Details required on every invoice, details specific to car repair, the new e-invoicing details and the penalties for leaving one out: the list to check before you print.
A garage invoice must carry the details required of any invoice (the identity of both parties, an invoice number, dates, the description and price of each line, the VAT rate, totals excluding and including VAT) and the details specific to car repair: the mileage on the odometer, an itemised breakdown of each service and the description of the parts used (new, second-hand, or exchange units). Issuing a note is mandatory as soon as the amount exceeds €25 including VAT, and each missing detail carries a fine of €15, capped at 25% of the invoice amount.
This first block does not depend on your trade: it applies to your garage as it does to any business. The DGCCRF (the French consumer protection and competition authority) and Service Public Entreprendre set out the list.
The references are article 242 nonies A of annex 2 to the French general tax code and article 289 of the same code for the tax side, and articles L441-3 and following of the French commercial code for the commercial side.
This is the block most often forgotten, and it is precisely the one DGCCRF inspectors look at in a garage. The DGCCRF practical factsheet on car repair, which relies on the arrêté of 27 March 1987 (the order on price display rules for vehicle servicing, repair, roadworthiness testing, breakdown, towing and storage services), states that the invoice must show:
Two points deserve emphasis. First, the mileage: a garage invoice without the odometer reading is incomplete, whatever the amount. Second, the itemised breakdown: a single line reading “service: €290” is not enough. The customer must be able to tell parts, consumables and labour apart.
Under arrêté no. 83-50/A of 3 October 1983 on the price display of all services, the business must issue a note including VAT for any amount above €25. Below that, the note remains mandatory if the customer asks for it. In practice, almost every workshop job exceeds that threshold, so it is simpler to issue an invoice every time than to decide at the counter.
The e-invoicing reform adds four details to those already required:
These details come into force progressively, following the issuing timetable: since 1 September 2026 for large companies and mid-sized companies (ETI), and from 1 September 2027 for SMEs and micro-businesses, which covers almost every independent garage. The obligation to receive electronic invoices, for its part, has applied since 1 September 2026 to all businesses subject to VAT.
Worth preparing early: the most time-consuming detail is not the most complicated one, it is your business customers' SIREN numbers. Completing the records as you go, starting now, costs less than a bulk data clean-up in August 2027. The full timetable and the approved platforms are covered in our guide on e-invoicing and garages.
Not all of them apply to every garage. Check which ones apply to yours:
| Situation | Statement to include |
|---|---|
| VAT franchise scheme (franchise en base de TVA) | “TVA non applicable, art. 293 B du code général des impôts” |
| Member of an approved association (association agréée) | the French statement that payment by cheque and bank card is accepted |
| Transaction under the VAT reverse charge | “Autoliquidation” (reverse charge) |
| Option to pay VAT on invoicing | A statement of the option (see the previous section) |
An invoice addressed to a private customer must state the existence and duration of the legal guarantee of conformity (at least two years) for certain categories of goods only, set by décret no. 2021-609 of 18 May 2021: household appliances, computer equipment, consumer electronics, telephones and cameras. Car parts and repair services are not on that list, so this statement does not have to appear on a repair invoice. That takes nothing away, of course, from the guarantees a customer may rely on elsewhere.
A garage almost always invoices both, and the obligations are not identical.
Two items are added: the late payment interest rate applicable if payment is not made by the due date, and the €40 flat-rate recovery charge. Both apply only to invoices between businesses. This is also the relationship in which the customer's intra-EU VAT number and, before long, their SIREN number are expected.
No late payment interest and no €40 charge, but the entire car repair block applies: mileage, itemised breakdown, description of the parts. It is also the private customer who will turn to a consumer association or to the DGCCRF if the invoice departs from the quote without prior agreement. On that point, see our guide on the car repair quote.
Penalties exist on two separate grounds, and they add up.
In practice, most of the irregularities found in a workshop do not come from any intent to cut corners, but from an incomplete invoice template repeated for months. Hence the value of checking your invoice template once, calmly.
Invoices must be kept for ten years under the accounting obligations of article L123-22 of the French commercial code. That period applies to sales invoices as much as to parts purchase invoices, and it does not depend on the medium: paper or digital.
Two practical consequences for a workshop. First, deleting a customer file in a piece of software must not take the related invoices with it. Second, a regular accounting export to your chartered accountant does not relieve you of keeping your own records: the two go together.
Factually, on the mandatory-details side:
IZZI DEVIS is software for professionals: it produces your quotes and your invoices, it does not collect any payment from your customers. See garage quotes and invoicing with IZZI DEVIS.
Yes. The DGCCRF practical factsheet on car repair, which relies on the arrêté of 27 March 1987, expressly lists the mileage on the odometer among the items the invoice must show, alongside the itemised breakdown of each service and the description of the parts used.
A note including VAT must be issued for any amount above €25, under arrêté no. 83-50/A of 3 October 1983. Below that amount, it must be issued if the customer asks for it.
Yes. The description of the parts used — new, second-hand, or exchange units — is among the details expected on a car repair invoice according to the DGCCRF.
No. The late payment interest rate and the €40 flat-rate recovery charge concern invoices between businesses. They do not have to appear on an invoice addressed to a consumer.
The four new details of the reform (the customer's SIREN, the delivery address where it differs, the transaction category and the option to pay VAT on invoicing) apply following the issuing timetable: since 1 September 2026 for large companies and mid-sized companies (ETI), and from 1 September 2027 for SMEs and micro-businesses, which covers almost every independent garage.
This article is general information, up to date as of 5 October 2026. It does not replace advice from your accountant or legal adviser.
The IZZI DEVIS team
Designs and builds IZZI DEVIS, the voice-driven workshop management software for independent garages.
2026-2027 timeline, approved platform, private customers, new invoice details and penalties: the essentials for a garage.
Not mandatory, but it is your only written proof of what the customer asked for. The six details the DGCCRF expects and the value of the repair order in a dispute.
What the French Consumer Code actually says, the details to include and how the quote must match the invoice.
The essential core, the modules that depend on your business and the criteria for choosing without overpaying.
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