Hiring the first employee of a French company is not simply a matter of signing an offer letter and arranging a bank transfer. A foreign founder must make the French entity identifiable as an employer, verify that the individual may work in France, send the pre-employment declaration before work begins, prepare the employee information documents, organise occupational health and payroll, and retain evidence that each step was completed on time. The risk is practical as much as legal: a missing document can prevent the payroll provider from filing the monthly social declaration, delay the first payslip, or leave the founder unable to answer an inspection or a bank, investor or purchaser asking how the company employs people.
This checklist concerns a company hiring a person who will work in France. It applies whether the shareholder or director lives abroad, whether the business is a French SAS (société par actions simplifiée, a simplified joint-stock company) or another structure, and whether the founder delegates payroll to an accountant. It does not replace an assessment of the collective agreement, the employee’s immigration status or the actual working arrangement. The central rule is that delegation changes the workflow, not the company’s responsibility. Before choosing a start date, the founder should therefore assemble an employer file, an employee file, and a proof file containing the receipts and correspondence that connect the two.
I. What must a French company prepare before its first employee starts work?
A. Which DPAE, employer-registration and social-security records are mandatory?
The first document is the DPAE, short for déclaration préalable à l’embauche, the prior declaration of employment. It is not a post-hiring formality. Article L. 1221-10 of the French Labour Code states: « L’embauche d’un salarié ne peut intervenir qu’après déclaration nominative accomplie par l’employeur auprès des organismes de protection sociale désignés à cet effet. » The same provision adds that the employer makes the declaration at every workplace where employees are employed. The official wording is available on Légifrance, Article L. 1221-10 of the Labour Code.
In operational terms, submit the DPAE before the employee performs the first work activity. The declaration may be made no earlier than eight days before the expected start date, so the safest calendar is to prepare the information earlier and submit it as soon as the eight-day window opens. The official DPAE information page describes the timing and the information to be supplied. A founder who is abroad should not assume that a signed contract, an onboarding email or an invoice from a payroll provider proves that the DPAE was sent. The company needs the actual receipt, reference or electronic confirmation produced by the filing channel.
The DPAE normally identifies the employer and the person hired, gives the expected date and time of employment, and records information needed by the social-protection bodies. The exact fields depend on the filing channel and the situation. A foreign founder should provide the payroll provider with the company’s legal name, SIREN number, SIRET number for the relevant establishment, address of the workplace, legal representative, employee identity, date of birth, social-security information where available, job, and start date. SIREN is the nine-digit national identification number of the company; SIRET is the fourteen-digit identification number of a particular establishment. If the company has several places of work, the establishment attached to the employee must be identified correctly.
Do not confuse the Kbis with the DPAE. A Kbis is the commercial registry extract historically issued for a company registered with the RCS, the registre du commerce et des sociétés, or Commercial and Companies Register. The company is now also recorded in the RNE, the registre national des entreprises, or National Register of Businesses, through the INPI, the Institut national de la propriété industrielle, or National Institute of Industrial Property. The Kbis or RNE information proves that the company exists and supplies its identity; it does not declare an individual employee. The SIRET and the exact workplace still have to be checked before submitting the DPAE.
The company should also identify the right URSSAF channel. URSSAF means Union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the body that collects most employer and employee social-security contributions. The first employee often exposes a gap that was invisible while the company had only shareholders or a director: the company may not yet have a functioning employer account, a payroll mandate, access to the relevant online declaration service, or a process for receiving contribution notices. An accountant can make the filings, but the founder should know which URSSAF account is used, who can access it, and where the receipts are stored.
Ask the payroll provider to confirm in writing all of the following before the start date:
- the employer account has been identified and the legal entity is connected to the correct establishment;
- the DPAE will be filed before the employee starts, with the planned start date stated accurately;
- the monthly DSN process is ready, including the employee’s identification and the payroll calendar; and
- the provider will return the DPAE receipt, the payroll setup confirmation and any message explaining a rejection or missing field.
