A View on E-invoicing
E-invoicing. I imagine you're all sick of hearing about it. I don't blame you. The French government have made a complete mess of this one. Electronic invoicing, another administrative tool to keep tabs on us all.
Originally they were going to build their own government platform to manage it. I've lived in France for ten years now, and for anyone who's been here long enough, using French government websites (impots.gouv, ANTS, and the rest) is a bit like playing Russian roulette as to whether they'll actually work. To their credit, they looked at their own track record and realised they had absolutely no chance of building a working system for four million French businesses to submit every invoice through their already creaking IT infrastructure. So they shelved it and opened the door to private companies who could become accredited platforms, known as PDPs.
It was March this year that I first looked into it properly. I'm a software developer, I spend most of my time writing code. Not wanting to pay a monthly fee to a private platform, the first thing I Googled was whether any of the accredited providers offered an API. What that means in plain English: a way for developers to plug into the platform's core logic and build their own tools on top of it, rather than using a ready-made app that you pay for. The answer was one. One out of 112 registered providers. They're called SuperPDP, and I've been working with their software ever since.
Initially I just wanted something simple for myself. I run a free IT support session twice a month at a local English-run cafe in a town called Civray, 86400. If you're ever in the area, I'd highly recommend a visit. It's called Crafty Cafe, run by a lovely couple, Jen and Simon. E-invoicing came up a lot in those sessions. So one day I made a quick video of the little tool I'd built, posted it on Facebook, and asked who'd be interested in something like this.
The response was pretty amazing, especially for me. I usually get two likes if I'm lucky. I mean, who cares about a bloke posting on social media about writing code? But I realised there were a lot of confused people out there, and that's how einvoicer.fr was born. I expanded the platform so anyone can use it, and this week it started accepting its first users.
Sorry for the plug, but where better to plug your own product than your own blog on your own website.
If anyone is still confused by all of this, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I should be able to point you in the right direction.
Andrew Watts, web developer based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.