Specialist French chartered accountant for Comité Social et Économique (CSE) across France: legal expertise (art. L2315-78), free expertise (L2315-81), PSE, BDESE audit, statutory accounts, statutory auditor (CAC).
A CSE is mandatory once a company reaches at least 11 employees for 12 consecutive months; expanded economic powers, including the right to appoint an accountant, open at 50. Every CSE must keep accounts (art. L2315-64). We handle CSE bookkeeping end to end, keeping AEP and welfare budgets watertight and your thresholds under control.
| Topic | Generalist firm | Hayot Expertise (specialist) |
|---|---|---|
| AEP and welfare (ASC) budget separation | Often merged, exemption risk | Watertight analytics from day one |
| Bookkeeping workload on the treasurer | Re-entry left to elected members | Handled end to end by the firm |
| Threshold monitoring (153,000 euros accounting regime; auditor for large CSEs) | Rarely tracked | Built into the annual review |
| 2026 URSSAF compliance (gifts, ASC service condition) | Generic | Aligned with the URSSAF CSE guide |
| Independence (never audits both sides) | Possible conflict | Strict separation enforced |
The specialist CSE accountant is the independent firm that French Works Councils (Comité Social et Économique) appoint to restore information symmetry against the employer. The mandate covers two distinct regimes of the French Labour Code: legal expertise (article L2315-78), funded 100% (or 80%) by the company, covering the three annual mandatory consultations, PSE (collective redundancy plans), economic alert and M&A; and free expertise (article L2315-81), funded by the CSE's operating budget (AEP), covering BDESE audits, collective bargaining and statutory accounts. A CSE must appoint a statutory auditor and a deputy, separate from those of the company, once it exceeds two of the three following thresholds at the close of a financial year: 50 employees, €3.1M of annual resources, €1.55M total balance sheet (article L2315-73 of the Labour Code, thresholds set by article D2315-40 referring to article R612-1 of the Commercial Code). Hayot Expertise takes on CSE engagements across mainland France, from establishment committees to central works councils — directly delivered, without subcontracting.
A Comité Social et Économique (CSE) is mandatory in any French entity reaching 11 employees for 12 consecutive months. Its powers expand significantly above 50 employees, with a right to three annual mandatory consultations, two ring-fenced budgets, an independent expertise budget, and access to the BDESE database. Above 300 employees the CSE meets at least once a month (article L2315-28) and must set up a health, safety and working conditions commission (article L2315-36); failing an agreement, training, housing and gender equality commissions are required as well. No text requires a full-time CSE secretary: a secretary is simply appointed from among the full members, and that applies from 50 employees (article L2315-23).
For international groups with French subsidiaries, setting up the CSE is a legal obligation, not a choice. Failure to organise elections (entrave à la constitution du CSE) is a criminal offence prosecuted against the company's legal representative — fines up to €7,500 per infraction and, exceptionally, imprisonment.
Where part of the bookkeeping stays with the treasurer, posting expense claims, reconciling the bank, filing supporting documents and drafting journal entries all land on elected officials. That work comes out of their delegation hours, at the expense of the CSE's core mission: collective bargaining, employee defense, ASC programmes and consultation monitoring.
Our approach: we handle the entire CSE bookkeeping cycle, end-to-end, with no entries handed back to the treasurer.
What we cover in the fixed fee:
What end-to-end delivery changes for your elected representatives:
The treasurer has nothing to re-key: postings, bank reconciliations and annual accounts are produced by the firm from the documents provided as they come in. The delegation time this would otherwise take is not spent on bookkeeping.
