How to Complete the PA Authorisation Form and Annex for French E-Invoicing

The PA Authorisation Form and its accompanying Annex are required legal documents that authorise Ecosio to register your French subsidiary in the national e-invoicing directory. Without a correctly completed and accepted package, your subsidiary cannot go live on the French e-invoicing network.

Why this document is needed

France's e-invoicing reform requires every business established in France, and every business registered for French VAT that falls within scope, to receive and issue domestic B2B invoices electronically through an Accredited Platform (Plateforme Agréée, or PA). The French tax authority maintains a central directory that tells every sender which platform is authorised to receive invoices on your behalf. If your entity is not in that directory, your suppliers have nowhere to send your invoices and you cannot issue compliant ones.

Only you can appoint your platform. Ecosio cannot register you in the directory on its own initiative — French law requires a formal mandate from the taxable person. The PA Authorisation (Accord formel) is that mandate. It does 2 things:

• Authorises Ecosio to receive, issue, and report your e-invoicing and e-reporting flows as your Accredited Platform.
• Authorises Ecosio to register your electronic address(es) in the central directory so that inbound domestic B2B invoices are routed to you.

Ecosio also uses the authorisation, together with the supporting KYC documents, to prove to the French tax authority that the mandate is legally valid and that the person who signed it had the authority to do so.

One package per legal entity

The mandate is granted by a taxable person, and in France a taxable person is identified by its SIREN number. A parent company cannot mandate a platform on behalf of its subsidiaries, and a single package cannot cover several entities.

Every French legal entity you need registered requires its own complete, separately signed PA Authorisation package, with its own KYC documents. If you later acquire, incorporate, or bring a further French entity into scope, that entity needs its own package before it can be registered.

Important: An entity that has no accepted PA Authorisation on file cannot be registered in the French directory, cannot go live, and cannot send or receive e-invoices through the network. Start this process as early as possible — ideally as soon as your contract for French e-invoicing services is signed.

What the package consists of

The complete package for each entity consists of the following documents.

Both the Declaration and the Annex must be signed by the same person, and that person must be authorised to bind the specific entity named in the form.

Common reasons for rejection — review before submitting

Each of the following means the package comes back to you for correction and resubmission, and your go-live date moves accordingly. Review this list before submitting.

• Form signed on behalf of the parent company rather than the specific French subsidiary.
• Signatory is not the legally authorised representative and no Power of Attorney is provided.
• Company register excerpt is older than 3 months at the time of submission.
• Subsidiary name or address does not match the company register excerpt exactly.
• SIREN number is missing, incomplete, or belongs to a different entity.
• Section 3 effective date entered without first agreeing it with your Zone & Co project team.
• Optional routing address fields in Section 4 completed without a confirmed business need or explanatory note.
• Section 6 contract number overwritten, left blank, or copied from another entity or an older template.
• Section 8 only partially completed — both VAT regime and VAT calculation method must be provided.
• Annex unsigned — Section 9 signature is missing, or signed by someone other than the person who signed the Declaration.
• ID copy belongs to the person coordinating the paperwork rather than the authorised signatory.

Before you begin: who must sign

Both the PA Authorisation Declaration and the Annex must be signed by the authorised signatory for the specific French subsidiary being registered. The signatory must be the legal representative of the entity as shown on its company register excerpt, or a person holding a valid written delegation of authority from that representative.

A project manager, administrator, or general group representative cannot sign unless they hold a Power of Attorney covering this mandate.

Important: Signing on behalf of the parent company rather than the specific French entity is one of the most frequent reasons a package is rejected.

Supporting documents (KYC)

Submit the following documents to Ecosio at kyc@ecosio.com alongside your completed forms, unless your Zone & Co project team has told you to route them elsewhere. Provide a separate set for each entity.

Company register excerpt

An extract from the official company register (for a French entity, typically the extrait Kbis), dated within the last 3 months at the time of submission. The entity name and registered address on the excerpt must match the forms character for character.

Important: A company register excerpt older than 3 months is one of the most common reasons for KYC rejection. Order the excerpt close to the date you intend to submit — not at the start of the project.

ID copy of the signatory

A copy of the passport or national identity card of the person who signed the Declaration and the Annex. This must be the signatory's ID — not the ID of the person coordinating the paperwork.

Power of Attorney

Required only where the signatory is not the legal representative named in the register excerpt. The Power of Attorney must demonstrate the signatory's capacity to represent the entity for this purpose. Without it, a signature from a non-listed representative is not legally valid and the package will be rejected.

Important: These documents contain personal data. Send them through the channel agreed with your Zone & Co project team, and share them only with the people who need them to complete the registration.

Part 1: PA Authorisation Declaration

The Declaration carries square-bracketed placeholders. Replace each one and remove the brackets.

Reference line (top of page 1)

The declaration number follows the pattern [CompanySIREN]_DE265038025_[YYYYMMDD]_V1. Replace [CompanySIREN] with the 9-digit SIREN of the entity being registered, and [YYYYMMDD] with the date of signature. The middle element is Ecosio's tax ID and does not change.

Opening paragraph

1. Enter the legal name of the subsidiary in the Company name field — the subsidiary's full registered name including its legal form (SAS, SARL, SA, and so on), exactly as it appears on the company register excerpt. Not the trading name and not the parent company.
2. Enter the jurisdiction where the subsidiary is incorporated. For French subsidiaries, this will be France.
3. Enter the subsidiary's official registered address, including street, postal code, city, and country. This must match the address shown on your company register excerpt exactly.

