Definition
An IT repair technician visits a private customer: €240, paid by card at the end of the call. Three weeks later the customer calls back, embarrassed.
His insurer is asking for a "facture acquittée" (a receipted invoice) before reimbursing him, and has rejected the document he sent.
The technician resends exactly the same invoice, and it is rejected a second time. One line was missing, and only one.
A paid invoice is not another document: it is the original Invoice, with proof of settlement added to it, namely the date the money arrived, the means of payment used, and the signature of whoever received it.
The French word comes from acquitter, meaning to extinguish a debt.
An invoice proves that a sum is owed; a receipted invoice proves that it has been paid. Until that wording appears, all your client holds is a request for payment.
No rule obliges you to issue one, and nobody is penalised for never doing so.
It is asked for, and rarely refused, because it almost always unlocks something else: an insurance or health-cover reimbursement, an employer paying an expense back, a grant application, the final instalment of a public contract, or simply the bookkeeping of a client who paid in cash.
What you write on it
The acquit fits in one sentence placed under the total: "Facture acquittée le 14 avril 2026, réglée par virement bancaire" (invoice paid on 14 April 2026, settled by bank transfer), followed by your signature and, if you have one, your stamp.
Three elements really matter: the actual date of payment, the means of payment, and a reminder of the number and the amount of the invoice concerned.
A bare "paid" with no date proves nothing at all.
The acquit goes on the original invoice, which keeps its number. You do not create a second invoice, you do not change the issue date, and you do not restart the numbering: the document stays the same, it simply carries one more piece of information.
The mandatory details do not move either, including the Article 293 B notice if you fall under the franchise en base de TVA, the VAT basic exemption.
The wording is "TVA non applicable, article 293 B du CGI", and it holds until 31 December 2026.
VAT rules move to a new code on 1 January 2027, and the wording then becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS".
The Bulletin officiel des finances publiques (the official tax doctrine) accepts two others, and a receipted invoice carrying any one of the three is compliant.
€3,000 collected in two payments: what the acquit date decides
A trainer under the non-regulated BNC regime (non-commercial professional income) sells an assignment for €3,000.
The client pays a €900 deposit on 12 March 2026, then the €2,100 balance on 28 April.
Each payment is receipted on its own date: the Deposit invoice on 12 March, the balance invoice on 28 April. This trainer declares his turnover quarterly, as you may also do monthly.
| What is received | Date shown on the acquit | Period declared | Contributions (25.6% in 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| €900 deposit | 12 March 2026 | First quarter of 2026 | €230.40 |
| €2,100 balance | 28 April 2026 | Second quarter of 2026 | €537.60 |
That is €768 over the year, at the 2026 rate for liberal professions under the general scheme outside the Cipav.
That headline rate does not cover everything owed: you have to add €6 of contribution à la formation professionnelle (the vocational training levy), at the 2026 rate of 0.2% for liberal professions, due because this trainer declared turnover in the previous calendar year.
Nor does it cover income tax, and a trader or a craftsperson would owe a chamber levy on top, which liberal professions do not pay.
The acquit date is therefore anything but decorative: it is what files each sum into a period and sets the deadline on which you will pay.
Turnover is counted on what is received, never on what is invoiced: the Cash receipt is what decides, so an invoice issued in December and paid in January belongs to the following year, whatever date is printed at the top of the document.
The expensive reflex is receipting in advance as a favour. The client needs the proof straight away, announces the transfer, hands over a cheque, and the wording leaves with the invoice.
Never mark an invoice as paid before seeing the money in your account: a cheque handed over is not a cheque cashed, and an announced transfer may never arrive.
You would have signed proof of a payment that never took place, proof that turns against you before a judge as much as before an inspector, and that strips you of any remedy since you wrote yourself that the debt was extinguished.
Receipted, cancelled, declared: three different things
The first confusion is with a plain receipt.
A receipt records a payment without saying what was sold or at what price, whereas the receipted invoice carries the detail of the work as well as the proof of payment.
That is exactly why organisations ask for the second and rarely accept the first.
The second is with the Credit note.
Receipting makes nothing disappear: if the order falls through, if the work is cut back, or if the amount was wrong, a credit note has to be issued, never a line added to the existing invoice.
The third is the costliest: writing "acquittée" declares nothing.
The sum must be entered in your Income ledger at the date of payment, with its means of settlement, then in your turnover declaration at the following deadline.
Ledger and acquit answer each other, and the day an audit traces one payment back, it is their consistency with your bank statement that settles the matter in three minutes.
This page is up to date as of 5 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Can a client demand a receipted invoice?
No rule gives them that right, and none obliges you to issue one.
In practice, refusing serves no purpose: a client asking for it is trying to justify an expense already settled, and providing it costs you one line of text, a date and a signature.
How do you receipt an invoice paid in instalments?
Two methods work. Either you receipt each document on its own date, the deposit first and the balance afterwards, which leaves the most faithful trail.
Or you wait for the last payment and list every instalment with its date on the balance invoice.
Is a company stamp needed for it to be valid?
No, the stamp remains optional: the dated wording, the means of payment and your signature are what make the proof.
A PDF sent with a scanned signature carries the same proof, and you are under no obligation to provide a paper original.
How long must it be kept?
As long as the invoice it extends, since it is the same document.
The periods differ depending on whether you look at commercial law, tax law or civil evidence, and the Document retention entry sets them out along with the accepted medium.