"Accounting", N 6, 1999
DOCUMENTATION OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS
AS THE BASIS OF ACCOUNTING
The importance of documentation in accounting. The main tasks facing the accounting service of any organization are:
- generation of complete and reliable information about the economic processes and financial results of the organization’s activities, necessary for operational management, as well as for its use by investors, creditors, tax and financial authorities, banks and other interested parties;
- ensuring control over the availability and movement of property, the use of material, labor and financial resources in accordance with approved norms, standards and estimates;
- timely prevention of negative phenomena in financial economic activity, identification and mobilization of on-farm reserves.
The implementation of these tasks directly depends on the completeness and timeliness of reflection in the accounts accounting business transactions carried out by an organization in the course of its activities, which, in turn, is a consequence of documenting completed transactions. The accuracy of the accounting information provided by the organization’s accounting department to its users depends on the correctness of its implementation. Therefore, in organizations, the process of documenting business transactions should be given great attention not only by employees of accounting services, but also by employees of other structural divisions, since the effectiveness of accounting in organizations depends on the correct organization of work with documents that are written confirmation of the fact of a business transaction (their legal evidence).
If the organization has not created a system for organizing and maintaining primary accounting, then the management system will not work effectively when making the necessary management decisions.
As for documenting business transactions from the point of view of current legislation, according to Article 9 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 N 129-FZ “On Accounting,” all business transactions must be reflected in accounting on the basis of source documents. In this case, primary accounting documents can be accepted for accounting only if they are compiled according to the forms contained in the albums of unified forms of primary documentation. Thus, one of the basic principles of accounting is obvious - a business transaction that is not properly documented does not take place as a legal economic event (there is no accounting object).
In addition, attention should be paid to the fact that tax authorities have the right to bring to administrative responsibility officials of the organization who are guilty of maintaining accounting records in violation of the procedure established by law. In this case, such a violation is failure to comply with the requirements prescribed by paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 9 of the said Law and relating to the documentation of completed business transactions.
Requirements for primary accounting documentation. The basis for reflecting information about completed business transactions in accounting registers is primary documents. Primary documents record the fact of a business transaction. The basic requirements for primary accounting documentation, include the following:
- only those documents that are drawn up according to the form contained in the albums of unified forms are accepted for accounting primary documentation. In the process of carrying out financial and economic activities, to formalize completed business transactions, organizations must use standard interdepartmental forms of primary documents approved by the State Committee Russian Federation according to statistics in the prescribed manner. If necessary, organizations are given the right to independently develop separate forms of primary documents and accounting registers, which are not in the albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation and albums of industry specialized forms of documents (for example, trade and procurement acts for the purchase of materials from individuals). In addition, it is allowed to make changes to the existing forms, detailing and clarifying them, as well as supplementing the details of the forms, provided that the main details remain unchanged;
- primary documents to give them legal force must have the following mandatory details: name of the document, date of drawing up the document, name of the organization on behalf of which the document was drawn up, content of the business transaction, measures of the business transaction in kind and in monetary terms, names of positions of persons responsible for carrying out a business transaction and the correctness of its execution, personal signatures of these persons.
In addition to the listed mandatory details, additional details may be indicated in the primary accounting documentation, the nature of which is determined by the content of a particular operation and the purpose of which is to strengthen the control, cognitive and operational significance of the documents;
- primary accounting documents must be drawn up at the time of the transaction, in exceptional cases - immediately after its completion;
- primary documents must reflect all necessary information, allowing you to accurately establish the content and conditions of transactions, i.e. there is a need to fill out all the details provided for in the document form;
- corrections in the primary documentation must be confirmed by the signatures of the persons who signed the documents, indicating the date of the corrections;
- filling out primary documents must ensure the safety of records for the period of time established for their storage in the archive.
Classification of primary accounting documents. All documents currently used in business activities can be classified according to the following main characteristics.
By purpose:
administrative - documents containing permission to carry out a certain business transaction (manager’s order to issue Money under report);
supporting documents - documents containing information about the execution of an order (advance report);
accounting registration- documents that serve to prepare accounting records for further use in the accounting process (calculation of accruals from wages);
combined - documents that combine the features of administrative, executive and accounting documents (settlement - payroll for wages).
According to the content of business transactions:
material - documents used to formalize operations for the movement of goods - material assets(receipt order);
monetary - documents intended for processing transactions with cash and non-cash funds of an enterprise (payment order);
