Chartered Accountant ESN & Engineering
Time-and-materials and fixed-price accounting, Syntec payroll, VAT, R&D tax credits and cash planning for ESNs (French IT services firms) in Paris and France.
For an ESN (a French IT services company, formerly SSII), an IT consulting firm or an engineering company, the expert-comptable (chartered accountant) keeps and closes the accounts by sales model, time and materials or fixed price, and tracks margin per consultant. The accountant prepares payroll under the Syntec collective agreement, handles VAT for foreign clients, documents research and innovation tax credits (CIR, CII) or JEI status and forecasts cash.
- Chartered accountant registered with the OEC Île-de-France and statutory auditor registered on the H2A list, based in Paris 8
- CIR, CII and JEI handled with audit-ready documentation, not just box-ticking on the tax return
- SYNTEC payroll applied in practice: 218-day manager contracts, mandatory holiday bonus, salary maintained during inter-contract periods
Who is this for?
- ESN and IT services companies billing on time-and-materials or fixed-price contracts
- Software publishers and engineering firms claiming R&D or innovation tax credits
- Young tech companies under 8 years old testing JEI eligibility
When to contact us
- Before you file a CIR or CII claim, or assess JEI eligibility, so the documentation holds up to a tax review
- When growth drives up headcount, inter-contract time and the working-capital gap between payroll and client payment
What you get
- A documented review of CIR, CII and JEI eligibility with the supporting R&D and payroll files
- Analytical accounting by consultant and project: day rate, gross margin, inter-contract and working-capital monitoring
- SYNTEC-compliant payroll: forfait jours (working time counted in days), holiday bonus, bonuses provided for by company-level agreement
The revenue of an ESN (entreprise de services du numérique, the French name for an IT services company, formerly called SSII) comes from assignments billed on time spent, known as régie (time and materials), or at a fixed price, known as forfait. The firm's engagement starts from that model:
- Bookkeeping and year-end closing by sales model: time and materials, fixed price, subcontracting purchases, VAT returns.
- Margin management: average daily rate (ADR, TJM in French), activity rate, bench time (intercontrat) and margin per consultant and per assignment, from the exports of your activity-reporting (CRA) tools (BoondManager, Gryzzly, Napta) and from books kept on Pennylane.
- Payroll under the Syntec collective agreement (convention collective, IDCC 1486): forfait jours (working time counted in days over the year), RTT rest days, holiday bonus (prime de vacances), bonuses provided for by company-level agreement, DSN (monthly payroll filing).
- CIR (research tax credit), CII (innovation tax credit) and JEI (young innovative company) status: eligibility review, documentation of the work and of the expenditure, tax ruling request (rescrit), assistance in the event of a tax audit.
- Cash and working capital requirement (WCR): cash forecasts, factoring, Dailly assignment of receivables (cession Dailly).
- Structuring: holding company, group tax consolidation (intégration fiscale), acquisitions, BSPCE (founders' share warrants).
The engagement is for those who run ESNs, IT consulting firms and engineering companies, from the founder setting up a company to a business with several dozen consultants. Do you work alone, as an independent consultant? Our page on the accountant for independent consultants is closer to your situation.
Updated 10 November 2026.
You describe your company in a few lines: legal form, number of salaried consultants, share of time-and-materials and fixed-price work, use of subcontractors or freelancers, clients abroad, any tax credit claimed or planned. The fee proposal is drawn up after a review of your documents (latest annual tax return, known as the liasse fiscale, bank statements, invoices, payslips), then an engagement letter (lettre de mission) sets the scope and the fees.
The engagement starts by setting out the model: cost-accounting structure by assignment and by consultant, use of the exports from your activity-reporting tool, year-end method chosen for fixed-price contracts.
If the company does not exist yet, everything starts with setting up the company: legal form, the director's status and remuneration, and a chart of accounts that separates time and materials, fixed price and subcontracting from the outset.
If you are leaving another firm, you terminate your engagement letter in line with the notice period it provides for. For our part, we write to your previous expert-comptable (chartered accountant) to take over the file: accounting entries file (FEC), general ledger, fixed-asset schedule, filed returns. The steps are set out on our page on changing accountant.
