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Summary of our market study
The French market for industry-specific software, including accounting software, exceeds €13 billion.
from 2020 onwards, the global accounting software market experienced strong growth, with the adoption of SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions contributing significantly to this trend. The market, valued at $16.8 billion in 2023.
The market is consolidated by major players such as Oracle Corporation, SAP SE and Intuit Inc., but is also receptive to emerging start-ups incorporating innovative technologies.
In Europe, 41% of companies will be using Cloud Computing by 2021, with 48% using finance or accounting software via the Cloud. SaaS sales by software publishers account for almost half of their revenues. In Europe, more than 40% of companies use cloud computing (SaaS), with France having an adoption rate of around 44%.
The French software market is worth over 20 billion euros, 62.9% of which is attributed to sector-specific software, including accounting applications. Annual growth is around 9%.
Accounting software players
- SAGE: A term that evokes authority and experience in the accounting field
- Quadratus
- Quickbooks developed by Intuit is popular with small and medium-sized businesses.
- Cegid: Known for its cloud services
- EBP: Champion of SMEs
- Divalto: Offers ERP solutions
- Ciel: Small business specialist
- SAP: World-renowned for its ERP solutions
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Market definition and scope
Accounting is an integral part of any organization (whether business, government or not-for-profit) as soon as its activity involves financial and cash flows. Increasingly, organizations (public, private, companies, associations...) and accounting professionals are using accounting software to enter and monitor financial activity.
Recent innovations in accounting management software have led to increasing automation of reporting and accounting processes. For example, they avoid the need to consolidate manual entries, while considerably reducing costs and human error.
Accounting software comes in two forms: on-premise" or "SaaS", the former being a one-off download of the software which the user becomes the owner of, the latter being a rental with an amount due over regular periods (monthly, quarterly, annually...). This form of SaaS software has seen significant growth in recent years, with an ever-increasing rate of adoption by businesses. It was therefore inevitable that accounting software would miss out on this trend, which is why the proportion of companies adopting SaaS accounting software increased by 2 points between 2020 and 2021.
The accounting software market is a fairly consolidated one, with major players, but this does not prevent theentry of new players in the form of specialized start-ups that will profoundly alter the market structure.
1.2 A fast-growing global market
Global market size
Global accounting software market Worldwide, ****-****, in billions of dollars CAGR +*.*% Source: ****
By ****, the global accounting software market is valued at $**.* billion. Forecast data point to very strong growth over the coming years, with a CAGR of +*.**% over the period ****-****. The market should thus reach a size ...
1.3 French accounting software market driven by growth of French software publishers
To begin with, here are the sales trends for the software market:
Software sales France, ****-****, in billions of euros Source: ****
Between **** and ****, software sales grew at an average annual rate of *.*%, reaching a value of **.* billion euros in ****. Between **** and ****, growth was *%, * points higher than between **** and ****. We can imagine ...
2 Demand analysis
2.1 Main demand sectors
Data provided by INSEE allows us to compare the penetration rate of office automation cloud software by sector:
Office cloud software penetration rate by sector France, ****, in % of companies INSEE
The transport sector had the highest penetration rate in **** (***). Specialized activities also make heavy use of cloud solutions (**% penetration rate. Other ...
2.2 Standardization of Cloud Computing and SaaS
SaaS, Software as a Service, is a cloud-based form of software. It enables software to be accessed via the Internet. The software supplier owns its operation, with all data hosted on a remote server and accessible via a cloud. Data security is the responsibility of the software supplier, as are updates ...
2.3 Average spending on accounting software by company size
The amount companies spend on accounting software depends largely on their size, which in turn influences the type of need they have. For example, the larger the company, the more it may need a system covering all aspects of its accounting, potentially with customized elements. on the other hand, in most ...
2.4 Potential customers on the rise: companies and accounting firms
The companies
Business start-ups by year France, ****, thousands of companies Source: ****
This graph shows that the number of businesses created is only increasing: in ****, a record ***,*** companies were created. Every new company is a new opportunity, because a company generates accounting flows. However, not all businesses have the funds to purchase ...
3 Market structure
3.1 Software publishing
Accounting software structure, questions to ask :
Source: ****
For whom:
Software can be of interest to different types of customer, and software offerings differ according to the customer. An accounting firm, for example, will have a very large database, since data from several customers and therefore several companies will have to be ...
3.2 Production structure
We consider here the data provided by INSEE under NAF code **.**C "Édition de logiciels applicatifs", which includes software for professional or domestic use, such as office applications, project management, etc. This scope is therefore broader than that of accounting software[***].
Establishments under code **.**C France, ****- ****, in units Source: ****
Number ...
3.3 Distribution and contractualization: subscriptions very popular
The following data concerns French software publishers as a whole. As figures specific to accounting software are not available, we have nevertheless deemed it useful to present the following figures:
What type of contractualization?
More and more software publishers are opting for subscription-based contracts.
Contractualization mode preferred by software publishers in ...
