45% of French SMEs far from B2B e-invoicing

The finance law for 2020 provided for the obligation for French companies subject to VAT to issue their inter-company invoices in electronic form, with a timetable for entry into application specified and updated by ordinance on September 15, 2021. If the obligation comes into force on July 1, 2024, for large companies, medium-sized establishments have until January 1, 2025 and SMEs until January 1, 2026. A study carried out by IFOP for the publisher Quadient leaves however, predict difficulties for the latter, many of whom are far from ready.

According to this study conducted among 502 French managers, while 70% of large companies are equipped with an electronic invoicing solution, this is the case for only 55% of companies between 250 and 499 employees and 53% of companies between 20 and 249 employees. Moreover, while 71% of large companies believe that it will be easy for them to implement the obligation, only 53% of SMEs share this perception. A third of respondents intend to rely on their internal resources to carry out this transformation, 41% planning to call on service providers specialized in dematerialization and 32% on their chartered accountants, mainly small structures. However, all of the respondents agree on the benefits associated with electronic invoicing, 54% at the global level underlining the better traceability and 47% of the productivity gains for the teams responsible for invoicing.