Does your invoice need to be in French in Quebec?

A clear invoice is part of getting paid

Every time you bill one of your own clients, the invoice does two jobs at once. It tells your client exactly what they owe and why, and it becomes a record that has to stand up if the CRA or Revenu Québec ever asks questions. Getting both right is not complicated, but it does mean an invoice needs more than a name and a number.

In Quebec, the invoice has to be available in French

Under Quebec's Charter of the French language, commercial documents such as invoices must be available in French. You can still send an English or bilingual invoice when a client prefers it, but the French version has to be at least as prominent. This applies to businesses doing business in Quebec, not only to those based there. In practice, the simplest way to stay onside is to be able to produce the same invoice in French or in English, and send whichever one fits the client in front of you.

What a compliant Canadian invoice has to show

The CRA sets out the information an invoice needs, and it scales with the amount. For a sale under 100 dollars, you generally need your business name, the date, and the total. From 100 dollars to just under 500, you also have to show your GST/HST registration number and the amount of tax charged, or a note that tax is included. At 500 dollars or more, you add the client's name, the payment terms, and a description of what you sold. When you are registered for the QST as well, both your GST/HST number and your QST number belong on the invoice whenever both taxes apply.

Those registration numbers are not just formalities. Your client needs them to claim their own input tax credits on the purchase, so an invoice that is missing them can cost the person you billed real money and reflect badly on you.

Numbering and keeping a copy

Give each invoice its own sequential number and keep a copy. Invoices are business records, and the CRA and Revenu Québec both require records and supporting documents to be kept for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to. If you invoice from one place, that six year trail builds itself instead of living in a folder of PDFs you have to hunt for later.

Doing it from your portal

With Account Direct, you create these invoices in French or in English directly in your portal, with your registration numbers and the required fields already in place. It is one less thing to manage, and because the invoice lives in the same place as the rest of your books, the copy you are required to keep is already there when you need it.

What this means for you in 2026

An invoice is a small document that carries a lot of weight: it gets you paid, it supports your client's tax claims, and it is a record you have to keep. Send it in the language your client reads, show the details the CRA and Revenu Québec expect, and keep a numbered copy. We can handle that part with you.