The main subjects are:
- the activity: past and future activity, at a whole level, but also by kind of work and by type of clientele (public, private). The business managers are also surveyed on the general perspectives of the sector;
- the order books: the business managers are surveyed on the order books level in months of work; they also compare the level of their order books with the normal situation;
- the cash flow position, the repayment period by type of clientele;
- the production capacity:  the survey concerns the possible obstacles to the increase of the activity, the rate of utilisation of the production capacities;
- the employment: evolution in the staff size, in the last three months  and expected in the next three months. The business managers are also surveyed on the recruitment problems;  
- the investment: some quantitative questions are asked quaterly;
- the expected trend of prices.

Mostly, the questions are qualitative, with three choices. The results are balances of opinion calculated as the difference between the percentage of <<up (+)>> and the percentage of <<down (-)>>.

The survey covers the sectors defined by the following codes of the French Nomenclature of Activities (NAF rev. 2):
- construction of residential and non-residential buildings (code 41.2);
- electrical, plumbing and other installation work (code 43.2); 
- finishing work (code 43.3);
- other specialized construction work (code 43.9).

The composite business climate indicator describes the common component of the selected balances of opinion on past activity, forecast activity, judgement of order books, past work force and production capacity utilisation rate.

The turning point indicator aims to detect as early as possible when the outlook trend changes direction. This is a qualitative variable which is not directly observed. The indicator is presented in the form of a curve, retracing for each date the difference between the probability that the cyclical phase is favourable and the probability that is unfavourable.

The unit interviewed is the company.

The monthly business outlook survey in the building industry covers companies with 11 employees or more, working on the construction of individual houses and miscellaneous buildings, general building work, roofing, framing, fitting and finishing work.

Some data have been available since 1975.