France’s e-invoicing directory: how your suppliers find you

What is the e-invoicing directory for?

When your supplier issues an e-invoice, their approved platform looks up your SIREN in the directory. It finds the platform that receives your invoices and sends the invoice there. Without an up-to-date directory entry, the invoice cannot reach you.

The State makes the directory available to platforms, and the platforms keep it up to date. It is often called the “PPF directory”: the public invoicing portal (PPF) was first meant to exchange invoices itself. Since October 2024, the State only runs the directory and data collection, and all exchanges go through approved platforms.

What the directory holds

• For each business: its name, its SIREN and, where relevant, a SIRET, a routing code and its label.
• For its receiving platform: its name, its registration number, and its start and end dates of use.
• Where relevant, an address on an invoice exchange network such as Peppol.

How your business is registered

1. You are already listed. The directory is built and updated daily from the INSEE SIRENE register and tax data, with a default entry at your SIREN that points to no real platform.
2. You choose the approved platform that receives your invoices and sign a formal, dated and numbered agreement with it. It keeps the agreement for three years after it ends.
3. Only that platform can then replace the default entry and link you to it. If you want to receive invoices per site or per department, it declares the matching addresses.
4. The update shows in the directory the next day.

Switching receiving platform

You can switch platforms at any time. The rules set the steps:

1. You sign a formal agreement with the new platform, which sends its number to the old one within 2 working days.
2. The old platform has 5 working days to object, only if your intent is in doubt (a more recent agreement with it, for example).
3. The new platform updates the directory within 15 working days. In case of dispute, the tax authority decides within 10 working days.
4. The old platform keeps managing your invoice statuses for one year and sends you, within 5 working days, what you need to keep operating.

How to look up the directory

The directory is open to anyone, with no account, on the tax authority’s lookup site. It shows a business’s e-invoicing addresses, current and upcoming, but not the platform behind them.

Approved platforms query it automatically for every invoice. They may only share the recipient’s identification data with their clients.

What to check, for receiving and for issuing

• To receive: ask your platform to confirm your registration, and have your SIRETs or routing codes declared if invoices should arrive per site or per department.
• To issue: fill in each business client’s SIREN on their record. It is also one of the new mandatory invoice mentions.
• If a client gives you a SIRET or a routing code, put it on their invoices: the client decides where they receive them.

If the directory does not find your client

The tax authority’s practical guide sets out the steps:

1. Check the data used: SIREN, SIRET, site, company name, contract data or data provided by the client.
2. Check with your approved platform or your provider.
3. If the problem persists, contact your client and keep a record of it.
4. If urgent, the invoice may be shared through the usual channel, for continuity and not as a new invoice. It is then brought back into the electronic flow, without multiple sends.

The directory with Elevia

Elevia is connected to an approved platform, which registers your business in the directory to receive your invoices. The registration status shows in your settings: in progress, registered, or already active with another platform. To issue, your clients’ SIREN is already on their CRM record, and the invoice goes out from your e-invoicing software with no re-entry. It is included from the Essential plan, at €29 excl. VAT per month.