settlement - used to formalize the settlement relationship of the enterprise with its counterparties for arising obligations (invoice).
By volume of reflected transactions:
primary - documents containing information about one business transaction (receipts and expenses cash orders);
summary - documents intended to summarize information about the entire set of similar business transactions for a certain period of time (cashier's report).
By method of use:
one-time - documents used to formalize a one-time business transaction (invoice - requirement for release (internal movement) of materials);
accumulative - used for repeated performance of one-time business transactions (limit - fence card).
By the number of positions taken into account:
single-line - documents containing one accounting position;
multi-line - documents containing two or more accounting positions (settlement - payroll).
By place of compilation:
internal - documents drawn up within the organization itself to formalize internal business transactions (power of attorney to receive inventory items);
external - documents received from third-party organizations and reflecting the organization’s relationship with its counterparties (payment requests - orders).
By filling method:
filled in manually;
filled out using computer technology.
In addition, all of the listed types of accounting documentation can be conditionally grouped according to the following criteria:
organizational and administrative documents reflecting issues of general management of the organization and its production and operational activities. These documents are compiled by the management bodies of the organization;
financial - settlement - documents that promote the rational use of funds and summarize information about the financial condition of the organization and settlements with other participants market relations. This type documents are compiled by the accounting service of the organization;
supply and sales documents - material documents.
Processing of primary documents in accounting. The main stage of accounting document processing in an organization is checking received primary documents according to form, arithmetic checking and substantive checking.
Checking the form allows you to make sure that the appropriate form was used to complete a specific business transaction and all the document details are filled out.
An arithmetic check is designed to identify errors that may have occurred when filling out a document. If errors are made in documents used to process cash transactions (receipt and expense cash orders) and banking documents (checks, payment orders, etc.), then these documents should not be accepted for accounting, but must be drawn up again, regardless of the nature of the error, since corrections in cash and bank documents are prohibited.
Substantive verification is necessary in order to establish the legality and expediency of a business transaction.
According to the current accounting procedure, primary documents on business transactions that contradict the law and the established procedure for receiving, storing and spending funds, inventory and other valuables should not be accepted for execution. If such primary documents are received by the accounting department, the chief accountant must notify the head of the organization about the illegality of a specific business transaction. In case of disagreements between the head of the organization and the chief accountant when carrying out certain business transactions, the primary accounting documents on them can be accepted for execution with a written order from the head of the organization, who in this regard bears full responsibility for the consequences of such transactions and the inclusion of data about them in accounting and financial reporting.
Documents attached to incoming and outgoing cash orders, as well as documents that served as the basis for accrual wages, are subject to mandatory cancellation with a stamp or handwritten inscription “Received” or “Paid” indicating the date (day, month, year).
Organization of document flow. In the process of carrying out business activities, an organization deals with many primary documents. The procedure for their processing and movement in the organization from the moment of their creation or receipt to delivery to the archive is carried out on the basis of the document flow approved in the organization. Document flow rules and technology for processing accounting information are approved as part of the adopted organization accounting policy.
For the rational organization of document flow in an organization, a document flow schedule must be approved by order (instruction) of the manager.
Employees of production departments and functional services of the organization fill out and submit documents related to the scope of their activities according to the document flow schedule. To do this, each performer receives an extract from the schedule. It lists the primary documents related to the contractor’s field of activity and the timing of their submission to the organization’s divisions.
Responsibility for compliance with the document flow schedule, high-quality completion of documents, the reliability of the information contained in them, and the timely transfer of documents to reflect the data in accounting rests with the persons who signed the document.
The chief accountant monitors the compliance of performers with the document flow schedule. According to clause 3 of Article 7 of the Federal Law “On Accounting”, the requirements of the chief accountant for documenting business transactions and submitting the necessary documents and information to the accounting department are mandatory for all employees of the organization.
The procedure for the seizure of primary accounting documents by tax authorities. Primary documents are confiscated on the basis of a reasoned decision official. Seizure of documents in mandatory is carried out in the presence of witnesses and is drawn up with a seizure protocol, a copy of which is handed over to the head or chief accountant of the organization against receipt. The seized documents are listed and described in the protocol or in the inventories attached to it with a precise indication of the name and number of seized documents.
In cases where for specific activities it is not enough to seize copies of documents and tax authorities there are sufficient grounds to believe that the original documents will be destroyed, hidden, corrected or replaced, the official has the right to seize the original documents in the manner prescribed by Article 94 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Signed for seal by A.V. Lugova
05/20/1999 Chief accountant