DSN means déclaration sociale nominative, the nominative social declaration sent electronically from payroll data to the relevant social-protection bodies. It is a recurring process, not a substitute for the DPAE. A company that gives incomplete or contradictory information to its accountant can create a compliance problem even when it has signed a perfectly drafted contract. The founder should therefore appoint one person to approve the employee data and one person to check that the submission was actually accepted. If both roles are performed by the same foreign director, the proof folder becomes particularly important.
The criminal risk explains why a receipt matters. Article L. 8221-5 of the Labour Code describes concealed salaried employment and includes the situation in which an employer intentionally avoids the DPAE required by Article L. 1221-10. The official text states: « Est réputé travail dissimulé par dissimulation d’emploi salarié le fait pour tout employeur : 1° Soit de se soustraire intentionnellement à l’accomplissement de la formalité prévue à l’article L. 1221-10, relatif à la déclaration préalable à l’embauche ; » See Légifrance, Article L. 8221-5 of the Labour Code. A late or failed filing must be analysed in its facts; the statutory reference to intention means that an accidental administrative error is not automatically the same as a deliberate concealment. It is still a problem requiring immediate correction and evidence.
The Cour de cassation illustrates why the information sent to an accountant must be timely and complete. In Cass. crim., 17 October 2017, no. 16-81.289, the court upheld the assessment that the employer had violated the rules knowingly because the necessary documents had not been sent to the accountant within the legal time. The decision uses the expression « violation en connaissance de cause de prescriptions légales ». For a foreign founder, outsourcing payroll therefore requires a documented handoff: the company should show when it sent the employee’s data, what it sent, who received it and when the DPAE was acknowledged.
The pre-employment file should also contain the company’s classification and payroll assumptions. Confirm the applicable business activity, the APE code, the applicable collective agreement, the employee’s classification, the working time, the salary, variable pay, benefits, trial period and workplace. APE means activité principale exercée, the code describing the company’s principal activity. It does not by itself determine every employment rule, but it is a useful starting point for checking the applicable convention collective, the French collective agreement governing the employment relationship. Record the agreement and its identifier rather than writing only “French law applies”.
A founder may be tempted to treat the employee’s first day as a commercial milestone and leave the administrative setup to the last minute. That is the wrong sequence. The legal employer information should be checked when the offer is accepted, the DPAE window should be placed on the calendar, and the payroll provider should receive a complete pack before the submission date. The company can then use the remaining days to resolve a rejected declaration, an unclear social-security number, a missing work permit or a collective-agreement question without asking the employee to start while the file is incomplete.
B. Which employee documents, register entries and foreign-worker checks must be ready?
The second document family concerns the relationship with the employee. A written employment contract is essential for many forms of employment and should be prepared in the language and form required for the relevant relationship. It is not, however, the only written information the employee must receive. Article L. 1221-5-1 of the Labour Code provides: « L’employeur remet au salarié un ou plusieurs documents écrits contenant les informations principales relatives à la relation de travail. » The complete provision, including the rule on a formal notice before a claim for missing information, is on Légifrance, Article L. 1221-5-1.
Article R. 1221-34 specifies the minimum information for those documents. It begins: « Les documents mentionnés à l’article L. 1221-5-1 comportent au moins les informations suivantes : 1° L’identité des parties à la relation de travail ; 2° Le lieu ou les lieux de travail et, si elle est distincte, l’adresse de l’employeur ; 3° L’intitulé du poste, les fonctions, la catégorie socioprofessionnelle ou la catégorie d’emploi ; » The regulation also addresses the start date, a fixed-term end date where relevant, the trial period, training, paid leave, termination procedure, remuneration and working time. See Légifrance, Article R. 1221-34.
For the first employee, prepare a single version-controlled document pack containing the offer or contract, the applicable collective agreement information, the role and classification, the work location, the start date, the working-time rules, salary and payment arrangements, trial period if valid, paid-leave information, training rights, and the procedure for ending the relationship. Add the employee’s notice about the employer’s data-processing arrangements where required, internal policies that genuinely apply, and any remote-work or travel rules. A short contract with a separate information document can work, but the two documents must be consistent. A long contract with an incorrect start date creates more risk than a clear, accurate pack.
