The essentials in 30 seconds
- From 1 September 2026, every VAT-taxable business must be able to receive an electronic invoice, with no exemption by size or sector.
- Receiving means being connected to an approved platform (plateforme agréée). That is the point the "nothing before 2027" shortcut makes disappear.
- The obligation to issue remains set at 1 September 2027 for micro-businesses, SMEs and sole traders.
- The public portal no longer transmits invoices since the decree of 27 July 2026: articles advising you to rely on it are out of date.
- "Compatible" software is not enough: only an approved platform transmits to the tax authorities.
The real timeline, and the misreading going around
The reform is confirmed, with no postponement. An amendment aiming to push the deadline back by a year was rejected, the national pilot has been running in real conditions since February 2026, and the tax authorities consider the scheme ready. Here are the three dates that concern you:
| Deadline | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2026 | All VAT-taxable businesses | Receive electronic invoices |
| 1 September 2026 | Large companies and mid-caps | Issue + transmit data |
| 1 September 2027 | Micro-businesses, SMEs, sole traders | Issue + transmit data |
The "small firms, nothing to do before 2027" shortcut keeps only the third row. Yet the first provides for no exemption by size. And receiving is not a passive act: the tax authorities state that VAT-taxable businesses will have to use the services of an approved platform from 1 September 2026. In other words, a two-person studio has to choose its platform in 2026 in order to receive, then will use that same platform to issue from 2027.
It is this one-year gap between "choose now" and "issue later" that traps small structures: nothing visibly happens on 1 September 2026, until the day a supplier sends their invoice through a channel you have not opened.
What an approved platform is, and why you need one
An approved platform (plateforme agréée) is a private provider registered by the tax authorities, for a renewable term. It is the new name of the former "PDP" (plateformes de dématérialisation partenaires): if you still come across that acronym somewhere, the document is out of date.
It performs four functions: issuing and transmitting your invoices, receiving them, extracting and transmitting invoicing data to the tax authorities, and transmitting transaction and payment data. You cannot do without one, whatever your size, because only an approved platform is authorised to transmit to the State.
Two practical consequences, often misunderstood:
- The public portal has changed role. The decree and order of 27 July 2026 refocused it: it no longer transmits invoices, it maintains the central directory and collects data. Any source advising you to "use the free public portal to invoice" was written before that date and no longer holds.
- "Compatible" is not "approved". Your quoting, invoicing or accounting tool can produce the right file format and plug into an approved platform. It does not replace the connection. The right question to your vendor is therefore not "are you compatible?" but "which approved platform do you connect to?".
The official list of registered platforms is published by the tax authorities and changes every month. Be wary of comparison sites that announce a count: depending on the aggregator, the same week showed three different totals. Start from the official list, not from a commercial ranking.
The specific case of the interior designer
Most content on the subject is written for architecture practices registered with the Ordre des architectes, in their project-management vocabulary. Your situation differs on three points that change how the reform reads.
You only invoice your fees. An interior designer is not a general contractor: they do not collect the value of the works in order to redistribute it. Works invoices are issued by the contractors, in the client's name, as we set out in our guide to the tender process with contractors. Your own invoicing flow is therefore simple: fee invoices, at a single VAT rate.
You will mostly be on the receiving end. The volume of electronic invoices that concerns you in 2026 is the ones you receive: suppliers, service providers, software subscriptions. That is precisely the obligation starting on 1 September 2026.
The nature of your clients matters. The invoice flow between platforms covers exchanges between businesses. Assignments carried out for private individuals fall under transaction data reporting, not the same circuit. If your client base is mostly private individuals, this is a point to frame explicitly with your accountant, because it determines what you will actually have to do in 2027.
The four things to sort out now
- Have your situation confirmed by your accountant. The criterion for entering the scheme is being VAT-taxable, not being liable for VAT. A business under the French VAT franchise scheme (franchise en base) remains VAT-taxable and therefore falls within the scope. It is counter-intuitive and it deserves a written answer rather than an intuition.
- Choose your approved platform from the official list. Many accounting firms now include a connection in their offer: start by asking them, it is often the shortest and cheapest route.
- Clean up your client base. An electronic invoice is routed on identifiers, not on a name. The SIREN number of each of your business clients and their exact billing address become production data. An approximate client file will be paid for in rejections.
- Check what your quote-to-invoice chain produces. The target format is called Factur-X: a PDF that embeds a structured data file. Your tool must be able to feed your platform in that format, or pass it the data so the platform can do it.
What you risk, and the announced tolerance
The penalty scale is known: a fine per invoice issued in a non-compliant format, capped over the year, a flat fine for failing to transmit data, and a graduated mechanism where there is no connection to a platform, with a period to put things right before the first penalty.
The tax authorities have nonetheless announced a graduated approach, in the spirit of the right to make a mistake: non-compliant businesses will first be contacted, and their path to compliance examined. That is not a dispensation, but it does mean that a small, good-faith structure that has started the process is not the target of the scheme. VAT fraud, counted in billions, is.
So, what about Nodal?
Let us be clear, because the subject lends itself to approximations: Nodal is not an approved platform and does not issue electronic invoices. We cannot connect you, and no management software will do it in place of a registered platform.
What Nodal covers is the upstream: the framework of your assignment, the fee quote your client approves online, and the works cost plan, which stays an estimate and never becomes an invoice. It is this chain that will feed your invoicing, whichever tool issues it. Electronic invoicing is the next building block on our roadmap, and we would rather tell you so than sell you a compliance we do not provide today.
Article published on August 23, 2026. The timeline information comes from the French tax authorities' publications as at that date. As the reform keeps evolving through successive decrees, check the state of the scheme on official sources before any decision, and have your situation validated by your accountant. This content is a professional summary, not tax advice.