A business is in a situation of failure or filing for bankruptcy from the moment when a judicial settlement procedure is opened against it. This judicial settlement procedure is opened when the business is in a situation of suspension of payment and that it can therefore no longer face up to its debts.
The opening of the procedure is always recorded in the Bodacc.
Two dates are recorded in this bulletin:
- the date of the judgment for the opening of the procedure at the Commercial Court or the Court of First Instance;
- the date of publication of the legal information in the Bodacc (within the three months following the juggement).

The enterprise bankruptcy statistics cover all the judgments either pronouncing the opening of a legal settlement procedure or directly pronouncing court-ordered liquidation.
The outcome of the procedure is not taken into account: liquidation or settlement by continuation or resumption.

Using the January 2009 index, the series are calculated in the "NA" aggregated classification, based on the NAF rev. 2, which came into force on 1st January 2008. It allows improved monitoring of the service sector and facilitates international comparisons.

The enterprise bankruptcy data has been recalculated in the aggregated classification "NA" since 1993, in order to be able to analyse the data over a long period.