Pennylane for e-invoicing and e-reporting

Who this article is for

Not businesses that already have a well-oiled accounting system. This article is for professionals who still handle their accounting in ways that cost them time: spreadsheets, folders of PDFs, quarterly emails to their accountant, or simply a pile of receipts waiting to be dealt with.

E-invoicing and e-reporting are becoming mandatory in France. It's an opportunity — and a useful constraint — to move to something better organized. And Pennylane is, in my experience, the most accessible tool for that.

I use it myself for my SARL cabinet-partage.fr. What I describe here, I've tested.

What the reform actually changes

From 2026, invoices between VAT-liable professionals must go through a certified platform. That's e-invoicing: your sales invoices are sent in a structured format, readable by your clients' software, and tracked by the tax authorities.

For transactions that don't go through this circuit — sales to individuals, international transactions — that's e-reporting: you periodically transmit the data from those transactions to the administration.

The good news is that Pennylane is a certified PDP (Plateforme de Dématérialisation Partenaire). If you issue your invoices from Pennylane, compliance is handled natively. No additional tool needed.

Why not wait

Many professionals tell themselves they'll deal with this when it becomes mandatory for them. That's a mistake for one simple reason: getting your accounting in order takes time, and doing it under pressure — when the obligation kicks in — means doing it in the worst conditions.

Starting now means doing it at your own pace. It also means building a history from today, which is valuable for financial projections, a funding request, or simply running your business better.

The process that works

This isn't a list of Pennylane features. It's what I've set up concretely, and what runs without taking much time.

1. Bank connection. The first thing to do. Pennylane connects to your bank via Open Banking and automatically syncs all your transactions. This is the foundation: everything coming in and going out is visible, without manual entry.

2. Categorization rules. After a few weeks of use, most recurring transactions are recognized and categorized automatically. Your accountant can refine these rules from their access.

3. Sales invoices. You issue your invoices directly from Pennylane, or connect your existing invoicing tool. Invoices go out in the right format, payments are reconciled automatically.

4. Receipts. For expenses, a photo from the mobile app is enough. OCR extracts the amount, date, and supplier. No more lost receipts.

5. Your accountant in the loop. They have real-time access, see transactions to validate, prepare declarations without you having to send everything at the end of the quarter.

What it looks like over time

After a few months, the time spent on accounting drops to almost nothing on a daily basis. There's a monthly or quarterly check-in with your accountant to validate and plan ahead — but the bulk of the collection and entry work has disappeared.

And when e-invoicing obligations apply to your business, you don't need to change anything. It's already in place.

If you want to talk it through

I'm not selling Pennylane. I'm offering to look at your current situation together, what's taking up your time, and whether Pennylane is the right solution for you. If it is, I can help you set it up properly — bank connections, integrations with your existing tools, configuration with your accountant.

If you have custom tools that issue invoices, I can also connect them to Pennylane so everything runs automatically.