What is Chorus Pro?
Chorus Pro is the French government portal for electronic invoice submission, operated by AIFE (Agence pour l'Informatique Financière de l'État). Since 2020, any business invoicing a French public sector buyer — État, collectivités territoriales, hôpitaux — must submit invoices electronically through Chorus Pro.
Chorus Pro tracks the full invoice lifecycle: Déposée → Reçue → Mise en service → Mandatée → Payée. Suppliers receive status updates at each stage.
The 2026 reform: mandatory for all B2B
Under the revised reform timeline (Finance Law 2024):
| Date | Obligation |
|---|---|
| September 2026 | **All businesses** must be able to **receive** structured e-invoices |
| September 2026 | Large enterprises must **issue** e-invoices (>5,000 employees or >€1.5bn turnover) |
| September 2027 | Mid-sized enterprises must **issue** (>250 employees or >€50m turnover) |
| September 2027 | SMEs and micro-enterprises must **issue** |
Failure to comply by your applicable date will be treated as a declaration irregularity under the TVA reform framework.
Factur-X: the French structured invoice format
France uses Factur-X (the same standard as ZUGFeRD 2.x in Germany): a PDF with embedded structured XML. The invoice is human-readable as a PDF and machine-processable from the XML.
Five profiles: - Minimum — identification data only (for simple cases) - Basic WL — without line detail - Basic — line-level amounts - EN16931 — full European standard (recommended for most businesses) - Extended — all fields including French-specific (required for some sectors)
A plain PDF or a PDF with a manually-attached XML does not satisfy the Factur-X requirement.
What you need to do now
- 1**Confirm your accounting software issues Factur-X** — not just PDF
- 2**Register on Chorus Pro** if you invoice public entities — obtain a compte technique (technical account) for API access
- 3**Update your accounts payable workflow** to receive and process structured invoices — mandatory for all businesses from September 2026
- 4**Verify your SIRET** is present on all invoices — it is a mandatory field under the reform
How Finovo handles it
Finovo generates Factur-X (EN16931 profile) invoices for all French workspaces. For invoices to public sector buyers:
- 1Create the invoice, select the public sector customer
- 2Finovo embeds structured XML into the PDF automatically
- 3Submit directly to Chorus Pro from within Finovo — no manual portal upload
Invoice status updates from Chorus Pro are pulled back into Finovo and shown on the invoice timeline.