Payment deadlines are regulated by law, not by your terms and conditions.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Article L.441-10 of the French Commercial Code caps the payment period between professionals at 60 days from the invoice date, or 45 days end of month if the contract stipulates it. After this period, late payment penalties are automatically due, without prior notice: at the rate set by your general terms and conditions, with a minimum of three times the legal interest rate, or, failing that, the ECB refinancing rate plus 10 percentage points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, a fixed penalty of \u20ac40 per late invoice is automatically due (Article D.441-5). The absence of these details on the invoice is itself punishable, up to \u20ac375,000 for a legal entity (Article L.441-16), and the DGCCRF (French Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) can impose an administrative fine of up to \u20ac2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compliance with these deadlines and proof of the right to penalty in the event of a dispute depend directly on one thing: knowing, with certainty, when a payment has actually arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cash receipt status becomes a tax-related factor.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Since September 1, 2026, the french electronic invoicing reform<\/a> requires all VAT-registered businesses to be able to receive electronic invoices. Large companies and mid-sized enterprises (ETIs) must also issue their invoices electronically and transmit their transaction data to the tax authorities (e-reporting). This requirement will extend to SMEs and very small businesses (TPEs) on September 1, 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One aspect often goes unnoticed: for services where VAT is due upon receipt of payment, the “Paid” status must itself be transmitted to the tax authorities by the invoice issuer’s Approved Platform. Knowing precisely when and how much a customer has paid is therefore no longer simply a convenience for internal management; it is mandatory data that the company must be able to produce and transmit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A B2B client most often pays by bank transfer, sometimes several days after receiving the invoice, with a description that doesn’t always include the reference number, or by paying several invoices at once in a single transfer. Reconstructing who paid what then becomes a manual task, done under time constraints, which further delays the confirmation of payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is this combination – a precise legal and fiscal framework and a collection that largely depends on the responsiveness of the customer – that led CentralPay to design a customer invoice payment solution designed to limit delays and failures upstream rather than to deal with them once they have been observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The value of a customer invoice payment solution isn’t measured by the number of payment methods listed on a page, but by what it does when the first attempt fails, or when the customer simply delays. The CentralPay payment page<\/a> is a hosted, multi-mode payment journey designed to maximize the chances of payment at every stage, rather than simply displaying bank details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instant bank transfer, business credit card, SEPA direct debit mandate: the customer pays using their preferred method. This diversity, consolidated into a single process rather than spread across multiple channels, is what makes the difference in the first-time success rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTrace each transfer, identify each payer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A smart checkout process, designed to limit delays and failures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The right payment method, at the right time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When a payment fails, the process offers an alternative<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"customer](\"https:\/\/www.centralpay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/alternatives-echec-paiement.jpg\")
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