Till compliance in France: secure till and publisher's attestation

If you sell to consumers in France and record those sales in till software, that software has to be a secure till — a logiciel de caisse sécurisé, as French law calls it (art. 286, I, 3° bis of the Code général des impôts). This article explains what that means, how Passavo meets it, and the few things you still do yourself.

In short: every sale goes into a signed till journal that cannot be changed, the till is closed automatically every day, month and year, everything is archived, and with one click you download the publisher's attestation (attestation de l'éditeur) that you show during a tax audit.

Do you not sell in France? Then you do not have to do anything with this. This page appears by itself for an organisation based in France, and only for the people who manage payments.

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Why France asks for this

France wants a till that cannot be edited after the fact. Deleting a receipt, lowering a day's takings, quietly changing a line: with a secure till that is no longer possible, and an auditor can check it.

The law asks for four things, always listed in the same order in French:

	What it means	How Passavo does it
Inaltérabilité (inalterability)	What has been recorded can no longer be changed or deleted. A correction is a new entry.	Every operation is added to the till journal as a new line. Changing or deleting is impossible, even directly in the database.
Sécurisation (security)	You must be able to show that nothing has been changed.	Each line carries the fingerprint of the previous one (a chain) and an electronic signature. Numbering runs on without gaps.
Conservation (retention)	The data is closed and kept.	A daily closure every night, plus monthly and yearly closures, with their totals. Kept for six years.
Archivage (archiving)	The data is archived periodically, in a form an auditor can read.	Every month and every year, a signed archive in an open format.

How you prove it: the publisher's attestation

French law offers two ways to prove that a till is secure: a certification from an accredited body, or an individual attestation from the software publisher (attestation individuelle de l'éditeur). Since Law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026 (art. 125), that attestation is once again full proof.

Passavo takes the second route. The publisher of Passavo declares, in a document issued in the name of your organisation, that the till functions meet the four conditions above. You download it yourself, at any time, as a PDF — see below.

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What happens automatically

You do not need to switch anything on. If your organisation is based in France, the module is active from the first till operation, and it cannot be switched off there.

What goes into the till journal

• every sale at the counter till;
• every paid web shop order from a consumer, and every manual order you create in the back office;
• every cancellation and refund.

A cancellation does not remove the original sale. It is added as a new line with a negative amount — a reversal, in French an opération de « moins ». That way the history stays complete.

Why the web shop too? In France, online till systems fall under the rule as well. The exception for payments that run entirely through a bank rarely applies in practice, so paid web shop orders from consumers are recorded too. Sales to resellers (business-to-business, with an invoice) are not.

The chain and the signature

Each line in the journal carries the SHA-256 hash of the line before it. Change one line and the chain breaks from that point on, which shows. On top of that, every line is electronically signed (Ed25519) with a key that belongs to your organisation alone.

A hash is a kind of fingerprint of a piece of text: change one character and the fingerprint is completely different.

The closures (clôtures)

• Every night a daily closure (clôture journalière), even on a day with no sales.
• On the 1st of the month the monthly closure (clôture mensuelle).
• On 1 January the yearly closure (clôture annuelle).

Each closure holds the period total (grand total), the total perpétuel — the running total since your first sale, which never goes back to zero — and the same in absolute value, broken down by VAT rate and by payment method. Closures are signed and chained as well.

The archives

Every month and every year, Passavo creates a signed archive (a zip) in an open format, containing:

File	Contents
journal.csv	the till journal: every line with its number, amount, hash and signature
lignes.csv	the product lines on each receipt
clotures.csv	the closures for the period
evenements.csv	the log of technical events
manifeste.json and manifeste.sig	the list of files with their fingerprints, and the signature on that list
cle-publique.pem	the public key for checking the signature
LISEZMOI.txt	an explanation in French for the auditor

An auditor can check such an archive without the software. One command verifies the signature:

openssl pkeyutl -verify -pubin -inkey cle-publique.pem -rawin -in manifeste.json -sigfile manifeste.sig

It must return Signature Verified Successfully. The auditor then compares the SHA-256 of each file with the value in the manifest.

Archives are never deleted automatically.

The technical events log (JET)

Alongside the sales, Passavo keeps a journal des événements techniques: switching the module on, opening and closing the till, sign-ins, reprinted receipts, cancellations, closures, exports, archives, checks, changed settings and errors. That log is signed and chained too.

