FEC check methodologyTelaViewer Pro

BusinessVersion 1.3.1
October 2026
TELANODE SAS

When it opens a FEC (fichier des écritures comptables, the French standard audit file), TelaViewer Pro checks it line by line, then as a whole: 26 checks grouped into 11 steps, from the file name to the chronology of validations. This page describes each check, its level and what is verified, so that the result can be interpreted and verified by the accounting firm and by the company alike.

Principes

Read-only. The file is never modified; everything happens on the computer, with no connection.
Tolerant reading, discrepancies reported. An imperfect FEC is still displayed in full: each discrepancy is counted and described instead of stopping the reading.
Recalculated from the lines. Totals, trial balance (general accounts by class and third-party accounts) and journals are recalculated from the entries, not taken from a stated total.
Every anomaly leads to its lines. A link opens the list of entries filtered on the lines concerned, with the reason shown line by line.
Encoding detected. UTF-8, ISO-8859-15 or Windows-1252, determined from the content; Windows, Unix or classic Mac line endings.

Result levels

✔ CompliantThe check passed; the result is given (total, number of entries).

ℹ InformationA fact useful for reading, with no anomaly.

⚠ WarningA deviation from the standard that does not prevent use of the file; to be checked.

✖ ErrorA deviation that distorts the totals or breaks a structural rule.

The checks, step by step

Reference: Article A47 A-1 of the LPF (French Tax Procedures Code), which sets the content and form of the FEC. The checks apply to the text FEC (tab or pipe separated) and to the XML FEC.

1.File identification

The FEC is recognised from its content, whatever its extension: a header whose first column is JournalCode for the text file, a comptabilite element for the XML file.

Check	Niveau	Details
Name matches the SirenFECAAAAMMJJ pattern	✔ Compliant or ⚠ Warning	The SIREN and the closing date are read from the name. Without a closing date, entry dates are not compared with the closing date. In XML, the DateCloture element takes precedence over the name.
SIREN check digit	⚠ Warning	Luhn algorithm applied to the 9 digits.

2.Header and columns

Columns are identified by name, in any order. The recognised profiles are the 18 columns of the regulation, the 21 columns for agricultural profits on a cash basis, the 22 columns for BNC (non-commercial profits) on a cash basis, and the Amount and Direction variant.

Check	Niveau	Details
Mandatory columns missing	✖ Error	List of missing columns.
Columns in a different order from the regulation, names spelled differently, header ending with a separator	⚠ Warning	The file is still read, column by column.
Extra columns after the mandatory columns	ℹ Information	They are allowed by the regulation; they are shown under their own name.

3.Line structure

Each line is split using the header's separator (tab or pipe).

Check	Niveau	Details
Number of fields different from the header	✖ Error
Unreadable direction (Amount and Direction variant)	✖ Error	D, d and +1 are recognised for debit, C, c and -1 for credit.

4.Montants

Amounts are read as whole cents: no floating-point arithmetic, so no rounding differences in the totals.

Check	Niveau	Details
Unreadable amount	✖ Error	Counted as 0 and reported.
Decimal point instead of a comma	✖ Error	The amount is read; the format deviation is reported.
Thousands separator	✖ Error	The amount is read; the format deviation is reported.

5.Dates

The expected format is AAAAMMJJ. The AAAA-MM-JJ and JJ/MM/AAAA formats and their variants are read so that reading is not blocked.

Check	Niveau	Details
Invalid date (impossible day, month or year, such as 31 February)	✖ Error	The date is left empty.

6.Mandatory fields and missing data

Check	Niveau	Details
Empty entry number, entry date, account number, account label or entry label	✖ Error
Account number not starting with 3 digits	✖ Error	Reference to the French general chart of accounts.
Empty journal code or label, document reference or date, or validation date	⚠ Warning	Count column by column.

7.Debit, credit and line consistency

Check	Niveau	Details
Debit and credit both filled in on the same line, or neither	⚠ Warning
Subsidiary account without a label	⚠ Warning
Matching date without a matching code	⚠ Warning
Foreign currency amount without a currency code	⚠ Warning

8.Équilibre

An entry is the set of lines with the same journal code and the same entry number.

Check	Niveau	Details
Total debits equal to total credits	✔ Compliant or ✖ Error	If there is a difference: amount of the difference, total debits and total credits.
Each entry balanced	✔ Compliant or ✖ Error	Number of unbalanced entries and sum of the differences; link to the list of these entries.

9.Numbering

If the same entry number appears in several journals, numbering is considered to be kept journal by journal; otherwise, as a single sequence across the whole file.

Check	Niveau	Details
Continuity of entry numbering	✔ Compliant or ⚠ Warning	Number of missing numbers.
Non-numeric entry numbers	ℹ Information	These entries are excluded from the continuity check.

10.Chronology and financial year

Check	Niveau	Details
Validation date earlier than that of a previous line	⚠ Warning
Entry date after the closing date	⚠ Warning
Entries dated more than two years before the closing date	ℹ Information	Date of the oldest entry.

11.Closing entries

Check	Niveau	Details
Expense (6) and income (7) accounts all with a zero balance	⚠ Warning	The file appears to contain the closing entries, which Article A47 A-1 of the LPF excludes from the FEC.

Scope

The checks are indicative: they prepare a filing or a review; they do not replace Test Compta Demat, the validation tool of the DGFiP (French tax authority).
The XML FEC is not validated against the official XSD schemas; its structure is read and checked with the same rules as the text file.
Size: up to 4 million lines analysed (beyond that, the analysis stops and says so); XML FEC up to 256 MB.
A FEC inside a ZIP archive opens from the archive, file by file.

After the check

Entries can be viewed with filters by journal, class, account, third party, entry or anomaly, with the recalculated trial balance and journals. TelaViewer Pro exports the view to CSV and rewrites the entries in FEC format (18 columns, tab, decimal comma, SirenFECAAAAMMJJ name). The structure, amount, date, field and balance checks also apply to exports from Sage, Cegid, Quadra, EBP, Ciel and Fiducial software.

TELANODE SAS · Tel. +33 9 72 50 86 00 · contact@telanode.fr · TelaViewer Pro for business · Accounting formats