Key point: with Hayot Expertise, the treasurer signs the accounts, votes at the plenary meeting and retains full legal responsibility — but never has to post a single journal entry. Read our dedicated article: Outsourcing CSE bookkeeping at 100%: why delegate A-Z rather than have the treasurer post entries.
| Criterion | Legal expertise (L2315-78) | Free expertise (L2315-81) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | 3 annual consultations, PSE, M&A, economic alert, OPA | BDESE audit, collective bargaining, CSE accounts, fraud audit |
| Funding | 100% employer (80% for strategic orientations unless agreement) | CSE operating budget (AEP) |
| Document access | All necessary information including confidential (analytical, forecasts, intra-group flows) | Only documents held by the CSE |
| Cabinet selection | CSE majority vote — sovereign | CSE sovereign |
| Indicative fees | €8,000 to €60,000 | €4,000 to €15,000 |
Our pricing relies on a fixed-fee proposal signed before the engagement, with no hidden hourly billing, travel included nationwide.
| Mission | Headcount | Fees (excl. VAT) | Funding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic orientations consultation | < 500 employees | €8,000 – €15,000 | 80% employer |
| Economic and financial situation consultation | < 500 employees | €10,000 – €20,000 | 100% employer |
| Social policy consultation | < 500 employees | €8,000 – €12,000 | 100% employer |
| Employment Safeguard Plan (PSE) | 50 – 200 redundancies | €25,000 – €60,000 | 100% employer |
| BDESE audit (free expertise) | any | €4,000 – €10,000 | AEP budget |
| Annual CSE bookkeeping | simplified regime | €3,000 – €8,000 / year | AEP budget |
| Statutory auditor (CAC) for CSE | 2 of 3 thresholds exceeded | €6,000 – €15,000 / year | AEP budget |
For CSEs with 1,000+ employees or multi-establishment groups, PSE fees can reach €80,000 to €150,000 (fully borne by the employer). Detailed proposal within 24 hours on request.
The CSE treasurer must keep the two budgets strictly separated under threat of URSSAF or criminal exposure:
Our firm secures the absence of accounting porosity between AEP and ASC, configures the URSSAF-compliant gift framework — including the 2026 cap of €200 per beneficiary — and ensures the 10% AEP ↔ ASC transfer cap is documented in the deliberations.
The ANC regulation no. 2021-05, which replaced ANC 2015-01, governs how the CSE prepares and presents its statutory accounts, by annual resources. The obligation to appoint a statutory auditor comes from article L2315-73 of the Labour Code:
| Annual CSE resources | Accounting regime | Obligations |
|---|---|---|
| < €153,000 | Ultra-simplified | Receipts/expenses book + statement of patrimony |
| €153,000 – €3.1M | Simplified | Balance sheet + income statement + notes + treasurer's report |
| 2 of 3 thresholds exceeded (50 CSE employees, €1.55M balance sheet total, €3.1M resources) | Full + statutory auditor | Full statutory accounts + mandatory CAC |
Hayot Expertise runs CSE bookkeeping on cloud platforms (Pennylane, Dext), produces statutory accounts compliant with the CSE chart of accounts, drafts the management report (article L2315-69), and supports your treasurer at the approval vote. For larger CSEs, the statutory audit engagement is carried out in full independence, never for a company and its CSE at the same time.
The Employment Safeguard Plan (PSE) is where the CSE's accountant has the most decisive role. Article L1233-34 requires the employer to submit Book 1 (economic grounds, redundancy volumes, redeployment) and Book 2 (social measures). On a 2-to-4-month timeline, we deliver:
Funding: 100% employer (article L1233-35-1). The scope of a PSE engagement is set case by case, from the number of positions concerned and the procedural timetable.
The economic alert right (article L2312-63) is triggered by the CSE in case of preoccupying facts — accumulated losses, equity below half of share capital, audit refusal, major client litigation, rapid liquidity deterioration.
The BDESE (Economic, Social and Environmental Database — renamed by the August 2021 Climate and Resilience Law) is the documentary backbone of the social dialogue. The employer must include 9 mandatory themes over 6 years (N-2 to N+3) and grant the CSE permanent access.
Our BDESE audit (free expertise, AEP budget) verifies compliance with decree no. 2022-678, checks internal consistency (reconciliation with balance sheet and tax filings), detects omissions (notably on intra-group flows and management fees), and trains elected officials to interpret the database. An incomplete BDESE allows the CSE to suspend the consultation deadline (Cass. soc. 28 March 2018, no. 17-13.081).
