Do you want to acquire or develop your company's website yourself? Here are the main accounting rules to follow.

Presentation of the different types of website

First of all, you need to know what type of website it is going to be. Indeed, the accounting rules linked to website registrations will change depending on the nature of the website you have.

- In particular, you must differentiate between a site that you have created free internally and a website acquired from an external service provider.

- You must distinguish active websites from passive sites..

We call active site a website that will generate economic benefits for your business. This investment then aims to generate turnover. Mainly we will talk about an e-commerce site because the customer can, for example, place an order or an online reservation via your site.

Conversely, a passive site presents itself as a showcase and therefore serves to present epassive site and give information about your company or your products / services.

Accounting recording of passive websites (showcase)

Expenses linked to a showcase site which only serves as information and contact for your customers and suppliers will always be recorded as expenses in your company's accounts.

Accounting recording of active sites carried out by an external service provider

If you do not have the resources, time or skills necessary to create your website, you can turn to a service provider external to the company.

In this case, the amounts excluding tax of expenses will be recorded as fixed assets if three conditions are met:

- The website is used sustainably in the context of your activity

- The website is a viable project, with a high chance of success and profitability

- You have in your possession the necessary resources for its implementation

If one of these three criteria is not met, the expenses will be recognized as expenses.

For all immobilized websites, the amortization period generally extends over a period of 3 to 5 years. Since the 2017 Finance Law, it is no longer possible to practice exceptional depreciation over 12 months for companies having acquired a website from 01/01/2017.

Accounting recording of active websites created free of charge internally

If you have the necessary skills, you can choose to create your own website in-house. This is often the case when the manager has web knowledge and decides to develop his website for free.

In this case you do not have to incur development expenses but it will be relevant to value its cost by asking for example a quote from an external service provider who would have made it for you. This estimated value can therefore be put into capitalized production in your company's accounting. This value will appear atthe assets on your balance sheet. You can then amortize it over several years.

Expenses generated by the acquisition and maintenance of a website

The creation of your website will generate a certain number of hosting, domain name and maintenance expenses. Likewise, you may be required to pay advertising or web marketing costs. These are expenses linked to the animation of your site which allow you to attract as many people as possible to your site.

For all of these expenses, you apply the same method. The amounts excluding tax are recorded as debit in an expense account, in return for the “suppliers” account (including tax). Advertising costs will, for example, be recorded in the “623-Advertising and publications” account».