Factur-X explained: the French hybrid e-invoice (PDF/A-3 + CII)

Factur-X is the Franco-German hybrid e-invoice format: a PDF/A-3 file that a person can read, with an XML file in the UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice syntax embedded in it for machines. It is maintained by the FNFE-MPE in France and the FeRD in Germany, is technically identical to ZUGFeRD, and its current release — Factur-X 1.09.2, equal to ZUGFeRD 2.5.2 — was published on 4 August 2026. In the French reform it is one of the formats every approved platform must accept, and it has been accepted by Chorus Pro for public-sector invoices since 2018.

What a Factur-X file is

A Factur-X invoice is one PDF that carries two representations of the same invoice: the visual page for humans and a structured XML file, attached inside the PDF, that software reads without OCR.

The container is PDF/A-3, the archival PDF profile that permits embedded files. The invoice data is an XML document in the CII syntax (release D22B in the current version), attached as an embedded file and announced in the PDF's XMP metadata by an extension schema that names the standard, the profile and the version. A receiver that only wants to look at the invoice opens the PDF; a receiver that wants to book it extracts the XML and never has to type. Because the XML is the legally relevant structured content and the PDF is its readable rendering, both must describe the same invoice — the seller generates both from the same data.

Factur-X was the first published implementation of EN 16931, the European semantic model for e-invoices, and the FNFE-MPE ships XSD schemas and Schematron rules for each profile together with the full CII schema. How the semantic model relates to its two syntaxes is explained on EN 16931; the whole family of formats on e-invoice formats.

The five profiles

A profile fixes how much structured data the XML must contain, from a header-only extract up to data beyond the European norm. The profile is declared in the XML and in the XMP metadata, so the receiver knows what to expect.

Two profiles deserve a note. MINIMUM and BASIC WL contain no line items, so they cannot express the complete EN 16931 core invoice; a mandate that requires an EN 16931-compliant structured invoice is met from the BASIC profile upwards, and unambiguously by the EN 16931 profile. Reference profiles also ride on Factur-X/ZUGFeRD: XRECHNUNG for Germany and EXTENDED-CTC-FR for France, both subsets of EXTENDED.

Versions: 1.09.2 today, and why it equals ZUGFeRD 2.5.2

Factur-X and ZUGFeRD are the same specification published under two names by two forums; the current joint release is Factur-X 1.09.2 / ZUGFeRD 2.5.2 of 4 August 2026, which superseded the release of 10 June 2026 with a few corrections.

The forums aligned the release with the biannual update of EN 16931 and, according to the FNFE-MPE, took into account the preparatory work of the French tax administration and the AFNOR e-invoicing commission as well as points raised by the German Federal Ministry of Finance in its letter of 15 October 2025. The publication contains the implementation guide, an XMP extension schema example, the D22B syntax mapping per profile, code lists, the five XSD/Schematron sets, example invoices for every profile and the profile logos for the readable page. Older Factur-X 1.0.x files remain readable — the CII syntax is backward-compatible with D16B — but a new implementation should target the current release. Germany's view of the same format is on ZUGFeRD.

Factur-X in the French reform

Under the French mandate, an electronic invoice must be structured (UBL, CII or a hybrid of structured data plus a readable file), must carry the mandatory mentions in dedicated fields, and must be transmitted through an approved platform. Factur-X satisfies the first two; a platform is still needed for the third.

The DGFiP states that approved platforms offer a common minimum set of formats that ensures interoperability, and the FNFE-MPE names Factur-X as one of the three formats of that set, described in the AFNOR standard XP Z12-012, alongside UBL and CII. Any platform must therefore accept a Factur-X file; a buyer cannot be forced to a supplier's format, because the buyer's platform converts. The FNFE-MPE reports that more than 130 approved platforms implement Factur-X. For B2G, Chorus Pro has accepted Factur-X since 2018.

Mentions the French invoice must carry

The reform keeps the existing mandatory mentions of the Code de commerce and the Code général des impôts and adds four, all of which must be present in the structured data so that the platform can route the invoice and extract the data the administration receives:

• the customer's SIREN (the supplier's SIREN is already mandatory);
• the category of the operation: supply of goods, supply of services, or both;
• the "TVA sur les débits" option, where the supplier has chosen it;
• the full delivery address, only when it differs from the customer's billing address.

The DGFiP's FAQ counts 34 data items that are transmitted in structured form, among them the supplier's SIREN, the unique invoice number and the VAT rates; the four mentions above are the ones that allow correct addressing through the annuaire. For cross-border e-reporting the foreign party's intra-Community VAT number or a foreign identifier replaces the SIREN. How platforms, the directory and the concentrator fit together is on approved platforms; the calendar and scope on the France hub.

Validating a Factur-X file

A valid Factur-X file passes four independent checks: the PDF is a conformant PDF/A-3, the XMP metadata declares Factur-X with the right profile, the embedded XML validates against the profile's XSD, and the Schematron business rules of the profile — for EN 16931, the norm's own rules — hold.

1. PDF/A-3 conformance: fonts embedded, no encryption, colour profiles declared, the XML attached with the relationship the specification prescribes.
2. XMP declaration: the Factur-X extension schema with document type, file name, version and profile.
3. XSD validation: element structure and types of the CII document for the declared profile.
4. Schematron rules: the calculation and consistency rules — totals equal the sum of lines, VAT breakdown matches the rates used, mandatory elements present for the profile.

A file can pass the XML checks and still fail as a French invoice if a mandatory mention is absent, and it can pass as a French invoice and still be rejected by a platform for a routing error. The DGFiP's start-up guide distinguishes a platform rejection (format error, missing or inconsistent mandatory data, wrong party identification, routing) from a buyer's refusal, which is a lifecycle status with a motivated reason. The free checker runs the structural checks against a country's rules without storing the file; a comparison of the hybrid and pure-XML approaches is on structured invoice vs PDF.

How KRONENWERK handles this

SUPPORTED. KRONENWERK issues French invoices, quotes-turned-invoices and credit notes as Factur-X — a PDF/A-3 with the CII XML embedded — generated from the invoice data and the stored tax verdict, and validates the structured content at issuance. Incoming Factur-X files, like ZUGFeRD and UBL, are read into bills. What is NOT YET READY is transmission: KRONENWERK is not an approved platform and does not send through one yet; French transmission is planned through Storecove's approved-platform capability and is not yet production-ready. A French business therefore connects an approved platform of its choice and uses KRONENWERK's files with it — see the France hub. Developers who generate Factur-X from their own systems can create invoice drafts through the e-invoicing API; issuing itself happens in the product after validation.