ERP Requirements Consultant, France

How a French cahier des charges should be organized

The structure decides whether integrators can answer a cahier des charges consistently. I organize it around the flows a French company actually runs: sales administration from devis to order, delivery, invoice and collection; purchasing from request to supplier payment; stock and logistics; production, projects or services where they apply; and finance from posting to closing. Each chapter starts with a brief description of the process and the entities concerned, then lists numbered lines.

A line holds one need, written so an integrator can reply with a clear covered, partly covered or not covered. It names its source, such as the sales administration lead, the finance director, the expert-comptable, group IT or the DPO. Each one also gets a ranking in the agreed priority scheme and a short note on the evidence that would show, during acceptance, that the need is met.

Behind the process chapters come the legal and tax obligations, the rules on system behavior, a list of every flow in and out, the data takeover plan and a glossary pairing English working terms with the French vocabulary staff use, such as lettrage, avoir or bon de livraison. The engagement runs in English; if integrators need a French version, translation is arranged by your team or theirs, and the document states which version is the reference. The general method is on the ERP requirements gathering page.

Reform, FEC and TVA obligations as checkable lines

A line such as "compliant with the e-invoicing reform" cannot be scored or tested. I split each obligation into statements a tester can verify, and every one is marked for confirmation by your expert-comptable, because applying the rules to your company is their call:

• Supplier invoices arriving through the chosen platform are received in structured form, matched to order and receipt, and the original file is retained with the posting.
• Customer invoices can be issued in the structured formats your platform accepts, such as Factur-X, UBL or CII, and status messages from the platform update the invoice record.
• Data needed for e-reporting on transactions outside domestic business-to-business invoicing can be produced from the ledger.
• Invoices to public-sector customers can be submitted through Chorus Pro with the references those customers require.
• A FEC file generated from the system reconciles with the ledger and passes the advisor's checks without manual edits.
• TVA is handled according to whether it falls due on invoice or on payment, as your advisor specifies.
• Payroll journals from your provider post to the agreed accounts and analytical axes.

Timing of the reform depends on company size and is set by the authorities; the specification follows what your advisor confirms rather than a fixed date. How the platform choice and the ERP choice interact is covered on my ERP selection page for France.

Non-functional lines: hosting, CSE, GDPR and languages

A cahier des charges can describe processes thoroughly and still leave system behavior to the integrator's goodwill. A non-functional chapter puts that behavior into writing.

Hosting and data protection lines state where production data and backups must be held, whether hosting in France or the EU is a requirement or a preference, which subprocessors are acceptable and what the GDPR processing agreement must contain. Your DPO sets the position and the document records it. Access lines define roles, segregation between ordering, receiving and paying, approval limits and the audit trail expected on master data and postings.

Employee-related logging needs particular wording. Where a CSE exists, introducing tools able to monitor staff activity generally calls for informing and consulting it. I write lines requiring that user logs, activity reports and time capture can be switched on, limited or off per role, with each setting described, so any agreement reached with the CSE can actually be configured and verified. The legal reading belongs to HR and counsel.

Language and output lines matter too. Users may need the interface in French, customer documents and legal mentions in French, and management reporting in English for a parent company. Each output is listed with its language, layout owner and reviewer, and French texts are checked by native speakers on your team. Finally, regional agencies or depots need stated response times and behavior when connections are poor.

Interfaces, migration and priority classes

Interfaces are where integrator estimates drift most, so each one is written as a small specification of its own: which system sends, what starts the exchange, which fields travel, how often, who owns it and how a rejected file is reported and corrected. In a French context the list commonly includes the invoicing platform, bank channels for statements and payment files, payroll journals, EDI with retail or industrial customers, a web shop or marketplace, a CRM and group reporting. Technical depth continues on the ERP integration page.

For the data takeover, the document says which customers, suppliers and articles are carried over, how much transaction history is worth bringing, what the opening position of the new ledgers will be, how lettrage status is carried across, and how older records stay accessible for an audit once the previous package is switched off. Detail is on the ERP data migration page.

Priorities follow a MoSCoW logic expressed in words rather than scores: lines the company cannot start without, lines that matter but could follow in a later lot, lines that are welcome if they cost little, and lines deliberately excluded from this phase. Reform and FEC lines start in the first class. Elimination criteria for the tender are drawn from that class and written so an integrator who cannot meet them is excluded with a recorded reason. Department heads agree the classes before the tender goes out.

Tender, detailed design, contract and acceptance

In the tender the cahier des charges becomes the requirement annex. Each integrator answers line by line with a coverage code and a comment, which makes replies comparable rather than a set of brochures. The tender mechanics are described on the ERP RFP consulting page.

After award, the integrator usually writes detailed functional specifications. I compare them with the cahier des charges line by line: each requirement should map to a design element, and anything quoted as standard should not come back as a paid change. The contract should name the released versions of both documents and refer to the acceptance criteria.

The traceability matrix then follows each line into UAT, through its test case to its result. Each release of the specification has an identifier, a date, an owner and a change register entry, and department heads sign their chapters in writing.

Gaps that put French specifications at risk are fairly predictable: reform lines with no named platform interface, a FEC export assumed rather than tested, French document templates left out, nothing on CSE-related logging, no e-reporting data and no archive access after migration. I check for each before release. The work is remote, visits are by arrangement and I accept no commission from integrators or vendors. See also my work in France.