French Payroll Services in Paris | Payroll Compliance for Employers

French Payroll and HR Compliance - Hayot Expertise#

Outsourcing your French payroll to a specialist firm is not just about administrative convenience — it is a strategic decision. Calculation errors, incorrect payslips, late DSN filings: the consequences can be severe (URSSAF audit and back-payment, employment tribunal claims, penalties). Hayot Expertise manages your entire payroll chain, from drafting employment contracts to processing salary payments, including the monthly DSN and employer social charge optimisation. Your obligations as an employer are met, and your payroll costs are under control.

If you are looking for a firm to take over your French payroll, here is what matters most:

• Good payroll is not just the payslip: it includes the DSN, the variable inputs, employer obligations and the applicable collective agreement.
• The larger your headcount, the more expensive a social-security error becomes.
• Taking over an existing payroll file mid-year is entirely possible, provided we run a clean audit at the outset.
• Well-managed payroll also gives the director clearer visibility on the wage bill, employer charges and the real cost of each new hire.
• The right contact is not simply an HR administrator: it is a firm able to connect payroll, social law, tax and accounting.

To go further, see also our company formation service, our accounting expertise offering and our support for tech start-ups.

This service is aimed above all at companies looking for a payroll firm able to handle both day-to-day operations and the underlying risk. Our support is particularly useful for:

• Very small businesses and SMEs that do not want to run payroll in-house;
• Start-ups making their first hires or accelerating recruitment;
• Liberal professions employing an assistant, a colleague or a support team;
• Multi-establishment companies or those with several distinct employee profiles;
• Directors already facing errors, delays or a lack of responsiveness from their current provider.

What our payroll service covers#

• Gross salary calculations: base salary, variable pay, commissions, bonuses (13th month, performance, seniority)
• Benefits in kind: company car, meal vouchers, phone, accommodation (official URSSAF 2026 valuation rates)
• Overtime and additional hours: 25%/50% premiums, income tax exemption within legal limits
• Absences: sick leave, workplace accidents, paid leave, maternity/paternity — maintenance of pay calculation and subrogation
• Final settlement (solde de tout compte): calculation of paid leave indemnity, notice pay, redundancy pay, issue of end-of-contract documents (France Travail certificate, work certificate, final pay receipt)

Documents issued every month#

• Paperless payslips (accessible via employee digital safe)
• Monthly payroll journal
• SEPA bank transfer order ready to sign
• Payroll cost dashboard (year-on-year comparison)

The DSN is the unified declaration that replaces all periodic social returns (DADS, DUCS, etc.). It must be submitted each month by the 15th or the 5th of the following month (depending on company size), otherwise penalties of €7.50 per employee per month of delay apply.

Our process guarantees:

• On-time transmission with acknowledgement of receipt
• Event-driven notifications (sick leave, employee departure) submitted within 5 days of the event
• Automatic update of URSSAF parameters (SMIC minimum wage, social security ceiling) — the 2026 SMIC increase affects Fillon reduction calculations
• Monthly reconciliation of declared contributions against URSSAF statements

The convention collective (collective bargaining agreement) must never be treated as a mere administrative footnote. It governs the minimum wages, certain bonuses, working-time rules, the treatment of absences and, in some cases, termination indemnities.

We regularly act on points such as:

• identifying the correct CCN (collective agreement, by IDCC code);
• updating the contractual minimum wages;
• handling the forfait jours (fixed annual-days working-time arrangement);
• managing long-term absences;
• the sensitive treatment of executives, work-study trainees, part-time staff and variable pay elements.

Among the environments we work with frequently are Syntec (consulting and engineering), the liberal professions, hospitality and catering, and a number of fast-growing service businesses. On the restaurant side (HCR collective agreement IDCC 1979, meal benefit, casual contracts), see our restaurant accounting specialist page.

