Houdart A&C’s customer base in the industrial sector

Houdart A&C works with numerous entities engaged in a wide range of industrial activities, providing expertise in accounting and audit services. These activities include the design and manufacture of industrial burners, production of sealing joints, quarry operations, and plastics manufacturing, among others.

While the activities associated with this sector are diverse, they share common characteristics such as significant investment in production equipment, protection of industrial property rights, and ongoing research and development of products and production processes to meet the constant need for innovation.

Characteristics of the industrial sector

Key challenges faced by entities operating in the industrial sector include substantial investments, equipment renewal, robotization, innovation in manufacturing processes and products, and monitoring of margins on completion by product or by site.

Financial reporting tools must provide detailed analysis to understand the composition of production costs and the evolution of margins by segment or by site. Cross-sectional analyses often necessitate the implementation of analytical accounting.

The constant need for innovation in both products and manufacturing processes requires access to sufficient capital for research and development financing.

In accounting expertise or statutory auditing, diverse skills for your industrial company

Beyond our mission of maintaining or periodically reviewing your accounting records, as an expert accountant, we offer you personalized service by anticipating your needs and keeping you informed of changes in social and tax regulations related to your sector, in order to implement appropriate solutions.

Our services rely on digital and collaborative tools as part of a bookkeeping or auditing assignment.

As statutory auditors, we adopt a constructive and flexible approach, supported by substantive tests but also and above all on the review of your various processes in collaboration with your teams, in order to build a trusted relationship with them and provide recommendations for continuous improvement of these processes.

The growth of our firm in accounting expertise and statutory auditing is based on the technical support of a versatile and regularly trained team, as well as the proximity and availability of expert accountant and statutory auditor  partners who are ready to listen and assist you whenever you need.

Support for the company and its executives as the expert accountant for your industrial company

Support in accounting matters

Our mission of accounting bookeeping or review for your industrial company are primarily aimed at helping you to :

  • set up or take over an industrial business (metallurgy, plastics, etc.)
  • secure your margins through regular, precise accounting monitoring,
  • analyze your performance by setting up cost accounting if necessary,
  • optimize your financial resources, in particular your external financing.

To ensure the reliability of the established financial information, we assist you in implementing effective internal controls and provide suitable tools for monitoring margins across different projects and segments. When the construction or execution of a project extends over multiple accounting periods, the issue of long-term contract tracking arises.

If your industrial company is a subsidiary of a foreign group or is held by venture capital firms, we produce periodic reports for the fund providers.

Support in tax matters

If the development of your industrial activity has led you to open permanent establishments abroad, we analyze the applicable tax treaties to determine the location and nature of the taxation applicable to the generated flows. Similarly, in the context of intra-community trade related to your activities, we assist you in determining the applicable VAT regime or in recovering VAT receivables in third countries of the EU.

When you have made efforts in terms of robotization, innovation, and research and development, tax credits may potentially be applicable to expenses incurred in these areas. We help you determine your eligibility and the basis for these tax credits.

Support in social matters

In the realm of social matters, our accounting firm has in-depth knowledge of most of the collective agreements applicable to activities in the industrial sector, due to the diversity of our clients’ businesses.

We handle payroll processing for employees in the industrial sector and provide assistance in the event of URSSAF (French Social Security Contributions Collection Agency) audits. We prepare the DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative) and can facilitate salary transfers for your employees.

We handle the affiliations to the relevant welfare organizations according to your industrial company’s industry sector.

In the event of disputes with one or more employees, we provide advice and can connect you with a recommended lawyer for labor disputes.

Legal assistance for your industrial company

Our legal department provides support in both day-to-day and extraordinary legal matters involved in running a company. We are available to provide you with any advice you may need as a business executive to help you conduct your activities.

Our legal services include annual legal secretarial services, drafting certain legal documents, preparing minutes for ordinary and extraordinary general meetings, issuing summonses, handling statutory modifications (such as changes in registered office or company name), and managing formalities with the relevant commercial court registry., etc.

Furthermore, we provide assistance in carrying out operations such as contributions, transformations, mergers, and and demergers.

Due diligence

When an opportunity for external growth arises, whether from within or outside the industrial sector, we can conduct an acquisition audit as either consultants or statutory auditors. This audit is conducted prior to your decision-making process.

Support for executives

Our role as a chartered accountant goes beyond the preparation of the annual financial statements for your industrial company. For family businesses among our clients, we provide support to the business manager in terms of their personal assets management, ensuring that decisions related to the business that impact their assets are optimized for both themselves and their family.