3.4 Major players but a market open to competition
Here is a non-exhaustive list of the main players in the accounting software market, based on their frequency of appearance on the various websites offering accounting software rankings:
SAGE Quadratus Quickbooks Cegid EBP Divalto Ciel SAP Agiris
As a reminder, in *.* we explained that the market was virtually consolidated, with major ...
4 Offer analysis
4.1 The different offerings on the accounting software market
Accounting software is a program used to keep track of the accounts of an organization or company and to record the financial and accounting operations carried out (***). [***]
The main applications of accounting software are as follows:
General accounting. Manage financial and accounting flows Manage fixed assets Edit accounting and financial ...
4.2 Varied pricing
The price of accounting software varies enormously from one company to another, based on a wide range of criteria, including the following:
Company size Type of tool required: simple accounting software or global management ERP software Scope of the tool: general accounting only, cash management, fixed asset management, etc. Customer company: ...
4.3 Supply trends
An organization there to help the market
There is Innest, a startup gas pedal run by the Ordre des experts-comptables. This company "offers a tailor-made nine-month #AccounTech program" to improve the solution developed by the startups. Innest has just launched its call for applications for the fifth promotion.
The growth of ...
5 Regulations
5.1 Mandatory accounting software
To combat VAT fraud, the use of certified accounting software was to become mandatory from January*, ****, according to the **** Finance Law. This was to enable the tax authorities to access company data reliably, securely, but also to be able to store and archive accounting data.
Nevertheless, this measure was relaxed by ...
5.2 Accounting standards
Accounting standards are recording standards that define the management of a company's accounts in a standardized way. They can be set at several levels: either at French level, to facilitate exchanges between various companies in the country, or at international level. Accounting software must therefore be able to keep journals and ...
5.3 Legal requirements for accounting software
Up-to-date accounting is essential for coping with tax audits. According to article ***/*bis of the French General Tax Code, updated in ****, four requirements are imposed by the government to ensure that accounting software complies:
Condition of inalterability of the company's accounting data : software must be neutral and retain each accounting data ...
6 Positioning the players
6.1 Segmentation
- SAP
- Sage
- Intuit
- Sopra Steria
- CEGID
- EBP
- Divalto
- Pennylane
- Axonaut
- Flowie
- Alticap
- Indy
- Sellsy
- Freebe
- Keobiz
- Mapap
- Regate
- Freshbooks
- Tiime
- Fulll
- My unisoft
- ACD Groupe
- Agiris
- Quickbooks (Intuit France)
- Teogest
- Exact
- RevisAudit Premium
- Inqom (Visma Group)
- Limpeed
- Bleez
- Memsoft
List of charts presented in this market study
- Accounting software market trends
- Corporate use of cloud computing for accounting and finance software
- Software sales
- Structure of software sales
- Sector software sales
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Latest news
Software: Divalto expands its offering with the acquisition of Flexio - 28/03/2024
- - Publisher of cloud-based management software - Location: Entzheim (Bas-Rhin, France)
- - Sales in 2023: 31 million euros
- - Number of employees in 2023: 270
- - Acquisition of Flexio
- - Founded: 2016 in Besançon (Doubs)
- - Sector: No-code business application creation platform
- - Sales: Approx. 1 million euros - Number of employees: 14
Indy aims to become the companion for the self-employed - 21/11/2023
- Indy raises 40 million euros
- Indy was founded in 2016 under the name Georges Tech.
- Indy claims 70,000 users. Indy plans to offer a free bank account for its customers in 2024
- There are 4 million self-employed people in France, according to the latest Urssaf data.
- Indy is aiming for one million users by 2027.
Sellsy customer relationship software for SMEs - 31/10/2023
- Sellsy, a customer relationship management software company, is used by 8,000 French SMEs.
- Sellsy has 220 employees and sales of 12.7 million euros.
- According to a study carried out by Roland Berger in 2021, only 20% of French SMEs are equipped with CRM, for a total market of 800 million euros.
- Sellsy has achieved 90% growth over three years.
- The publisher was acquired by the PSG Equity fund in 2022
- Sellsy acquired Quipu, a Spanish company with 50 employees and 10,000 customers.
Cegid brings its teams together on a campus in Boulogne-Billancourt - 27/06/2023
- European leader in cloud management solutions
- 791 million euros in sales by 2020
- 4.400 employees in France
DST Global acquires a stake in accounting specialist Pennylane | DST Global invests in Pennylane - 02/05/2023
- Pennylane capital raising: 29.5 million euros in the first quarter of 2023
- Capital from DST Global: 26.5 million euros and Sequoia Capital: 2 million euros
- Previous fundraising by Pennylane: 50 million euros in early 2022
- Total amount raised by Pennylane: over 80 million euros
- Post-raising valuation: 487 million euros
- Total number of customers: 50,000 VSE/SMEs (including 12,000 files provided by the partnership with Keobiz)
- Sales in 2021: 1.5 million euros
- Start-up date: 2020
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the accounting software market | France
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