Supported business processes
Learn about the business process flow, supported document types, invoice formats, and the use cases Sovos supports for the France e-invoicing mandate.
France uses a 5-corner architecture where invoice exchange and tax reporting operate as a single, integrated process across five distinct actors.
The 5-corner model in action
When you submit an invoice to Sovos (your PA-E), Sovos routes it to the buyer's PA-R for delivery while extracting and sending regulatory fiscal data to the PPF at the same time. Lifecycle status updates flow between all actors throughout the invoice's journey.
Process flow
The invoice moves through the following steps:
The supplier creates the invoice and submits it to Sovos (PA-E).
Sovos validates the invoice against AFNOR standards and France-specific business rules.
Sovos queries the Annuaire (central directory) to find the PA serving the buyer.
Sovos sends the invoice to the buyer's PA-R. In parallel, Sovos extracts and sends regulatory fiscal data (Flow 1) to the PPF for the tax authority.
The buyer's PA-R validates the invoice and makes it available to the buyer.
The buyer gets the invoice from their PA-R for processing.
Platforms exchange lifecycle status updates as the business process moves forward, including approvals, rejections, and payment confirmations.
Invoices become legally valid when issued. The government does not pre-approve them. The PA's role is format validation, directory registration, and routing.
Supported documents and products
Sovos supports several document types for France e-invoicing, including standard invoices, credit notes, correcting invoices, prepayment invoices, inbound invoices, and e-reporting.
- Supported document types
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Document type Code Local name Description Invoice 380 Facture Standard B2B commercial invoice for issuing invoices as a supplier. Credit note 381 Avoir Credit note or refund document for issuing invoices as a supplier. Correcting invoice 384 Facture rectificative Invoice correction without a credit note for issuing invoices as a supplier. Prepayment invoice 386 Facture d'acompte Advance payment invoice for issuing invoices as a supplier. Inbound invoice N/A N/A For getting invoices from suppliers as a buyer. E-reporting N/A N/A For reporting B2C, cross-border, and out-of-scope transactions to the PPF. Note:The Code column reflects the United Nations Trade Data Interchange Directory (UNTDID) 1001 document type code, which you include in the
InvoiceTypeCodefield of the invoice. - Product IDs
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Product ID Description Who needs it fr_invoice_inbound_1.0Receiving invoices as buyer All customers, required to receive invoices fr_invoice_outbound_1.0Issuing invoices as supplier Customers who also send invoices fr_Report__1.0E-reporting (B2C, cross-border, and out-of-scope transactions) Customers who have B2C sales, cross-border transactions, or other out-of-scope transactions to report fr_archiving_inbound_1.0Archiving inbound invoices as buyer Customers who are required to archive received invoices for legal compliance fr_archiving_outbound_1.0Archiving outbound invoices as supplier Customers who are required to archive issued invoices for legal compliance
Format support
Sovos recommends Sovos Canonical Invoice (SCI) as the primary format. SCI works across all Sovos-supported markets, giving multi-country implementations a consistent foundation.
If you prefer to generate Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR)-compliant invoices directly, Sovos also supports UBL EN16931 France Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS), CII UN/CEFACT France CIUS, and Factur-X. Sovos handles transformation between formats automatically.
Supported use cases
Most B2B invoices and credit notes follow a standard flow, where the seller PA and buyer PA initiate all events on the transmission. However, AFNOR defines 44 specific business scenarios, called use cases, that require additional statuses to be initiated by the buyer and sometimes the seller.
Sovos supports use cases that cover the majority of business transactions, and releases more use cases on an ongoing basis as market demand and customer priorities change, with full compliance assured ahead of the mandate go-live. For more information about the use cases, see Use cases.