Chorus Pro: France's Public-Sector E-Invoicing Portal (B2G) Explained

Chorus Pro is France's free public e-invoicing portal, managed by the AIFE (Agence pour l'Informatique Financière de l'État), for submitting invoices to public-sector buyers (B2G): central government, local authorities, public hospitals, and public bodies. Mandatory for all suppliers to French public procurement since 1 January 2020, it is entirely separate from the B2B e-invoicing reform of 2026-2027, which routes private-sector invoices through accredited Platforms (PDPs — Plateformes de Dématérialisation Partenaires).

Many business owners and finance managers conflate the two frameworks. The distinction matters in practice: a company billing both public and private clients in France must operate two different invoicing circuits, each with its own rules, timelines, and technical requirements. Understanding Chorus Pro — its obligations, its pitfalls, and its payment logic — directly affects your cash flow.

Chorus Pro is France's national platform for electronic invoicing between private-sector suppliers and public-sector buyers. It is operated by the AIFE, an agency under the French Ministry of Finance.

Its function is straightforward: it replaces paper invoices or unstructured PDF attachments with a structured, traceable flow that integrates into the financial management systems of public entities. Every invoice submitted via Chorus Pro is routed to the correct service within the buying authority, which validates it, confirms receipt of the goods or services, and triggers payment. Suppliers can track the status of each invoice in real time: submitted, transmitted, in payment, or rejected.

The portal is free of charge for suppliers. It accepts invoices in signed PDF, EDI (EDIFACT), UBL, or CII formats depending on the submission method chosen. For high-volume emitters, API or EDI connections automate the flow.

The obligation covers any company, association, sole trader, or micro-entrepreneur issuing an invoice to a French public-sector buyer. The scope is broad:

• Central government: ministries, deconcentrated services, national public bodies
• Local and regional authorities: municipalities, inter-municipal groupings (EPCI), departments, regions
• Public health establishments: hospitals, hospital groups (GHT — Groupements Hospitaliers de Territoire)
• Public education establishments and other local public bodies

The rollout was phased by company size: large enterprises have been required to use Chorus Pro since 2017, mid-sized companies since 2018, SMEs since 2019, and all businesses without size threshold since 1 January 2020.

There is no minimum invoice amount. A 50-euro invoice and a 500,000-euro public contract both go through Chorus Pro. Micro-entrepreneurs carrying out work for a local authority or hospital are subject to the same rules as a company with 200 employees.

In client files we handle for public-sector suppliers, the first surprise is invariably this: even a small one-off purchase order from a town hall for a few hundred euros requires Chorus Pro. The obligation does not disappear because the amount is modest.

This is the most common — and most operationally costly — point of confusion. The two frameworks are distinct, complementary, and do not replace one another.

The French tax authority (DGFiP) has confirmed that invoices sent to public-sector buyers will continue to flow through Chorus Pro after the B2B reform comes into effect. A company active in both markets will therefore need to operate two parallel circuits.

For further reading on the B2B reform, see our article on e-invoicing and e-reporting obligations and our overview of accredited platforms (PDPs).

Registration is free and available directly on the Chorus Pro portal. The process follows these steps:

1. Create a supplier account on chorus-pro.gouv.fr using your SIRET number. The account can be individual or shared across multiple users within your organisation via the access management module.
2. Identify your public-sector buyer and their service code (code service destinataire). This code is essential: it routes the invoice to the correct administrative unit within the buying authority. Your contracting authority must provide it before you submit any invoice. If it is not in the contract documents, contact the procurement or finance department of the buyer directly.
3. Collect the required references: legal commitment number (numéro d'engagement juridique — EJ), contract number, or purchase order number. These must appear on the invoice and match exactly the data held by the buyer's financial system.
4. Submit the invoice using the method suited to your volume: manual entry via the web portal for occasional invoices, file upload (PDF, EDI, UBL) for regular submissions, or API/EDI connection for high-frequency emitters.
5. Track the status in your supplier dashboard. The progression — submitted, transmitted, payment initiated — is your proof of receipt by the buyer and your reference point for calculating the statutory payment deadline.

If your accounting software can connect to Chorus Pro via API, automating this flow removes a recurring manual task. Our article on connecting your ERP to e-invoicing flows using no-code solutions covers practical options.

Rejection is one of the most underestimated operational risks for new public-sector suppliers. A rejected invoice restarts the payment clock from zero: the statutory payment period runs from the date the corrected invoice is received, not the original submission date.

In client files involving public-sector suppliers, incorrect service codes account for the majority of rejections. The issue is systematic when a company works with several departments within the same ministry or authority, each holding a different code. Maintaining a simple table mapping each buyer to its service code, references, and contact is a straightforward measure that prevents payment delays of 30 to 60 days.

Practical scenario: an SME providing monthly services to an inter-municipal authority submits its invoice of 4,200 euros including VAT using the urbanisme department's service code instead of the services techniques code. The invoice is rejected five days later. The corrected invoice is resubmitted the next day. The 30-day payment period restarts entirely from the new submission date. The result: a cash flow gap of six weeks on an invoice that should have been settled within one month.

Regulation sets maximum payment deadlines according to the type of public buyer. These deadlines run from the date the invoice is received on Chorus Pro (or, in some cases, from the date of service acceptance — service fait).

Where these deadlines are exceeded, late payment interest (intérêts moratoires) is owed to the supplier automatically, without the need to formally claim it. The applicable rate is set by periodic ministerial order (check the current rate published in the Journal officiel). A flat-rate recovery indemnity of 40 euros per late invoice is also payable.

These timelines make effective Chorus Pro management directly relevant to your cash flow cycle. A rejected and resubmitted invoice extends your collection period without any right to late payment interest for the delay caused by your own error.

Subcontracting in French public contracts follows specific rules on Chorus Pro. A declared and approved subcontractor can submit invoices directly through Chorus Pro, provided that their claim has been accepted by the main contractor and that the contracting authority has granted them direct payment rights.

The main contractor must communicate the contract references (EJ number, service code) to the subcontractor for correct routing. This coordination is frequently overlooked and generates cascading rejections when the subcontractor submits without complete information.

Yes. An association responding to public tenders or billing services to a public-sector buyer is subject to the same obligations as any company. Holding a SIRET number under an associative legal form does not exempt an organisation from using Chorus Pro. Associations managing social, medico-social, or cultural facilities funded by local authorities and billing for services must use the portal.

Invoicing via Chorus Pro contributes to building a reliable audit trail (piste d'audit fiable), a fiscal requirement for all VAT-registered entities in France. The portal retains submission, transmission, and status histories, which simplifies justifying documentary flows in the event of a tax audit. For companies managing both B2G flows (Chorus Pro) and private B2B flows, aligning the two circuits into a coherent documentary architecture warrants attention when implementing a PDP for the B2B reform.

Chorus Pro is a mature and generally reliable system. Operational difficulties do not stem from the platform itself, but from internal organisation: collecting contract references, maintaining a service code register by buyer, verifying fiscal data before submission.

Priority actions by order of importance:

• Before any new public contract: obtain the service code and legal commitment reference in writing
• At each renewal or extension: confirm that codes and references have not changed
• At period close: reconcile Chorus Pro statuses against your accounts receivable ledger to identify any invoices still blocked
• When implementing a PDP for private clients: establish two clearly separate circuits to avoid confusion between B2G and B2B flows

Up to date as of 26 May 2026. This article is for information purposes only and does not replace personalised professional advice. For decisions specific to your situation — contract type, nature of services, legal structure — consult a registered accountant (expert-comptable inscrit à l'Ordre).