For each of the three annual consultations (strategic orientations, the economic and financial situation, and social policy, working conditions and employment), we run a contradictory analysis of the employer's documents (consolidated accounts, BDESE, forecasts, intra-group flows) and hand elected officials an independent report 15 days before the plenary session, together with an accessible summary for employees. A majority company agreement can extend this frequency to a maximum of 3 years (article L2312-19), which we help negotiate to preserve the right to expertise for each year consulted.
The scenario below is a worked example and does not describe a real client engagement: the headcounts and amounts quoted are orders of magnitude.
Context: an industrial group of 1,200 employees announces a reorganisation that includes closing one site, with 320 jobs affected. The central CSE appoints us under article L2315-92 (PSE expertise).
The steps of the engagement, applied to this scenario:
Outcome in this scenario: an expert report documenting the group's actual financial position and costing an alternative, which opens the negotiation on the number of job cuts.
This page is authored by Samuel Hayot, French chartered accountant registered with the Order of Chartered Accountants (Paris Île-de-France region) and statutory auditor (CRCC). Hayot Expertise has been working with French employee representative bodies since 2014, first works councils (comités d'entreprise) and then CSEs, across mainland France.
Regulatory sources consulted:
The CSE treasurer manages two budgets that flow at different cadences. The AEP (operating budget) is paid by the employer typically in quarterly instalments based on the prior year's payroll basis; the ASC (social activities budget) is paid similarly but is often larger. Both must sit in dedicated bank accounts and feed dedicated analytical codes in the bookkeeping system.
The annual cash plan for a CSE typically includes:
A 12-month rolling cash plan, refreshed quarterly, keeps the treasurer ready for the annual general meeting (AGO) and protects the CSE from any liquidity gap between employer transfers and ASC distributions to employees.
Under a hybrid setup, part of the bookkeeping comes back to the treasurer: expense claims, ticketing batches, bank reconciliations. Those hours come out of the delegation time that could otherwise go to negotiation, employee defence or consultation preparation. The end-to-end model removes that step: we carry the full cycle, and the treasurer keeps the review, the vote and the signature.
A common mistake: paying an ASC ticketing batch from the AEP account, or vice versa. Even if reconciled at year-end, the commingling exposes the treasurer to URSSAF scrutiny and complicates the annual approval. Two dedicated bank accounts plus strict analytical ring-fencing is the only safe setup.
A CAC is mandatory once the CSE exceeds two of the three thresholds at the close of a financial year: 50 employees, €3.1m of annual resources, €1.55m total balance sheet (article L2315-73 of the Labour Code). Missing the appointment exposes the CSE to regulatory sanction and undermines its credibility in any future negotiation with the employer.
Many CSEs never appoint an accountant for the three annual consultations, leaving the employer's narrative unchallenged. The expert is funded 100% (or 80%) by the company under L2315-78 — there is no economic argument for not exercising the right.
Above the €200/beneficiary cap, CSE gifts must be declared and may carry social charges. A pre-Christmas review prevents the post-year-end surprise.
Cash transfers between AEP and ASC are capped at 10% of either budget per year and must be voted in the deliberations with formal minutes. Undocumented transfers can be reclassified and trigger reassessment.
Workforce of at least 11 employees over 12 consecutive months
Expanded economic powers from 50 employees
Percentage of gross payroll (art. L2315-61)
0.20 percent from 50 to under 2,000 employees; 0.22 percent above
5 percent of the monthly social security ceiling per employee per calendar year
200 euros in 2026 (versus 196 euros in 2025)
Basis for CSE thresholds (order of 22 December 2025)
4,005 euros per month (annual ceiling 48,060 euros)
Annual CSE resources (art. L2315-64)
Up to 153,000 euros: cash book + annual summary statement
At least 2 of the 3 criteria at year-end (art. L2315-73)
50 FTE, balance sheet 1.55M euros, resources 3.1M euros
The 2017 Macron ordinances (with the Rebsamen and Labour laws) merged the works-council bodies into a single, powerful instance — the CSE, combining the former CE, DP and CHSCT — and shifted the balance towards a more economic and budgetary role for employee representatives. The August 2021 Climate and Resilience Act added ESG indicators to the BDESE.