Signature block (final page)

1. Enter the place and date of signing — the town or city where the document is signed, and the date of signature.
2. Enter the full name of the authorised signatory.
3. Apply the signature of the authorised signatory. A qualified or advanced electronic signature is acceptable where your project team has confirmed the method; otherwise sign by hand and scan.
4. Attach the completed Annex as indicated (see Part 2 below).

Important: Nothing else in the Declaration should be altered. The clauses on governing law, effect, and revocation are standard and apply as drafted.

Part 2: Annex (Company Registration Information Form)

The Annex contains 9 sections and provides Ecosio with the technical and administrative information needed to register your subsidiary in the French national directory. Complete all sections carefully — errors or omissions in any section can result in rejection and delay your go-live.

Section 9 of the Annex is the signature section and must be signed by the same authorised signatory who signed the PA Authorisation Declaration.

Section 1 — Subsidiary identification

1. Enter the legal name of the French subsidiary, exactly as it appears in your official company records.
2. Enter the subsidiary's official registered address, matching the company register excerpt exactly.
3. Enter the subsidiary's SIREN number — the 9-digit identifier assigned to every French registered business. The SIREN is mandatory; registration cannot proceed if it is missing or incorrect.

Section 2 — Accredited Platform information

This section is pre-filled with Ecosio InterCom GmbH's details as your designated PA. No action is required from you, and nothing in this section should be changed.

Section 3 — Effective start date and scope of the project

Effective start date

Enter the date from which the mandate becomes effective for the receipt of production invoices. This is the date Ecosio will use when registering your electronic address in the French directory. From that date onwards, invoices received at those addresses are live production invoices containing real data, not test traffic.

Important: Do not choose this date on your own. It must align with your onboarding and testing schedule and with the statutory dates that apply to your entity. Contact your Zone & Co project team and agree the date with them before entering it. An incorrect date is one of the most common causes of form rejection and go-live delays, and it cannot be corrected without resubmitting the form.

Scope of the project

Mark Yes or No against each of the 5 flows to confirm what Ecosio will handle for your entity. If you use more than 1 Accredited Platform, mark Yes only for the flows Ecosio will manage.

Section 4 — Electronic invoicing address

Enter the electronic address(es) that Ecosio will register in the French central directory on your behalf. For most businesses, the main SIREN number alone is the right answer. Enter it in the Main electronic address (SIREN) field and leave the optional rows blank; internal distribution is better handled from the invoice data itself, for example via PO numbers.

Use the optional formats only where your organisation genuinely requires separate inbound channels — different ERPs, isolated branches, or different platforms serving different parts of the business:

• SIREN_SUFFIX (e.g. 123456789_LOGISTICS) — free-text suffixes, independent of physical addresses. The recommended route for custom routing.
• SIREN_SIRET (e.g. 123456789_00015) — routes to a specific physical establishment.
• SIREN_SIRET_ROUTINGCODE — highly granular routing, for example a code service for public administrations.

Important: Do not complete the optional rows without a confirmed business need. Extra addresses can produce routing outcomes you did not intend. If you do add a suffix or routing code, include a short note explaining its purpose (for example, "outbound invoicing only"). Contact your Zone & Co project team if you are unsure.

Section 5 — Former Accredited Platform (migration)

If some or all of the addresses in Section 4 are moving to Ecosio from another Accredited Platform, enter the former platform's company name here so the transfer of your flows can be coordinated. If there is no former platform, enter N/A.

Important: An address cannot be linked to 2 platforms at once. Confirm the deregistration timing with your former platform before submitting this form.

Section 6 — Main contract number

This field contains the reference of the agreement under which you contracted your PA services, and it links the mandate to that contract.

Important: Leave this field exactly as you receive it. Zone & Co pre-fills the correct contract number for your entity before the form is sent to you. Any number you may see in a sample or template copy of the form is illustrative only. Do not overwrite it, do not copy a number from another entity's form, and do not reuse a number from an older version of the document. If the field is blank when you receive the form, contact your Zone & Co project team for the correct reference rather than entering a number yourself.

Section 7 — Main technical point of contact

Enter the contact details for the person within your organisation who will serve as the primary technical contact for Ecosio. A name and email address are required as a minimum. A phone number and job title are helpful. A shared team mailbox is acceptable provided it is actively monitored.

Section 8 — VAT regime and VAT calculation method

This section is mandatory for all customers, including those who have answered No to every e-reporting flow in Section 3. Both fields must be completed.

1. VAT regime for e-reporting periodicity — enter your applicable French VAT regime, which determines how frequently you are required to submit e-reporting data to the French tax authority. Examples include régime réel normal mensuel (monthly), régime réel normal trimestriel (quarterly), and régime simplifié d'imposition TVA.
2. VAT calculation method — indicate whether VAT becomes due on collection (TVA sur les encaissements) or on invoicing (TVA sur les débits). This matters because payment reporting is required only where VAT is due on collection. If you are on TVA sur les débits, you are exempt from that particular obligation.

Important: Both fields in Section 8 must be completed. Leaving either field blank is a frequent cause of rejection. If you are unsure of your VAT regime or calculation method, consult your finance or tax team before submitting.

Section 9 — Signature

1. Enter the name of the authorised signatory.
2. Enter the date of signing.
3. Apply the signature of the authorised signatory.

The signatory must be the same person who signed the PA Authorisation Declaration. An unsigned Annex is not a valid mandate.

Submission checklist

Work through this checklist once for each French entity you are registering. A package is ready to submit only when every item is confirmed.

Before you start

PA Authorisation Declaration

Annex ./1

KYC documents

Submission

Important: If anything in this guide is unclear, or your situation does not fit the guidance above, contact your Zone & Co project team before signing. Correcting a package before submission is quick; correcting one after rejection is not.