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Practical guide
The last document your employer hands you lists everything it owes you when you leave. This guide walks through each line, puts figures on them with an example worked out by the site, and explains what to do with the receipt before you sign it.
On the day you leave a company, whatever the reason (resignation, dismissal, mutual termination, end of a fixed-term contract), the employer draws up a final settlement, the solde de tout compte: the list of every sum it pays you because the contract is ending. It is often the largest payment of the year, and the easiest one to let through without reading. This guide details what it must contain, shows an example worked out by the site, and explains what you commit to by signing the receipt.
The final settlement is not a calculation the employer puts to you for approval: it is an inventory, drawn up by the employer, of the sums paid when the contract ends. It is due whatever the contract and the reason for leaving. It is handed over when the contract ends, that is at the end of the notice period, even when you were released from working it; in that case the employer may give it to you as soon as you actually leave. It is a document you collect: it must be available to you at the workplace, with no obligation to post it. Payment follows, usually with the last payslip, which details the same lines gross and net.
An employee on a permanent contract paid €3,000 gross a month is dismissed, without serious misconduct, after 6 years of service, notice included. The statutory notice is 2 months; the employer releases them from working it. When the contract ends, including holiday earned during the notice period, they have 10 working days of holiday left, over a full reference period. Here is what the settlement must contain at the legal minimum, worked out by the site's rules.
| Line | Gross amount | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Last salary | €3,000 | The full month worked |
| Pay in lieu of notice | €6,000 | 2 months of salary, as if the notice had been worked |
| Untaken holiday | €1,440 | One-tenth method (10% of the period's gross, pro rata to the days left), more than salary maintenance (€1,384) |
| Statutory severance pay | €4,500 | Reference pay of €3,000, 6 years of service |
| Total | €14,940 | Before contributions and tax |
Calculation: the site's statutory rules (severance pay, paid holiday), with no more generous collective agreement. The last salary, notice pay and holiday pay bear contributions and tax like salary; statutory severance pay is not taxable and, unless very large, bears no contributions. The severance pay calculator redoes the calculation with your length of service and both reference salaries.
The employer will often ask you to sign a “reçu pour solde de tout compte”, a receipt for the final settlement. You do not have to, and refusing cannot delay payment. If you do sign, you have 6 months from the signature to challenge the receipt, by registered letter with proof of delivery; after that, it discharges the employer, meaning you can no longer dispute the sums written on it. Sums that are not on it can still be claimed.
Without a signature, the ordinary time limits for going to the employment tribunal apply: 1 year to challenge the termination itself, 3 years to claim unpaid wages. Signing and dating the document, and keeping a copy, is the simplest option when everything is right; if you have any doubt about a line, take the time to check first.
These papers follow the same rule as the settlement: they are available to you at the workplace when the contract ends. A missing or incorrect document is first requested in writing, then before the employment tribunal if need be.
No: like the employment certificate and the France Travail certificate, it is a document you collect. The employer must keep it available for you at the workplace when the contract ends, that is at the end of the notice period, even if you did not work it. Nothing stops the employer from posting it, and many do; if it is slow in coming, ask for it in writing.
Nothing serious: signing is not compulsory, and the employer cannot hold back the money because you have not signed. The receipt then has no discharging effect: you keep the ordinary time limits to make a claim, instead of the 6 months that run after a signature.
Because they are not treated the same way. The last salary, pay in lieu of notice and holiday pay are wages: contributions, CSG and income tax as usual. Statutory severance pay, €4,500 in the example, is not subject to income tax, and it is also free of contributions and CSG-CRDS within limits that only a very large payment exceeds. A negotiated payment above the statutory or collective-agreement minimum is treated less favourably.
Not necessarily: the receipt only lists the sums known when the contract ends. Profit-sharing worked out after the financial year closes, or non-compete compensation paid month by month, come later and are not covered by your signature.
This guide gives you a method, not legal advice: the official rules and amounts are those of the sources above, as at their date.
The site's tools and features that go with this guide: the figures there are calculated by the code, never by the AI.