Definition
Your client's supplier portal is holding the payment until one document is uploaded: "extrait Kbis or equivalent".
You dig through your emails and find a message from INSEE with a set of numbers, an URSSAF account, and nothing that looks like what is being asked for.
The equivalent does exist, it takes a minute to produce, and it costs nothing.
The avis de situation SIRENE (SIRENE status notice) is an extract of your record in the répertoire SIRENE, the file INSEE, the national statistics institute, keeps on every business established in France.
You generate it yourself on avis-situation-sirene.insee.fr by entering your number: it appears at once, free of charge, as many times as you need.
It is the micro-enterprise's proof of existence: it certifies that your business is registered, as it stands on the day you produce the document.
What it contains, and what it does not prove
It shows your SIREN number, your SIRET number, the trading name or your own name, the declared address, the legal category, the main activity carried out and the date of creation.
That is enough for almost every bank, platform and purchasing department wanting to check that you exist.
What it does not prove is worth knowing before you send it.
It says nothing about your declarations and nothing about your payments: a spotless status notice is perfectly compatible with two years of unpaid contributions. The document that answers that question is the URSSAF compliance certificate, issued by URSSAF.
That is what serious clients ask for on larger contracts.
It says nothing about your VAT position either.
The creation date printed on it holds another misunderstanding, and a more expensive one.
It is not what the tax administration calls the year of creation for the CFE, the local business property tax.
For a micro-entrepreneur with no employees, that year is the first one in which you generate turnover, not the year of registration.
Declaring your activity in October 2026 and invoicing for the first time in January 2027 shifts the year-of-creation exemption to 2027, and the first tax bill to 2028.
If a notice arrives anyway before your first euro of turnover, it can be challenged through a dégrèvement (tax relief) request to your local business tax office.
The status notice is free and is not sold anywhere.
Private sites resell it under official-looking labels all the same, and letters arrive within weeks of a registration demanding payment for an "entry in the register" that does not exist.
Those are Fraudulent register letters: they copy public data and commit you to nothing.
The only place the document is issued is the INSEE site, with no account to open and nothing to send in.
The activity code on it does not decide your contributions
The main activity printed on the notice matches your APE code, issued by INSEE to classify businesses in its statistics.
Many readers take it as proof of their regime and write to INSEE hoping to have a contribution rate changed. The code settles nothing: it is the real nature of your activity that decides.
The arithmetic makes it plain.
On 10,000 € collected in a quarter, a freelance developer falls under BNC, the non-commercial profits category, and pays 2,560 € in contributions at the rate of 25.6% in 2026.
A bike repairer, under BIC services, the industrial and commercial profits category, pays 2,120 € at 21.2% the same year: a 440 € gap on identical takings, decided by the trade itself and not by a line on the notice.
Those are the full mainland rates, outside the ACRE start-up relief, and they do not cover every liberal profession: a regulated profession affiliated to the Cipav pension fund, an architect or a ski instructor, pays 23.2% in 2026.
None of these rates covers the CFP vocational training contribution, the chamber levy or income tax.
An inaccurate code is still worth fixing, because it follows you to insurers and into tender files: a genuine change of activity goes through an amendment declaration at the One-stop shop, whereas a code that does not match the activity already declared is disputed with INSEE.
Status notice, Kbis and compliance certificate: who issues what
The most common mix-up sets the status notice against the Kbis extract.
The Kbis is the registration extract from the registre du commerce et des sociétés, the trade and companies register: it concerns companies and traders entered in it.
A micro-entrepreneur running a liberal profession is not listed there and will never hold a Kbis, which says nothing about how established the business is.
When a form asks for a Kbis and you are not entered in that register, the status notice is the accepted equivalent: attach it with a one-line explanation rather than letting a payment drift.
A micro-entrepreneur trading as a merchant does hold a Kbis, and has nothing to substitute for it.
Then there is the vocabulary, which keeps the confusion alive.
SIRENE is not a register in the legal sense: it is an identification directory kept by INSEE and fed by the formalities you file.
The legal registration of the business itself sits in the registre national des entreprises, the national business register kept by INPI since 2023, which issues its own registration extract, free to download from data.inpi.fr.
You are identified in one and registered in the other: when a buyer insists on proof of registration rather than proof of existence, that extract is what they are waiting for, not the notice.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get a SIRENE status notice, and what does it cost?
From the INSEE site set up for it, by entering your SIREN or SIRET number. The document appears immediately and downloads free of charge, with no account to create.
No rule sets an expiry date on it: reissue it on the day it is asked for, and a buyer demanding a recent one is applying a commercial habit, not a legal requirement.
If you have asked INSEE not to publish your data, a third party will not be able to produce it in your place: it will be up to you to send it over.
My client insists on a Kbis and I do not have one, what do I tell them?
That your activity is not entered in the trade and companies register, and that the equivalent proof is the avis de situation SIRENE issued by INSEE.
It carries the same identification details, and it is accepted by banks and by most supplier portals without further discussion.
If they want proof of registration rather than proof of existence, add your extract from the registre national des entreprises, which is free as well.
Does a status notice prove that my contributions are up to date?
No, and the confusion often comes from the buyers themselves. The notice certifies that the business exists on the day it is produced, nothing more.
Proof of being up to date is the attestation de vigilance, issued by URSSAF and verifiable online by whoever receives it.
The details on my notice are wrong, how do I get them corrected?
It depends on what is wrong.
An address, an activity or a date that has changed is corrected through an amendment declaration filed at the guichet unique, the one-stop shop for business formalities.
An activity code that does not match the activity already declared is disputed with INSEE instead.