Over how many years and how is a 15k euro website depreciated in accounting?

We set up a similar wholesale portal two years ago for 12,000 euros. Our accountant applied 3-year straight-line depreciation; we expensed 4,000 euros each year. As for the server and the 1,500 euro annual maintenance contract, we expensed those directly as current monthly costs.

Everyone wants to expense it immediately to lower their taxes that year, but if your profitability isn't high, writing it off all at once can push the company into a needless loss on the balance sheet. Spreading it over three years makes your balance sheet look much healthier and more balanced to banks.

If the agency invoice includes operational items like content creation, product photography, or catalog uploads, have them broken out from the software. While the software part is capitalized as an asset, content creation can be deducted as a current-year expense; your accountant can split it based on the invoice.

in our first year, we booked the entire invoice under software expenses as a lump sum without consulting our accountant and during a tax audit they immediately required a balance sheet adjustment and the tax office in France strictly considers transactional sites as investments, so I wouldn't risk it at all.

edit: I wrote something wrong above, sorry about that.

did they bill it all in one go or did you pay in phases? money paid until the project is finished and launched usually sits in the assets under construction account, depreciation kicks in the day it goes live.

Do you fully own the site, or did you build it by leasing a proprietary framework from the agency? If it is open-source code or proprietary software whose full ownership has been transferred to you, it qualifies as a fixed asset; if it operates on a monthly or annual license rental model, that changes the situation entirely.

Ask your agency to itemize the invoice: 1) Licensing and infrastructure development, 2) Design and integration, 3) First-year maintenance support. That way you can immediately expense the maintenance and support portion, and only depreciate the development amount over 3 years.

Recording this as a fixed asset is of strategic importance in terms of your company's total assets and future loan applications. To ensure your financial statements fully comply with French Tax Law and accounting standards, you should finalize the depreciation schedule together with your accountant.

I'm writing this so you don't make the same mistake. Calculate this based on total annual cost not the monthly bill.

Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late. If you post the result here, it will help others too.

We experienced almost the exact same thing last year. The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say.

Just leaving this note, it might be useful.

We got stuck at the same point for a while. Calculate this based on total annual cost, not the monthly bill.

When making a decision, also write down the cost of reversal.

Timely topic.

The opposite happened to me that's why I'm writing. Splitting your budget without knowing where you're losing users is just throwing money in the dark.

how did you solve this? if you dont write this down from the start, it leads to arguments later.

if you post the result here it will help others too.

Here's how it went for us. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

This is my opinion, I'm not claiming it's absolute truth.

Thanks for writing this, that's the right way. Changing habits is harder and more expensive than setting up a system.

The biggest time-waster for us was not knowing who had the final say. If you have questions, write them; I'll answer as best I can.

Saved. Don't hesitate to ask; those who don't ask always pay more.

If you post the result here, it will help others too.

I'll argue the opposite, don't get mad. The harder it is to reverse a decision, the slower you should make it.

Hope this helps.