Description

This use case covers advance expenses made by an employee in the course of their professional activity where the invoice is issued in the name of the company (employer or buyer). The employee pays upfront and the company reimburses them later. Because the invoice is addressed to the company, it falls within the scope of mandatory B2B e-invoicing under Article 289 bis Code Général des Impôts (CGI).

In practice, the employee provides the seller with the company's SIREN number, electronic invoicing address, and an identifier (employee matricule, last six digits of payment card, or ticket reference) that allows the company to reconcile the invoice with the expense report. A dedicated electronic address such as SIREN_EXPENSES may be used to route these invoices to a specific processing queue.

Key characteristics

• The invoice must be in the company name (B2B transaction).

• The employee provides the SIREN, e-address, and employee identifier to the seller.

• Already paid: BT-113 (prepaid) = BT-112 (total TTC), BT-115 (amount due) = 0.

• The employee is considered a third-party payer (may use EXT-FR-FE-BG-02 or BT-18 with code AHK).

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Use the employee ID or matricule and not the personal name in the payer reference.

• Dedicated address: SIREN_EXPENSES or SIREN_FRAISCOLLABORATEUR recommended.

Relationship to other use cases

Use case 5 is a specific variant of use case 2 (already paid) and use case 3 (third-party payer), combining elements of both. The invoice is already paid (like use case 2) by a third party, the employee (like use case 3). It differs fundamentally from use case 6 (employee expenses - personal), where the invoice is in the employee's name and falls under B2C e-reporting rather than B2B e-invoicing.

Note:

The seller may provide the employee with a readable copy of the invoice for expense report justification.

Business and tax context

Legal and regulatory framework

Since the invoice is issued in the company name, it is treated as a B2B transaction subject to Article 289 bis CGI e-invoicing obligations. The standard e-invoicing flow applies, with the invoice transmitted through authorized platforms.

The employee, as the payer, can be identified using either the EXTENDED-CTC-FR profile (EXT-FR-FE-43 in EXT-FR-FE-BG-02 block) or the EN16931 profile (BT-18 subject of invoice with code AHK for payer reference). GDPR regulations require using employee identifiers rather than personal names.

Common business scenarios

Business travel

An employee pays hotel or train and provides the company's SIREN for the invoice

Professional supplies

An employee purchases office supplies with personal funds

Client entertainment

An employee pays the restaurant for a business meal and requests an invoice for the company

Conference fees

An employee registers and pays for a professional conference

Tax and accounting implications

The company can deduct VAT from these invoices since they are properly addressed to the company. If VAT is due on receipt (services with BT-8 absent or cash accounting), the Encaissee status must be transmitted immediately because payment has already been made. The company reimburses the employee through its internal expense management process, which is separate from the e-invoicing flow.

Note:

GDPR compliance: Use the employee matricule or identifier in EXT-FR-FE-43 or BT-18, not the employee's personal name. This protects personal data while maintaining reconciliation ability.

Key data requirements

Implementation considerations

Seller considerations

• Must accept the company's SIREN and e-address from employees at the point of sale.

• Must record employee identifier in the invoice (not personal name for GDPR).

• May provide the employee with a readable copy of the invoice for expense justification.

• Must transmit Encaissee immediately if VAT on receipt (payment already made).

Buyer considerations

• Set up a dedicated e-address for expense invoices (for example, SIREN_EXPENSES).

• Implement a reconciliation process matching invoices to employee expense reports.

Note:

The internal reimbursement process is outside the e-invoicing scope.

General considerations

• The issuer's and the receiver's Plateforme Agréée (PA-E and PA-R, respectively) must support minimum base formats and profiles.

• The PA-R should support multiple e-addresses per company for routing.

Note:

In employee expense scenarios, the employee acting as third-party payer may require limited visibility into the invoice for expense report reconciliation. The Sovos solution handles this through its user interface with granular role-based permissions. This means employees can have scoped read-only access to invoices linked to their expense claims without exposing broader company invoice data.

SCI mapping

Field	SCI path
BG-4 seller	Invoice/AccountingSupplierParty/Party
BG-7 buyer	Invoice/AccountingCustomerParty/Party
BT-49 buyer e-address	Invoice/AccountingCustomerParty/Party/EndpointID
BT-3 invoice type	Invoice/InvoiceTypeCode
EXT-FR-FE-BG-02 payer	Invoice/PaymentMeans/PaymentMandate/PayerParty
EXT-FR-FE-43 payer name	Invoice/PaymentMeans/PaymentMandate/PayerParty/PartyName/Name
BT-18 subject of invoice	Invoice/InvoiceLine/DocumentReference/ID
BT-112 total TTC	Invoice/LegalMonetaryTotal/TaxInclusiveAmount
BT-113 prepaid amount	Invoice/LegalMonetaryTotal/PrepaidAmount
BT-115 amount due	Invoice/LegalMonetaryTotal/PayableAmount
BT-9 due date	Invoice/DueDate