E-invoicing one month in: fewer bugs than feared, and no AI deciding what gets paid
One month after France's e-invoicing reform took effect on 1 September 2026, the Ipsos bva barometer for Kolecto (503 business leaders surveyed from 1 to 18 September) takes stock: 86% of companies with fewer than 250 employees say they have an approved platform to receive their invoices, but 44% have not really tested it yet. And 91% of leaders want to decide on their own whether to pay an invoice.
According to Le Monde du Chiffre, which details the study commissioned by Kolecto, an invoicing platform affiliated with the Crédit Agricole group, the feared incidents stayed rare: 21% of companies ran into bugs, while 64% feared them in July 2025. The most common difficulty comes from others: 34% dealt with clients or suppliers who were not ready, 28% more than once. Support is slipping (54% see the reform as good for their company, down from 69% in 2024), 96% want their invoicing data stored in France, and 52% have not yet prepared for e-reporting, which comes with the next step: from 1 September 2027, SMEs and micro-businesses will also have to issue their invoices electronically.
For a network of domiciliation agencies (providers of registered business addresses in France), the reform arrives from both ends. It must already be able to receive supplier invoices through an approved platform; like most SMEs, it will issue its own invoices electronically from September 2027, to domiciled clients that are often very small businesses. The barometer shows it: what gets stuck is not the tool but the exchange with a client or supplier who is not ready — explaining, resending, chasing. Repetitive work an assistant can prepare, without deciding for anyone.
For AppH
- The barometer confirms the rule we apply: 91% of leaders want to decide alone whether to pay an invoice, and 87% anything that touches their relationship with clients and suppliers. At AppH, the assistant drafts the payment reminder; a person on your team reads it, corrects it if needed and decides to send it.
- The first obstacle observed is not technical: it is partners who are not ready (34%). Explaining the same process to each client, with answers the agency has approved, is exactly the kind of repetitive task worth preparing in advance.
Against / the honest limit
- AppH is not an approved platform: your e-invoices go through the platform you choose. We help prepare payment reminders and replies to clients, not transmit invoices or e-reporting data.
- 96% of leaders want their invoicing data stored in France. At AppH, the application and database are hosted in France (OVHcloud); assisted drafting of a reminder calls an Anthropic model in the United States, with only what is strictly needed (a name, an amount, a date), as our Trust page states.
One month in, the verdict is reassuring about the tool and instructive about the rest: what gets stuck is the exchange with clients who are not ready, and what leaders refuse to delegate is the decision. We draw the same rule as for the agency front desk: the assistant prepares the reminder with the right invoice and the right tone, and a person on your team decides. No promise of shorter payment times; a reminder ready to review at the right moment, and time given back to the team for the real disputes.
Reviewed by a human at AppH