The first-order reversal curves (FORC) diagram method is applied here to the light-induced thermal hysteresis of spin-crossover compounds. Due to the kinetic nature of the photoinduced process, the FORC analysis has been mainly focused on the dependence of the FORC diagram with respect to the temperature sweep rate. Most of the features experimentally observed are explained by adequate simulations using the mean-field macroscopic master equation of a two-level system. © 2005 The American Physical Society.