E-Invoicing

E-invoicing lets you send eligible invoices and credit notes to your customers through the e-invoicing portal in France. Zoho Inventory connects to this portal through B2Brouter, an approved platform, so you can send sales transactions to customers and receive purchase transactions from vendors without leaving Zoho Inventory.

What Is E-Invoicing

E-invoicing is the process of sending an invoice or credit note electronically through the e-invoicing portal, instead of sharing it only as a PDF. Your customer receives it in the approved platform they use.

In Zoho Inventory, e-invoicing applies when you create an invoice or credit note for a business customer in France whose electronic address is listed in the PPF Annuaire and routed through an approved platform. Once the transaction is pushed, B2Brouter submits it through the e-invoicing portal and the required sales data is shared with DGFiP.

Scenario: Patricia, an accounts receivable manager at Zylker, a French services company, needs to send an invoice to a VAT-registered business customer in France. The customer’s electronic address is listed in the PPF Annuaire. Patricia pushes the invoice from Zoho Inventory. B2Brouter delivers it through the e-invoicing portal, and the required sales data is sent to DGFiP. The customer receives the invoice through their approved platform, so Patricia does not need to report the sale separately.

When you push an invoice or credit note through e-invoicing, the approved platform also sends the required sales data to DGFiP. You do not need to report that sales transaction separately using e-reporting.

How E-Invoicing Works in Zoho Inventory

Zoho Inventory has partnered with B2Brouter to send and receive e-invoices in France. After you set up e-invoicing, Zoho Inventory uses your organisation details, such as your VAT Registration Number and SIRET, to connect to B2Brouter. You do not need a separate B2Brouter account.

You can also export invoices in Factur-X format for B2G invoicing through Chorus Pro.

Note: If Factur-X is enabled, it will be disabled automatically when you enable e-invoicing.

What Is an Approved Platform

An approved platform (PA, or Plateforme Agréée) is a solution certified by the French tax authority to handle e-invoicing and e-reporting.

Zoho Inventory is not a PA. It is classified as a compatible solution (SC, or Solution Compatible), which means it connects to a certified PA to meet these requirements. To support e-invoicing and e-reporting, Zoho Inventory integrates with B2Brouter, which is an approved platform.

Understanding SIREN, SIRET, and Suffix

France’s e-invoicing system uses SIREN, SIRET, and Suffix to identify your organisation and route invoices.

SIREN

A SIREN is your organisation’s unique 9-digit identifier. It stays the same across all your locations.

SIRET

A SIRET is a 14-digit identifier for a specific business location. If your business moves, the SIRET for that location may change.

Suffix

A suffix is an extra identifier that you can use with your SIREN to route invoices to a department, team, or location. For example:

MARKETING for the Marketing department
PROCUREMENT for the Procurement department
PARIS for a specific location

Use a suffix if your SIREN or SIRET is already registered with another e-invoicing provider and you want to use Zoho Inventory as an additional provider. Do not register the same SIREN or SIRET again in Zoho Inventory. To add a suffix, refer to Add a Suffix.

Set Up E-Invoicing

Prerequisite: Before setting up e-invoicing, enter and save your VAT Registration Number and VAT Registration Date in Tax Settings.

To set up e-invoicing:

Go to Settings in the top-right corner.
Select E-Invoicing under Taxes & Compliance.
In the Prerequisites section, enter the following details:

Organisation Details

Field	Description
Registered Name	Enter the legal name of your organisation as registered with the French authorities.
SIREN	Enter your 9-digit business identification number.
SIRET	Enter your 14-digit establishment identification number.
VAT Registration Number	Enter your French VAT registration number.
Reporting Period	Select the VAT reporting period that applies to your organisation.
Enterprise Size	Select the size of your enterprise. This determines your e-invoicing mandate deadline.
NAF Code	Enter your NAF activity code.

Organisation Address

Field	Description
Address Line 1	Enter the primary address of your organisation.
City	Enter the city.
State	Select the state.
Postal Code	Enter the postal code.
Mobile Number	Enter a contact number for your organisation.
Update Organisation Address	Choose whether to update the address only in new transactions, or in both existing and new transactions.

e-Invoicing

Field	Description
Is SIREN registered with another provider?	Select Yes if your SIREN is already registered with another e-invoicing provider. You will need to enter a suffix. Select No if it is not registered with another provider.
Tax Reporting Start Date	Select the date from which the invoices you issue will be included in tax reports and transmitted to the PPF.
E-Invoicing Scheme	Select the scheme used to identify your business for e-invoicing and to generate and transmit tax reports to the PPF. If you select SIRET or SUFFIX, registration may take up to 24 hours, after which you can start e-invoicing.
SUFFIX	Enter the suffix you want to append to your SIREN to create your electronic address. Learn how to add a suffix.

