Plateforme Agréée (PA)

What is a Plateforme Agréée (PA)?

A Plateforme Agréée (PA) is a private service provider that has been certified and accredited by the French tax administration (DGFiP) to handle electronic invoicing on behalf of businesses. It sits at the centre of France's e-invoicing reform, one of the most ambitious in Europe. In earlier versions of the reform, the public portal was expected to exchange invoices itself. Under the final model, that role moves entirely to accredited platforms, so every VAT-registered company in France must connect to a PA to send and receive B2B e-invoices. 

What a PA does

A PA is responsible for the actual exchange of invoices and for keeping your business compliant. In practice it converts and exchanges invoices in the mandated structured formats, transmits the required subset of invoice data to the tax authorities, and handles e-reporting for transactions that fall outside the domestic B2B mandate (such as B2C sales and international trade). It also tracks each invoice through the mandatory lifecycle status codes (for example Submitted, Rejected, Refused and Payment Received) and ensures invoices are archived for the required 10 years on SecNumCloud-certified infrastructure.

The PA's role in the French 5-corner model

France uses a 5-corner model. Your PA and your customer's PA (corners 2 and 3) exchange the invoice directly between them. The national portal, PPF (Portail Public de Facturation), is the fifth corner: it no longer moves invoices itself, but receives e-reporting and invoice data and maintains L'Annuaire, the central directory that routes invoices to the right recipient via each company's SIREN number. In this setup, the PA is the engine that actually delivers the invoice, while the PPF provides oversight and addressing.

Why your business needs a PA

From September 2026 the mandate applies to large enterprises, and from September 2027 it applies to all companies, regardless of size. Any business that is VAT-registered in France must be connected to an accredited PA to send and receive compliant B2B e-invoices. You register your chosen PA in L'Annuaire against your SIREN, so trading partners know where to route your invoices. Without a PA, your business cannot legally exchange e-invoices once the mandate takes effect.