Two e-invoicing solution vendors in the French and global markets, Esker SA and Sovos, have announced that they have interconnected their platforms as a major step in their applications to become government-registered ‘PDPs’, or Partner Dematerialization Platforms. The French e-Invoicing reform will see 4 million companies mandated to accept domestic electronic invoices and the largest 6, 000 of them compelled to issue and report their transactions electronically from September 2026. The two vendors also confirm that they have conducted similar interoperability tests with other PDP candidates.
The French tax administration has received 62 applications as of 16 May 2024 for the coveted PDP status, which allows service providers to offer bespoke services over and above those provided by the central State-operated e-invoicing utility platform, the PPF (French Public Portal). Many companies in the French market want to use a PDP to organize the exchange of sales and purchasing data, including invoices, with trading partners in a way that fits their unique business circumstances.
After examination of the tests results and the allocation of an official registration number by the tax authorities, Esker and Sovos will each operate their own PDP platform in order to serve their customers’ transactions under French law, but the companies also collaborate internationally to ensure an optimum mix of business process automation, provided by Esker, and tax compliance, seamlessly embedded by Sovos, despite countries around the world taking vastly differing approaches to the digitalization of Value-Added Tax (VAT) and other fiscal instruments.
Sovos’ CEO Kevin Akeroyd said ‘being a PDP in France is consistent with our strategy to provide local expertise through the robust global Sovos Compliance Cloud platform. France, like other countries, has legitimate concerns about data governance, and Sovos has decades of experience in creating solutions that respect the toughest local requirements while minimizing the need for companies to seek a different invoicing compliance solution for each country. We feel privileged to have such a strong relationship with Esker, collaborating wherever possible and allowing each of us to provide our distinct value to our customer bases.’
Jean-Michel Bérard, Esker’s CEO said ‘As a global vendor based in France, we are proud to be among the first operators to have reached this stage of interoperability testing with Sovos. This is a major step towards being registered as a PDP and maintaining our status as a leading vendor for automation of both accounts receivable and accounts payable on the French market under the new VAT legislation. France is the first country to adopt a model with both a State-run central platform for standard transactions, and State-registered PDPs for businesses that demand more flexibility. Collaborating with Sovos towards this registration is consistent with our decade-old collaboration in e-invoicing.’
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