In 2026, Digital Services Companies (ESN, former IT services companies), IT consulting firms and engineering companies face four constraints: talent war, pressure on average daily rates (ADR), costly inter-contract periods, and exploding working capital requirements. Hayot Expertise is the specialized accounting firm for ESN that supports your growth from Paris throughout France. We secure your accounting, optimize your taxation (R&D tax credits, innovation tax credits, Young Innovative Company status), and manage your cash flow to finance your recruitment and business development.
The engagement draws on your activity reporting tools (BoondManager, Gryzzly, Napta), working from your exports, to produce operational dashboards: activity rate per consultant, gross margin, inter-contract periods, working capital requirements, and cash flow forecasts. From a 5-consultant startup ESN to a 100-employee consulting firm, the engagement aims to improve your profitability and anticipate your financing needs.
ESN accounting: T&M, fixed-price and connected dashboards
We set up connected accounting with your management tools:
- BoondManager, Gryzzly, Napta: automatic synchronization of activity reports, automatic calculation of forecast revenue and activity rate.
- Revenue recognition: time and materials (monthly time-based billing) or fixed-price (percentage-of-completion or completed-contract method, at the company's choice).
- Analytical tracking per consultant, per project, per client: identify profitable and loss-making contracts.
Monthly dashboards:
- Activity rate (billed days / working days) per consultant.
- Average ADR and gross margin by profile.
- WCR evolution and 3-month cash flow forecasts.
- Sales pipeline: projects in signing, forecast revenue.
Tax optimization: R&D tax credits and Young Innovative Company status
Many ESNs invest in R&D (internal product development, Data/AI Labs, proprietary tools). These investments qualify for significant tax credits.
Research Tax Credit (CIR)
CIR allows you to recover 30% of R&D expenses (R&D staff salaries, a flat overhead allowance of 40% of those salaries, depreciation of equipment used for R&D, approved R&D subcontracting). Watch out: patent costs and technology-watch costs were removed from the base for expenditure incurred from 15 February 2025 (2025 Finance Act). For an ESN with €500k R&D expenses, CIR can generate €150k cash (refundable in N+1 for SMEs).
ESN use cases:
- Development of internal project management or activity reporting tool.
- AI/Data Lab to experiment with Machine Learning algorithms.
- Development of proprietary frameworks for your clients.
⚠️ Warning: consulting services billed to clients are not eligible for CIR. Only R&D work qualifies: an ESN that is not CIR-approved can include in its own credit the research expenses it incurs on behalf of clients, whereas an approved ESN must in principle exclude them, since the client claims them.
Innovation Tax Credit (CII)
CII allows you to recover 20% of innovation expenses (prototypes, mockups, design of new digital services). Cap: €400k expenses, i.e., €80k maximum tax credit.
ESN example: development of an internal SaaS platform to manage your consultants' skills and match profiles with client needs.
Young Innovative Company (JEI) status
JEI status offers significant social and tax exemptions for companies less than 8 years old that devote at least 20% of their expenses to R&D (threshold raised by the 2025 social security financing act):
- Total exemption from employer social-insurance and family-allowance contributions on salaries of researchers and R&D developers, until the last day of the 7th calendar year following the year of incorporation, capped at €8,401.58 of gross monthly pay per employee (4.5x SMIC) and at €240,300 per establishment and per calendar year.
- CFE exemption (business property tax) and property-tax exemption for 7 years, subject to a local-authority decision.
- Note: the corporate-tax exemption was abolished for JEI created from 1 January 2024.
Cash impact for a JEI ESN: the exemption is worth roughly 24% to 28% of gross pay depending on salary level, i.e. about €14,300 per year per developer paid €50,000 gross, so €43,000 to €71,500 per year for a team of 3 to 5 R&D developers.
Our firm audits your eligibility, prepares the JEI file (tax ruling) and secures R&D and innovation tax credit applications to withstand a tax audit.
Payroll and collective agreements: applying the Syntec agreement
The Syntec collective agreement (technical design offices, engineering consulting firms, consulting companies) applies to most ESNs and IT consulting firms. It imposes strict rules on:
Day packages and time off
Executives and autonomous consultants are often on day packages (typically 218 days per year, depending on company agreement). Obligation to track worked days, time off acquired and taken, and respect right to disconnect.