Next prepare the RUP entry. RUP means registre unique du personnel, the single personnel register maintained at each establishment where employees work. Article L. 1221-13 states: « Un registre unique du personnel est tenu dans tout établissement où sont employés des salariés. » It requires names and surnames to be entered in order of hiring, at the time of hiring and indelibly. Read the official wording on Légifrance, Article L. 1221-13. The employer should decide before day one whether the RUP is electronic or paper, who makes the entry, and how the entry is preserved for the statutory retention period.
The RUP is attached to the establishment, not merely to the director’s personal file. If the employee works from a French office, a client site or a stable remote location, verify which establishment and workplace records apply. If the company has no operational French premises, get advice on the way the workplace and employer address are documented. Article L. 1221-15 makes the register available to the comité social et économique, or CSE, the Social and Economic Committee when one exists, and to officials responsible for enforcing the Labour Code and Social Security Code. The official text is available at Légifrance, Article L. 1221-15. A foreign founder should be able to export or show the relevant record without relying on an overseas server that no French payroll contact can access.
The third check is the right to work in France. Article L. 8251-1 states: « Nul ne peut, directement ou indirectement, embaucher, conserver à son service ou employer pour quelque durée que ce soit un étranger non muni du titre l’autorisant à exercer une activité salariée en France. » See Légifrance, Article L. 8251-1. The company should establish whether the employee is a French national, an EU, EEA or Swiss national whose status permits the proposed employment, or a national of another country who needs a residence document or work authorisation. EEA means European Economic Area. Swiss nationals are referred to separately because the applicable arrangements arise from the agreement between Switzerland and the European Union.
Do not reduce the immigration check to a passport scan. For a non-EU employee, record the document type, number, expiry date, scope, and any restriction on occupation, employer, geography or hours. Confirm whether the employer must verify the document with the competent authority before hiring and keep the evidence of that verification. If the employee holds a residence card that permits salaried work only under conditions, those conditions must be compared with the job actually offered. A document that was valid for a previous employer or a different occupation may not be enough for the new employment.
Collect only information that the company and its providers need for the employment relationship. A typical payroll pack may include identity evidence, date and place of birth, address, social-security number if already assigned, a temporary identification number if the person is waiting for one, bank details, tax information requested for payroll, emergency contact information where justified, and work-authorisation evidence. RIB means relevé d’identité bancaire, the French bank-account identification statement. An overseas bank account may require a different payment workflow; the founder should not promise a French account as a condition unless the employment terms justify it. Store copies securely and give the employee a clear contact for correcting inaccurate data.
National origin, language and nationality must not become shortcuts in selection. Article L. 1132-1 of the Labour Code prohibits discrimination in recruitment and employment on listed grounds, including origin and nationality-related characteristics within the statutory framework. The employer can ask for evidence needed to establish the right to work, but it should ask every candidate for the same job-related information through a documented process. Keep the immigration verification separate from subjective judgments about accent, country of residence or the founder’s perception of “fit”. This distinction is especially important when the decision-maker works outside France and communicates through a global human-resources team.
Check the collective agreement before finalising the contract. The agreement can affect the minimum salary, classification, notice, trial period, working time, benefits, sickness pay, meal arrangements, travel and the documents to be delivered. The company’s APE code is not the only input: the actual principal activity and the scope of the agreement must be examined. If the business is a foreign group operating through a French subsidiary, do not copy the parent company’s employment template without adapting the employer identity, the French collective agreement and the French mandatory information.
Link the personnel file to the company-formation file, but do not mix them. The company-formation file should hold the Kbis or RNE extract, articles of association, SIREN and SIRET details, the legal representative’s authority, the workplace information, and the French company formation legal guide for foreign founders, together with the post-Kbis checklist for a foreign founder. The employee file should hold the contract, identity and payroll data, work-authorisation evidence and notices. The proof file should hold receipts, emails, screenshots or reports showing when each action occurred. This separation reduces the chance that a bank document or incorporation document is mistaken for evidence of an employment filing.
