Compliant Invoice in France: Word, Excel and PDF Template to Download

Key Takeaway: A compliant invoice in France requires continuous chronological numbering with no gaps, complete party details (SIREN/SIRET, address, VAT number), itemised pricing with applicable VAT rates, payment terms, and late penalty notices (including the mandatory €40 fee for B2B). Invoices must be archived for 10 years.

Issuing an invoice is not just about adding a price and a VAT rate. In France, an incomplete invoice can trigger a €15 fine per missing mention, and poorly kept records can compromise your accounts in an audit.

If you invoice in Belgium (BCE, 21% VAT, deadline on the 15th of following month), see our dedicated guide: Belgian Invoice Template.

1. What must a French invoice legally include?

Summary table of mandatory invoice mentions in France

Warning: Every omission or inaccuracy on a mandatory invoice mention is punishable by a tax fine of €15 per missing mention (capped at 25% of the invoice amount) and an administrative fine of up to €75,000 for an individual.

Article 242 nonies A of Annex II to the French Tax Code sets out the list. It's long, but it repeats identically on every invoice, so it's worth learning once.

Your own details

• Name or company name, legal form and share capital (for a company)
• Registered office address
• SIREN or SIRET number (14 digits)
• Intra-EU VAT number, unless you're under the VAT exemption scheme
• The mention "TVA non applicable, art. 293 B du CGI" if you're a micro-entrepreneur under that scheme

The client's details

• Name or company name and full address
• The buyer's VAT number, mandatory for B2B transactions above €150 excl. VAT (a private individual doesn't have one, so the line is simply left out)

Details about the sale

• Issue date of the invoice
• A unique number, based on a continuous chronological sequence
• Date the service was performed or goods delivered, if different from the invoice date
• A precise description of each service, quantity, unit price excl. VAT
• The applicable VAT rate per line (20%, 10%, 5.5%, or exemption)
• Total excl. VAT, VAT amount, total incl. VAT

Payment terms

• Due date or payment deadline
• The late-payment penalty rate applicable if payment is late (the rate itself depends on whether your client is a business or a private individual, see just below)
• The mandatory €40 flat-rate recovery fee mention, required for B2B invoices since 2013

Miss a single one of these on a B2B invoice and you technically risk a €15 fine per missing detail, capped at 25% of the invoice amount.

The trap to avoid: applying B2B rules to a private client. The €40 flat-rate fee and the increased penalty rate (often 3 times the statutory interest rate) come from article L441-10 of the French Commercial Code, a text that explicitly targets "transactions between businesses." Facing a private individual, that article doesn't apply: you can still charge a late-payment penalty, but only at the plain statutory interest rate, and only if the clause was clearly stated on your invoice or terms and conditions, never the €40 flat fee. I've seen this on invoices from HeyDevis users who bill a mix of businesses and individuals: the same footer gets pasted everywhere, and the €40 fee ends up charged to a private client who, legally, owes nothing beyond simple interest.

And while we're at it: invoicing a private individual isn't subject to the same blanket obligation as between businesses. You must hand over an invoice (or a "note") as soon as they ask for one, and it becomes automatic above €25 incl. VAT for most services.

2. The template to download

Three formats, one thing to decide: what you're going to do with it. Word edits freely, line by line. Excel goes further: totals (subtotal excl. VAT, VAT, incl. VAT, net amount due) recalculate on their own the moment you change a quantity or a price. PDF doesn't edit at all: it's there to show what a correctly structured invoice should look like before you build your own.

Word template, France

Excel template with auto-calculation, France

Preview the PDF template, France

Bracketed fields are placeholders to replace with your own details. None of these templates replace checking your own VAT status.

3. How long must you keep your invoices?

10 years. That's the period set by article L123-22 of the French Commercial Code for accounting documents, which invoices are part of, counted from the close of the relevant financial year.

A nuance few people know: the tax authority's own audit window (how far back it can actually investigate you) is generally only 6 years. But the fact the tax office can't reassess you after 6 years doesn't mean you can throw your invoices away: the 10-year accounting obligation still fully applies, especially in a commercial dispute with a client or supplier.

Personally, I think this is exactly the kind of rule people discover at the worst possible moment, the day a client asks for proof of a job from 8 years ago. Better to build the habit from your very first signed quote than to think about it after the fact.

The format doesn't matter (paper or electronic), as long as the file stays readable and unaltered for the whole period. A properly filed PDF is more than enough, no need to print anything.

4. Numbering: the rule most often broken

Every invoice must carry a unique number, based on a continuous chronological sequence, with no gaps and no duplicates. You can keep several series (one per year, or one per branch if you have several), but each series has to stay continuous on its own.

The classic mistake: deleting a cancelled invoice and renumbering the ones that follow. That's forbidden. If an invoice needs to be cancelled, you issue a credit note that references it, you never make the original number disappear.

5. What you risk with an incorrect or missing invoice

• Missing or incorrect detail: a €15 fine per detail, capped at 25% of the invoice amount (article 1737 of the French Tax Code)
• No invoice at all, or a fictitious one: a fine of up to €75,000 for an individual and €375,000 for a company
• Failure to keep records during an audit: the tax authority reconstructs your turnover itself, usually less favourably than your own figures

A concrete example: a plumber invoices a professional client €400 excl. VAT for a job. He forgets to state the applicable VAT rate on the line. On paper, that looks like a minor slip. During an audit, it's a missing mandatory detail, punishable as such, even though the final invoice total is correct.

4 things to remember

1. An incomplete invoice isn't just a cosmetic issue: each missing detail is individually punishable.
2. Keep your invoices for 10 years, even though a tax audit generally only looks back 6.
3. Never renumber after deleting an invoice: a credit note always references the original.
4. The €40 fee and the increased penalty rate are reserved for business clients: never apply them to a private individual.

If you're a micro-entrepreneur, the rules specific to your scheme (VAT exemption, VAT wording) are covered in our guide on micro-entrepreneur quotes.

How HeyDevis Keeps You Safe From Invoicing Errors

Entering every mandatory mention by hand in a spreadsheet eventually leads to costly omissions during a tax audit.

With HeyDevis, your French invoices are fully secured:

• Automated legal mentions: SIRET, VAT, late penalties, and the mandatory €40 B2B recovery fee are included by default.
• Strict sequential numbering: continuous chronological sequences with no gaps or duplicate numbers.
• Archiving & FEC accounting export: complete invoice history stored securely and official FEC export in one click for your accountant.