Accounting
French books, readable at head office.
A French subsidiary keeps its books under the “Plan comptable général” and files its “liasse fiscale”. The group, meanwhile, expects reporting in its own framework and to its own closing date. We do both — and we own the reconciliation between them.
What it coversThe figures have to hold twice: locally and in the group.
A French subsidiary’s accounts serve two readers who do not ask for the same thing. The tax authorities expect the “Plan comptable général”, the annual accounts and the “liasse fiscale”. The parent expects a reporting package in its own framework — IFRS, HGB or another. And on its own closing date, not the French tax calendar’s.
Both sets of figures must come from the same ledger and meet. That is where most of the differences sit that only surface at year end: a chart of accounts that does not map cleanly, provisions treated differently on each side, intercompany accounts that do not clear.
We keep the French books and produce the reporting — with the mapping between the two frameworks as a deliverable, not as a private file. We work in French, German and English.
What it covers
From the daily entry to the reporting package.
Day-to-day bookkeeping
Receivables, payables, bank, fixed assets and matching under the “Plan comptable général”, with the journals and reconciliations that go with them.
Annual accounts and “liasse fiscale”
Balance sheet, profit and loss account and notes, then the tax return package for the authorities — and filing the accounts with the commercial court registry where the company is required to.
Group reporting
Packages to your internal rules, a mapping from the “Plan comptable général” to your group framework, and a closing calendar that meets head office deadlines.
The “FEC”
The accounting entries file in the format the tax authorities require, checked before it is handed over — not assembled in a hurry on the day it is asked for.
VAT and intra-EU reporting
VAT returns, reverse charge, the recapitulative statement and the statistical survey on trade in goods, with the flows classified beforehand.
Electronic invoicing
Connection to an approved platform and the handling of statuses and rejections — built into the accounts rather than run alongside them. The full briefing
ERP connection
Interfaces and configuration for SAP, Microsoft Dynamics and Business Central, including taking over entries from an upstream system.
Taking over an existing ledger
Balances, opening entries and open items from the previous system or the outgoing firm, reconciled before the first close.
Frequently asked
On the books, the closing and the group reporting.
The questions foreign groups ask most often when a French subsidiary starts up or changes firms.
Bookkeeping and closing
Our subsidiary is small. Do we really need French accounts?
Yes. A company registered in France keeps its books under the “Plan comptable général” and prepares annual accounts, whatever its size. What changes with size is the presentation relief and the extent of the notes, not the principle.
Can we keep the group chart of accounts?
Internally, yes. But the French accounts must be presentable under the “Plan comptable général”. In practice you book under the PCG and maintain a mapping to the group chart — that mapping has to be right and documented, otherwise the difference only shows at the close.
Do the annual accounts have to be filed?
Most commercial companies file their annual accounts with the commercial court registry within months of approval. Depending on size, confidentiality can be requested for all or part of them. We prepare the filing and the request where the company is entitled to it.
In which language and currency?
French accounts are kept in French and in euros. Reporting to the group can be delivered in German or English and in the group currency — that is a presentation, not a second set of books.
Audit and data
What is the “FEC” and when is it needed?
The accounting entries file contains every entry of the financial year in a standardised format and must be available to the tax authorities during an audit. The delicate part is not the file but its conformity: that is checked in advance, not on the day it is requested.
Can we change firms mid-year?
Yes, and it is often the better moment. The handover covers balances, opening entries and open items; they are reconciled before the first filing deadline. Correspondence with the outgoing firm is part of the engagement.
Related services
What sits directly alongside the accounts.
Tax advisory
The returns that build on the accounts — and the deadlines that come with them.
See the servicePayroll and HR
Payroll entries, accruals and filings — in the same hands as the accounts.
See the serviceE-invoicing in France
What changes on 1 September 2026 — and what does not apply to foreign companies.
Read the briefingThe next step
Show us one month —
we will tell you where it snags.
A current financial year, a trial balance and the last reporting package are enough to see where the differences sit between the French accounts and the group figures. We work in French, German and English.
- FRADECO SAS · Paris
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50, Rue Chapon · 75003 Paris
+33 1 40 09 13 77 - FRADECO GmbH · Bonn
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Simrockstr. 92 · 53619 Rheinbreitbach
+49 2224 123 14 83