The requirements of the chief accountant (hereinafter referred to as the chief accountant also means persons conducting accounting in the cases provided for in subparagraphs “b”, “c”, “d” of paragraph 7 of these Regulations) for documenting business transactions and submitting documents and information to the accounting service are mandatory for all employees of the organization.

(see text in the previous edition)

Depending on the nature of the transaction, the requirements of regulations, accounting guidelines and technology for processing accounting information, additional details may be included in the primary documents.

14. The list of persons authorized to sign primary accounting documents is approved by the head of the organization in agreement with the chief accountant.

Documents used to formalize business transactions with funds are signed by the head of the organization and the chief accountant or persons authorized by them.

Without the signature of the chief accountant or a person authorized by him, monetary and settlement documents, financial and credit obligations are considered invalid and should not be accepted for execution (with the exception of documents signed by the head of the federal executive body, the design features of which are determined by separate instructions of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation) . Financial and credit obligations are understood as documents documenting the organization’s financial investments, loan agreements, loan agreements and agreements concluded on commodity and commercial credit.

In case of disagreements between the head of the organization and the chief accountant regarding the implementation of certain business transactions, the primary accounting documents on them can be accepted for execution with a written order from the head of the organization, who bears full responsibility for the consequences of such transactions and the inclusion of data about them in accounting and accounting reporting.

15. Primary accounting document must be drawn up at the time of the business transaction, and if this is not possible, immediately after the completion of the transaction.

When selling goods, products, works and services using cash registers It is allowed to draw up a primary accounting document at least once a day after its completion on the basis of cash receipts.

The creation of primary accounting documents, the procedure and timing of their transfer for reflection in accounting are carried out in accordance with the document flow schedule approved by the organization. Timely and high-quality execution of primary accounting documents, their transfer within the established time frame for reflection in accounting, as well as the reliability of the data contained in them are ensured by the persons who compiled and signed these documents.

16. Corrections to cash and bank documents are not allowed. Corrections can be made to other primary accounting documents only by agreement with the persons who compiled and signed these documents, which must be confirmed by the signatures of the same persons, indicating the date of the corrections.

17. To control and streamline the processing of data on business transactions, consolidated accounting documents can be compiled on the basis of primary accounting documents.

18. Primary and consolidated accounting documents can be compiled on paper and computer media. In the latter case, the organization is obliged to produce, at its own expense, copies of such documents on paper for other participants in business transactions, as well as at the request of the authorities exercising control in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, the court and the prosecutor's office.

The main tasks facing the accounting service of any organization are:

Generating complete and reliable information about the business processes and financial results of the organization, necessary for operational management, as well as for its use by investors, creditors, tax and financial authorities, banks and other interested parties;

Ensuring control over the availability and movement of property, the use of material, labor and financial resources in accordance with approved norms, standards and estimates;

Timely prevention of negative phenomena in financial and economic activities, identification and mobilization of on-farm reserves.

The fulfillment of these tasks directly depends on the completeness and timeliness of recording in the accounting accounts of business transactions carried out by the organization in the course of its activities, which, in turn, is a consequence of documenting the transactions performed.

The accuracy of the accounting information provided by the organization’s accounting department to its users depends on the correctness of its implementation. Therefore, in organizations, the process of documenting business transactions should be given great attention not only by employees of accounting services, but also by employees of other structural divisions, since the effectiveness of accounting in organizations depends on the correct organization of work with documents that are written confirmation of the fact of a business transaction (their legal evidence).

If the organization has not created a system for organizing and maintaining primary accounting, then the management system will not work effectively when making the necessary management decisions.

One of the basic principles of accounting is that a business transaction that is not properly documented does not take place as a legal economic event (there is no accounting object).

In addition, attention should be paid to the fact that tax authorities have the right to bring to administrative responsibility officials of the organization who are guilty of maintaining accounting records in violation of the procedure established by law.

The basis for reflecting information about completed business transactions in accounting registers is primary documents. Primary documents record the fact of a business transaction. The main requirements for primary accounting documentation include:

1) only those documents that are compiled according to the form contained in the albums of unified forms of primary documentation are accepted for accounting.

In the process of carrying out financial and economic activities, to formalize completed business transactions, organizations must use standard interdepartmental forms of primary documents approved by the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics in the prescribed manner. If necessary, organizations are given the right to independently develop separate forms of primary documents and accounting registers, which are not in the albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation and albums of industry specialized forms of documents (for example, trade and procurement acts for the purchase of materials from individuals). In addition, it is allowed to make changes to the existing forms, detailing and clarifying them, as well as supplementing the details of the forms, provided that the main details are kept unchanged;

2) primary documents to give them legal force must have the following mandatory details: name of the document, date of preparation of the document, name of the organization on behalf of which the document was drawn up, content of the business transaction, measures of the business transaction in kind and monetary terms, names of positions of persons responsible for completion of a business transaction and the correctness of its execution, personal signatures of these persons.

In addition to the listed mandatory details, additional details may be indicated in the primary accounting documentation, the nature of which is determined by the content of a particular operation and the purpose of which is to strengthen control, cognitive And operational document meanings:

Primary accounting documents must be drawn up at the time of the transaction, in exceptional cases - immediately after its completion;

The primary documents must reflect all the necessary information that allows one to accurately establish the content and conditions for the transactions, i.e., there is a need to fill out all the details provided for in the document form;

Corrections in the primary documentation must be confirmed by the signatures of the persons who signed the documents, indicating the date the corrections were made;

Filling out primary documents must ensure the safety of records for the period of time established for their storage in the archive.

