Definition
A joiner signs a €12,000 job that will run for four months. He buys the timber in April, fits it in May and June, and finishes in July.
If he waits until the end to send his invoice, he funds four months of materials and labour out of his own cash, and finds out in August that the client is disputing a detail once everything is already installed.
The facture de situation (progress invoice) answers exactly that problem. At a given date, it bills the share of the work actually carried out.
It is called a "situation" because it photographs progress: at the end of April, 40% of the job is done, so the invoice covers that 40%.
The following month, a second situation bills the new slice, and so on until the facture de solde (the final balance invoice) closes the account.
A progress invoice is a full invoice, not a holding document.
It carries the same mandatory details as an ordinary Invoice, it takes its place in the unbroken sequence described in Invoice numbering, and it falls due on its date like any other.
The word "situation" describes what it measures; it gives the document no provisional status.
Deposit, situation, balance: which does what
Three documents follow one another on the same job, and they are constantly mixed up.
The Deposit invoice asks for money before the work: it covers a fraction of the agreed price, whatever has actually been done.
The progress invoice looks the other way, at what already exists, measured as a percentage of completion or in quantities fitted. The balance invoice comes last and closes the matter.
The difference is not cosmetic. A deposit is refunded if the job never happens; a situation records delivered work and stays payable even if the site stops there.
That is also what makes it valuable in a dispute: every situation accepted by the client is a written acknowledgement of progress at that date.
A €12,000 job billed in three parts
Back to the joiner, a craftsman under the BIC services category (bénéfices industriels et commerciaux, commercial and craft profits).
| Document | Issued on | Amount | Collection and effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Situation no. 1, 40% complete | 30 April 2026 | €4,800 | 12 May 2026, 2026 turnover |
| Situation no. 2, 35% slice | 31 July 2026 | €4,200 | 8 August 2026, 2026 turnover |
| Balance invoice, remaining 25% | 30 September 2026 | €3,000 | 6 January 2027, 2027 turnover |
On the €9,000 collected in 2026, social contributions come to €9,000 × 21.2%, that is €1,908 at the 2026 rate for BIC services.
That rate does not cover everything owed to URSSAF.
In 2026 it is joined by the CFP, the contribution à la formation professionnelle or vocational training levy, at 0.3% for a craftsman who declared turnover in the previous calendar year.
It is joined too by the chamber of trades levy, at 0.48% on services in standard-law departments.
The social deduction therefore reaches 21.98% of turnover in 2026, and income tax still comes on top.
The €3,000 balance is declared nowhere in 2026: the invoice is dated September, the money landed in January, and it is the Cash receipt that decides.
It will go into the Turnover declaration for the first quarter of 2027.
The balance invoice does not re-bill the job, it ends it. The instinct is to summarise things neatly: one last €12,000 invoice with the full breakdown. It is wrong.
The balance restates the total, deducts the situations already issued and claims only the difference, €3,000 here.
A €12,000 balance sent after €9,000 already invoiced shows €21,000 in your books for a job worth €12,000: either the client refuses to pay and the site grinds to a halt, or he pays, and the amount collected becomes taxable turnover that will have to be undone with a Credit note and a refund.
What the micro-enterprise scheme changes
Almost nothing about the form, a great deal about the timing.
The distinction between deposit, situation and balance carries real weight under the régime réel (the standard accounting regime), where the point of chargeability drives the bookkeeping entry.
Under the micro-enterprise scheme it shifts the declaration date by nothing at all: all three documents obey the same rule, the day the money reaches the account.
Splitting a job into four situations therefore neither raises nor lowers contributions, it only spreads out when they fall due.
Two points still deserve watching.
The scheme's ceiling, €83,600 for services for the years 2026 to 2028, is also assessed on money collected: a large balance paid in January mechanically lands in the following year, which is an observation rather than a strategy, since an issue date cannot be rewritten after the fact.
And the VAT thresholds have nothing to do with that ceiling: a service provider becomes liable for VAT well before leaving the micro-enterprise scheme.
Frequently asked questions
Does the client have to agree before a situation is issued?
No text requires it, but everything argues for it.
The rhythm of the situations, the way progress is measured and the payment term are set in the devis (quotation) or in the contract, before the first cut is made.
Without that clause, a client can dispute the percentage claimed and hold up payment for the whole job.
What must a progress invoice carry under the VAT exemption?
The details of any ordinary invoice, plus the job reference, the cumulative progress and a reminder of the situations already issued.
To that is added "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.
On 1 January 2027, VAT rules move into a new code and the wording becomes "TVA non applicable, article L. 233-3 du CIBS": a progress invoice issued in January already carries it, even if the contract was signed in 2026.
What if the VAT threshold is crossed mid-job?
Transactions carried out from the day the higher threshold is crossed are subject to VAT, and it really is that very day, not the first day of the month nor the following 1 January.
The job then straddles two regimes, and a quotation signed without VAT becomes a negotiation. Expect to issue corrective invoices, including on deposits already collected.
The amounts and the full switchover are set out in the VAT threshold entry.
Does an unpaid situation cost contributions?
No. Under the micro-enterprise scheme, an invoice issued and never settled enters no declaration at all, because nothing has been collected.
That is the only consolation of a bad debt, and it is also the argument for stopping the job at the first unpaid situation rather than carrying on working on credit.