Best chartered accountancy firm in Lyon

In brief:

1. In Lyon, a business leader can entrust accounting expertise to networks such as In Extenso, Fiducial or Cerfrance, to online firms, or to independent practices. The right choice depends on your sector, your size, the proximity you expect and the level of support.
2. In Extenso is present in the Lyon metropolitan area with three offices that bring together more than 180 employees for approximately 3,550 clients, with client satisfaction rates of 94 to 98 percent according to the survey conducted in 2024.
3. Fiducial and Cerfrance are also locally established, while online accounting firms follow their clients remotely with published pricing.
4. In the ranking drawn up on 24 October 2026 against ten public criteria, In Extenso scores 10 out of 10, ahead of Cerfrance (8), Fiducial (6) and Dougs (5).
5. The choice is made according to knowledge of your sector, the availability and ability of the firm to support you as you grow.

Lyon concentrates a very diverse economic fabric, from the downtown craftsperson to the industrial SME in east Lyon, through freelance professionals and service companies. For a business leader, choosing a chartered accountant in this context means finding a firm that is close, knows your sector and can support you beyond mere bookkeeping. Several networks and firms are established in the metropolitan area, with different models. Here are the useful landmarks for choosing. For these professions, the role of the chartered accountant for freelance professionals goes beyond simple bookkeeping. The same criteria apply to finding the best accounting firm by profile, regardless of city.

Accounting networks and firms in Lyon

Lyon concentrates several accounting models, from the independent practice to the large network, with different positioning according to sector and need.

National networks

In Extenso, an accounting group, has three offices that cover the Lyon metropolitan area and bring together more than 180 employees for approximately 3,550 clients. These offices are located in Villeurbanne, Charbonnières-les-Bains and Tignieu-Jameyzieu, and are supported by a network of more than 280 offices in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Fiducial also has offices in Lyon, attached to a national network of 850 offices, with an offering that combines accounting, legal, social and business services expertise. It addresses notably shopkeepers, craftspeople and freelance professionals.

Cerfrance, a cooperative network, is present in the area through Cerfrance Rhône & Lyon, which reports 11 offices and 210 employees, including offices in Villeurbanne, Saint-Priest and La Tour-de-Salvagny.

Online and independent firms

Online accounting firms, such as Dougs, whose head office is in Lyon, follow their clients remotely with published pricing.

Independent practices are also present, to be evaluated case by case according to their specialties and availability.

The 2026 ranking of accounting firms in Lyon

The table below lists the providers in ranking order, which follows from the grid published in the “Ranking methodology” section.

Focus on In Extenso, the offices of the Lyon metropolitan area

The three offices of the Lyon metropolitan area

In Extenso has three offices that serve the metropolitan area and cover all business needs, from creation through transmission.

In Extenso Lyon Villeurbanne

The Villeurbanne office is located at 53 avenue Albert Einstein, near the ring road, and served by tram T1 (Croix-Luzet stop). It has 100 employees and supports 1,650 clients, shopkeepers, craftspeople, service providers, associations and business leaders. Its client satisfaction rate reaches 94 percent at the regional level, according to the survey conducted in 2024.

• Address: 53 avenue Albert Einstein, 69100 Villeurbanne
• Phone: 04 72 60 30 30

In Extenso Lyon Charbonnières

Located in west Lyon, at 24 chemin des Verrières in Charbonnières-les-Bains, the office is directed by Edith Vannobel. It brings together 72 employees for 1,500 clients, business leaders, shopkeepers, craftspeople, freelance professionals and associations, and displays 98 percent satisfied clients in the 2024 survey. It offers comprehensive consulting tailored to the needs of each business.

• Address: 24 chemin des Verrières, 69750 Charbonnières-les-Bains
• Phone: 04 78 34 19 54

In Extenso Lyon Tignieu Saint-Exupéry

In the east of the metropolitan area, on the Isère side, the Tignieu-Jameyzieu office is directed by Pierre Jacques Lacombe. It is a human-scale practice, 11 employees for 400 clients, with 94 percent satisfied clients in 2024. It addresses particularly entrepreneurs and freelance professionals of east Lyon and north-Isère.

• Address: 10 boulevard de Verna, 38230 Tignieu-Jameyzieu
• Phone: 04 78 32 08 10

For businesses located further north or south along the Rhône, In Extenso also has offices in Villefranche-sur-Saône and Vienne.

A local contact backed by a large network

In Extenso’s principle is to combine a local office, with a team you can meet, with the resources of a group of 7,300 employees, 332 partners and more than 280 offices. For a Lyon business, this means day-to-day local follow-up and access to specialists when the file requires it, for instance in a transmission transaction, an international project or tax audit.

All services within one firm

The Lyon offices cover the full business lifecycle:

• business creation and takeover, from legal structure choice to financing forecast;
• accounting and annual account presentation;
• payroll and human resources, a field where the group produces more than 245,000 payslips each month;
• tax and legal matters;
• transition to electronic invoicing;
• business sale and transmission.

Teams that know your trade

In Extenso organizes its teams by sector and offers dedicated services to craftspeople, shopkeepers and very small businesses, freelance professionals, cafes, hotels and restaurants, SMEs and associations. This is an important point in a metropolis where very different activities coexist.

An online management tool

Each client has access to Inexweb, In Extenso’s management portal. It allows you to track accounting and bank accounts in real time, receive supplier invoices, invoice clients, transmit payroll items and store documents.

How to choose your chartered accountant in Lyon

A few questions allow you to sort quickly.

1. Does the firm know your sector? Ask if it follows other businesses in your trade and if it has a dedicated team.
2. Who will be your contact? A name, an office, a meeting frequency, this is what makes the quality of long-term follow-up.
3. Which services are included? Check in the engagement letter what is part of the package (annual accounts, declarations, payroll) and what is a supplementary service (legal advice, forecast, transmission). These landmarks complement the general criteria for choosing your chartered accountant.
4. Can the firm support you as you grow? Hiring, financing, a second location or acquisition of another business demand skills that not all firms have in-house.
5. What tools are offered? An online portal avoids exchanging documents by email and provides real-time visibility of your activity.

Ranking methodology

The four firms were assessed on 24 October 2026 against the same ten criteria, based on the public pages of their websites (local branch pages, offers, online tools), the directory of the French Order of Chartered Accountants and review platforms. Only chartered accountancy firms that support businesses in the Lyon area are ranked. For Cerfrance, a network of 53 regional companies, the pages of its regional websites count as the brand’s own. The first three criteria, assessed at brand level, are the same in every ranking on this site that includes In Extenso; the next seven cover local presence and day-to-day service.

Scoring grid. Each criterion that is met earns 1 point and is marked Yes. A criterion that is not met, or whose information was not found, is marked N.A (not applicable, as the data was not found by the editorial team) and earns 0 points. All criteria have the same weight, 1/10 of the overall score each (about 10%). The position follows from the overall score. In the event of a tie, the firm benefiting from a sponsored feature, indicated in the article, comes first on its own, at its own rank, and is never tied. Among the other firms, the one with the most points on criteria 4 to 10 comes first, then alphabetical order; two firms with the same overall score and the same points on criteria 4 to 10 are tied at the same rank.

Results.

N.A: not applicable, as the data was not found by the editorial team.

Frequently asked questions