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The Till compliance (FR) page

Go to Settings → Till compliance (FR). You see it as the owner, or if you are allowed to manage the organisation's payments.

Secure till

The state of the module: active or not, active since, the software version, the key fingerprint, the number of signed journal lines, the number of closures and the total perpétuel.

Details for the receipt and the attestation

Fill this in once and click Save:

Field	What it is for
Legal name (raison sociale)	The official name of your organisation, for the attestation.
SIRET	Your SIRET number: 14 digits. It appears on every receipt.
Legal representative	The person who signs part 2 (volet 2) of the attestation.
Put into use on	The date you started using the till, for the attestation.

Publisher's attestation

Click Download attestation (PDF). You get the official form BOI-LETTRE-000242, always in French, in the name of your organisation:

• Volet 1 is filled in and signed by the publisher.
• Volet 2 is pre-filled with your organisation's details. Check it, add whatever is missing, sign it and keep it with your accounting records.

During an audit you show both parts.

Verification

The Check now button verifies everything: the chain and every signature, every closure recalculated against the journal, and whether any archive has been altered. If all is well, you see how many lines, closures, events and archives were checked.

Archives

All monthly and yearly archives, each with a Download button (a zip). The Create missing closures and archives now button immediately does what otherwise happens overnight — handy after a first day, or when you need an archive straight away.

Closures and events

At the bottom you find the latest closures (clôtures), with the period total and the total perpétuel, and the latest events (JET).

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The receipt

Once the module is active, every receipt carries:

• a consecutive ticket number and the till the sale was made on;
• your SIRET;
• the total excluding VAT and the VAT;
• the first characters of the signature;
• the software version.

If you reprint a receipt, it says DUPLICATA, and the reprint is recorded in the events log. A test order carries SIMULATION, so it can never pass for a real sale.

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What you still do yourself

1. Fill in your details: SIRET, legal name and legal representative, on the page above.
2. Download the attestation and sign volet 2. Keep it with your accounting records.
3. Download your archives regularly and keep them for six years (art. L. 102 B of the Livre des procédures fiscales). Passavo keeps them too and never deletes them by itself, but a copy of your own is always wise.

If you cancel your account, download all your archives first. After that you can no longer reach them, and the duty to keep them is yours.

Who is not covered

If you only sell to businesses, with an invoice, or you fall under the French small-business VAT exemption (franchise en base de TVA), the French tax administration considers that the obligation does not apply to you. If in doubt, ask your accountant.

Without proof

If you cannot show during an audit that your till is secure, you risk a fine (art. 1770 duodecies CGI). With the attestation and your archives, you are covered.

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Outside France

Is your organisation not based in France, but do you sell there — at a festival across the border, say? Then you can have the module switched on too. Ask support. The Till compliance (FR) page then appears for you as well, and you can switch the module off again there yourself. Whatever has already been signed and archived is always kept.

If you sell in Germany, a different system applies; see Till compliance in Germany.

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What if …

What if I want to correct a sale?

Cancel or refund as usual, from the till or from the order. A reversal goes into the journal; the original line stays. That is how it should be: you cannot change, but you can correct.

What if an auditor turns up at my counter?

Give them the receipt they ask for and keep selling. Show the attestation (both parts), and download the archives for the requested period on the Till compliance (FR) page. Every archive includes an explanation in French.

What if the check reports a problem?

Contact support and say what the check shows. Do not change anything in the data yourself; you could not anyway.

What if a month has not been archived yet?

A month is archived as soon as it is over. If you need an archive right away, click Create missing closures and archives now.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I need a certification? No. The law accepts the publisher's individual attestation as proof, and you download it yourself on the Till compliance (FR) page.

Do I need a device? No. The security is built into the software. A tablet or laptop with the counter till is enough.

Does it cost extra? No. The module is part of the counter till and switches on by itself for an organisation based in France.

Can I switch the module off? Not in France: it is mandatory there. Outside France, yes, if it was switched on at your request.

Who can manage this? Whoever manages the organisation's payments, usually the owner. After all, anyone who downloads the archives sees the full takings.

Does anything change for my till in Belgium or the Netherlands? No. As long as your organisation is not based in France and you have not had the module switched on, your till works as it always has. For the till itself, see The counter till.