201 articles in this category
Account matching reconciles invoices and payments to reveal the real balances of third-party accounts. Process, checks, aged balance and pitfalls to avoid, explained by a chartered accountant.
The letter of representation is the letter by which management confirms its statements in writing to the statutory auditor at the end of the engagement. Role, content, timing, scope and limits of this audit evidence, and what signing it really commits.
Why your accounting profit is not your tax base: understanding extra-accounting add-backs and deductions, the common cases, and where they appear on form 2058-A.
The third component of the annual accounts alongside the balance sheet and the income statement, the notes complete and comment on your financial statements. Content, size thresholds, micro-entity exemption and small-company abridged notes.
A French SME's annual closing follows a precise order, from stopping bookkeeping to filing the accounts. Here is the checklist of steps, the entries to post and the pitfalls to avoid.
Accrued expenses (FNP), accrued income (FAE), prepaid expenses and deferred income: how to get year-end cut-off right, allocate each flow to the correct period and protect your result and your tax.
How to account for an investment grant in account 131, spread it through account 777, and elect tax spreading under article 42 septies of the French Tax Code: step-by-step method, special cases and FAQ.
Fixed asset or expense: the underlying rule, the 500 euro net tax tolerance, its limits for first-time fit-out and modular furniture, with decision tables.
How a firm reviews accounts by cycles rather than account by account: lead schedules, supporting evidence, permanent file and annual file. The working paper method explained by a French chartered accountant.
How to explain the gap between your account 512 and the bank statement: the step-by-step method, a reconciliation statement that balances, the debit/credit direction trap and stale reconciling items to clear.
A step-by-step method to record a prepaid expense: time-based proration, the entry in account 486, the reversal at opening, and a worked example with prepaid insurance and rent.
Found an error in accounts that are already closed or filed? Here is how to correct a prior-period accounting error, tell it apart from a change in accounting method, and control the impact on retained earnings and tax, without reopening a closed period.
Which thresholds open the door to a simplified balance sheet and income statement, to the management-report exemption and to the abridged notes? Our reading of the accounting reliefs reserved for small businesses, and the traps to avoid before applying them.
How to record a payroll entry correctly: gross salary, employee and employer contributions, payment of the net, paid-leave accrual and matching to the financial year. Method, French chart-of-accounts numbers, watch-points and the mistakes most often seen in practice.
How to build a depreciation plan asset by asset, choose the useful life, handle the first-year pro rata temporis and document the charges in the notes. Step-by-step method, worked example and an accountant's watch points.
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