The diversity of our expertise allows us to assist you primarily with your personal tax returns. We prepare your income tax declarations in France, as well as any potential real estate wealth tax declarations.

We assist you in selecting individual and group health and heavy contingency insurance contracts. We ensure that the formalities for setting up these contracts cover the risks of tax and social security adjustments.

If necessary, we can assist you with your personal tax audits.

The acquisition of his company’s real estate is often an interesting way for the entrepreneur to combine the interests of the business with personal asset development

We stand by the business owner’s side from the inception of the project, the investment decision-making process, the choice of investment structure, to preparing the necessary documentation for funding requests from financial institutions.

We have a significant network of professionals specializing in insurance brokerage, notaries, social or tax lawyers, whom we can engage to complement our support.

Lastly, we accompany our clients in studying the various possibilities of social security schemes and remuneration methods to optimize the tax and social aspects of the executive’s remuneration within the company.

Finally, we accompany you and study with our clients the different possibilities of social system and mode of remuneration in order to optimize the tax and social compensation of the company’s executive.

MyUnisoft, a digital, collaborative, and innovative accounting software

We have an innovative, high-performing, and collaborative accounting production tool – a true marketplace with an open API. It can connect to most commonly used applications by entrepreneurs, including digital neobanks, revenue analysis tools, CRM systems, document management systems (GED), data analysis tools, and payroll software.

Through agreements with most banking institutions, we can set up automatic recovery of your banking transactions in the EBICS format in collaboration with your bank.

We can provide your accounting teams with our software, enabling them to collaborate on your financial data in real-time. Alternatively, Alternatively, if you do not have an in-house accounting department, we can fully handle your bookkeeping

Frequently asked questions related to the industrial sector

What are the conditions for capitalizing research and development costs?

Development costs can be capitalized as assets if they are related to clearly individualized projects with a high probability of technical success and commercial profitability  (PCG art. 212-3).

The following six conditions must be simultaneously met:

  1. Technical feasibility of completing the intangible asset for its intended use;
  2. Intent to complete the intangible asset and use or sell it;
  3. Ability to use or sell the intangible asset;
  4. Ability of the intangible asset to generate probable future economic benefits;
  5. Availability of appropriate resources (technical, financial, and others) to complete the development;
  6. Ability to reliably measure the expenses attributable to the intangible asset during its development.

What is the tax regime for the proceeds from the sale and licensing of patents and similar rights?

Companies subject to personal income tax (IR) or corporate income tax (IS) have the option to apply a reduced tax rate of 10% on the net income from the sale, licensing, or sublicensing of certain industrial property rights.

The eligible assets include patents, protected softwares, industrial manufacturing processes, and patentable inventions.

This tax regime applies upon express option exercised in the tax return for the fiscal year in which the transaction occurs.

The net income from the licensing is determined by the difference between the revenues generated from the eligible assets and the research and development (R&D) expenses directly related to those assets and actually incurred. Expenditure such as overheads and defence of industrial property rights are excluded.

What are the conditions for recording provisions for major maintenance and overhauls?

Provisions for major maintenance can be booked and are tax-deductible if they represent expenses of such magnitude that they need to be spread over a number of periods. This is done to avoid an excessive burden in a single fiscal year. These provisions must meet the conditions for the establishment of a provision, including the requirement that the works be precisely identified, that they are likely to result in an outflow of resources, and that they can be programmed in terms of their nature and estimation.

Is an intangible asset subject to amortization?

The cost of an intangible asset with a finite useful life is subject to amortization and should be allocated over its useful life. However, an intangible asset with an indefinite useful life should not be amortized. The useful life of an intangible asset that is not amortized should be reassessed at each reporting period to determine if the events and circumstances continue to justify the assessment of an indefinite useful life for that asset.

Why use a firm specializing for businesses in the industrial sector?

Whether you are the leader of a niche market-oriented SME or a well-established significant organization in the industry, seeking the guidance of an expert accounting firm specialized in the industrial sectors to support you in the day-to-day management of your company, external growth projects, and overall development ensures you benefit from technical expertise tailored to the specific challenges inherent in your industry.

Choosing an statutory auditors specialized in the industrial sector ensures a risk-based approach that is constructive and adds value to your teams. Beyond conducting substantive tests and providing recommendations for implementing processes to improve internal control and the reliability of financial statement production, they bring industry-specific insights and expertise to support your business goals.