The legislator has set out the template convention to be used to conclude cooperation between principals and public accountants (Decree of 20 September 2013, published on the Official Journal of 8 October).

Consequently, article 12 of Decree no. 2013-269 of 29 March 2013 pertaining to combating late payments in public order contracts makes provision that "if the decision-maker and public accountant have set out the terms and conditions for cooperation in the framework of an agreed deadline, on the basis of a template fixed by the minister responsible for the Budget, it is the deadline for intervention planned for the public accountant in the framework of this convention which is applicable, insofar as the principal has respected the commitments taken in said convention to allow the public accountant to respect this deadline". The principle of this convention has been set out in the objective of controlling the maximum payment terms for expenditure.

Where applicable, the principal and accountant may insert annexed decisions to the present decree in any of the following conventions (which may be concluded with a wider object than simply controlling payment terms for expenses): accounting and financial service agreement; partnership agreement; simplified control agreement in partnership for expenses.