FEC: the French Accounting Entries File explained
Any business keeping computerized accounts in France must be able to hand its FEC to the tax authority during an audit. Here is what this file is, its standardized format, the obligation that governs it, how an audit unfolds, and how to export it cleanly.
What is the FEC?
The FEC, or Fichier des Écritures Comptables (Accounting Entries File), is a standardized computer file that contains all the entries for a financial year. It is an exhaustive "snapshot" of the general ledger: every debit and credit line, every journal, every supporting document appears in a format set by the tax authority.
Its purpose is simple: to let the DGFiP (the French public finances directorate) retrieve and automatically analyze a set of accounts without depending on the software used by the company. Before the FEC, each vendor exported in its own format, which made audits long and inconsistent. Since then, a single standard applies to everyone.
The FEC is governed by Article L47 A-I of the French Book of Tax Procedures (LPF) and the order of 29 July 2013, codified in Article A47 A-1 of the LPF. It applies to financial years ending on or after 1 January 2014.
Who is subject to the obligation?
The obligation to produce a FEC applies to any business that keeps its accounts using computerized systems and that is subject to an audit. This covers almost all companies and professionals:
- businesses liable for corporate tax or income tax (industrial/commercial, non-commercial, or agricultural profits) that keep computerized accounts;
- associations and organizations whenever they keep their books in software;
- businesses under an actual-profit tax regime.
In practice, as soon as you use accounting software or an ERP, you fall within the scope of the obligation. Only accounts kept entirely "by hand" in paper registers are, in theory, excluded — a now extremely rare case.
The standardized format: 18 mandatory fields
The FEC is a flat text file, with fields separated by a tab or a pipe character (|). The file name itself follows a rule: SIRENFECYYYYMMDD.txt, where the SIRET number (the SIREN, in fact) and the closing date identify the company and the financial year.
Each entry must include 18 mandatory columns, in a precise order:
- JournalCode — journal code
- JournalLib — journal label
- EcritureNum — entry number
- EcritureDate — posting date
- CompteNum — account number from the general chart of accounts
- CompteLib — account label
- CompAuxNum — sub-ledger account number (customer/supplier)
- CompAuxLib — sub-ledger account label
- PieceRef — reference of the supporting document
- PieceDate — document date
- EcritureLib — entry label
- Debit — debit amount
- Credit — credit amount
- EcritureLet — reconciliation code
- DateLet — reconciliation date
- ValidDate — validation date
- Montantdevise — amount in currency (where applicable)
- Idevise — currency identifier
A few structuring rules: entries must be validated and locked (a draft entry has no place in a compliant FEC), the numbering sequence must be continuous and chronological, and the sum of debits must equal the sum of credits. Collected and deductible VAT amounts appear naturally through class-44 accounts.
How an audit of computerized accounts unfolds
The FEC is handed over at the start of a tax audit. Two procedures coexist.
The on-site accounting audit
During an on-site accounting audit (vérification de comptabilité), the auditor visits the company. At the very start of the work, they request the FEC in digital form. The file then lets them carry out computer processing: sorting, cross-checking, consistency controls, VAT recalculations, analysis of atypical year-end entries, and so on.
The remote accounting examination
More recent, the remote accounting examination (examen de comptabilité, Article L13 G of the LPF) takes place from the administration's offices. The company receives an examination notice and then has a 15-day window to submit its FEC. The agent performs the analyses remotely, then communicates their conclusions.
In both cases, a file that is non-compliant, incomplete, or not provided exposes the company to a fine set out in Article 1729 D of the French Tax Code. Beyond the penalty, a defective FEC can lead to rejection of the accounts and a reconstruction of taxable income by the administration — a far heavier risk.
How to check and export your FEC
Good news: the DGFiP provides a free tool, "Test Compta Demat," which checks the compliance of a FEC (structure, fields, consistency of totals) ahead of any audit. The healthy habit is to generate your file and run it through this tool every year, at closing.
On the production side, the export must be native to the accounting software. A good FEC export requires:
- continuous, validated entry numbering, with no gaps or draft entries;
- correctly labeled accounts tied to the chart of accounts;
- clean reconciliation (lettrage) of third-party accounts, essential to justify balances;
- a compliant encoding and separator (the test tool immediately flags any header or format anomaly).
Within eyeot, the finance module keeps the journal, the trial balance, and sub-ledger accounts in a structured way, which makes it possible to produce a file in the expected format. Invoicing feeds the sales entries upstream, while the document management module stores the supporting documents referenced in the FEC — an asset when the auditor asks to match an entry to its document.
In summary
The FEC is not a minor formality: it is the entry point of any audit of computerized accounts. Mastering its format, validating your entries continuously, and testing its compliance each year turn a source of stress into a simple closing routine.
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