Compatible Solution: What Are We Talking About Exactly?
The French e-invoicing reform relies on three complementary building blocks. Understanding their role helps pinpoint what a compatible solution like CassKai brings.
- The PPF (Public Invoicing Portal): the central state infrastructure. It acts as a directory of companies and a data concentrator toward the tax administration. You never interact with it directly.
- The approved platform (PA): the operator officially registered by the DGFiP, authorized to transmit and receive electronic invoices and to route the data. It is the regulated link of the circuit.
- The compatible solution: the software you use daily to create your quotes, invoices and keep your accounts. It generates the compliant formats and connects to an approved platform for routing.
In other words, a compatible solution is not, on its own, a player in the official network: it produces invoices in the right formats, applies the expected checks, then delegates the regulated transmission to an approved platform. That is exactly the role CassKai fulfills.
CassKai is now positioned as an e-invoicing compatible solution. Concretely, your invoicing module produces invoices compliant with the European standard EN 16931, and the connection to the official circuit is handled by a DGFiP-approved platform, integrated in the background. You keep a single interface, that of CassKai, without having to handle the regulatory machinery.
A compatible solution produces your invoices in the right formats and connects to an approved platform. You manage a single interface: CassKai.
What Changes Concretely for Your SMB
For an SMB director, the question is not theoretical: it is operational. What must you do, and above all, what must you stop doing? Here are the main changes.
1. The PDF sent by email will no longer suffice in B2B. For your transactions between VAT-liable companies in France, the invoice will in principle have to pass through the official circuit, in structured format. A simple PDF attached to an email will no longer be considered a compliant invoice. Good news: the Factur-X format embeds a readable PDF identical to a traditional invoice, so your client’s visual experience remains familiar.
2. You will have to be able to receive structured electronic invoices. This is the obligation that comes first. According to the texts in force, from September 1, 2026, all VAT-liable companies should be able to receive their supplier invoices in electronic format, regardless of their size.
3. You do not have to choose or contract an approved platform separately. That is the whole point of the compatible-solution status: CassKai relies on a DGFiP-approved platform in the backend. You have no additional contract to sign, no technical credentials (API) to configure yourself. Connection, format validation and archiving are handled on the platform side.
4. Your accounting data stays centralized. Issued invoices, received invoices and associated entries live in the same place. A received supplier invoice can directly feed a purchase and a draft entry to validate, with no re-keying.
In summary, most of the regulatory work happens in the background. Your role focuses on what matters: invoicing, collecting, steering your cash.
The Three Functions Covered: Receive, Issue, Report
The reform is not just about "sending invoices differently". It imposes three distinct obligations, which CassKai covers as a compatible solution.
Receive. Your supplier invoices arrive in electronic format via the official circuit and are deposited directly into CassKai. No more manual downloading of PDFs from an email inbox: the received invoice can turn into a purchase and a draft entry, ready to be checked and then validated. It is an immediate time saving on data entry.
Issue. From your usual invoicing module, you create your invoice just like today. CassKai generates it in the expected structured format (Factur-X, UBL or CII), applies compliance checks, then transmits it to your client via the approved platform. The recipient receives it in their own solution, whatever their operator.
Report (e-reporting). Some transactions do not fall under electronic invoicing between French companies: sales to individuals (B2C), international operations, and payment data. For these, the reform requires transmitting data to the administration: this is e-reporting. CassKai collects this information and prepares it according to the regulatory schedule, with no double entry.
These three functions form a coherent whole. Handling them in a single tool avoids flow breaks, re-keying and omissions. That is precisely the logic of a well-designed compatible solution: a single entry point for a circuit that, behind the scenes, mobilizes several players.
Formats and Compliance: What You No Longer Have to Manage
The reform mandates structured formats compliant with the European standard EN 16931. Three are accepted in France: Factur-X (a hybrid format combining a readable PDF and embedded XML data), UBL 2.1 (pure XML, widely used internationally) and CII (XML from the UN/CEFACT family). In practice, for most SMBs, Factur-X in the EN 16931 profile is the most comfortable choice.
The question is not only "which format", but also "is the format valid". The EN 16931 standard includes a set of business rules to respect, and a non-compliant invoice can be rejected by the recipient’s platform. Checking all of this manually would be time-consuming and error-prone.
As a compatible solution, CassKai natively generates these formats and applies compliance checks before transmission. Anomalies are flagged upstream, which limits rejections. You do not need to know the technical subtleties of Factur-X or UBL: you invoice, compliance is handled for you.
And archiving? Electronic invoices must be kept for a legal duration (as an indication, ten years in France, subject to the rules applicable to your situation). Archiving with evidentiary value is ensured via the approved platform, with the expected integrity guarantees. Here too, it is one less burden for your teams.
The Timeline: Key Deadlines to Remember
The reform timeline distinguishes two phases: reception, which concerns everyone at the same time, and emission, which rolls out by company size. The dates below correspond to the texts in force at the time of writing and are worth confirming with official sources.
- September 1, 2026: reception obligation for all companies. Whatever its size, every VAT-liable company should be able to receive its electronic invoices. This is the common starting point.
- September 1, 2026: emission obligation for large companies and mid-market firms. They will have to issue their B2B invoices in electronic format and transmit e-reporting data.
- September 1, 2027: emission obligation for SMBs and micro-enterprises. The timeline therefore gives the smallest structures an extra year for emission, but not for reception.
The practical message is simple: even a micro-enterprise must anticipate reception as early as 2026. Waiting until 2027 would be a partial reading of the timeline, because the obligation to receive arrives for everyone at the same time.
Preparing early has another advantage: testing the circuit without pressure, checking that your main customers and suppliers are ready, and making your data reliable (VAT number, establishment identifier, contact details) before the deadline. A compatible solution that handles the three functions lets you make this switch smoothly.
Key point: reception concerns all companies from September 1, 2026, including micro-enterprises. Emission comes later for SMBs (September 1, 2027).
Why This Is Good News for a Business Owner
Seen from afar, the reform may look like just another constraint. Seen up close, with the right solution, it becomes an opportunity to save time and make your management more reliable. Here is why CassKai’s compatible-solution status works in your favor.
No technical connection process. You do not have to compare approved platforms, negotiate a separate contract or integrate an API. CassKai relies on a DGFiP-approved platform in the backend. You activate electronic invoicing and you invoice.
Less data entry, fewer errors. Received invoices feed your purchases and draft entries. Issued invoices go out in the right format, checked upstream. The time recovered on admin can be reinvested in monitoring your cash.
A consolidated cash view. Because invoices, collections and entries coexist in the same tool, you more easily track what is invoiced, what is paid and what remains to be collected. For a cash-oriented director, that is the real benefit of digitalization.
Coverage that goes beyond France. If you also operate in West Africa or elsewhere, CassKai handles other electronic invoicing schemes depending on the country. You capitalize on a single platform rather than stacking tools.
Electronic invoicing is not just a box to tick. Well supported, it is one more step toward simpler, faster and clearer management. That is the spirit in which CassKai approaches the subject.