Finally, identify every document that must be ready on day one and every document that may follow after the start date. The DPAE must precede work. The RUP entry must be made at hiring. The employee information must be supplied within the applicable statutory deadline, with the contract and role documents ready for signature. The occupational-health appointment is a post-hiring step subject to a defined period, but the company should arrange the service before the employee starts. The first payslip is issued when salary is paid, but the payroll data and payment process must already be tested. Making this distinction prevents a foreign founder from either starting too early or waiting unnecessarily for a document that legally comes later.
II. How should a foreign founder run the first payroll and prove compliance?
A. How do you organise health, payroll, insurance and monthly declarations?
The health file begins with the occupational health service. Article L. 4624-1 provides that every worker receives individual health monitoring and that this monitoring includes a post-hiring information and prevention visit, which gives rise to an attestation. Read Légifrance, Article L. 4624-1. The ordinary time limit in Article R. 4624-10 is clear: « Tout travailleur bénéficie d’une visite d’information et de prévention … dans un délai qui n’excède pas trois mois à compter de la prise effective du poste de travail. » The rule and its current wording appear on Légifrance, Article R. 4624-10.
This does not mean that the founder can ignore health arrangements until month three. Contact the relevant service before the employee starts, give it the employer and establishment details, identify the role and risks, and obtain an appointment or written confirmation of the process. Certain roles and situations require a different form of examination or a shorter timetable. The company should retain the request, appointment details and attestation, while respecting medical confidentiality. The founder needs proof that the company initiated and followed the process, not access to medical information.
The payroll file should then be tested with a real but controlled data set. Confirm the gross salary, working time, classification, variable elements, benefits in kind, paid leave, withholding-tax information where required, and payment date. Make sure the payroll provider knows whether the employee is full-time, part-time, fixed-term, permanent, remote or working across establishments. If the founder pays from an overseas account, confirm the settlement date and beneficiary information. A payroll calculation that is correct in euros but paid after the agreed date can still damage trust and create a cash-flow problem.
At each salary payment, the employer must provide a payslip. Article L. 3243-2 states: « Lors du paiement du salaire, l’employeur remet aux personnes mentionnées à l’article L. 3243-1 une pièce justificative dite bulletin de paie. » The official provision is on Légifrance, Article L. 3243-2. The payslip is not just an accounting export. It is the employee’s document showing the employer identity, pay elements, contributions and net amount under the applicable rules. Keep the issued version and the payroll calculation behind it, with a record of any correction rather than silently replacing the file.
Set a monthly DSN calendar with a named reviewer. The reviewer should compare the payroll register, bank payment, employee changes, sickness or absence information, variable pay and the DSN acknowledgement. The company should know how it receives a rejected declaration, how it corrects a previous month, and which person is allowed to submit a correction. An overseas director can approve the figures remotely, but the French payroll contact must have enough authority to correct an urgent error before a deadline.
Insurance and risk prevention deserve the same treatment. Identify the occupational risks of the role, give the employee the required instructions, and check the company’s existing business insurance. Do not assume that a general global policy automatically covers a French employee, a French workplace or an accident occurring during travel. Ask the broker for written confirmation of the insured entity, territory, activity and employment status. If the employee uses company equipment or works from home, document the equipment, security instructions and reporting route for an incident.
The first employee may also require a DUERP. DUERP means document unique d’évaluation des risques professionnels, the single document recording the employer’s assessment of occupational risks. Whether and how it must be updated depends on the business, its workforce and its risks, but the founder should not wait for an accident to ask whether a risk assessment exists. Add the role to the risk-assessment workflow, record prevention measures, and make sure the person responsible for health and safety is identified. The document belongs to the employer’s prevention file, not to the employee’s medical file.
Some small employers consider the TESE, the titre emploi service entreprise, a simplified employment-service mechanism. It can be useful in eligible cases, but it is not an automatic solution for a foreign-owned company with a complex group structure, an unusual workplace, an international payroll, a non-EU worker or several collective-agreement issues. Before choosing it, verify eligibility and whether the service covers the precise employment relationship. If a conventional accountant is used, write down the division of tasks. If the provider files the DSN but the founder approves variable pay, both duties should be visible in the procedure.