URSSAF can reassess a CSE if its social-and-cultural-activity policy is discriminatory. Draft clear rules with your accountant, respect the 2026 gift caps (€200 / beneficiary) and align the policy with the 11 URSSAF-recognised events (marriage, birth, Christmas, etc.).
The operating (AEP) budget is not union pocket money. The treasurer should digitise and index every meal or travel receipt on a shared platform to neutralise any suspicion of internal fraud and prepare for a possible URSSAF check.
Since the 2018 reform, transferring annual surpluses between the operating (AEP) and social-and-cultural (ASC) budgets is allowed up to 10%, both ways. A meeting resolution, accounting traceability and minutes are mandatory — we document the operation to secure the discharge.
Appointing a statutory auditor becomes mandatory once the CSE exceeds 2 of the 3 thresholds: 50 staff employed by the CSE, €3.1M of annual resources and €1.55M balance sheet total (articles L2315-73 and D2315-40 of the Labour Code, referring to article R612-1 of the Commercial Code). Exceeding the resources threshold alone is not enough. We anticipate the crossing to avoid an appointment under pressure.
A change of mandate (elections every 4 years) is the riskiest moment: lost documents, contested accounts, a new team starting from scratch. We support handovers by certifying the outgoing mandate's accounts and training the new members.
Wherever you are in France, we deploy a 100% digital interface to deliver fast, highly-structured accounting and financial steering.
Samuel Hayot is a French chartered accountant and statutory auditor registered with the Paris professional bodies.
The firm is based in Paris 8 and operates with a delivery model designed for businesses located across France.
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30 complimentary minutes with Samuel Hayot to challenge your reporting and surface your priority levers.
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CSE elected officials must be supported by independent advisors, exactly as the company's management is (lawyers, CFOs, consultants). A specialist CSE accountant restores information symmetry against the employer, analyses consolidated accounts, secures the AEP and ASC budgets and pilots the three annual consultations. In legal expertise (art. L2315-78), fees are funded 100% (or 80%) by the employer; in free expertise (L2315-81), by the CSE's operating budget (AEP).
CSE accountant fees in 2026 range from €4,000 (basic BDESE audit) to €60,000 (multi-site PSE), with €8,000 to €20,000 for the 3 annual consultations. Annual CSE bookkeeping in the simplified regime costs €3,000 to €8,000. In legal expertise, the employer funds 100% (or 80% for strategic orientations); in free expertise, the AEP budget pays. Hayot Expertise issues a detailed fixed-fee proposal within 24 hours.
100% on our side. Hayot Expertise handles the entire CSE bookkeeping cycle — automated bank feed, posting of all receipts and expenses, reconciliation, AEP/ASC analytical allocation, statutory accounts, management report (art. L2315-69) — with no entries handed back to the treasurer. The treasurer signs the accounts, votes at the plenary meeting and keeps full legal responsibility, but never has to post a single journal entry. Where expense claims, ticketing or reconciliation stay with the treasurer, that work comes out of delegation hours; the end-to-end model removes it.
It depends on the CSE's transaction volume and on how the work is organised, so it cannot be quantified in advance. What is clear is the split of work: the treasurer does not re-key entries, does not run bank reconciliations and does not prepare the annual accounts or the activity and management report. The delegation time this would otherwise take remains available for bargaining, defending employees, running the social and cultural activities and preparing the annual consultations. It matters most in establishment-level CSEs, where the treasurer is an elected official with no accounting background.
A CSE is mandatory in any French entity reaching 11 employees for 12 consecutive months. Elections must be organised within 90 days of crossing the threshold. From 50 employees, the CSE gains the right to 3 annual consultations, mandatory accounting expertise, two separate budgets (AEP 0.20% of payroll + ASC), and access to the BDESE. Failure to organise elections is a criminal offence under French law.
