France — PDP
The French e-invoicing reform requires VAT-registered businesses to receive electronic invoices from 1 September 2026, and to issue them from 1 September 2026 for large and mid-size companies, from 1 September 2027 for SMEs and micro-businesses. Invoices no longer travel by e-mail but through an accredited platform (plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire, PDP) registered with the DGFiP, which forwards them to the recipient and the public portal.
| Regime code | fr_pdp |
| Country | FR |
| Transport | Accredited platform (PDP) |
| Covers receipts | No — B2B only; B2C stays on PDF |
| Offline | Queue then submit |
Choosing a PDP
Hela is not a PDP; it drops your invoices at the PDP of your choice. Any PDP exposing a submission API will do — including your accountant's or your accounting software's (Pennylane is a PDP). Ask it for the submission URL and an API key.
Enrolling
Finance → Compliance → France — PDP → Enable:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| PDP submission URL | The submission address given by the platform |
| PDP API key | Your account's |
| Format sent | UBL 2.1 or CII (Factur-X). Both are accepted by the reform; your PDP will say which it prefers. |
| Company SIREN | For the invoice's seller block |
What leaves
Every invoice addressed to a partner with a SIREN/SIRET or VAT number set, on issue. The French mandatory mentions (seller and buyer SIREN, VAT number, delivery address if different, operation category, VAT-on-debits option) are carried in the UBL or CII; an incomplete invoice is refused before submission, with the missing field.
The PDP answers with a submission id; the state becomes accepted when it confirms handling, rejected with its reason otherwise. Lifecycle statuses (submitted, rejected, paid) come back through the notification address shown by Hela, if the PDP sends them.
Receiving
Your suppliers' invoices arrive at your PDP; those it forwards to Hela (notification address) land in Purchases with their structured file.
And till receipts?
The reform concerns only B2B. For counter sales, French law has required since 2018 till software that is inalterable, secured, preserved and archived: Hela's sealed journal answers inalterability, and archiving preservation. The compliance certificate is supplied by the publisher on request.
Accounting export
The FEC is produced by GET /reports/exports/ledger.fec: see Accounting exports.