All documents currently used in business activities can be classified according to the following main characteristics:

1) by purpose:

administrative– documents containing permission to carry out a certain business transaction (manager’s order to issue funds on account);

exculpatory– documents containing information about the execution of the order (advance report);

accounting registration– documents that serve to prepare accounting records for the purpose of further use in the accounting process (calculation of accruals from wages);

combined– documents that combine the characteristics of administrative, executive and accounting documents (payroll sheet);

material– documents used to formalize operations on the movement of inventory items (receipt order);

monetary– documents intended for processing transactions with cash and non-cash funds of an enterprise (payment order);

settlement– used to formalize the settlement relationship between the enterprise and its counterparties regarding the obligations that have arisen (invoice);

3) by volume of reflected transactions:

primary– documents containing information about one business transaction (receipt and expense cash orders);

summary– documents intended to summarize information about the entire set of similar economic

transactions for a certain period of time (cashier report);

4) by method of use:

one-time– documents used to formalize a one-time business transaction (invoice-request for release (internal movement) of materials);

cumulative– used for repeated one-time business transactions (limit-fence card);

5) by the number of positions taken into account:

one-liners– documents containing one accounting position;

multiline– documents containing two or more accounting positions (payroll statements);

6) at the place of compilation:

internal– documents drawn up within the organization itself to formalize internal business transactions (power of attorney to receive inventory);

external– documents received from third-party organizations and reflecting the organization’s relationship with its counterparties (payment requests and orders);

7) by filling method:

Filled in manually;

Filled out using computer technology.

In addition, all of the listed types of accounting documentation can be conditionally grouped according to the following criteria:

organizational and administrative– documents reflecting issues of general management of the organization and its production and operational activities. These documents are compiled by the management bodies of the organization;

financial and accounting– documents that promote the rational use of funds and summarize information about financial condition organizations and dis-

relationships with other participants in market relations. This type of document is prepared by the accounting service of the organization;

procurement and sales documents– material documents.

The main stage of accounting document processing in an organization is checking received primary documents according to form, arithmetic checking and substantive checking.

Form check allows you to verify that the appropriate form was used to complete a specific business transaction and all document details are filled out.

Arithmetic check is intended to identify errors that may have occurred when filling out the document. If errors are made in documents used to process cash transactions (receipt and expense cash orders) and banking documents (checks, payment orders, etc.), then these documents should not be accepted for accounting, but must be drawn up again, regardless of the nature of the error, since corrections in cash and bank documents are prohibited.

Substantive check necessary in order to establish the legality and expediency of a business transaction.

According to the current accounting procedure, primary documents on business transactions that contradict the law and the established procedure for receiving, storing and spending funds, inventory and other valuables should not be accepted for execution. If such primary documents are received by the accounting department, the chief accountant must notify the head of the organization about the illegality of a specific business transaction. In case of disagreements between the head of the organization and the chief accountant when carrying out certain business transactions, the primary accounting documents on them can be accepted for execution with a written order from the head of the organization, who in this regard bears full responsibility for the consequences of such transactions and the inclusion of data about them in accounting and financial reporting.

Documents attached to incoming and outgoing cash orders, as well as documents that served as the basis for calculating wages, are subject to mandatory cancellation with a stamp or handwritten inscription “Received” or “Paid” indicating the date (day, month, year).

Primary documents are confiscated on the basis of a reasoned decision of an official. Seizure of documents must be carried out in the presence of witnesses and documented in a seizure protocol, a copy of which is handed over to the head or chief accountant of the organization against receipt. The seized documents are listed and described in the protocol or in the inventories attached to it with a precise indication of the name and number of seized documents.

It is impossible to manage any enterprise (be it a small store or a reputable corporation with many divisions) if accounting, operational, and statistical accounting are not established. Any type of accounting has its own basis - a document. Just as there is no house without a foundation, there is no accounting without documents, and competent and effective management is impossible without a comprehensive analysis of information obtained through accounting, operational and statistical accounting.

Primary documents are inherently different, but they can be divided into two types. First - foundation documents (contracts, bills, invoices, service requests), regulating transactions with counterparties (by clients). These documents are created in the system to link accompanying documents for the movement of goods, services and payment documents, and therefore do not require posting to accounts. The second type of documents are accompanying documents (invoices, acts, warehouse orders, payment orders, cash orders, etc.) accompanying the movement of goods (services) and funds. These types of documents may include postings that reflect the essence of the operation in monetary terms.

The basis documents mostly relate to operational accounting, while the accompanying documents are relevant to all types of accounting. Foundation documents can be in one of three states: executed, executable and closed. Those issued are used only for planning purchases and sales and are not included in economic turnover; compliance regulations are not monitored for them. Executable documents are used to generate invoices and acts for work (services) on their basis, and are also included in monitoring deadlines and calculating fines. You can perform any actions on a document in the “Executable” state: enter the dates of actual payment and delivery of goods; generate invoices and acts for services related to this document, as well as payment documents; issue warehouse orders associated with invoices. A document in this state can be called working, since it is the basis for creating a chain of accompanying documents associated with it.