Which collective agreement applies to your company?#

The agreement depends on your actual activity (IDCC code), not the APE code. Here are a few environments we manage routinely and the payroll points they drive:

At hiring#

• DPAE (pre-employment declaration): mandatory within 8 days before the employee starts
• Drafting the employment contract (permanent, fixed-term, part-time, apprenticeship) with all legally required clauses
• Enrolment in the mandatory group health insurance (ANI): minimum 50% employer contribution
• Information on the applicable collective bargaining agreement (IDCC)

During employment#

• Annual appraisal interviews and professional development interviews (every 2 years)
• Mandatory workplace notices (labour inspectorate contacts, occupational physician, internal rules for companies with 50+ employees)
• Occupational health visits (information and prevention visit, enhanced individual monitoring for specific roles)
• Annual headcount declaration and update of the DUERP (single occupational risk assessment document)

On contract termination#

• Calculation and verification of severance entitlements (ICL, IRL, ICCP)
• Redundancy letter drafted in compliance with employment case law
• End-of-contract DSN notification within 5 days
• Issue of all legally required documents to the employee

General contribution reduction (Fillon)#

The Fillon reduction applies to salaries below 1.6 times the SMIC. For an employee on the minimum wage, it represents a saving of approximately 32% of gross salary on employer contributions. We calculate and apply this reduction on every payslip.

Employee profit-sharing and savings#

• Intéressement (discretionary bonus): deductible from corporate tax, exempt from social charges (except CSG/CRDS), capped at 75% of the annual social security ceiling
• Participation (mandatory profit-sharing): compulsory for companies with 50 or more employees
• Company savings plan (PEE) / collective retirement plan (PERCOL): employer top-up exempt from charges (except CSG/CRDS) within legal limits
• Meal vouchers: employer contribution (up to €7.18 maximum in 2026) exempt from social charges and tax-deductible

Director remuneration#

We help you balance salary, dividends and profit-sharing to maximise your net disposable income while maintaining adequate social cover. For a SASU director in 2026, the typical optimal combination is: minimum salary (around SMIC level) + dividends at the 31.4% flat tax.

Many companies contact us after a build-up of anomalies: payslips that are hard to read, rejected DSN filings, a collective agreement applied incorrectly, contributions allocated to the wrong cost centres, or a lack of advice on hires and departures.

Our file takeover generally begins with a targeted audit:

• contract conformity;
• consistency of the payroll set-up;
• verification of the applicable collective agreement;
• a check of the most recent payslips and declarations;
• identification of the risks to correct quickly.

This step lets you start again on a clean footing, without waiting for the next social-security year-end.

Related article: Dividends vs salary: what strategy for 2026?

The risks of in-house payroll#

• Frequent errors (contribution rates, collective agreement interpretation, overtime) generating back-payments or overpayments
• Dependency on a single person (risk of coverage gap during holidays)
• Time-consuming permanent tracking of legal updates (SMIC, social security ceiling, URSSAF rates)
• Expensive payroll software to maintain

The benefits of outsourcing#

• Zero delays: our contractual commitment
• Multi-agreement expertise: we work with all major collective agreements (Syntec, BAP, Hospitality, Construction, Retail...)
• Confidentiality: payroll information is handled outside the company
• Cost savings: typically cheaper than a dedicated half-time employee from as few as 3-4 employees

• Silae: expert DSN-certified software, online employer and employee portal
• PayFit: modern UX-focused solution, ideal for startups and scale-ups
• Digital safe: payslips automatically deposited, accessible for 10 years
• Leave and absence module: online entry by employees, manager approval, automatic payroll feed

DSN transmission and URSSAF declarations are included in the monthly management fee.

Representative example (indicative, subject to quote). A 4-employee Paris SASU (1 executive, 3 assistants) with no hires or departures during the year means about 4 payslips per month: at €30 per payslip, roughly €1,440 excl. VAT per year for payroll production and DSN, excluding initial set-up and ad-hoc HR advice. Every situation is quoted individually based on your collective agreement and the scope entrusted to us.

See all our social services (payroll simulation, redundancy support, etc.) on our pricing page.