Bench time and company-level bonuses
The Syntec agreement does not provide for a bench premium: the consultant's regular salary is maintained during non-billable periods. Some ESNs add, through company-level agreements:
- Inter-contract bonus: additional pay during these periods.
- Business contribution bonus: reward for consultants who generate new projects.
- Mission bonuses: premium for travel or difficult assignments.
Employee savings: company savings plan, restaurant vouchers
IT talents expect attractive benefits to join and stay in your ESN:
- Company Savings Plan and retirement savings.
- Restaurant vouchers: optional (never legally mandatory); the employer only has to provide a suitable eating area for the workforce.
- Health insurance and death/disability coverage mandatory for all employees.
Our firm outsources your Syntec payroll: calculation of day packages, time off, bonuses, sick leave management, automated social declarations.
The sales model determines the revenue of the financial year.
| Contract | Invoicing | At the financial year-end |
|---|---|---|
| Time and materials (régie, a technical assistance assignment) | The days validated on the activity reports (CRA), at the contract's daily rate | Days worked that remain to be invoiced are booked as accrued income (produits à recevoir, account 418) |
| Fixed price (forfait), percentage-of-completion method (à l'avancement) | The price, according to the contract's payment schedule | Revenue and profit follow the progress of the work: invoices to be issued (factures à établir) or deferred income (produits constatés d'avance) |
| Fixed price (forfait), completed-contract method (à l'achèvement) | The price, according to the contract's payment schedule | Revenue and profit are recorded on completion; until then, work in progress (travaux en cours) is carried at the amount of the costs recorded |
The choice between the two methods applies to a fixed-price project whose execution extends over at least two financial years, which French accounting rules (plan comptable général) call a long-term contract (contrat à long terme). The choice belongs to the company, which then applies it to all its contracts of that type; under both methods, a probable loss on completion (perte à terminaison) is provided for.
Our view: the method spreads the profit across financial years; the sensitive point remains the estimate of the work still to be done. At each closing, analytical tracking compares the days consumed with the budget sold.
An ESN supplements its teams with freelancers, other ESNs or consultants working under portage salarial. Four points matter before and during the assignment.
- How the contract is classified. When an external consultant works under the authority of the client or of the ESN, with no specific know-how and no defined service, the arrangement can be reclassified as unlawful lending of staff (prêt de main-d'œuvre illicite), as marchandage (a for-profit supply of labour that harms the employee or evades the law or a collective agreement) or as an employment contract.
- Portage salarial. The Code du travail (French Labour Code) allows a client company to use it only for an occasional task outside its normal and permanent activity, or for a one-off service requiring expertise it does not have.
- The duty of vigilance (obligation de vigilance). From a contract amount set by decree, the company placing the order (donneur d'ordre) obtains from the other party, when the contract is signed and then at regular intervals until it ends, that party's attestation de vigilance (a certificate issued by Urssaf, the social security collection body), whose authenticity it checks, and proof of that party's registration where registration is mandatory.
- The cash gap. When the subcontractor is paid before the client's payment is collected, the gap is financed out of the ESN's cash.
In the accounting engagement, each subcontractor invoice is allocated to the assignment it serves, so that the margin after external purchases can be read. The legal classification of a contract is a matter for your lawyer (avocat). The practical points are covered in our guide Accounting for French IT services firms: day rates, subcontracting and EU VAT.
An IT service supplied to a client established in France is subject to French VAT. Between businesses, the general rule changes as soon as the client or the subcontractor is established outside France:
- Business client in another EU country: the service is taxable in the client's country, and the client accounts for the VAT itself under the reverse charge (autoliquidation). The invoice is issued without French VAT, with both intra-EU VAT numbers and the wording "Autoliquidation", and the transaction goes into the DES (déclaration européenne de services, the European services return).
- Business client outside the EU: the service is not taxable in France. No French VAT is charged; the invoice states the rule applied.
- Subcontractor established abroad: its invoice arrives without French VAT and your ESN accounts for the VAT under the reverse charge on its own VAT return.
