Setting up eInvoicing in France

This article describes how to configure your setup to send and receive eDocuments in France. For more information, see Understanding eInvoicing in France.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 R1 (version 28) or newer
• The two localized apps for France, listed in the table below:

To onboard onto the French PA network

Onboarding onto the French plateforme agréée (PA) network involves two steps: filling out the official designation form and completing the Continia Delivery Network (CDN) assisted setup guide.

For more information, see Designating Continia's ‘plateforme agréée’ in France and Setting up the Continia Delivery Network.

Using sandbox and production environments

It's possible to onboard your participation in sandbox or production environments.

Choosing identifier values

In France, parties are reached through eInvoicing addresses registered in the directory of the Portail Public de Facturation (PPF). These addresses use the scheme ID 0225 for routing, and are built on the company's SIREN – which is the legal identifier. For most companies, the address is the SIREN. When a customer's SIREN is known, all of their registered addresses can be looked up.

Choosing a suffix

Suffixes allow private companies to split traffic across several addresses. A company with the SIREN 123456789, for example, could have the following suffixes.

• 0225:123456789_AUTOFACTURE - self-billing invoices
• 0225:123456789_STATUTS - lifecycle statuses on outgoing invoices
• 0225:123456789_FRAIS - employee expense invoices
• 0225:123456789_BOUTIQUE1 - invoices for a specific shop/outlet

Considerations

• Unlike SIRET or routing codes, suffixes are chosen freely and don't need to be created in the directory in advance.
• Only create separate addresses for genuine processing needs (e.g.: different ERPs, distinct purchase channels). Multiplying addresses per person, department, or approver is considered bad practice.
• A physical relocation of a company changes its SIRET, but not its suffix. Therefore, SIREN_SUFFIXE is a more durable approach.
• eInvoicing in France follows the standard BR-FR-23). The only characters allowed are: ASCII letters and digits (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), hyphen (-), underscore (_), and period (.).
• The whole address, including the scheme ID, must not exceed 125 characters.

Creating one participation per identifier

For each identifier you choose to use, you must create a separate participation in Business Central and upload the same PA designation form. For example, a company that only uses 0225:SIREN needs a single participation, while a company using 0225:SIREN and 0225:SIREN_AUTOFACTURE needs to create two participations – each with the same designation form.

To validate outgoing documents using test mode

You can use test mode to verify that your exported XML files are valid against the French validation rules, without sending any documents live. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Search () for and select Continia eDocuments Setup.

2. On the General FastTab, enable Test Mode.

   Note

   With test mode enabled, outgoing documents are created as test documents, allowing you to validate the exported XML without sending anything live.

3. Create an outgoing document as usual.

4. Check the eDocument Status field, which reflects the validation outcome:

   • If the XML passes validation, the document is valid.
   • If the XML doesn't pass validation, the eDocument Status changes to Not Valid.

5. If the status shows Not Valid in step 4 above, click the eDocument Status field to open the Outgoing eBilling Document Card.

6. On the card, choose the Validation Log action.

The Validation Log lists the specific validation errors so you can correct the document and try again.

To validate incoming documents using test mode

As with outgoing documents, you can use test mode to verify that your incoming XML files are valid against the French validation rules, before importing them into Document Capture. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Search () for and select Continia eDocuments Setup.
2. On the General FastTab, enable Test Mode.
3. Search () for and select Continia Inbound eDocuments.
4. In the action bar, click Actions > Other > Upload XML file, and then select the XML file you want to import.

The uploaded document then becomes available to import in Document Capture, appearing in the Ready to Import cue on the Role Center.

Document flows in sandbox – test mode vs. normal mode

A sandbox participation behaves differently depending on whether test mode is on or off. This section explains what actually happens to a document in each case.

Normal sandbox mode (test mode off)

With a sandbox participation and test mode off, documents flow through Continia's Continia Delivery Network (CDN) sandbox environment:

• You can only send documents to other parties registered in the Continia Delivery Network – that is, companies that also use Continia products.
• If the recipient is not registered as a participation in the Continia Delivery Network, an error occurs stating that the recipient is not registered in the network.

This mode is useful for testing real delivery between two Continia customers – for example, one company acting as the supplier and another as the customer.

Test mode on

With test mode on, documents are processed but not sent anywhere – they stay in Business Central:

• Any existing participation created in the sandbox environment is used to fill in the documents.
• Documents are not delivered. They remain in Business Central.
• The documents are still validated by Continia's online service, so you get full validation logs (see To validate outgoing documents using test mode above for how to read the validation logs).

This lets you test the creation and handling of eDocuments on your own, without needing a registered counterparty.

Participations in test mode

You can create new participations while test mode is active. They're available to use right away. Participations created in Test Mode are temporary and are removed once test mode is deactivated.

Copying a production environment to a sandbox automatically activates test mode and copies the production participations, marking them as Created in test. Like any test participation, these are removed when test mode is deactivated.

Need help?

If you have questions or feedback regarding Continia's support for French eInvoicing, use the dedicated form on Continia PartnerZone.

1. Log in to the PartnerZone (only for partners).
2. On the menu bar, click Help Center > Get Help.
3. Click Submit a request.
4. In the dropdown menu, select eInvoicing France Mandate.
5. Fill out and submit the form, providing as much detail as possible.