In addition to wasted time, managing the headache of invoicing can quickly turn into a nightmare! Discover all the reasons to choose suitable invoicing software that will save you time and therefore money.
Mandatory legal notices on your firm’s invoices
According to the article L441-3 of the Commercial Code, the mandatory information that must appear on your invoices are :
- A unique invoice number (the sequence must be chronological and continuous)
- Name and address of the lawyer: articles 123-237 and 238 of the Commercial Code add additional recommended information (legal form) or mandatory (SIRET number if registered with the RCS)
- Customer name and address
- The date of execution of the service
- The date of issue of the invoice
- The payment due date
- The quantity and precise description of the services
- The unit price excluding tax as well as any discounts or reductions
- The rate of late penalties applicable
Since 2013, it is necessary to add the mention of the amount of the fixed compensation of €40 for recovery costs due to the creditor in the event of late payment.
In general, lawyers are subject to VAT. If you are in this case, the II of article 289 of the general tax code (CGI) et Article 242 nonies A of Annex II to the CGI apply. Your invoices must therefore also indicate:
- The individual VAT identification number of the lawyer as well as that of the client if he is liable for VAT
- The applicable VAT rate
- The total amount excluding VAT subject to VAT and the amount not subject to VAT
- The total amount including tax to pay
In the event of VAT exemption, it is necessary to specify on the invoice “VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the CGI” (or any other appropriate provision providing for VAT exemption in the General Tax Code).
For billing of fees, this is governed by the law of December 31, 1971. It sets different criteria left to the appreciation of the professional: difficulty of the file, specialization of the lawyer, his experience or his notoriety, etc.
In general, 4 main billing methods are used: by time spent, by fixed price, by subscription or by result (in the latter case, in addition only).
If you have a lack of invoicing, convenience or fictitious invoice, article 1737 of the CGI provides for a fine of 50% of the sums paid or received.
For all omission or inaccuracy, the missing mandatory legal notice is punishable by a fine of €15. If there are several, a cap is applied at 25% of the invoice amount.
In addition, in the event of a non-compliant invoice, you also risk a criminal fine of up to €75.
Invoicing software: a real daily personal assistant!
Since the law of December 30, 2017 known as “anti-VAT fraud”, software or cash register systems must be certified.
On the other hand, there is no obligation to equip yourself! If you already use cash register software, you can ask the software publisher for a certification certificate if it is already in good standing.
All other commercial management, accounting or invoicing software is not affected by this law and is therefore not subject to the certification obligation.
To manage your practice, the best thing is to turn to hosted digital solutions as Jarvis Legal.
Invoicing and accounting software should work like your personal online assistant. This is what the Jarvis Legal platform does. Once configured, it takes care of everything for you.
Register for a demo session of Jarvis Legal invoicing features.
All files of all employees are centralized on the platform. This makes internal communication and management of teams within the firm easier. Each employee can enter their hourly rate and working time on a file and convert them directly into time to be invoiced using to time tracking.
Editing an invoice becomes more intuitive, easier and faster : you set your preferences once and you can create reusable templates. Then, all that remains is to choose your billing type, your file and click send! You even have the possibility of invoicing several files at the same time.
Obviously, all your invoices are legally perfect!
In short, opting for the Jarvis platform offers a real time saver to devote yourself to your files or to write a little accompanying word to send to your customer with their invoice…!
