Chorus Pro: All You Need To Know

Chorus Pro is the electronic invoicing portal in France. It emerged due to the European Union's (EU) decision to push business digitisation and promote transparency, efficiency and agility in commercial transactions. The Agence pour l'informatique financière de l'Etat (AIFE) desgined Chorus Pro to streamline contracting procedures with the public administration.

Chorus Pro portal is already processing the electronic invoices related to public sector suppliers transparently and agilely. These principles inspired the Ministry of Finance to develop France's mandatory electronic invoicing system. Further, the Chorus Pro will be renamed Portail Public de Facturation (PPF).

What is Chorus Pro?

Chorus Pro is a centralised portal for submitting electronic invoices to the French public administration. It facilitates the exchange of electronic invoices between businesses and public organisations to simplify and expedite administrative processes.

This platform received the invoices in standardised formats such as CII, UBL and Factur-X. It also ensures interoperability with other businesses at national and European levels. Public organisations currently utilise Chorus Pro to receive, process, and electronically archive invoices.

However, with the introduction of public e-invoicing, Chorus Pro will be the new B2G & B2B portal, i.e., Portail Public de Facturation (PPF). The new portal will manage all flows of electronic invoicing directed to the public administration and any business. PPF will also support e-Reporting whether companies use a Dematerialisation Platform (PDP) or transmit directly through the PPF.

Further, Chorus Pro complies with the required security and confidentiality standards for exchanging sensitive information. The department regularly updates the platform, ensuring compliance with legal and fiscal regulations related to electronic invoicing.

Features of Chorus Pro

Chorus Pro is a consolidated infrastructure that enables essential components for extending electronic invoicing to 100% of businesses.

The below characteristics made the Chorus Pro an integral and efficient tool for managing electronic invoices and transformed it into the PPF.

Invoice centralisation: It is a central point for exchanging and managing all electronic invoices in France, allowing businesses to send and receive invoices securely.

Direct communication: The portal establishes a direct communication channel between invoice issuers and recipients.

Process automation: This portal offers the ability to automate electronic invoicing processes. Further, it includes the automatic generation and sharing of invoices and the automated validation and tracking of financial documents.

Validation and verification: The portal automatically validates e-invoices to ensure their integrity and regulatory compliance avoiding errors and ensuring that documents meet current legal and fiscal requirements.

Integration with internal systems: The PPF will inherit the integration capabilities of Chorus Pro with companies' internal systems through API methods as mentioned by the portal and the communication systems defined to integrate future PDPs.

Security and confidentiality: The portal guarantees the confidentiality and security of data. It deploys robust security measures and complies with data protection policies and standards.

How to integrate with Chorus Pro or PPF?

The business must follow the technical integration process using the standards established by the platform. They can do the integration through two methods, as mentioned below:

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): It allows businesses to connect to Chorus Pro in an automated and standardised way. Most PDPs would use this method to integrate with the PPF when businesses manage electronic invoicing activities.

Application Programming Interface (API): The APIs method allows direct integration with the Chorus Pro. The APIs will evolve according to the new mandatory electronic invoicing model. Further, the APIs will remain valid for future PPFs as well.

Businesses must have appropriate credentials, such as a digital certificate recognised by the platform, to integrate and ensure the authenticity of transactions. After that, they can use Chorus Pro to send and receive electronic invoices.

Further, businesses can use certified third-party solutions or specific software solutions. Similarly, when Chorus Pro evolves into PPF, they can hire services from equally accredited third parties to communicate invoices with the portal. These third parties are Plateforme Dématérialisation Partenaire (PDPs) or entities certified by DGFiP to manage the electronic invoices flow.