4 key questions for a successful Chorus Pro project

Feb 12, 2019 | Digitalization invoices

Visual_Chorus_Pro

To understand the ins and outs of the Chorus Pro project, we turn to AIFE (Agence pour l'Information Financière de l'État), the French government's financial information agency.

Since January 1, 2012, the French government has been obliged to receive all invoices from its suppliers electronically. This is why it has set up the Chorus Factures portal.

Since January 1, 2017, all public bodies (State, local authorities, national public establishments) have been required to issue and receive invoices electronically.AIFE has developed a shared solution: Chorus Pro, a single, free entry point to meet these needs.

As early as July 2016, Chorus Pro made it possible to secure the implementation of the obligation for all players, by the 2017 deadline. It takes into account the organizational diversity of public entities.

Issuers of dematerialized invoices to the State, local authorities and their respective public establishments will follow the following compulsory progressive timetable:

  • 2017: Large companies and public bodies
  • 2018:Mid-sized companies
  • 2019:Small and Medium Enterprises
  • 2020:Micro-companies

If you find yourself in one of these situations, CHORUS Pro will become one of your primary concerns.

There are a few key questions you need to ask yourself if you want to get the most out of your project.

In the following paragraphs, we'll answer any questions you may have to help you make the transition to CHORUS Pro as smooth and straightforward as possible.

Whatever your size or activity, the questions below are relevant to you:

1 - Understanding how CHORUS Pro works

In fact, CHORUS Pro is not WHO! It's WHAT.

CHORUS Pro is the system set up by the French government to exchange all commercial documents with you. Today, this only concerns the invoice. This simplification of invoice processing will help to reduce the costs associated with the . invoice. For more information, visit Digitalization .

Digitalization invoicing is a win-win situation for both the state and its suppliers. It reduces costs for the company (printing and postage) and eliminates the need to handle paper documents. It also reduces processing times, and therefore payment times, and ensures that invoices are delivered to the State. The "Chorus Invoices" portal also enables government suppliers to track the progress of their invoices at any time, free of charge.

Before embarking on your project, you need to understand how the CHORUS Pro platform works, and how to access it. Ask yourself about :

  • the different access modes and their functionalities ;
  • Technical prerequisites ;
  • the specific vocabulary used in the solution.

This phase is crucial, as it will determine your understanding of the platform and help you decide which deposit method to choose.

2. Which invoice submission format should I use?

This choice is already made without you even knowing it, because it depends on the criteria that make up your company:

  • Invoice volume
  • Number of customers and suppliers
  • Company size

These three main criteria will tell you which theoretical deposit mode you should choose. Then there's the capacity and human resources you can allocate to this new task. These other parameters will lead you to choose between the following modes:

  • PORTAL ENTRY: The advantage of this mode is that you don't have to do any internal development. So you don't have to make any changes to your organization or information system. However, each invoice will have to be entered manually. This mode remains effective for government suppliers with a small annual volume of invoice less than 100 invoices per year.
  • DEPOSITED invoice ON THE PORTAL IN PDF FORMAT: This mode requires minimal development for the PDF transformation of invoices only, which can be easily deposited on the PORTAL with FREE access. It is particularly suitable for companies with between 101 and 10,000 invoices per year.
  • COMPUTERIZED DATA INTERCHANGE(EDI): This mode is intended for larger volumes, i.e. over 1,000 invoices per year. This is why companies in this situation will need to equip themselves with an EDI solution. In fact, the other modes won't be able to handle such a large volume of invoices. On the other hand, you run the risk of spending hours or even days typing up invoices or sending PDFs over the Internet. invoice or sending PDFs to the portal. Your information system will therefore be automatically connected to that ofAIFE, making invoice dispatch transparent, and processing secure and rapid. 

3. How do you tame EDI?

Now that you've found the best way to send your invoices, and realized that you'll have to go through theEDI phase, you'll need to optimize the size of your project.

To do this, you need a TODO list, which will be your guideline for your Chorus Pro EDI project.

This task list or expression of needs must be carried out in a serious and methodical way, to avoid process errors and future incompatibilities between your system and that ofAIFE.

The 3I key will be your advisor for expressing your needs:

CHORUS Pro REGISTRATION

  • First register on the Chorus Pro portal
  • Then you choose a delivery method. Don't forget to download sample flows, XSD schemas and XSL style sheets.

INTEGRATING YOUR DATA AND THE RIGHT INFORMATION

  • Bring together business services within your company to streamline data. These can be broken down as follows: mandatory data, business rules in your invoicing, naming, compression or even duplicate invoices in your systems.
  • Validate catalogs, directories and product codes. This is also an opportunity to check all your product data, as it must correspond exactly to what CHORUS Pro expects. If not, invoices will not be processed.
  • As a reminder, your company's or your customer's identity and mandatory data must be completely accurate for CHORUS Pro integration to be validated. Remember to check the following information beforehand: Siret, EJ and SE* codes,

USER INFORMATION

If you put the emphasis on training and informing new processes in your invoice management system, then your efforts will pay off. On the one hand, training will enable your staff to familiarize themselves with and become proficient in the various operations accessible via the CHORUS Pro portal. On the other hand, you need to clearly formulate the information expected by your customers and suppliers on the public platform, so that they can work with it in EDI mode. 

*EJ and ES: Legal commitment number, number which correspond to the order number and the executing department. It is important to have the right order number to avoid ending up in "rejection mode".

4. Set upEDI with an operator

EDI implies a functional internal organization, a dedicated infrastructure and a pre-established architecture. All of these prerequisites have an implementation and operating cost that can deter many companies.

CHORUS Pro is your best ally when it comes to invoicing the French government. To simplify implementation, you can call on the services of an EDI operator . He or she will guide you through the connection to the CHORUS Pro portal. Depending on your needs, he or she will present you with a range of formulas adapted to your entry intoEDI. Finally, they can support you throughout the change management of your internal processes. Your process will evolve at your own pace, both operationally and functionally.

ICD can answer all your questions. A team of experts is on hand to help you express your needs, right through to the successful completion of the CHORUS Pro project. As an operator of Digitalization, you can also consult our our EDI solutions solutions on our website by clicking here.

 

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