EHPAD Accounting: EPRD, ERRD, CPOM and Tariff Sections Explained for Managers

The EPRD is a French care home's forecast budget, filed with the tariff-setting authority before 30 April of the year it covers. The ERRD is its actual counterpart, filed by 30 April of the following year. Both are read across three tariff sections: care, dependency and accommodation, each with its own funder.

Taking over the books of an EHPAD (a French residential care home for dependent elderly people) means entering a world where three payers share a single resident's bill, where the budget is not called a budget but an EPRD, and where a care assistant's salary must be split across several sections before it even reaches the income statement. For a manager used to an ordinary company, the vocabulary (CPOM, ERRD, GMP, PMP) looks opaque at first. This article puts each piece back in its place, so you can read your facility's accounts and hold your own with the supervisory authorities.

Direct answer. An EHPAD's accounting rests on three tariff sections (care, dependency, accommodation), each with its own payer: the global care allocation is set annually by the ARS director general and paid to the facility by the local health insurance fund (CPAM), the dependency allocation is set by the departmental council president and paid under the APA benefit, and the resident pays for accommodation. Once a CPOM is signed, the facility steers its budget through the EPRD (forecast) and the ERRD (actual), both grounded in cost accounting by section.

The daily rate charged for a resident is not a single block: it splits into three tariff sections, each with its own logic and funder. This is the heart of what makes an EHPAD's accounting different.

The challenge is not knowing these three boxes but filling them correctly. A single euro of cost, a care assistant's salary for instance, must be split across several sections using allocation keys. A wrong key, or one never updated, distorts the care allocation or the accommodation tariff, with a direct effect on cash flow.

As soon as an EHPAD signs a CPOM (a multi-year objectives and resources contract), which replaced the former tripartite agreement, with the ARS and the departmental council, it leaves the ordinary budget behind for a framework set out in the Social Action and Families Code (CASF). This contract is not optional: art. L.313-12, IV ter of the CASF provides that whoever runs an EHPAD "shall conclude a multi-year contract" with the departmental council president or presidents and the ARS director general, and that "the contract is concluded for a term of five years". For an approved facility, it also serves as the social-aid agreement.

• EPRD (forecast statement of income and expenditure). Drawn up at the start of the year, it sets out forecast income and expenditure, the anticipated result and its allocation, and it is filed with the tariff-setting authority before 30 April of the year it covers (art. R.314-210, III of the CASF). It is a steering tool, not a mere return.
• ERRD (actual statement of income and expenditure). Its post-closing counterpart: it records what was actually received and spent, underpins the management dialogue with funders, and is filed with the tariff-setting authority by 30 April of the year following the financial year it covers (art. R.314-232, III of the CASF).

These frameworks do not replace the usual accounting and tax obligations, they sit on top of them. A commercial EHPAD remains subject to corporation tax and the general accounting plan; a public facility applies the M.22 budgetary and accounting instruction, updated by the order of 22 December 2025 and applicable to public social and medico-social establishments and services since 1 January 2026; a non-profit or voluntary-sector EHPAD follows the non-profit entities framework. In every case, the aim is an EPRD and an ERRD consistent with the general accounts and with the facility's real cost accounting. Used well, the EPRD is not a burden but a negotiating argument with the authorities, to defend a care allocation that matches the facility's real workload.

The regulatory timetable for the EPRD and the ERRD#

Two dates structure the whole management dialogue, with a single postponement provided for by the text. The procedure then runs on short deadlines, and it is a rejection, not lateness, that opens the way to a decision imposed on the facility.

One rule runs the other way and often catches managers out: for a facility under a recovery plan or a return-to-balance contract, thirty days of silence from the authority means rejection, not approval.

Two indicators come up constantly in exchanges with funders, and it pays not to confuse them.

• GMP (weighted average dependency) measures the average level of dependency of residents. It weighs on the dependency section: the higher it is, the heavier the autonomy-support workload, which influences the allocation and the tariff. The dependency assessment is submitted for review and validation to a doctor or nurse appointed by the departmental council president and to a doctor or nurse appointed by the ARS director general (art. L.314-9 of the CASF).
• PMP (weighted average care needs) measures the average level of required care. It weighs on the care section and influences the global care allocation set by the ARS director general. The assessment is validated by a doctor appointed by the ARS director general with territorial jurisdiction (art. L.314-9 of the CASF), and only levels validated by 30 June of the previous year at the latest feed the following year's allocation (art. L.314-2, I, 1° of the CASF).

Keep the logic in mind: GMP is about dependency, PMP is about care. Both measures drive part of the public funding; tracking them means anticipating how allocations will move. The timetable matters as much as the score: the practitioners responsible for validation have four months from receipt of the facility's assessments, after which those assessments are deemed tacitly validated (art. R.314-171 of the CASF), a referral to the regional medical coordination committee suspending that period.

A security deposit is not income#

The first thing to check when taking over an EHPAD's books: residents' security deposits booked as accommodation revenue. They are third-party accounts, that is, debts owed to the resident. They must be recorded as such and tracked individually. Two figures frame the deposit (art. R.314-149 of the CASF): it may not exceed the monthly accommodation tariff actually borne by the resident, and it must be refunded within thirty days of departure from the facility, less any amount owed. Treating them as income artificially inflates the accommodation result.

Monthly billing and pro rata#

Accommodation billing follows a monthly rhythm. Special situations (absences, hospital stays, arrivals and departures mid-month) call for clear pro rata rules, otherwise recurring gaps appear between billing and actual occupancy.

VAT: no default rate#

Care and accommodation services for dependent elderly people largely fall under exemptions or special treatments. The matter is assessed case by case according to the facility's status and activity, rather than applying a rate by reflex.

In an EHPAD, staff costs are the largest cost line, and nursing staff account for a decisive share of it. The sector's recruitment strain shows up as costly temp-agency use, high absenteeism and turnover, and constant pressure on the payroll. Steering this line means tracking actual headcount against residents, separating care-section staff from accommodation staff, and controlling the cost of temp work. It is joint work between payroll and management control.

One current development deserves attention: from 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2026, up to twenty-three volunteer departments are trialling the merger of the care and dependency sections into a single global allocation covering care and the maintenance of autonomy (art. 79 of Law no. 2023-1250 of 26 December 2023, as amended by art. 82 of Law no. 2025-199 of 28 February 2025). This is an experiment with an end date, not a rollout: decree no. 2025-168 of 20 February 2025 sets its budget rules, with a flat daily contribution billed to residents, the amount of which is set by ministerial order. If your facility sits in an affected department, the allocation keys between sections and the presentation of the EPRD change: better to anticipate. To go further on all these topics, see our chartered accountant for EHPAD and nursing homes page.

The medico-social budget framework runs in a set order, and each step conditions the next. Here is the mechanism, from filing the EPRD to closing the ERRD.

An illustrative example, with no reference to a real facility: a voluntary-sector EHPAD of around 80 beds, after two loss-making years, produces its EPRD each year but with no real cost accounting behind it. Costs are split by section using old keys that were never updated. By rebuilding the allocation of staff costs by section and isolating the real cost of temp work, one would show that the care section is under-funded against the real workload, while the accommodation section silently makes up the difference. Such a diagnosis then feeds the management dialogue with the authorities. The point this example illustrates is the gap between a formally produced EPRD and genuinely reliable cost accounting. A solid forecast budget always starts there.