For companies with 50+ employees, the employer funds (1) the Operating budget (AEP): minimum 0.20% (or 0.22% for 2,000+ employees) of gross payroll, used for legal missions, training and accountant fees; and (2) the ASC budget: freely negotiated, typically 0.5–2% of payroll, used for employee benefits (holiday vouchers, Christmas gifts, cultural subsidies). The two budgets are legally separate and must never be commingled.
Legal expertise (L2315-78) is a CSE right framed by the Labour Code: 3 annual consultations, economic alert, PSE, mergers, takeovers. The expert accesses all useful information at the employer's including confidential, and the company funds 100% or 80%. Free expertise (L2315-81) covers other matters (collective bargaining, BDESE audit, CSE statutory accounts): the expert only accesses CSE-held documents, and fees are paid from the AEP budget.
Yes, fully. During an Employment Safeguard Plan (article L1233-35-1), all fees of the CSE-mandated accountant — Books 1 and 2 contradictory analysis, alternative scenarios, DREETS report — are paid 100% by the company. No co-funding is required from the CSE, unlike the strategic orientations consultation (80/20 by default).
The BDESE (Economic, Social and Environmental Database) is a mandatory database the employer must permanently provide to the CSE in any company with 50+ employees. It covers 9 themes (investments, equity, compensation, social activities, financiers' compensation, financial flows, subcontracting, commercial transfers, environment / ESG since the 2021 Climate Law) over 6 years (N-2 to N+3). The CSE can mandate an accountant under free expertise to audit its compliance; an incomplete BDESE allows suspending the consultation deadline (Cass. soc. 28 March 2018, no. 17-13.081).
The 2026 URSSAF social-charge exemption cap for CSE gifts and vouchers is 5% of the monthly social security cap per employee per calendar year — approximately €200 per beneficiary. Above this overall threshold, exemption remains available if the gift relates to a listed URSSAF event (wedding, PACS, birth, back-to-school, mother's/father's day, Saint-Catherine/Saint-Nicolas, Christmas, retirement) and respects the per-event cap.
Yes. Our firm supports CSEs and central works councils across mainland France, directly and without subcontracting. We work on a digital stack (Pennylane, Dext, e-signature) and attend plenary sessions, PSE engagements and negotiations in person. Travel is included in our fixed fees.
ANC regulation no. 2021-05 of 3 September 2021 sets three regimes by annual CSE resources: ultra-simplified (under €153,000) with a receipts/expenses book plus a statement of patrimony; simplified (€153,000-€3.1m) with balance sheet, income statement, notes and treasurer's report; full regime with mandatory statutory auditor (CAC) once 2 of the 3 thresholds are exceeded (50 CSE employees, €1.55m balance sheet total, €3.1m resources).
No. Once a French entity (subsidiary, branch, GIE) crosses the 11-employee threshold for 12 consecutive months, the CSE rules apply identically to French-owned companies. Elections must be organised, budgets funded (AEP 0.20-0.22% of payroll above 50 employees), and the 3 annual consultations conducted. Foreign-headquartered groups should brief their French HR teams on this obligation early — the legal representative of the French entity carries personal criminal liability for non-compliance.
No. The CSE freely chooses its own accountant — independence from the employer is the whole point, since part of the role is to give elected members a view the employer does not control. The employer funds the operating budget (AEP) that pays for it, but cannot dictate who is appointed.
Act quickly and document. We can run a targeted review of the bank flows, the supporting receipts and the social-and-cultural-activity spending, reconcile them against the minutes and the budgets, and produce a report the committee can rely on — and, where warranted, support a referral. Keeping the records and access rights intact during the handover is essential.
Chartered Accountant, registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Certified Pennylane trainer.
Regulated French accounting and audit firm based in Paris 8, built to support companies across France with a digital and decision-oriented approach.
Official and operational sources cited for this page.