Journal and General Ledger: France's Mandatory Accounting Books

Quick answer. Two accounting books remain mandatory in France in 2026: the journal and the general ledger (Article R123-173 of the Commercial Code). The inventory book is no longer a mandatory book, but the annual inventory is still required. Accounting records must be kept for ten years (Article L123-22).

The question resurfaces at every year-end and every audit: which accounting books must a company actually hold? Confusion persists because older sources still mention three bound, court-stamped books. The reality set by the French Commercial Code is both simpler and more demanding.

Article L123-12 of the Commercial Code imposes three cumulative duties on every trader: record asset movements in chronological order, verify assets and liabilities by inventory at least once every twelve months, and prepare annual accounts at year-end. These duties shape the entire accounting chain, from the supporting document to the balance sheet.

In the files we take over, the issue is almost never the absence of software: it is a misunderstanding of what these books prove and what the tax authorities may demand. This concern sits at the heart of our bookkeeping and accounting review work.

Two registers are currently mandatory for a company using accrual accounting: the journal and the general ledger, under Article R123-173 of the Commercial Code.

The journal: the chronological record#

The journal records, day by day and transaction by transaction, every movement affecting the company's assets. Each entry shows its date, its debit and credit amount, and the reference of the supporting voucher. It is the chronological memory of the financial year: a purchase, a sale, a payment, a salary appear in the order they occur.

In practice, the journal is usually split into subsidiary journals (purchases, sales, bank, miscellaneous), later centralised into a general journal. This organisation by purchase and sales journal is a standard of any accounting software.

The general ledger: the record by account#

The general ledger contains all the entries of the journal, but this time classified by account of the French general chart of accounts. Each account (411 customers, 401 suppliers, 512 bank, and so on) shows its balance and its detail. Where the journal answers "what happened that day?", the ledger answers "what is the position of this account?".

The trial balance, then the balance sheet and income statement, are built from the general ledger. Knowing how to read a balance sheet therefore means understanding that each line of the balance sheet traces back, through the ledger, to dated and documented entries.

Both books hold the same entries, but with a different sorting logic. The table below summarises how they connect.

In modern software you enter data once: the entry automatically feeds both the journal and the general ledger. The distinction still matters because these are two different output views, both of which can be required.

This is the point that causes the most misunderstandings. The inventory book, the register that once grouped the assets and liabilities recorded at year-end, is no longer a mandatory accounting book. Its absence is not penalised.

Do not conclude, however, that the inventory itself disappears. The duty to verify by inventory, at least once every twelve months, the existence and value of assets and liabilities remains fully applicable under Article L123-12 of the Commercial Code. What changes is the medium: you must still perform the inventory and keep the data that supports the accounts, but without any obligation to transcribe them into a dedicated bound book.

In practice#

Concretely, the year-end stock count, the fixed-asset schedule and the detail of provisions fulfil this role. They are produced by your software and archived with the closing file. This is the documentation we systematically structure when preparing a tax return package.

Stamping and initialling by the clerk of the commercial court are no longer a legal obligation for the journal and the general ledger. This formality is now carried out solely at the trader's request.

Its value has not disappeared. A stamped and initialled book, or computerised accounting that meets the evidential safeguards set out in Article L123-22, enjoys enhanced evidential value in the event of a commercial dispute or an audit. This is a trade-off we assess according to the company's risk profile.

Trade-off: stamped paper or computerised accounting?#

Two routes provide evidential strength. The table compares them.

We almost always recommend the computerised route, provided the tool guarantees the integrity and traceability of entries, as enabled by accounting software such as MyUnisoft.

Two deadlines coexist, and confusing them creates risk. The table sums them up.

The longer deadline, ten years, prevails in practice: it covers a possible commercial dispute. The six-year tax deadline matches the authorities' reassessment window. To avoid applying the wrong duration to each type of document, see our table of document retention periods.

Steps to secure your accounting books#

1. Identify your regime (standard actual, simplified actual, micro) to know the level of obligation that applies.
2. Make sure the software produces a complete, chronological journal and general ledger.
3. Keep the annual inventory record (stock, fixed assets) with the closing file.
4. Check the software's ability to generate a compliant accounting entries file.
5. Archive everything durably for ten years, backups included.

The level of obligation varies by regime and legal form. Here are the situations we see most often.

• Micro-entrepreneur: exempt from journal and general ledger. They keep a revenue book and, for sales or accommodation activities, a purchase register (registers described by Service-Public Entreprendre).
• Simplified actual regime: accounting may be lighter. Receivables and payables may be recorded only at year-end, with cash-basis accounting during the year.
• Standard actual regime: all transactions are recorded day by day; the journal and general ledger are kept in full form.
• Income-tax property partnership (SCI) with individual partners: exempt from providing the FEC during an audit, which does not remove the need for rigorous bookkeeping.
• Association subject to accounting: same journal and ledger principles, with an adapted chart of accounts.

The errors we correct most often concern not the existence of the books but their reliability and retrievability. A few warning signs deserve your attention.

As soon as accounting is computerised, the company must be able to produce the accounting entries file (FEC). Article L47 A-I of the Tax Procedure Code requires it to be handed over at the start of a computerised accounting audit, in a standardised format. A non-compliant, incomplete or non-extractable file exposes you to a rejection of the accounts.

What the tax authorities check#

During an audit, the administration verifies the continuity of entry numbering, the consistency between the general ledger and the trial balance, the presence of supporting vouchers, and the absence of changes after validation. Accounting whose entries can be altered without a trace loses its evidential value.

Our reading is that you should stop thinking in terms of "books" and start thinking in terms of a "sound evidential system". The journal and the general ledger are no longer notebooks: they are outputs of an entry database whose quality depends entirely on data capture, configuration and internal controls. The real question is not "do I have a general ledger?" but "are my entries complete, documented and tamper-proof?".

The underestimated risk concerns companies that partly outsource their bookkeeping or switch software mid-year. We were recently approached by the director of a small trading company after a software migration: the prior year's entries were no longer exportable in the expected format, and the reconstructed FEC showed sequence breaks. The catch-up took several days, whereas a correct initial setup would have prevented it.

Our conviction, as a firm registered with the French Order of Chartered Accountants, is that an accounting book has value only if it can be produced, read and defended at any time. This is exactly what an ongoing bookkeeping engagement secures, rather than an emergency clean-up. Clients who work with our chartered accountancy firm in Paris benefit from this continuous control of the entry database.

Hayot Expertise tip. Check today that your software generates a complete journal, general ledger and FEC, and that your backups cover ten years. If you change tools, export and archive the entries of the closed year before switching. If in doubt about compliance, have your entry database audited before the next year-end. Managing this archive is part of our administrative and accounting management service.