Creating a work-integration enterprise (SIAE): EI, ETTI, ACI, AI and conventionnement in 2026

Creating a work-integration enterprise involves three linked decisions: choosing the right type of SIAE (EI, ETTI, ACI or AI depending on your activity and your target audience), selecting a legal form (association under the 1901 law or commercial company), then signing the conventionnement with the State (DREETS or DDETS) that validates the project and unlocks the aid.

Work integration through economic activity (IAE) is governed by articles L5132-1 and following of the labour code. The law provides for four structures, and the choice shapes everything else: the relevant legal form, the audience served, the economic model and the type of conventionnement.

In the files we support, the first mistake is to choose the legal form before the type of SIAE. It works the other way around: the type of structure flows from your actual activity and from the audience you want to support.

In practice: if you sell a market service and directly employ your pathway workers, the EI is the natural route. If your business is to place those workers with clients, the ETTI falls under insertion temping. The ACI favours a tightly framed social-utility activity with reinforced support, while the AI follows a logic of short assignments for a broad pool of users.

A SIAE can be run by an association under the 1901 law or by a commercial company (SARL, SAS). In practice, the association is common for ACIs and AIs, and the commercial company for EIs and ETTIs, but no rule imposes this pairing.

An important point many people miss: social utility does not require the association form. You can perfectly well pursue an insertion mission as an SAS or a SARL. The choice plays out elsewhere: desired governance, ability to raise funds, how the result is allocated and access to certain financing.

Our reading: weigh three criteria before signing the bylaws.

• Governance: a commercial company allows tighter decision-making and the entry of investors into the capital; the association rests on a logic of members and a board.
• Financing: some subsidies and some funds favour one or the other form; at this stage, ESUS approval (see below) can tip the balance.
• Allocation of the result: the association does not distribute profits, the company can remunerate its partners within a framed setting.

This is the step that turns a project into a genuine SIAE. Every insertion structure must sign an agreement with the State, through the DREETS at regional level or the DDETS at departmental level. This agreement validates the insertion project, sets the number of positions and unlocks the aid, including the aide au poste.

Remember: without an agreement, no SIAE status, and therefore no aid. Conventionnement is not a late administrative formality, it is the very condition of your economic model. We recommend building the conventionnement file in parallel with the legal incorporation, not afterwards, to avoid launching an activity whose balance depends on aid not yet secured.

ESUS approval (solidarity enterprise of social utility), provided for in article L3332-17-1 of the labour code, unlocks access to solidarity savings and certain dedicated financing. Conventionned SIAEs may be eligible automatically or on request, depending on their form.

Treat it as a financing tool, not a mandatory box. If your project targets solidarity savings funds or impact investors, ESUS becomes an asset. If it relies mainly on the market and the aide au poste, it may remain secondary at first.

A SIAE lives on a mix of market revenue (sales and services) and subsidies (the aide au poste and other financing). This dual engine characterises the sector, and it is also its main piloting fragility.

The underestimated risk: not knowing, during the year, what share of your activity rests on the market and what share rests on subsidy. We stress an accounting system that clearly separates market revenue (account 70) and subsidies (account 74). This separation is not just an accounting requirement: it lets you measure the market coverage rate, a key indicator for any dialogue with the DREETS, funders and your bank.

• Qualify your project: activity, target audience, territory, and from this deduce the type of SIAE (EI, ETTI, ACI or AI).
• Choose the legal form (association under the 1901 law or commercial company) with governance and financing in mind.
• Draft the bylaws and incorporate the structure.
• Prepare the conventionnement file and submit it to the DREETS or the DDETS.
• Assess the relevance of an ESUS approval according to your financing strategy.
• Set up accounting that separates market revenue (account 70) from subsidies (account 74).
• Build a forecast integrating the market-plus-aid mix, with a target coverage rate.

Choosing between EI, ETTI, ACI and AI, arbitrating between association and company, securing the conventionnement and building a legible economic model: these are structural decisions taken upstream. Our firm supports these projects from start to finish; you will find the detail of our sector approach on our dedicated page on the accounting support of work-integration enterprises. This article is for information; a decision specific to your situation requires examining your project, your documents and the law in force.