Annual

Survey response data is collected via an online questionnaire provided by INSEE's internet collection platform. However, a PDF version of the survey questionnaire can be sent by email at the respondent's request, or by post if necessary.

Usually, the annual collection for financial year N is carried out in several waves between February and June of year N+1 in order to take into account the different financial year-end dates of companies. For the 2025 financial year, the start of data collection has been postponed to March 2026 in order to carry out work to adapt to the change in the French classification of economic activities (NAF 2025).

From March to October

The sampling design, conducted on compagnies, is a two-stage stratified clustered simple ramdom sampling, according to strata defined by the size classes crossed with the economic sectors. Above given size thresholds -- thresholds on tunover and on number of employees --, which are variable according to the economic sector, the strata are take-all strata.

55,000 companies for approximately 100,000 legal units for mainland France, and 11,500 companies for approximately 14,000 legal units to be surveyed for the Overseas Territories (excluding Mayotte)

As the scope off the survey in terms of sector is very wide (see § on sector coverage), there are different models of questionnaires, adapted to the different main sectors covered by the survey.

The data are checked and validated by the ESANE department of the INSEE Pays de la Loire regional office (Nantes) and the ESANE division of the INSEE headquarters, in collaboration with sector experts from other INSEE divisions and ministerial statistical services.

A specific data editing procedure has been implemented. Further inspections are performed for the most influential enterprises.