A practical first-payroll timeline looks like this:
- Three to four weeks before the planned start: confirm the French entity, SIREN, SIRET, establishment, collective agreement, role, salary, workplace, payroll provider and occupational-health service.
- At least eight days before the planned start: finalise the employee data and file the DPAE as soon as the filing window opens. Save the receipt and send it to the internal reviewer.
- Before the first working activity: sign the contract or required written documents, complete the RUP entry at hiring, verify the right to work, provide the necessary information and confirm the health-service request.
- During the first week: confirm access, working-time tracking, safety instructions, equipment, bank details and the appointment for the information and prevention visit.
- At the first pay date: approve the payroll, make the payment, issue the payslip and retain the issued version and payment evidence.
- Each month afterwards: review changes, submit the DSN, verify the acknowledgement, reconcile the payment and store the payroll and declaration records in the proof file.
The timeline is deliberately evidence-focused. A foreign founder may be able to show a signed contract in an instant, but an inspection will ask what happened before the employee started, which establishment was involved, who received the employee data, and whether the declared information corresponds to the actual work. A compact index can list the DPAE receipt, contract, written information, RUP entry, work-authorisation check, health-service request, first payslip, bank evidence and DSN acknowledgements. The index should contain dates and document names, not unnecessary personal data.
Use internal links to build a coherent legal file. A founder comparing the company structure can review the guide on choosing between an SAS and an SARL in France; SARL means société à responsabilité limitée, or limited liability company. A founder setting up the payment infrastructure can consult the guide to opening a French business bank account. Those subjects are connected to the employer file, but they do not replace the DPAE, RUP, work-authorisation or payroll checks.
B. What should you do if the DPAE is late, the file is incomplete or URSSAF challenges it?
The first rule after discovering an error is to stop the error from growing. If the employee has not started, do not allow work to begin until the DPAE and the required pre-start checks are complete. If work has already begun, do not invent a new start date, ask the employee to sign a false document or delete the messages that show what happened. Contact the payroll provider immediately, make the filing or correction that the applicable procedure permits, and obtain a written account of the dates and steps. The legal analysis depends on whether the failure was an isolated mistake, a provider delay, an inaccurate instruction or an intentional attempt to conceal employment.
Article L. 8221-5 is important precisely because it refers to an intentional failure. It does not make every typo a criminal offence, but it also does not allow a company to hide behind the fact that an accountant was involved. In the Cass. crim., 10 May 2006, no. 05-82.826, the Cour de cassation examined whether the lower court had established the offence in its material and intentional elements. Its decision records that the offence had been « caractérisé en tous ses éléments, tant matériels qu’intentionnel » on the facts found by the trial court. The case is a warning against treating a declaration made only after a control as a complete answer; the circumstances, evidence and intention must be assessed together.
The 2017 decision mentioned above is even closer to a delegated payroll workflow. The employer argued that the accountant had made the filing, but the court relied on the fact that the documents necessary for the accountant’s task had not been transmitted in time. For a foreign director, the practical consequence is clear: retain the email or portal record that sent the documents, the date and time of transmission, the provider’s acknowledgement, and any request for missing information. A contract with the provider and an invoice for payroll services do not prove that the DPAE was accepted.
Create a remediation file with a factual chronology:
- when the candidate accepted the offer and when the company decided the start date;
- when the company received identity, bank, social-security and work-authorisation information;
- when the contract and written information were signed or delivered;
- when the DPAE was prepared, submitted, rejected, corrected or accepted;
- when the employee actually performed work and was paid;
- when the RUP entry and health-service request were made; and
- what the accountant, URSSAF or another authority asked for and how the company responded.
Keep the original documents and the corrected versions with an explanation. Do not rewrite an old PDF to make it appear that it was created earlier. If the company received a portal error, save the error message and the time of the attempted filing. If an employee’s social-security number was not yet available, record the identification information supplied and the steps taken to obtain the correct number. If the work-authorisation check was incomplete, record the date on which the authority was contacted and whether the employee was permitted to work while the verification was pending. The aim is to make the facts auditable, not to manufacture a perfect history after the event.