Sales to private individuals follow other rules. An EU client's VAT number is checked before the first invoice.
The case to watch: a foreign client that has an establishment in France. If the service is supplied to that establishment for its own needs, it is in principle subject to French VAT; this is determined from the contract, the purchase order and the VAT number the client provides. The general framework is set out in our article on intra-EU VAT in France.
The ESN business model relies on billing your consultants' working time (time and materials) or fixed-price contracts (maintenance, specific development). In 2026, margins are under pressure: clients negotiate ADRs hard, while salaries for developers, data scientists, and Cloud consultants explode to attract and retain top talent.
ADR (Average Daily Rate) and margin management
ADR is the key metric for an ESN. It must evolve according to profile (Junior, Confirmed, Senior, Lead/Expert) and technical skills (DevOps, Data Engineering, AI, Cybersecurity). Average ADR in Paris ranges from €400 to €800 excluding VAT depending on expertise level.
Gross margin per consultant: ADR billed to client minus consultant's loaded cost (gross salary + employer charges + mission bonuses + travel expenses). A healthy gross margin is between 25% and 40% of ADR. Below 20%, operational profitability is threatened.
Our firm implements analytical accounting per consultant and per project to monitor each contract's profitability. We directly integrate data from your activity reporting tool to automate tracking of billed days, inter-contract periods, and leave.
Inter-contract management: WCR and cash flow impact
Inter-contract is the period when a consultant is not billable. A consultant on the bench costs (salary + charges) without generating revenue. An inter-contract rate above 10% of payroll weighs heavily on cash flow.
Operational solutions:
- Inter-contract bonus through a company-level agreement: the Syntec agreement does not provide one (regular salary is maintained), but some ESNs set up variable compensation to encourage consultants to prospect and train.
- Business contribution bonus: reward consultants who generate new projects.
- Anticipate end of missions with a strong sales pipeline.
Our firm helps you model the cash impact of inter-contracts on your WCR and size your credit lines (overdraft, factoring) to absorb slow periods.
WCR (Working Capital Requirement) for ESN: the growth trap
A fast-growing ESN can have explosive WCR: you recruit (cash advance on salaries and charges), you invoice at 30-60 days, and your clients often pay at 60-90 days. Result: a 3 to 4-month cash flow gap between paying salaries and collecting invoices.
Financing lever: factoring and Dailly assignment
Factoring allows you to immediately mobilize 80% to 90% of your client invoices as soon as they are issued. Cost: 0.5% to 2% of the invoiced amount depending on your clients' quality (large accounts vs. SMEs). For fast-growing ESNs, factoring is often essential to finance recruitment.
Hayot Expertise negotiates factoring contracts for you and integrates financial flows into your accounting.
External growth: M&A in ESN sector
ESNs often grow through targeted acquisitions to:
- Acquire technical expertise (DevOps, Cloud, Cybersecurity, Data).
- Buy a large account client portfolio.
- Absorb a consultant team to accelerate growth.
Our firm supports you on:
- Target valuation: accounting, social and tax due diligence.
- Financial structuring: acquisition through holding, earn-out, liability guarantee.
- Tax integration: corporate tax optimization via group tax integration.
BSPCE and free shares: retain your managers and key people
To retain your senior consultants and sales managers, BSPCE (founders' share warrants) and free shares are two tools to consider, with favorable tax treatment for startups.
We structure these plans with their tax treatment in mind.
| Indicator | Target | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Activity rate | 75% - 85% | Billed days / Working days |
| Average ADR | €500 - €700 | Variable by expertise |
| Gross margin | 25% - 40% | (ADR - Loaded cost) / ADR |
| Inter-contract rate | < 10% | Non-billable consultants |
| Client payment terms | 60 days | Optimize via factoring |
| WCR in days of revenue | 45 - 90 days | Finance by factoring if > 60d |
| Turnover rate | < 15% | Retention key |
Initial situation:
- ESN specializing in Cloud and Cybersecurity, 25 consultants, €3.5M revenue.
- Strong growth (+40% per year) but severe cash flow tensions: massive recruitment, 60-90 day client payment terms.
- WCR of €450k, saturated bank overdraft, difficulty paying salaries at month end.
