Terms of Use

What this site is

eDocument Tools is a set of free tools for reading and checking electronic business documents. The tools run entirely in your browser. They have no upload step: a document you open in a viewer or a validator on this site is read, parsed and checked inside the tab, and is never sent to a server. The privacy page describes the same architecture from the data-protection side.

There is now a second thing on this site, and it works the other way round. The Validation API is a server-side interface for developers who want to validate documents from their own systems: it needs a developer account, it issues API keys, it applies quotas, and a document sent to it is deliberately uploaded. It is governed by the Developer and API Terms, which sit alongside this document rather than replacing it, and which are accepted separately when an account is created.

So: using the browser tools needs no account, and nothing you do with them creates one. Using the API does.

Using the site means accepting these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the site. If you hold a developer account and want it gone, the account page closes it; what closing leaves behind is described on the privacy page. The other thing that can exist about you is a message you chose to send through the contact form, and asking for that to be deleted is enough.

You may use it for anything lawful

Personal, commercial, internal, client work — no distinction is made. The browser tools have no usage quota and no licence to buy. What you may not do is straightforward:

• Automate the website at a volume that degrades it for others. The tools are built for a person with a file, not for a batch pipeline. If you need volume, that is what the Validation API is for — or run the underlying open standards and rule packages yourself; the validator page names the exact artefacts and versions.
• Attempt to compromise the site, its hosting, or other visitors.
• Present the site's output as an official certification, or represent yourself as connected to this project.

What the results are, and are not

The validators execute published validation artefacts — XML Schemas and Schematron rule packages issued by standards bodies and, for France, by the FNFE-MPE — pinned to specific versions that are named on each result. The findings are the output of those artefacts, reported with the rule identifiers they emitted.

That is a technical result, and it is bounded in ways worth stating plainly:

• This is not an official or approved validator. It is not operated by, endorsed by or affiliated with any tax administration, standards body or approved platform. See the disclaimer.
• A clean result is not a compliance guarantee. Compliance with an e-invoicing mandate involves transmission, lifecycle statuses, reporting obligations and retention, none of which can be observed in a file.
• Some checks are not performed at all, and where that is so the result says it. PDF/A-3 container conformance is the clearest example: the Factur-X tools validate the invoice inside the PDF and state, on every result, that the container was not checked.
• You remain responsible for what you submit to a platform, a customer or an administration, and for satisfying the obligations that apply to you.

Developer accounts and the Validation API

The API-specific terms are not repeated here. The Developer and API Terms cover credential secrecy, server-side use, projects, quotas and rate limits, beta status, versioning and target deprecation, suspension and revocation, and account closure. They are accepted at signup, the version accepted is recorded, and the account page shows what was accepted and when.

Three things are worth stating here rather than only there.

• An API key is a server-side credential. It must never be embedded in a browser, a mobile application or anything else distributed to a device you do not control.
• The API is in beta. There is no service level agreement, no uptime commitment and no support commitment, and access may be granted or withdrawn.
• There is no billing. Quotas are entitlements rather than purchases; there is nothing to buy, nothing to cancel and no refund to ask for.

Availability

The site and the API are provided as they are, with no promise that either will be available, that the same tools or targets will be kept, or that a URL will keep working. This is a free service run without a support commitment. Rule packages are updated when their issuers publish new versions, and an update can change what a validator reports about a document that has not changed.

Warranty and liability

The tools are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. To the extent permitted by law, the operator of this site is not liable for any loss arising from use of the site or reliance on its output.

This clause limits liability. It does not excuse an incorrect technical claim: if the site states something about a document that is wrong, that is a defect to be fixed, and reporting it is welcome. Nothing here is intended to exclude liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing here restricts your rights as a consumer under mandatory law.

Intellectual property

The site's own code and text belong to its operator. The standards, schemas and rule packages it executes belong to their respective issuers and are used under their own licences; those are listed with their versions in the project's third-party notices. Your documents remain entirely yours. A document opened in a browser tool is never received at all; a document sent to the API is processed for that one request and discarded, and no licence to it is asked for or granted beyond doing so.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the operator's place of establishment, without prejudice to mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live.

Changes

These terms may change as the site does. The current version is always the one on this page.

Contact

The contact form is the project's channel for questions about these terms, about a validation result, or about anything else on this site. It reaches a person, and it is the only channel that is read.

Mail from this project is sent from no-reply@edocumenttools.com. That is a sending address, not a support inbox: nothing written to it is read. Use the form, or reply to a message you have already received.

Documents are not submitted through the contact form. It has no attachment field, accepts no file, and shares nothing with the tools. Please do not paste invoice or document contents into the free-text fields either — a contact message is ordinary email and travels through mail servers, which is exactly what the tools on this site exist to avoid. What the form does with what you type is set out on the privacy page.

Who publishes this site, and where it is hosted, are on the legal notice.