Greffe charges 2.44 euros per book to number and sign meeting registers

Companies that keep their decision registers on paper must have them numbered and signed by the competent authority before making the first entry.Service Public Cotation means numbering each page in an unbroken sequence so none can be removed or added afterwards; paraphe means the authority adds its abbreviated signature with a certain date. The formality exists to protect the integrity of the registers in which minutes and company decisions are recorded.

Whether the formality is compulsory depends on the company form. The registers of procès-verbaux of general meetings are obligatory for SARLService Public, and the registers of decisions of the sole shareholder are obligatory for EURLService Public. Registers of délibérations of associés are obligatory for SNC and SCS.Service Public For a SA à conseil d'administration, both the board minutes register and the shareholders' meeting register are obligatoryService Public, and for a SA à directoire et conseil de surveillance both the supervisory board register and the shareholders' meeting register are obligatoryService Public. Registers of procès-verbaux of assemblées of associés are obligatory for sociétés civiles such as SCI and SCM.Service Public For SAS and SASU, having the registers of associés' decisions or of the sole shareholder's decisions numbered and signed remains optional.Service Public

Minutes may be drawn up on loose sheets instead of in a bound register. Each sheet must be numbered without discontinuity, signed by the competent authority and stamped with its seal; once a sheet has been filled in, even partly, it is filed with the previous ones in order.

Companies may instead keep their decision registers electronically. The minutes must then be drawn up and stored electronically, signed with at least an advanced electronic signature within the meaning of article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014Legifrance, and dated by an electronic timestamping means offering full guarantees of proofLegifrance. For SAS and SASU, the statuts must provide for electronic registers and electronic minutes; where the statuts do not specify the signature and dating procedures, the same default applies of an advanced signature and timestamping with full guarantees of proof. A register kept electronically under these conditions does not need to be presented to any authority for numbering and signing.Service Public

The register must be presented blank, before any entry, to the mayor or a deputy mayor of the commune of the registered office, to the greffier of the commercial court or the tribunal des activités économiques where competent, or to a judge of the tribunal judiciaire, depending on the register and the arrangements of the office concerned.Service Public Numbering and signing by the mayor are free of chargeService Public; not every town hall offers the service, so companies check with the town hall of their registered office beforehand. Numbering and signing by the court registry costs 2,44 € TTC per bookService Public, with postage added when the register is returned by mail — the Paris registry, for example, charges 14,47 € up to 1 kg, 16,87 € from 1 to 2 kg and 20,87 € above 2 kg.

Commerçants must also keep accounting books, the livre-journal and the grand-livre.Service Public Unlike decision registers, these books are not subject to any numbering-and-signing obligationService Public. A commerçant may still ask the greffier of the competent court to number and sign them, free of charge, and books kept electronically must be identified, numbered and dated from the moment they are created.

The legal basis is Code de commerce articles L227-1, R227-1-1, R123-173, R221-3, R222-1, R223-24, R223-26, R225-22, R225-49 and A743-9, and article 45 of Décret n°78-704 du 3 juillet 1978.