When URSSAF contacts the company, check the identity of the request, its period, its legal basis and its deadline. URSSAF may ask for payroll records, contracts, time records, payment evidence, DPAE receipts, RUP information or explanations of a discrepancy. Respond through the channel specified in the request and keep proof of submission. If the request concerns a possible reclassification of a contractor as an employee, do not answer only with the label used in the contract. The actual work, instructions, control, remuneration and integration into the business may matter. The first employee checklist is not a substitute for analysing a relationship that the company called freelance.
Separate three questions in the response. First, what happened factually? Second, what filing or document was required at that time? Third, what evidence supports the company’s explanation and what corrective step has been taken? This structure avoids a common mistake by overseas founders: sending a long narrative about the global group while failing to attach the French employer’s DPAE receipt or the employee’s actual start date. The French entity, its establishment and its local employment relationship should remain visible throughout the response.
If the employee is not an EU, EEA or Swiss national, treat any work-authorisation issue as urgent. Article L. 8251-1 covers employment “pour quelque durée que ce soit”, meaning for any duration, and it also addresses restrictions recorded on the authorising document. A foreign founder should not rely on a visa or residence document that appears valid without checking its work scope. If the document is ambiguous, obtain advice before the start date and keep the analysis with the right-to-work record. The company should also avoid collecting more immigration information than needed or circulating passport copies through unsecured group channels.
Review who had authority to act for the company. A French subsidiary’s president, managing director or other representative may sign the employment documents, while an overseas parent may fund payroll or appoint a provider. The mandate should be clear. If a provider filed the DPAE, the company should still be able to retrieve the receipt. If a parent-company human-resources team collected the documents, it should transfer them to the French employer’s controlled file. If a foreign director has no reliable access to the relevant French portal, appoint a local contact before hiring rather than relying on a password shared by email.
A missing document can be cured; an unclear chain of responsibility is harder to defend. Write a one-page responsibility matrix naming the legal employer, the signatory, the payroll provider, the person filing the DPAE, the person maintaining the RUP, the person dealing with occupational health, and the reviewer who approves the DSN. Include a substitute for holidays and a procedure for urgent corrections. This is especially useful when the first employee is hired by a French subsidiary whose parent company operates from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East or Asia.
Finally, check whether the company has confused the employee’s legal start with an earlier “trial”, training day, unpaid help or onboarding session. A person who performs productive work under the company’s direction may be treated as working even if the company called the activity informal. The 2017 Cour de cassation decision concerned facts in which the court examined the reality of the work and the link of subordination, not just the paperwork. If the candidate has already performed tasks, received instructions or represented the company, include those facts in the chronology and obtain a tailored legal assessment.
The result of a good remediation is not merely a late DPAE receipt. It is a coherent record showing the real start date, the employee’s status, the legal employer, the documents delivered, the declarations made, the payments issued and the corrective action. If the company anticipates a dispute or inspection, preserve the file in its original form and have counsel review the response before the company makes admissions that cannot later be withdrawn. A foreign founder can explain an unfamiliar French process; the explanation is strongest when each factual assertion is tied to a dated document.
Conclusion
Before hiring its first employee in France, a company should assemble three connected files: the employer file with its Kbis or RNE details, SIREN, SIRET, establishment, collective agreement and payroll access; the employee file with the contract, statutory written information, identity, bank, social-security and work-authorisation documents; and the proof file with the DPAE receipt, RUP entry, occupational-health request, payslip, payment evidence and DSN acknowledgements. The DPAE must precede the first work activity, while later steps must be calendared rather than forgotten.
For a foreign founder, the decisive safeguard is a clear handoff to the French payroll and legal contacts. Delegating a filing does not remove the need to know what was filed, when it was accepted and where the evidence is stored. If a document is missing or a start date has passed, act immediately, preserve the chronology and obtain advice based on the actual facts. This approach gives the company a defensible employment record from its very first French hire.
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