--- title: "France Β· Every EN 16931 business term (BT)" description: "The complete EN 16931 semantic model for French e-invoicing: all 30 business groups and 164 business terms (BT-1 to BT-165), each with its UBL 2.1 path, whether the French reform makes it mandatory and under which BR-FR rule, and the POST /v1/documents/send field that carries it." canonical: "https://docs.get-flowie.com/compliance/fr/business-terms" source: "https://docs.get-flowie.com/compliance/fr/business-terms.html" --- # France Β· Every EN 16931 business term (BT) Compliance Β· πŸ‡«πŸ‡· France # Business terms β€” the whole EN 16931 model, and what France does with each one An e-invoice is not a picture of an invoice. It is a list of named values the recipient's software reads, and the European standard **EN 16931** gives every one of those values a number: `BT-1` is the invoice number, `BT-9` the due date, `BT-121` the code that says why a line carries no VAT. Your accountant knows them as the _mentions obligatoires_ ; your customer's system knows them as the fields it pays on; a validator quotes them at you when it rejects a document. Every other page here names them one at a time β€” [this cas d'usage turns on BT-25](), [this API field is BT-9](<../../reference/index.html#send-document>). **This page is the whole list** : all 30 business groups and all 164 business terms, each with the UBL path it lives at, whether France makes it mandatory and under which rule, and the field of `POST /v1/documents/send` that carries it. **32** business groups **164** business terms **37** mandatory in France **84** with an API field ## How to read a row Two columns carry the judgement, and both mean something narrower than they look. ### France β€” what the reform requires mandatory Required on every French e-invoice. conditional Required when the stated condition holds β€” the row names it. restricted Allowed, but France narrows the values EN 16931 permits. optional EN 16931 optional, and France adds nothing. ### Flowie β€” how it reaches the wire sent You state it in the JSON body and it is rendered. derived Computed for you β€” the totals, the line numbering, the type code. accepted The field exists and is stored, but is not rendered yet. xml-only No JSON field β€” carry it with `format=ubl-xml`. **Mandatory does not mean you must type it.** Several terms France requires are ones Flowie completes: the document totals, the line numbering, the VAT breakdown. The _Flowie_ column is what tells you which ones you actually have to state β€” anything marked sent is yours to say, and anything xml-only is a gap you have to fill yourself today. The cardinality column is **EN 16931's** , not France's. The two disagree on purpose: the standard leaves the seller's street optional, France makes it a mention obligatoire. Read the cardinality for the shape of the syntax and the France column for the obligation. ## Every business term Grouped the way the standard groups them β€” the invoice header first, then each `BG`, then the line. Search matches the id, either name, the UBL path, the French note and the API field, so `autoliquidation`, `TaxSubtotal` and `BT-121` all find the same row. Mandatory in France Conditional Restricted values Document level Line level Has an API field XML only Loading the referential… Term | Name & UBL path | Card. | France | Flowie ---|---|---|---|--- Nothing matches that filter. ## The four mentions the reform added France already required 24 _mentions obligatoires_ on a paper invoice, and EN 16931 carries all of them. The reform added four more, and they are the four an ERP built for e-invoicing elsewhere is most likely to be missing: 1. **The seller's SIREN** β€” `BT-30`, scheme `0002`. `BR-FR-09` then requires the first nine digits of the SIRET in `BT-29` to equal it. 2. **The buyer's SIREN** β€” `BT-47`. `BR-FR-11` wants it present and active in the annuaire. 3. **The delivery address** when it differs from the billing address β€” `BG-15`, mandatory on a goods invoice under `BR-FR-14`. 4. **The nature of the operation** β€” goods, services or both. This is the _cadre de facturation_ in `BT-23` (`BR-FR-08`): `B1` goods, `S1` services, `M1` mixed, and the numbered variants for deposits, already-paid invoices and subcontracting. Two more get missed almost as often, and neither is new β€” only newly enforced. `BR-FR-05` makes **three legal mentions** compulsory on every invoice (the €40 recovery indemnity, the late-payment penalties, and the early-settlement discount or a statement that there is none), carried as `BT-21`/`BT-22` notes. And `BR-FR-20` requires a `BAR` note declaring which regime the document belongs to. See [the three legal mentions]() for the exact wording. ## What this list is not * **It is the invoice, not the flows around it.** The France column is the obligation on _flux 1_ β€” the invoice a seller files. E-reporting (_flux 10_) and the [lifecycle statuses 200–213]() carry their own data with their own rules. * **The French extensions are not BTs.** AFNOR adds fields beyond EN 16931 β€” the multi-seller line sub-type `EXT-FR-FE-163` and its family β€” numbered in their own space. They are named in the [cas d'usage]() that need them. * **A BT only renders if your template declares a slot for it.** The mapping fills the slots your template has; it does not create new ones. If a value you send is not appearing, ask which `BT-*` fields your template declares. * **There is no BT-4.** The published model does not assign it. The list is complete without it β€” you have not lost a row. ## Use it from the API The same referential, from the same source, with no API key β€” it is a catalogue, not your data: [code] # the whole model curl https://api.get-flowie.com/v1/tools/fr/ubl/business-terms # just what France makes mandatory, at line level curl "https://api.get-flowie.com/v1/tools/fr/ubl/business-terms?fr=mandatory&scope=line" # one term curl https://api.get-flowie.com/v1/tools/fr/ubl/business-terms/BT-121 [/code] Each entry carries `id`, `name`, `nameFr`, `group`, `scope`, `cardinality`, `ubl`, `fr` \+ `frNote`, and `api` \+ `apiState`. Filters: `group`, `scope`, `fr`, `mapped`, `q`. The table above reads the same list as a static asset β€” [`assets/fr-business-terms.json`](<../../assets/fr-business-terms.json>) β€” which is the one to fetch if you want the referential without calling anything. ## References * **EN 16931-1:2017/A1:2019** β€” the semantic data model these ids come from. * **FNFE schematrons v1.3.0 (XP Z12-012)** β€” the `BR-FR-*` rules the France column names. The [UBL generator]() validates every sample against them. * **AFNOR XP Z12-014 v1.4** β€” the 45 [cas d'usage](), which decide _which_ of these terms a given invoice needs. * **[POST /v1/documents/send](<../../reference/index.html#send-document>)** β€” the field-by-field mapping, in the other direction.