After fulfilling the regulations (payment and delivery of goods from warehouses), the document can be transferred to the “Closed” state. In this capacity, it is not processed by the system (stored in the archive). Closing of the basis document is carried out on the basis of the data of the report on the executed contracts only if there is no debt on it.

You can check the use of supporting documents automatically. Documents for which there have been no transactions after the specified date are deleted from the system after user confirmation.

The creation of accompanying documents based on the executable document-base can be carried out simultaneously using a special function. In any of the accompanying documents, at the user’s request, it is possible to create an invoice (almost all information about it is filled in automatically from the previous document), and from the invoice, the transaction performed can be registered in the purchase or sales book.

In sales management, the entire chain of documents “invoice > invoice > warehouse order” can be created when issuing an invoice without additional transitions.

Invoices and acts generated automatically are available for subsequent editing, which may be necessary in case of incomplete delivery or delivery based on several accompanying documents. When generating the next accompanying document based on the basis document, the system automatically takes into account previously made deliveries. When creating invoices for release, the availability of released goods is monitored by storage sections: warehouse - materially responsible person - batch. To facilitate work with a large flow of documents, it is possible to generate warehouse orders both for an individual invoice and for a group of invoices.

If a discrepancy between the characteristics of the goods and those specified in the invoice is detected, for example, defective, expiration date, etc., a return invoice and warehouse order are generated.

Due to the fact that the preparation of primary documents regulating a transaction can be carried out at different times and by different employees, it is useful to periodically check their compliance. The system offers a number of options for comprehensive control.

Functions for monitoring the compliance of supporting documents and invoices, invoices and warehouse orders have been implemented. As a result of their execution, reports of varying degrees of detail are generated. At the request of the program, you can include in reports only documents for which inconsistencies have been identified.

If, according to the sales document, the payment amounts were allocated to invoice items, then the report contains the “Payment” column, which shows the payment amounts for each invoice.

When automatically generating payment documents from the modules of the operational control loop, it is possible to select the type of payment document (ruble or foreign currency), set the date, adjust the amount (by default, the unpaid balance from total amount basis documents), generate payment documents for a group of selected documents.

Further work with the payment document - entering the payment date and making entries - is carried out in the accounting loop. Of course, payment documents can be entered directly into the accounting loop and at the same time their connection with the supporting documents can be established. In all cases, both one payment under several documents and several payments under one document are possible.

Moreover, accounting for mutual settlements with goods (services) has been implemented, and in several ways. Firstly, you can draw up a barter agreement by including two previously executed executable contracts: for purchase and for sale. Based on the established connection between the contracts, mutual payment debts are repaid. Secondly, you can link the holiday invoice with the purchase contract, and vice versa, then both the debit and credit parts of the report for the executed contracts will contain shipping documents.

A general picture of mutual settlements can be obtained in the Suppliers, Recipients module.

So, all economic activities of the enterprise are described by an orderly chain of interconnected documents that are familiar and familiar to employees. The information is entered once, at any stage the compliance of documents is monitored, and data on the status of mutual settlements can be obtained at any time.

The technology for organizing document flow in automated accounting systems (ASBU) is an extremely important component that affects the efficiency of their application. Existing software products use various document flow models, which imply certain rules for the formation, storage, interpretation and processing of a document. There are four main models:

1) a model for interpreting documents as an addition to business transactions;

2) a model for interpreting documents as a means of generating records of an array of business transactions;

3) a model for interpreting documents as auxiliary information objects;

4) a complete document flow model.

In programs based on first model it is assumed that when entering into the database information generated outside the ASBU in primary documents, the accountant must convert them manually or using a program into records of an array of business transactions; documents generated in the system are treated as output forms, the construction of which is carried out at the user’s request after entering transaction data. Thus, when using this model, primary documents are interpreted purely formally. Documents included in the system are not registered in the database, and those generated in it are stored only in connection with one or another record of an array of business transactions and without any connection with other documents.

This interpretation of documents is typical for many instrumental systems and contradicts the normal order of the accounting process, in which the operation is reflected in the accounts after the document is generated and approved, while here it is the operation that becomes the information basis for its formation.

The main disadvantage is that there is no provision for a time lag between the formation of the document and the reflection of the transaction based on it.

For small enterprises with little document flow, this approach may be justified to one degree or another. However, the use of programs based on the application of this model in accounting departments with a large document flow may lead to the need to constantly monitor the relevance of data from an array of business transactions.

On systems using second model, the document is only a formal basis for the corresponding entries in the accounts. This means that the program has a set of videograms that determine the structure of information input. Based on the data entered based on this layout, the program generates records corresponding to the document. The entered entries are interpreted as “confirmed” and are always taken into account when calculating account turnover.