- No tax mechanisms mobilized (R&D tax credits, JEI).
Typical approach:
- Flash cash audit (1 week): identification of real WCR and receivables to mobilize.
- Factoring contract setup with ESN-specialized factor: financing of 80% of invoices upon issuance, i.e., €200k immediate cash. Cost: 1.2% of revenue.
- R&D audit and JEI application: the ESN developed internally a suite of pentesting and monitoring tools. JEI status obtained: around €71,500 of employer-contribution exemption on 5 R&D developers paid €50,000 gross a year (about €14,300 per developer per year, some 28% of gross pay).
- BoondManager integration with accounting: automatic CRA synchronization, automated monthly billing, real-time activity rate dashboard.
Expected effects in this scenario:
- Cash stabilized: +€250k available cash.
- Employer-contribution savings: around €71,500/year (JEI).
- Accounting time savings: -50% manual entry thanks to BoondManager integration.
- Visibility: monthly dashboard shared with partners.
An ESN pays its consultants every month but collects client invoices on 30-to-60-day terms, so working capital tightens exactly when headcount grows. Two habits keep it under control: tracking DSO client by client (one large account slipping ten days can absorb a full payroll), and arbitrating factoring against bank overdraft on approved time-and-materials invoices. Factoring converts receivables into immediate cash at a known cost; we model that cost against the margin of each contract before recommending it.
✅ ESN-focused approach: the engagement is steered with your own metrics (ADR, activity reports, bench time, factoring, M&A).
✅ Technology integration: work from your timesheet exports (BoondManager, Gryzzly, Napta).
✅ CIR/CII/JEI engagements: documented files, tax ruling, assistance in case of audit.
✅ WCR and cash management: Factoring, Dailly, cash forecasts, growth financing.
✅ Outsourced Syntec payroll: Day packages, time off, bonuses, automated social declarations.
✅ Structuring advice: M&A, holding, BSPCE, tax integration.
Specialized accounting firm for ESN, IT consulting and engineering in Paris
Our guides and articles for ESNs and technology innovation companies:
- Finance your innovation: R&D and innovation tax credits, JEI status
- Business financing: all 2026 solutions
- SASU vs EURL: which status to choose?
- Retirement savings for directors 2026: tax optimization
- Outsourced CFO for startups and SMEs
- Business valuation
Contact us for a free ESN accounting review: bilingual support for tech founders, CTOs, and international operators in France. 58 rue de Monceau, 75008 Paris | Book an appointment
The thresholds and metrics we track for an ESN, an IT consultancy or an engineering firm
Research tax credit (CIR)
30 % of eligible R&D spend up to 100 M€/year, then 5 % beyond (art. 244 quater B CGI)
Immediate refund for SMEs and Young Innovative Companies
Innovation tax credit (CII)
20 % of prototype design and pilot installation spend, reserved for EU-defined SMEs
Expenses capped at 400,000 €/year, scheme extended to 31/12/2027
JEI status: R&D threshold
At least 20 % of tax-deductible expenses devoted to R&D, company under 8 years old, EU-defined SME
Threshold raised from 15 % to 20 % (financial years closed since 01/03/2025)
JEI: employer contribution exemption
Exemption on social-security and family-allowance contributions, monthly pay below 4.5 times the SMIC per employee
Annual cap of 5 PASS per establishment, until the end of the 7th year
Corporate income tax
15 % on the first 42,500 € of profit (SME: turnover < 10 M€, capital ≥ 75 % held by individuals), then 25 % (art. 219 CGI)
Plan CIT instalments and salary/dividend trade-off
SYNTEC agreement: forfait jours and holiday bonus
Annual forfait jours (working time counted in days) for managers capped at 218 worked days; holiday bonus of at least 10 % of total paid-leave allowances
IDCC 1486, bonus paid partly between 01/05 and 31/10
The market and its segments
An ESN combines ADR pressure, benched consultants, Syntec labour cost, long WCR, and sometimes R&D tax credits. Performance depends on a precise read of margin per consultant and the ability to finance growth without breaking cash.
Management checklist for an ESN or an engineering firm
Track margin and ADR per consultant
Cross-reference utilisation rate, loaded cost, billed ADR, and project delivery to detect underperforming contracts early.
