Electronic invoicing directory: a practical guide for France

The official directory lists businesses’ platforms and invoice receiving addresses. It is free, requires no account, and supports searches by SIREN, SIRET, name or address. The French Ministry of the Economy explains how it works.

An invoicing address shown there is routing information. Do not treat it as a commercial email address or automatically add it to an outreach sequence. Separate two questions: “Which legal entity is my contract with?” and “Where should my invoice be routed?” The first belongs in your customer record; the second should be checked within the invoicing workflow.

For an agency or freelancer, the first check concerns the transaction’s scope, not simply the business’s size. Electronic invoicing rules cover, in particular, domestic transactions between businesses established in France and subject to VAT. An international sale or a sale to a consumer therefore should not automatically be treated as a French B2B invoice; confirm the applicable rules with your accountant.

As of 19 October 2026, the official timetable distinguishes receiving from issuing invoices:

• Since 1 September 2026: receiving electronic invoices for all businesses within scope.
• Since 1 September 2026: issuing them for large and intermediate-sized businesses.
• From 1 September 2027: issuing them for small and medium-sized businesses and microbusinesses.

These dates appear in the French tax authority’s reform timetable. Do not confuse “my obligation to issue starts in 2027” with “I have nothing to prepare in 2026.”

Another important distinction: benefiting from France’s VAT exemption scheme does not mean being outside the reform’s scope. The tax authority explains this in its guidance for microentrepreneurs and businesses under the VAT exemption scheme.

Here is a simple procedure to add when opening a customer record or preparing a first invoice.

1. Collect the contractual identity. Use the legal name and SIREN in your records rather than only the trading name found on a website. If several establishments are involved, also have the relevant SIRET ready.
2. Open the official service. Use the public electronic invoicing directory rather than a commercial directory promising additional contacts.
3. Search using a precise identifier. Prefer the SIREN or SIRET when available. Searching by name helps locate an entity but does not reliably distinguish businesses with similar names.
4. Compare the result with the contract. Check that the legal name, relevant establishment and information in your records match. A trading brand, parent company and subsidiary are not interchangeable.
5. Check routing with your invoicing software. Review the available information and, if several destinations are offered, ask the customer’s accounting team to confirm the required one. Do not select a destination at random.
6. Record the check date. Note who confirmed the destination and when. Avoid unnecessarily copying data into multiple tools.

This check does not replace sending the invoice through the workflow provided by your approved platform. Its main purpose is to prevent an incorrectly recorded CRM identity from carrying through to an invoice.

A missing or unclear result does not prove that a business is inactive or refusing to comply with the reform. Start by checking your input: the complete identifier, the relevant establishment, and the distinction between the legal name and the brand.

If uncertainty remains, contact your usual accounting contact through a familiar channel. Ask them to confirm the entity to invoice and the expected receiving details. For routing issues, also contact your approved platform: technical coordination between platforms may be necessary, and a directory search cannot diagnose the entire chain.

Do not silently replace the invoiced entity with another group company to “make the invoice go through.” Instead, keep a short follow-up note stating the identity searched, date, issue observed and person contacted. Do not include passwords or software access credentials in that record.

Finally, an ordinary PDF sent by email is not, by itself, an electronic invoice compliant with this framework. The French tax authority explains the difference between an emailed PDF and an electronic invoice: the system relies on structured data and an approved platform. Your software must support that workflow; the directory is not an alternative send button.

Consider a hypothetical example: a web agency sells a redesign to a shop whose trading brand differs from its legal name. The salesperson knows the shop manager, while the invoice must be addressed to the company that signed the quotation. The name on the storefront is therefore not enough.

The agency organizes the record in three steps. During prospecting, it qualifies the need and the right contact. At signing, it confirms the contractual identity. Before invoicing, it checks the recipient and routing through its software and the official directory. Each step serves a distinct purpose; none automatically authorizes reusing information for another purpose.

For the first step, SprintLead for freelancers fits into a commercial research and qualification workflow. SprintLead supports prospecting and qualification; to invoice customers, use your accounting software and approved platform.

In your CRM, keep separate fields for the trading name, legal name, SIREN, sales contact and billing contact. The guide to CRM data quality and freshness helps structure that discipline. The goal is to keep information verifiable, rather than multiply fields that nobody maintains.

Before your next invoice, check these five points:

• The invoiced entity matches the signed quotation or contract.
• The customer’s identifiers have been checked; a trading name has not replaced the legal name.
• Your platform and software support the transaction and the obligations applicable to your business.
• The receiving destination is confirmed, with a dated record if clarification was needed.
• Someone is responsible for handling rejections or correction requests without creating duplicates.

When choosing or checking a provider, consult the official list of approved platforms. Read the displayed statuses: the list distinguishes fully approved platforms from those awaiting test validation. Marketing claims are no substitute for checking this information.

Finally, keep two projects separate: compliant invoice routing and your pricing model. If your agency is reviewing its prices in response to AI, our article on AI and hourly billing for freelancers addresses the second question. The directory helps you find the right destination; it determines neither the price nor the profitability of your service.