Third model interpretation of documents is very common. Here, the natural technology of passing primary documents, both generated in the system and coming from outside, is supported (Fig. 5).

In programs based on it, it is possible to generate an array of business transactions not only directly, but also on the basis of automated processing of documents entered into the system database. In the latter case, the accountant fills out the on-screen form of the document, and the program generates and prints it. After the actual transaction has been completed, it is reflected in accounting either by manually entering entries into the array of business transactions, or semi-automatically based on transaction layouts associated with this type of document.

Rice. 5. Technology for passing primary documents

Unlike the first two models, the moments of registering a document in the system database and its reflection in the account system are separated here, and entered documents without confirmation by the user do not affect account turnover in any way. At the same time, information about them is saved, it can be corrected many times and reused for printing.

Documents of the same type entered into the system are stored in separate registers. You can “raise” at any time required document or a selection of them that satisfies the required set of criteria. For example, select and print a list of documents related to a specific organization or an individual. Some software systems quite fully support the relationship between entered documents and the records of an array of business transactions generated on their basis, in which changes in the fields of a document automatically or at the user’s request cause a change in the transactions generated by it.

However, document relationships are not directly tracked in this model. The main thing here is the ability to separate the actions of registering documents in the database from their transformation into account entries. The consequence of this approach is that generalized information can only be obtained in connection with the system of accounting accounts. In certain cases, this can lead to overloading the accounting department with analytical functions.

In programs based on full model document flow, the main focus is on maintaining a complete system of connections between documents of different types. If in all the models discussed earlier, documents are the basis for the formation of records on accounts, then here the main attention is paid to the completeness of the system of document connections, on the basis of which simultaneous processing of a group of them can be carried out using a single package of rules.

The advantage of a complete document flow model is that it ensures the “interaction” of electronic copies of documents, for example payment and product documents, which is very important in cases where an organization deals with a large number of regular suppliers and buyers and complex schemes of mutual settlements with them. Thereby software systems on a complete document flow model can be used not only by accounting, but also by other management services.

Here, accounting entries are nothing more than purely secondary information. Based on this point of view, accounts and postings, as the main information components of the accounting circuit of the automated control system, can be freed from the technological load that is not typical for them, existing in systems based on the basis of the dominance of the principle double entry.

The modules of the accounting circuit of the system can be used to a certain extent independently of other subsystems. Since most documents are generated outside the accounting department, but are accessible to it, the latter has the opportunity to work with them in a mode convenient for itself. In particular, you can configure the system in such a way that account assignment gives results generalized across batches of documents, which turns out to be difficult in automation systems built on the basis of other document flow models.

A complete document flow model allows for flexible division of functions analytical accounting between different management departments. Thanks to this, each subsystem of the automated control system receives exactly as many functions as it needs.

Analytics can be supported by subsystems of the operational management loop, and the reflection of business transactions in the accounting system can be carried out with detail only to the level of counterparties. This is relevant when massive transactions with complex settlement schemes are carried out with the same partners. At the same time, the tasks of the accounting circuit automated system are simplified by processing detailed analytics by those services that need it (Table 3).

Table 3.Summary characteristics of various document flow models

Note: – lack of property; + presence of property; ? partial presence of a property.

From the given data it follows that fourth – a complete document flow model - most consistently solves the problems of processing large document flows due to the ability to obtain generalized information both in the accounting system and outside it. Therefore, for large enterprises it is most advisable to use automation systems built on its basis.

When using other document flow models, generalized information can appear mainly in accounting accounts, which perform their own special role and do not always determine those groupings of information that are necessary for other management services.

IN practical work To keep records, organizations use computer programs that differ in functionality, configuration methods, and interface. However, despite these differences, many developments are built on the same model. Its essence is the unification of data and its presentation in a double entry system, complicated and supplemented with special auxiliary details necessary to reflect the specifics of the operations of various sections of accounting. Experts sometimes call it the “unified generalized accounting model.” In fact, in in this case no explicit division is made even by type of accounting.

It is known that there is a division of accounting into accounting, operational-technical and statistical, each of which has its own purpose, its own form and specificity. The idea of ​​representing all types of accounting in a unified form of accounts and a double entry system seems to be extremely attractive to programmers, most of whom are mathematicians or technical specialists. For them, the use of a single model of all types of accounting allows them to abstract from those numerous details and forms of information presentation that are full of practical accounting work.

For small organizations, all types of accounting are concentrated in the accounting department, which, in fact, is the main supplier and main consumer of information. For such organizations, the use of this kind of software products is completely justified. In addition, the accounting department often consists of two or three relatively universal specialists responsible for several related areas. Therefore, it is convenient for them to have a program in which all data is stored in a single unified registry and, as they say, is always at hand.