Measure the bench weekly
Read non-billable consultants and their cash impact every week to adjust staffing and the sales pipeline before drift becomes structural.
Secure CIR, CII, or JEI
Document eligible R&D work, IP ownership, and labour costs before filing any tax-credit claim or applying for the JEI status.
Anticipate WCR financing
Model client payment terms, hiring plans, and factoring or short-term debt needs ahead of the growth peak.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Syntec collective agreement and why does it matter for my IT services firm?
The Syntec collective agreement (IDCC 1486) covers technical consulting firms, engineering offices, and IT services companies in France. It sets payroll rules (forfait jours working-time arrangements, RTT rest days), classifications (positions I to III), and social obligations (mutuelle, prévoyance). It does not provide for any bench premium: regular salary is maintained during bench time, and any premiums (bench, business referral) come from company-level agreements. Complying with Syntec limits the risk of prud'hommes labour-court disputes and helps retain consultants with compliant benefits (PEE, PER d'entreprise collectif retirement plan, meal vouchers).
Can my ESN claim the CIR R&D tax credit when we build software for clients?
Yes, but under strict conditions. CIR funds R&D work, not classic consulting services. To qualify, the work must resolve a scientific or technical uncertainty. If your ESN is not CIR-approved, it can include in its own credit the research expenses it incurs on behalf of clients; if it is approved, it must in principle exclude them, since the client claims them. An R&D audit by our team secures the claim and helps you survive a tax inspection.
How do you manage benched consultants to limit the cash impact?
An intercontract (non-billable consultant) costs €5,000-€10,000 per month. Levers: 1) Anticipate end-of-mission with an active sales pipeline. 2) Train consultants on in-demand technologies. 3) Set up, through a company-level agreement, a premium encouraging prospecting during bench time (the Syntec agreement does not provide one; regular salary must be maintained). 4) Size your overdraft or factoring line to absorb bench peaks. We model the cash impact and pilot the weekly metrics.
Is factoring suitable for my fast-growing ESN?
Factoring is a financial contract under which a factor advances you 80-90% of your client invoices as soon as you issue them, before the client pays. You recover cash immediately to fund hiring. Cost: 0.5%-2% of turnover depending on client quality. Suited to fast-growing ESNs with high WCR (60-90 day payment terms). We help you compare factoring offers and integrate the flows into your accounting.
What are the advantages of the JEI Young Innovative Enterprise status?
JEI status offers substantial exemptions: 1) Full exemption from employer social-insurance and family-allowance contributions on R&D researcher and developer salaries, until the last day of the 7th calendar year following the year of incorporation, capped at €8,401.58 of gross monthly pay per employee (4.5x SMIC) and at €240,300 per establishment and per calendar year: about €14,300 a year per developer paid €50,000 gross, i.e. €43,000 to €71,500 a year for a team of 3 to 5 developers. 2) CFE business property tax and property tax exemption for 7 years, subject to a local-authority decision. Note: the corporate-tax exemption was abolished for JEI created from 1 January 2024. Conditions: company under 8 years old, at least 20% of expenses in R&D (threshold raised by the 2025 social security financing act). We audit eligibility and prepare the rescrit fiscal binding ruling file.
Which legal form should I choose to set up an ESN (IT services company): SARL, SAS or a holding?
SAS is preferred for ESNs because it offers statutory flexibility (BSPCE warrants to retain talent; no majority-manager URSSAF treatment). SARL is more rigid. In an SAS as in an SARL, a commissaire aux comptes (statutory auditor) is required only when 2 of 3 thresholds are exceeded: €5M balance sheet, €10M turnover, 50 employees; in a group, these thresholds are assessed on the group as a whole, and a controlled company must appoint one once it exceeds 2 of 3 lower thresholds: €2.5M balance sheet, €5M turnover, 25 employees. If you target acquisitions or dividend optimisation, an SAS holding upstream lets you pool profits and tax-integrate several ESN subsidiaries. We structure the setup according to your growth objectives.
How do you pilot ADR (Average Daily Rate) and gross margin per consultant effectively?