Review the Terms and Conditions, select Accept & Continue, and click Save & Continue.
On the E-Invoicing page, enable Push sales transactions if you want to send invoices and credit notes through the e-invoicing portal.
Enable Fetch purchase transactions if you want to receive bills from vendors through the e-invoicing portal. This option is enabled by default and cannot be disabled after you enable it.
Click Complete Setup.

Note: If you set up e-invoicing using a SIRET or suffix, you need to wait for 24 hours before you can start pushing transactions.

Add a Suffix

To add a suffix for your organisation:

Go to Settings in the top-right corner.
Select E-Invoicing under Taxes & Compliance.
In the e-Invoicing section, select Yes for Is SIREN registered with another provider?
Select SUFFIX as the E-Invoicing Scheme.
Enter the suffix in the SUFFIX field.

Note: Enter only the suffix value, such as MARKETING. Do not enter the SIREN along with it. Zoho Inventory stores the electronic address as SIREN_Suffix.

To add a suffix for a customer, select Suffix as the Electronic Address Scheme and enter the identifier in Electronic Address Value. Learn more about adding an electronic address for customers.

Add Electronic Address for Customers

Add the customer’s electronic address so Zoho Inventory can send eligible invoices to the correct recipient.

To add the details:

Go to Sales on the left sidebar and select Customers.
Select the customer.
Under Other Details, select SIREN, SIRET, or Suffix from the Electronic Address Scheme field.
Enter the corresponding identifier in the Electronic Address Value field.
Click Save.

Note: For existing customers, the SIREN or SIRET field will continue to work if you have not entered electronic address details. For new customers, enter the electronic address details directly.

Push Transactions to the E-Invoicing Portal

You can currently push Invoices and Credit Notes that are in the Open status. To push a transaction:

Go to Sales on the left sidebar and select Invoices or Credit Notes.
Select the transaction.
If the transaction is in Draft status, click Mark as Open.
Click the relevant option, Push Invoice or Push Credit Note.
In the confirmation pop-up, click Push.

Zoho Inventory validates the transaction and submits it through B2Brouter.

You can then track its status directly from the transaction details page.

Note: For eligible B2B sales in France, when you click Push Invoice or Push Credit Note, Zoho Inventory sends the transaction through the e-invoicing portal and the required tax data is sent to DGFiP automatically. You do not need to trigger e-reporting separately for that transaction.

Note: You can push a credit note only if it was created from an existing invoice.

Insight: Recurring invoices are created as per their schedule. You still need to open each invoice and click Push Invoice.

E-Invoice Statuses

After you push a transaction, its e-invoice status is updated on the details page.

Status	Description
Yet To Be Pushed	The transaction is eligible for e-invoicing but has not been pushed yet.
Validation Completed	The transaction has passed the required checks and is ready to be pushed.
Push Initiated	The transaction has been pushed from Zoho Inventory to B2Brouter.
Pushed	B2Brouter has pushed the transaction to the customer through the e-invoicing portal.
Accepted	The customer has accepted the transaction.
Rejected	The customer has rejected the transaction.

Receive Bills and Vendor Credits

When a vendor sends you an invoice or credit note through the e-invoicing portal, Zoho Inventory adds it under Purchases > Bills or Purchases > Vendor Credits in Draft status. Zoho Inventory supports the CII, UBL, and Factur-X formats and notifies you when a new transaction is received.

Note: If the vendor does not exist in Zoho Inventory, a new vendor is created automatically. If the vendor already exists, the transaction is associated with that vendor.

To accept a transaction:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar and select Bills or Vendor Credits.
Select the transaction.
Review the details. You can click Show PDF View to preview the PDF.
Click Accept.

To reject a transaction:

Go to Purchases on the left sidebar and select Bills or Vendor Credits.
Select the transaction.
Click Reject.
Select the reason for rejection.
Click Reject to confirm.

Configure User Permissions

You can allow users in your organisation to push transactions and cancel eligible pushed transactions.

To do this:

Go to Settings in the top-right corner.
Select Roles under Users & Roles.
Create a new role or edit an existing one.
Check Push and Cancel Transactions under E-Invoicing.
Click Proceed.
You can disable the Segmented Access Control for this role for specific modules if needed.
Click Save.

Users assigned to this role can push and cancel eligible transactions. You can uncheck this option at any time to restrict these actions.

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