary document in the viewer, render a bare XML as a printable PDF, check its arithmetic with the validator, and convert it to UBL when your own system wants that syntax. Archive the file exactly as received.
Why your French suppliers changed format
Since 1 September 2026, businesses established in France exchange domestic invoices as structured files over a regulated network, and their invoicing systems now produce Factur-X or raw XML for everyone, foreign customers included. You are outside that network: the invoice reaches you by email as before. Only the file changed, and mostly for the better, because the data in it is exact and machine-readable, with no OCR involved.
Reading and checking the file
A Factur-X PDF opens like any PDF; the XML travels inside it. A bare XML (a factur-x.xml attachment, or a file starting with <rsm: or <Invoice) is not broken: open it in the viewer and it renders as a normal invoice with parties, lines, rates and totals. Nothing is stored, no account needed.
Worth checking before you book it, because a structured file makes this cheap:
- The arithmetic: the validator recomputes lines, VAT per rate and totals against the EN 16931 rules, the same ones French platforms apply.
- The VAT treatment: a French supplier invoicing a business abroad normally invoices without French VAT, with the reverse-charge or export coding on the lines; what you self-assess on your side follows your own country's rules.
- The identifiers: the supplier's SIREN and VAT number are in the XML; the SIREN lookup confirms the company exists and is active.
- The PDF against the XML: in a hybrid file the XML is authoritative. The viewer shows what the XML actually says, which is what the supplier's system and the French administration saw.
Booking, converting, archiving
Booking: growing numbers of AP systems ingest CII or UBL directly, which is the point of the format: no retyping. If yours wants the other syntax, the CII to UBL and UBL to CII converters swap them without touching the content; attachments embedded in the invoice (delivery notes, timesheets) extract to a ZIP.
Archiving: keep the file exactly as received, PDF or XML, for your local retention rules. A PDF you render from the XML is a convenience copy, not the original.
Disputing: you are not on the French network, so the formal refusal statuses do not apply to you. Dispute the invoice as you always did, in writing; your supplier corrects it the French way, with a credit note referencing the original.
Frequently asked questions
Is a bare XML file a valid invoice?
Yes. CII and UBL are two of the three formats of the French reform, and in France the structured data is the authoritative document. Whether it satisfies your own country's invoicing rules is a local question, and the rendered PDF plus the original file together cover the usual requirements.
My accounting software cannot open the file. What do I do?
Render it: the viewer shows it on screen, CII to PDF and UBL to PDF produce a printable page. Book from the rendered copy and archive the original.
Can I ask the supplier to go back to plain PDFs?
You can ask, and many will oblige for foreign customers. A Factur-X is a plain PDF too, though: it opens normally, and the XML inside only adds data. There is little to gain from losing it.
The supplier says the invoice was "sent through the network". Where is it?
The French network only delivers between French businesses. For you the network run only reported the invoice to the French tax authority; the copy you can book is the one the supplier emails you. If nothing arrived, ask them to send the file.
Should I validate every incoming invoice?
It costs seconds and catches arithmetic and coding errors before they reach your books, so it is a reasonable habit for new suppliers and large amounts. The check runs the official EN 16931 rules, the same ones the supplier's platform ran.
What do I self-assess for VAT?
Whatever your country's reverse-charge rules say for a cross-border purchase, exactly as with the old PDFs. The format changes the file, not the tax treatment; the XML just states the French side's coding unambiguously.
Published 21 September 2026. GetFacturX is not an accredited platform (Plateforme Agréée); transmission over the French network, which foreign customers are not part of, 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.