ADR (Taux Journalier Moyen) should be piloted by profile (Junior €350-450, Confirmed €500-650, Senior/Lead €700-900). Gross margin = (billed ADR - loaded cost) / ADR. Target: 25-40%. ADR too low or loaded cost too high (salary + premiums + contributions) erodes profitability. We integrate your timesheet tools (BoondManager, Gryzzly) to automatically compute margin per consultant and flag loss-making contracts.
Should I consider M&A growth for my ESN, and how do I finance it?
External growth is common in the ESN universe to quickly acquire skills (Cloud, Data, AI) or large-account clients. Financing: 1) Holding with bank loan (LBO). 2) Earn-out (deferred payment tied to performance). 3) Apport-cession contribution-sale (favourable tax regime). We run accounting, social, and tax due diligence on the target, structure the financing, and optimise taxation (group tax integration, parent-subsidiary regime).
How should an ESN organise its accounting (time and materials or fixed price)?
ESN accounting is organised around the billing model. On time-and-materials contracts, revenue is recognised as time is spent: the days validated on activity reports (CRA) are billed monthly at the contract's daily rate. On fixed-price contracts, a project that spans two financial years is accounted for, at the company's choice, under the percentage-of-completion method (à l'avancement: revenue and profit recorded as the work progresses, through invoices to be issued or deferred income) or under the completed-contract method (à l'achèvement: revenue and profit recorded on completion, with work in progress at year-end). In both cases, analytical tracking by project and by consultant measures the real margin of each contract and flags slippage before the project ends.
Is an expert-comptable (chartered accountant) mandatory for an ESN in France?
No. No legal text requires a company, an ESN included, to entrust its bookkeeping to an expert-comptable: it must keep its accounts, prepare its annual accounts and file its returns, in-house if it has the resources. The statutory audit, carried out by a commissaire aux comptes (statutory auditor) who certifies the accounts, is a different engagement, mandatory above size thresholds. In an ESN, the question is a practical one: Syntec payroll, the year-end closing of fixed-price contracts and a CIR (research tax credit) claim or a JEI (young innovative company) application take time and a method. Our analysis is in the article is an accountant mandatory in France.
What should an accountant know to work with an ESN?
The points that drive an ESN's profit and risk: revenue recognition on time-and-materials and fixed-price contracts, including the loss on completion (perte à terminaison); margin per consultant and the cost of bench time (intercontrat); payroll under the Syntec collective agreement (forfait jours, working time counted in days, and holiday bonus); VAT with foreign clients and subcontractors; the risks of subcontracting; whether R&D expenditure qualifies for the CIR, the CII or JEI status. These are the subjects to raise with any firm you consult, ours included.
How much does an accountant cost for an ESN (IT services company) in France?
Fees depend on your situation: number of consultants and payslips, share of time-and-materials and fixed-price work (each fixed-price contract in progress requires a calculation at year-end), volume of purchase and subcontracting invoices, clients abroad, any CIR, CII or JEI claim. The proposal is drawn up after a review of your documents: latest annual tax return (liasse fiscale), bank statements, invoices issued and received. The firm's published prices are on the pricing page.
A Paris firm working remotely across France
We can work with you remotely anywhere in France, using online steering tools that keep your documents and your figures in one place.
Regulated firm
Samuel Hayot is a French chartered accountant registered with the Ordre of Paris Île-de-France, and a statutory auditor on the list drawn up by the H2A, member of the CRCC de Paris.
National reach
The firm is in Paris 8. It works remotely and can support a business located anywhere in France.
Modern tools
Pennylane, Dext and Silae, with as many tasks automated as possible, so your figures stay visible and the work moves quickly.
Direct contact
The phone number is at the bottom of every page, getting in touch is simple, the engagement letter comes quickly and the mandate is scoped without detours.
Need a quick read on your situation?
Describe your business and your priorities in a few lines: Samuel Hayot replies in writing with a suitable proposal.
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Written by Samuel Hayot
Chartered Accountant, registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Certified Pennylane trainer.
Regulated French accounting firm based in Paris 8, whose founder is also a statutory auditor, built to support companies across France with a digital and decision-oriented approach.
Sources
Official and operational sources cited for this page.