Definition
A graphic designer delivers a logo and writes to her client: "here are the files, €900, my bank details are attached". The client pays the next day.
Eight months later, that same client asks for the invoice for his accounts, and she has nothing to send: what she wrote was a message, not a document.
An invoice is the document that records a sale or a service and sets its price.
It is proof for three parties at once: the client, who justifies the expense; the tax administration, which checks what you declared; and a court, on the day someone owes you money.
Between businesses it is never optional: French commercial law requires an invoice for every purchase of goods and every service supplied for a professional activity.
With a private customer the obligation only applies in certain cases, notably above an amount set by regulation, or as soon as the customer asks for one, and nothing stops you from issuing one every time.
The micro-enterprise scheme grants no exemption here.
It does not change the duty to invoice, only what appears on the document: as long as the business benefits from the franchise en base de TVA (the VAT basic exemption), the invoice carries no tax line, and the price quoted is exactly the price collected.
What the document must carry
An invoice is not a layout, it is a list of details: your identity and your SIRET number (the establishment identifier), the client's, the date, a precise description of what is sold, the price and a number.
The full list, special cases included, lives in the Mandatory invoice details entry; two points are worth knowing from the very first invoice.
The first is the number. It must follow an unbroken sequence, with no gap and no duplicate, and that continuity is exactly what an audit looks at first.
How the sequence is built is chosen once and for all: the Invoice numbering entry sets out the accepted formats.
The second is the VAT wording.
A micro-enterprise under the exemption writes "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI" (VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the French tax code), the wording in force until 31 December 2026.
The Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official tax doctrine) accepts two others, including the reference to article 293 B bis for the EU-wide exemption: an invoice carrying any one of the three is compliant, whatever your client's internal template says.
On 1 January 2027, VAT rules move into a new code and the wording becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS": the detail lives in the Article 293 B notice entry.
€2,500 invoiced in December, collected in January
This is the most widespread mistake in the scheme: believing that the invoice creates the turnover. It creates the receivable.
Take a developer under the non-regulated BNC regime (non-commercial professional income) who invoices €2,500 to a slow-paying client.
| What happens | Date | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| €2,500 invoice issued and sent | 19 December 2025 | A receivable, no turnover |
| Client's transfer received | 12 January 2026 | 2026 turnover |
Those €2,500 are declared nowhere for 2025: they belong to the 2026 turnover, on your first declaration of that year.
They cost €2,500 × 25.6%, that is €640 of social contributions at the 2026 rate for non-regulated liberal professions, plus €5 of vocational training contribution, due at the 2026 rate of 0.2% once turnover has been declared for the previous calendar year.
That headline rate covers neither that contribution nor income tax.
It is the Cash receipt that triggers everything, and it is also what counts towards the scheme's ceiling, €83,600 for a service provider for the years 2026 to 2028; that ceiling is not the VAT exemption threshold, which is lower and has to be watched separately.
An invoice issued and never paid therefore costs no contributions: that is the only good news about a bad debt.
An invoice that has been sent can no longer be edited, and it is never deleted.
The reflex is universal all the same: a wrong amount, so you reopen the software, correct it and resend the same number.
The correction goes through a Credit note or a corrective invoice, which cancels or amends the first one by quoting it, without ever making it disappear.
Deleting an invoice leaves a gap in the numbering, and a gap is precisely what an inspector looks for.
The same goes for the date: moving a January invoice back to 31 December to "stay under the ceiling" changes nothing about the year of collection, and turns a clumsy move into a false document.
What looks like an invoice but is not one
Three documents show amounts and get confused with it. The devis (quotation) is a proposal: it commits to a price, records no sale and is not entered in the books.
The Proforma invoice is an information document, often requested for customs or a funding application, and its name says plainly that it imitates an invoice without producing its effects.
A statement of account, finally, summarises several invoices without replacing any of them.
The last confusion is the costliest: an invoice proves that the amount is owed, not that it has been paid.
The document proving payment is the facture acquittée (Paid invoice), the one showing the date and the means of payment.
A client asking for a facture acquittée is not disputing yours, he is asking for the receipt.
Frequently asked questions
Must an invoice be issued to a private customer?
Not in every case: the obligation depends on the amount and on the nature of the transaction, and it becomes certain as soon as the customer asks for one.
In practice, issuing one every time costs two minutes and saves you from working out, a year later, what a €340 transfer on your bank statement was for.
How long must invoices be kept?
Longer than most micro-entrepreneurs think, and the periods differ depending on whether you look at commercial law, tax law or civil evidence.
The time limits and the accepted medium, paper or digital, are set out in the Document retention entry. The practical rule fits in one sentence: never throw anything away before checking.
Is a PDF sent by email enough?
Today yes, tomorrow no. The electronic invoicing reform replaces the emailed PDF with a structured file travelling between certified platforms, in successive waves according to company size.
You must be able to receive them from 1 September 2026, and you will only have to issue your own from 1 September 2027 if you are a micro-entrepreneur, dates published by the tax administration portal. This page is up to date as of 8 September 2026.
What can be done about an unpaid invoice?
Send a written reminder, then a formal notice.
Late payment penalties and the fixed recovery fee are among the details your invoice must already show, and they are owed as of right from the day after the due date, with no contract clause needed to claim them.
A dispute, on the other hand, does not clear itself: your invoice stays payable as long as no credit note has been issued, but a client who genuinely disputes the work turns a fast-track procedure into an argument on the merits.
Answer the complaint in writing before starting anything.