Despite all the attractiveness of the generalized accounting model, attention is drawn to the fact that when it is used as the basis for an automation system, to a certain extent, the actually existing division of functions between management departments is ignored.

First of all, this is expressed in the fact that the generalized accounting model is based on a double entry system, which is inherent in only one of its components - accounting.

The consequence of this is that when adapting accounting programs to the needs of operational and technical accounting, the functions of the latter have to be reflected within the framework of a specific accounting technology for data processing. Usually, managers who are poorly familiar with the language and internal logic of accounting are engaged in maintaining operational and technical accounting. Practice shows that for them the operation of an automation system built on these principles turns out to be unusual.

In addition, the use of a generalized model leads to the fact that all objects of analytical accounting are forced to be tied to the system of accounts. At the same time, the system of accounts, although important, is not the only system for classifying economic information. In addition, it has a pronounced generalizing nature, and detailed analytical information is necessary for operational management.

Due to the orientation of the generalized accounting model towards the system of accounts, in the computer systems built on its basis, the circuit of accounting automation tasks remains dominant, and the solution of problems of other control circuits is largely focused on the information reflected in the system of accounting accounts, complementing and specifying it. Such a tight link between accounting data and technology with data operational accounting leads to overload of the accounting circuit with analytical functions. First of all, this concerns functions related to accounting for inventory and mutual settlements with suppliers and customers.

The practice of using various programs shows that it is advisable for management system specialists not directly related to accounting to deal with specialized software tools that are technologically oriented to specific areas of accounting. Thus, for a medium and large business enterprise, a more preferable model for building an automation system is one in which accounting functions are largely specialized and distributed between individual subsystems.

For an automation and management system for medium and large enterprises, the basic element should be documents and their relationships. Natural base integrated system accounting automation should be document flow support, formed from primary documents entered into the database various types, organizing their relationships according to certain key characteristics or their combination. On this basis, a database query system should be created that allows the construction of a wide range of reports, which from a formal point of view are nothing more than collections of data aggregated to varying degrees, formed from the totality of a certain subset of primary documents.

With this approach accounting records in a computer system, records are secondary information resulting from the implementation of special data processing procedures. Viewed from this point of view, accounts and transactions as the main information components of an automated accounting management system can be freed from the technological load that exists in automation systems built on the basis of generalized accounting models.

Here, the usual technology for working with source information is reproduced, in which the main function of the user is to fill out the fields of on-screen forms that are as close as possible to the “paper” form of the document. This simplifies the procedure for entering initial information, which is important for an organization with a large document flow. Thanks to the complete integration of all control data and the division of functions between modules, high technology in the use of the system is ensured.

The separation of the functions of operational-technical and accounting accounting is manifested in the fact that the fact that a particular document is reflected or not reflected in accounting does not in any way affect the functioning of other management systems. The presence of documents in an integrated database makes it possible to keep records of inventory items, the status of mutual settlements, assess the cost of manufactured products, monitor the progress of stages of planned activities and evaluate financial results implementation. Thus, thanks to full-scale support for inter-document connections, managers servicing the operational management circuit can receive all the necessary detailed and generalized information without its intermediate reflection on the accounts.

Thus, due to the integrated nature electronic document management and thoughtful specialization of modules, each subsystem receives exactly as many functions as it needs.

In accordance with the Resolution of the Council of Ministers - Government of the Russian Federation dated July 30, 1993 No. 745 “On approval of the Regulations on the use of cash registers when making cash settlements with the population and the List individual categories enterprises, organizations and institutions that, due to the specifics of their activities or location, can carry out cash settlements with the population without the use of cash registers" in agreement with the State Interdepartmental Expert Commission on cash register machines forms of strict reporting documents (receipts, vouchers, tickets, coupons, etc.) are approved upon the proposal of the relevant ministries and other executive authorities, as well as organizations, which are to be used in settlements with individuals and legal entities, as well as for accounting for cash funds.

Forms of strict reporting documents submitted for approval by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation must contain, along with indicators characterizing the specifics of operations, the following mandatory details established for the forms of primary accounting documentation:

Approval stamp;

Name of the document form;

Six-digit number, series;

OKUD code;

Date of preparation of the document;

Name and code of the organization according to OKPO;

Type of services and work provided;

Unit of measurement in physical and monetary terms;

Signature of the responsible person.

They must also be accompanied by methodological instructions for their recording, filling, use, storage, production and destruction.

Approved strict reporting forms are official government documents and apply to all organizations engaged in relevant (transport, trade, services, etc.) activities on the territory of the Russian Federation. Organizations can produce strict reporting forms according to approved samples in any printing house that has a state license for printing activities.

If necessary, during the production of forms, the approved forms can be modified with additional details that take into account the specifics of the provision of the relevant services. In this case, all details provided in the approved forms remain unchanged; Deleting individual details is not allowed. If one or another line provided in the approved form of the form is not filled in, due to the organization’s lack of relevant indicators, this line is crossed out.

