Expense transfers abolished by the 2025 French chart of accounts

Quick answer. For financial years opened on or after 1 January 2025, ANC Regulation No. 2022-06 abolishes the expense transfer technique: accounts 791, 796 and 797 no longer exist. Each operation that used them now has its own treatment: reimbursement of staff costs in account 649, insurance compensation for a loss in account 7587, other reimbursements in account 758, and loan issuance costs spread over time recorded directly in account 4816.

For decades, the expense transfer (transfert de charges) acted as a safety valve in the French chart of accounts (PCG). A cost was booked by nature in a class 6 account, then "neutralised" through a class 79 income account when it was recharged, reimbursed, capitalised or spread. The technique artificially inflated income and blurred the reading of the profit and loss account. The modernisation of financial statements led by the French accounting standards authority (ANC) ends it.

ANC Regulation No. 2022-06 of 4 November 2022, approved by order of 26 December 2023, rewrites the chart of accounts and the financial statements. It applies to financial years opened on or after 1 January 2025. Among its most visible changes:

• accounts 79 are abolished (791 operating expense transfers, 796 financial expense transfers, 797 exceptional expense transfers);
• reimbursement accounts are created that reduce the relevant costs or record income of an identified nature, such as account 649 "Reimbursements of staff costs";
• exceptional items are redefined, refocused on major and unusual events.

In practice, software or a chart of accounts that still posts to an account 79 for a financial year opened in 2025 or later produces non-compliant accounts. The fix is a reclassification to the correct account: no effect on profit, but an effect on presentation.

Capitalised production (account 72) is not affected: it was never an expense transfer within the meaning of the PCG and remains the right tool for an asset built by the business itself.

A SAS enrols an employee on a 3-day course. The salary maintained during the training amounts to €1,500, and the tuition invoiced by the training provider to €2,400 excluding VAT. The OPCO reimburses €900 for the salary and €1,800 for the tuition.

Tuition:

• Debit 6228 Training: €2,400
• Debit 44566 Deductible VAT: €480
• Credit 401 Supplier: €2,880

OPCO reimbursement:

• Debit 512 Bank: €2,700
• Credit 649 Reimbursements of staff costs: €900
• Credit 758 Compensation and other income: €1,800

The salary stays in the 64 accounts; the reimbursement reduces it through account 649, instead of inflating an income account 791 as before. For the full treatment of training costs, see our guide on accounting for training.

Water damage forces a business to spend €6,000 excluding VAT on repairs. The insurer pays €5,000.

• Debit 615 Maintenance and repairs: €6,000 (plus deductible VAT)
• On receipt: debit 512 Bank €5,000 / credit 7587 Insurance reimbursement covering a loss €5,000

If the loss completely destroys a fixed asset, the compensation belongs in account 757, like a sale price, and the net book value of the asset leaves the balance sheet.

1. The software's chart of accounts. Deactivate accounts 791, 796 and 797 and set up accounts 649, 7587 and 758.
2. Automatic entries. Payroll templates (daily sickness benefits, subrogation) and expense report templates often point to a 791: they must be redirected.
3. Comparability. The presentation change is disclosed in the notes for the first financial year concerned, with suitable comparative information.
4. The FEC audit file. A FEC showing accounts 79 for a financial year opened since 2025 draws attention in a tax audit; reclassify before closing.

Abolishing the expense transfer is good news for reading the accounts. Account 791 mixed reimbursements of daily sickness benefits, recharges, insurance compensation and spreading entries: a catch-all that inflated income and distorted margins. From now on, a reimbursed staff cost appears as a reduction of staff costs, and an insured loss appears as such.

The real risk lies in software and habits. In the files we take over, accounts 79 often survive in automatic entries set up years ago. Reviewing the chart of accounts and entry templates in the first financial year opened in 2025 avoids rushed reclassifications at closing.

Hayot Expertise advice. List your past uses of account 791 over the last two financial years: each line points to a treatment to reconfigure. Half an hour of work secures the whole year.