From September 2026, French companies will be required to receive B2B invoices electronically. Factorial helps Finance teams manage this change by receiving electronic invoices directly in Factorial and automatically matching them to the corresponding expense.

In this article, you’ll learn how e-invoices are matched to expenses depending on how the expense was paid.

Overview

Electronic B2B invoices, or e-invoices, are structured invoices sent electronically between businesses.

With French e-invoicing, an e-invoice can be automatically matched to the expense it belongs to in Expenses. This helps prevent the same purchase from being processed twice—for example, when an employee is reimbursed for an expense and the supplier's invoice is also received by the company.

The matching happens automatically, so employees don't need to change how they submit expenses and Finance teams don't need to manually reconcile the invoice.

Setting the registration

1. In your sidebar, go to Settings
2. Go to Expenses
3. In DGFiP, click on Start registration
4. Click on Launch signing
5. Select an Identity document
6. Upload your identity document
7. You will be redirected to Signaturit to electronically sign your registration
8. Follow the process and sign
9. You can download the signed document by going back to the DGFiP section

Payment methods

Factorial Card

When an employee pays with a Factorial Card, the card transaction already creates a draft expense.

1. The employee makes a purchase using their Factorial Card
2. The card transaction creates a draft expense in Factorial
3. The supplier's e-invoice arrives in Factorial
4. Factorial automatically matches the e-invoice to the corresponding expense
5. The e-invoice is linked to the expense

Out-of-pocket expenses

For reimbursable expenses paid by an employee:

1. The employee makes the purchase
2. The employee requests a copy of the invoice from the supplier
3. The employee submits the expense in Factorial as usual
4. The supplier's e-invoice arrives in Factorial
5. Factorial automatically matches the e-invoice to the submitted expense

The order doesn't matter. The e-invoice can arrive before or after the employee submits the expense.

External corporate cards

For expenses paid with an external corporate card:

1. The employee makes the purchase using the external corporate card
2. The employee submits the expense in Factorial to declare the spend
3. The supplier's e-invoice arrives in Factorial
4. Factorial automatically matches the e-invoice to the corresponding expense

FAQ

1. Do employees need to change how they submit expenses?
   No. Employees can continue submitting expenses as usual.
    
2. Does the e-invoice need to arrive before the expense?
   No. For out-of-pocket expenses, Factorial can match the e-invoice whether it arrives before or after the employee submits the expense.
    
3. Does Finance need to manually match every e-invoice?
   No. When Factorial identifies the corresponding expense, the e-invoice is matched automatically.
    
4. Why is automatic matching important?
   It helps prevent duplicate processing of the same purchase. For example, an employee could submit a €180 expense for reimbursement while the same supplier invoice is received through the company's e-invoicing channel. Automatic matching helps connect these records so Finance doesn't process the same purchase twice.