Bookkeeping Catch-Up in France — Get Your Accounts Back on Track

Bookkeeping Catch-Up in France — Hayot Expertise, Chartered Accountants#

A bookkeeping catch-up brings a neglected French accounting file back up to date: posting the missing periods, reconciling the banks, regularising overdue VAT returns, then producing the annual accounts, the French corporate tax return (liasse fiscale) and the filing with the commercial court registry. Hayot Expertise, a firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables (Paris Île-de-France), handles these engagements end to end: diagnosis within 24 to 48 hours, fixed quote within 24 hours, then a structured catch-up, whether the backlog covers three months or several financial years.

A backlog is almost never deliberate: an accountant who left without a handover, a business that grew faster than its back office, a difficult year when paperwork slipped. What matters is what happens next: the earlier the regularisation starts, the simpler and cheaper it is, and the sooner you regain control of your numbers.

The catch-up covers everything needed to bring the accounts current: collecting and organising documents, posting the missing entries, bank reconciliations, matching customer and supplier accounts, regularising omitted tax returns (VAT first), closing entries, then producing the annual accounts and the tax return.

It differs from closing reinforcement, which adds capacity to an accounting function that is up to date but cannot close on time. The two often combine: clear the backlog first, then secure the close. For a detailed view of use cases and costs, see our guide on bookkeeping catch-up and closing reinforcement.

VAT has not been declared for several months#

This is the most frequent and most urgent signal. For VAT, the French administration may issue an automatic assessment without prior formal notice (Articles L. 66 et seq. of the French tax procedure code): it estimates your bases itself and taxes you on them. Filing late CA3 returns is almost always more favourable than letting the administration estimate in your place.

You received a letter or formal notice from the French tax office#

A reminder from the SIE (corporate tax office), a formal notice to file, an automatic assessment notice: these letters start short clocks. After a formal notice, you generally have 30 days to file before the surcharge rises from 10% to 40% (Article 1728 of the French tax code). That window is precisely when a well-run catch-up changes the final outcome.

The tax return was not filed, the annual accounts are pending#

A French company subject to corporate tax files its return within 3 months of year-end in principle (plus 15 extra days for electronic filing; mid-May for 31 December year-ends). The annual accounts must then be approved and filed with the registry. An unclosed year blocks everything: dividend distributions, bank files, certificates, and exposes the company to a filing injunction with daily penalties.

The accountant left without a handover#

The departure of an in-house bookkeeper, or a break with a provider, often leaves an undocumented file: pending entries, uncertain VAT, lost access to tools. The engagement then includes reconstructing the file's memory, starting from what does not lie: the bank statements.

French tax penalties accumulate mechanically over time. The main ones, as in force at the date this page was updated (July 2026):

Two points work in your favour:

• Spontaneous regularisation is rewarded. A spontaneous corrective filing, before any audit and with payment, halves the late-payment interest for a good-faith taxpayer (Article 1727). Waiting for an audit forfeits this.
• The administration's reassessment window is bounded. It covers the last three years in principle (Articles L. 169 LPF for income and corporate tax, L. 176 for VAT), but is extended for undisclosed activity: not filing at all is exactly what lengthens the auditable period.

These rules evolve: verify the rates and amounts for your own situation. That is what the initial diagnosis is for.

1. File diagnosis (24 to 48 hours). We assess the real state of the accounting: missing periods, undeclared VAT, bank discrepancies, available documents, deadlines at stake. You receive a clear, jargon-free map of what is urgent and what can wait.
2. Fixed quote (within 24 hours). Scope, deadline, amount: the quote is firm. No drifting hourly billing, no surprise at the end.
3. Document collection and reconstruction. Bank statements form the backbone. We organise collection via Dext (photo, mailbox import) and retrieve missing duplicates from suppliers and platforms.
4. Bookkeeping, reconciliations and VAT. Full posting of the late periods on Pennylane, bank reconciliations, account matching, payroll entries, then regularisation of overdue VAT returns in the most protective order.
5. Review, tax return, FEC and filing. Account review, closing entries, annual accounts and liasse fiscale, a FEC compliant with Article L. 47 A LPF, filing with the registry, and a simple plan (monthly cut-off date, collection workflow) so the backlog does not recur.

Our fees depend on the backlog and the document volume. The grid below gives the entry points; the fixed quote is issued within 24 hours of the diagnosis.

The "from" floors correspond to low-volume files. Price drivers: document volume, quality of the bank statements, number of VAT returns to regularise, payroll to reintegrate and the tools already in place. As a reference, our work is based on €600 to €900 excl. VAT per day depending on complexity: a full, high-volume financial year typically represents 11 to 15 days of work, as detailed in the worked example of our guide. The fixed quote issued after the diagnosis is what counts. See also our pricing page for the firm's full service range.

Online catch-up platforms advertise teaser prices and lightning turnarounds. Our positioning is different, and we stand by it:

• An identified professional signs the file. Samuel Hayot is a chartered accountant and statutory auditor registered in France (Ordre des experts-comptables Paris Île-de-France, CRCC de Paris). Your file is handled and signed by the firm, under its professional liability and mandatory insurance.
• One contact person, not a support ticket. You deal with the person actually working on your file, by phone, WhatsApp or video call, in French or English.
• An engagement that goes all the way. The catch-up includes the tax dimension (VAT, automatic assessments, replies to tax-office letters) and the legal dimension (filing the accounts), not just data entry. A catch-up that stops at bookkeeping leaves the risk in place.
• A proper handover. If another firm holds the file, the transfer follows the profession's formal courtesy procedure: documents recovered, continuity assured, no friction for you.
• An honest deadline. We commit to a 24-48h diagnosis and a fixed quote within 24 hours, then a realistic delivery time we actually keep.

The firm is located at 58 rue de Monceau, Paris 8, and works remotely across all of France with a 100% digital setup (Pennylane, Dext, video calls). We regularly act for foreign-owned French companies whose accounting fell behind — see also our English-speaking bookkeeping service.

Several unfiled financial years#

Two or three years without accounts: more common than you would think. We reconstruct year by year, prioritising tax obligations, with decreasing fees from the second year. The goal is to return to a filable position, then switch to a normal rhythm.

Catch-up before a sale, a fundraising or a loan#

Due diligence, a bank file or a fundraising round require accounts that are current and defensible. We restore the file within the deal's calendar, documenting the corrections so the other side's advisers find nothing to renegotiate.

Lost or incomplete documents#

Missing bank statements, untraceable invoices, a mailbox lost with a departing employee: we rebuild from bank statements, supplier duplicates and platform exports. Whatever remains genuinely untraceable is documented and treated prudently, with the consequences explained.

SCI, associations and liberal professions#

Catch-up is not only for trading companies: an SCI subject to corporate tax that never filed, an association accountable to a funder, a professional who switched to the real regime without follow-up. Each form has its own obligations; the diagnosis identifies them precisely.

A successful catch-up is one you never repeat. At the end of the engagement we propose, with no obligation, the logical next step: monthly bookkeeping with a cut-off date and a monthly VAT check, and compliance with French e-invoicing, which becomes mandatory on the receiving side for all companies on 1 September 2026: a digital invoice workflow mechanically reduces the risk of future backlog.

You can also simply stop at the catch-up: the engagement is one-off and self-contained.

Describe your backlog in a few lines (quote form or phone): within 24 to 48 hours we tell you what is urgent, what can wait, and what the catch-up will cost. The diagnosis is without obligation.