PDP: how to choose your partner dematerialisation platform

Since the public invoicing portal was scaled back, one thing is certain: no business will get through the electronic invoicing reform without a partner dematerialisation platform (PDP). It's the PDP that transmits and receives invoices, feeds the directory, and carries e-reporting. The public portal itself is now limited to the central directory and gathering data for the tax authorities.

Choosing a PDP has therefore become unavoidable - and for an accounting firm, a decision multiplied many times over: the firm's own choice, and the one dozens of clients will come asking it to make for them. Here are the criteria that matter, in the order they eliminate candidates.

1. DGFiP registration

The non-negotiable starting point: a PDP is registered by the French tax administration (DGFiP), with a number and a listing on the official register it publishes. A vendor that describes itself as "e-invoicing compatible" without registration is a dematerialisation operator: it will have to go through a PDP itself. Check the official register, not the brochure.

2. Real functional coverage

Not all platforms cover the same scope. The questions to ask:

• Issuing and receiving in all three core formats (Factur-X, UBL, CII)?
• E-reporting of B2C and international transactions, including payment data?
• Handling of the lifecycle statuses (filed, rejected, paid...) the administration expects?
• Onboarding clients with varied profiles: from the flat-rate micro-business to the multi-entity mid-cap?

For a firm, the ability to administer a whole client portfolio from a single console, with proper delegation, is often what makes the difference in practice.

3. Integration with production

A PDP carries flows; your production tools still need to consume them without re-keying. Check the existing connectors to your software, the quality of the APIs, and the granularity of the exports. A platform that forces you to download batches by hand recreates, in a worse form, the very inbox pile it claims to remove.

4. The full cost, not the headline price

Pricing runs by flow, by document, or by flat fee, with tiers. Calculate it against a typical client's real annual volume, e-reporting included, and against the whole portfolio for the firm. A gap of a few cents per invoice changes scale entirely once multiplied by tens of thousands of documents.

5. Reversibility

You're signing up for years of data flows. What happens if you leave? Demand written answers: return of your history in a usable format, portability of your directory connection, notice period, exit cost. A platform that makes leaving expensive has already answered the question about its quality of service.

6. Data location and use

A PDP sees the entire commercial life of a business pass through it: customers, suppliers, prices, volumes, payment terms. That's strategic data. Ask where it's hosted, under what jurisdiction, who can access it, and what secondary uses the contract allows (statistics, scoring, aggregated resale). A business that cares about controlling its data should hold this to the same standard as its AI: hosting in France or Europe, contractually bounded uses, auditability.

Can a firm impose a single PDP?

In practice, no. Some clients will arrive with a platform already chosen by their management software or their franchisor. The realistic scenario is a multi-PDP environment, with a reference platform recommended by the firm and exceptions around it. Which is why the next question matters.

After the PDP: who processes the volume?

The PDP transports. It doesn't do the bookkeeping. Once the reform is in place, every client becomes a daily stream of structured invoices that need posting, matching, reconciling and checking. That's the work our agents take on, whichever platform is used: structured data comes in, the prepared entry comes out, and the discrepancy is flagged with its supporting document.

Choosing the PDP decides the plumbing. What happens at the end of the pipe decides your margins.

Frequently asked questions

PDP, OD, PPF: who does what?

The PDP is registered and transmits invoices and e-reporting. The dematerialisation operator (OD) offers technical services but must go through a PDP to actually transmit anything. The public invoicing portal (PPF) holds the directory and gathers data for the administration.

How many PDPs exist?

Several dozen platforms are registered with the DGFiP, ranging from major software vendors to specialised players. The official list is public and updated by the administration: it's the one that counts.

Should you choose now?

Yes. Receiving becomes mandatory for every client on 1 September 2026, and connecting an entire portfolio doesn't happen in a few weeks. The full timeline is in our guide to the reform.