The formats of the approved strict reporting forms are recommendations and are subject to change. Artistic design, technical editing and choice of degree of protection are determined by the organization independently, unless otherwise provided by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

When submitting an order to a printing house for the production of strict reporting forms, the letter series is assigned by the organization independently, six-digit numbers are provided by the printing house. Repeating the series is not allowed.

Strict reporting forms can be made in the form of books, separate coupons, rolls, etc. They are purchased from the manufacturer or through an intermediary (specialized) organization. Each batch of forms must be accompanied by a copy of the invoice or other accompanying documentation indicating the name of the forms, their series, numbers and purchase price.

Registration of purchased strict reporting forms with the tax authorities is not provided for by the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

Regulatory documents on accounting practically do not regulate the rules for making changes to accounting and reporting.

Changes in accounting can be made not only to correct mistakes, but also to clarify conditional estimates of economic relations.

In this regard, the working concept is introduced adjustment, which is understood as the operation of reflecting in accounting the amount of deviation from a reliable estimate of an accounting object (asset, income, liability), previously reflected in accounting in a distorted (due to errors) or conditional (in the absence of complete information) estimate.

Reflection in accounting of the results of revaluation of fixed assets is not considered an adjustment; depreciation of material assets; change in the liability in foreign currency due to changes in the exchange rate; change in the amount of liabilities due to the accrual of interest.

Reason for adjustment in accounting is the unreliability of the valuation of the economic situation reflected in the accounting. The appearance of an unreliable assessment, in turn, is associated with various circumstances.

An unreliable estimate arises due to technical and methodological errors made by the accountant.

Such errors can be divided into three large groups: technical; arising due to violation of the document flow procedure; related to non-compliance with the requirements of regulatory acts on accounting and taxation.

TO technical errors may include: arithmetic errors; spelling errors (rearrangement of numbers, account numbers, etc.); coding errors (for example, the supplier or consumer code or operation code was incorrectly applied, etc.); errors when filling out primary documents (incomplete completion, errors in values, etc.).

Detecting technical errors is a rather labor-intensive process. Of course, some errors can be eliminated through the use of syntactic and logical control methods (date control, control of codes for compliance in reference books and dictionaries, control of details for acceptable values, etc.). However, no control is able to detect an incorrectly entered supplier code if such a code is available in the directory. This error can only be detected during accounts payable inventory.

Violation of document flow procedures is expressed in untimely execution and submission of documents to the accounting department or incomplete submission of documents. In this case, both the internal document flow of the organization (between the divisions of the organization) and the external one (between the organization and its suppliers and consumers) may be disrupted.

Detection of errors in the document flow procedure is possible as a result of monitoring the document flow schedule, if specific deadlines for the passage of documents and their volumes are determined, or as a result of an inventory of settlements with suppliers and consumers, when provision of documents is provided as they arise and in a volume determined by the nature of the relationship between suppliers and consumers.

Errors associated with non-compliance with the requirements of regulatory acts on accounting and taxation are usually identified during audit work within the enterprise, audits and tax audits. Such errors may be discovered several years after their occurrence, which, of course, complicates the correction process.

The reason for the unreliable assessment There may be uncertainty in the assessment of a business transaction at the time of its completion.

The development of market relations has given rise to a variety of forms of contractual relations. Defending their interests in a transaction, on the one hand, and the need to maintain a flexible pricing policy in order to survive in a competitive environment, on the other hand, forces organizations to use various schemes when concluding contracts that make the transaction profitable for both parties. For example, an organization interested in selling a product may provide customers with various discounts depending on the size of the purchased batch of goods or depending on the terms and forms of payment for the goods. An organization that is not sure that the goods it purchases under a transaction can be sold may insist on the possibility of returning the goods within a certain period. The inclusion of such conditions in the contract may lead to the need to adjust previously recorded business transactions.

The reason for an unreliable assessment may be the inaccuracy of the assessment when reflecting conditional facts of economic activity in the accounting due to the lack of complete information about the transaction.

In the practical activities of accountants, situations sometimes arise when erroneous data enters the accounting register or reporting.

There are certain rules in correcting errors in accounting.

Regulatory acts on accounting provide that unspecified corrections are not allowed in primary documents and accounting registers. Correction of an error must be confirmed by the signature of the persons who previously signed the document, indicating the date of correction. Corrections are not allowed in cash and bank documents.

In primary documents, errors are corrected by carefully crossing out the erroneous numbers with one thin line so that what was previously written can be read. Corrections are also made in the accounting registers before the month is closed and monthly turnover is summed up. Correction of an error in a document is certified by the signature of the accounting employee who made the correction.

To correct errors that were discovered after the reporting period (month, quarter, year), other methods are used. In such a situation, it is no longer possible to simply cross out the incorrect numbers in the order journal and write new ones, as this will lead to the need to correct the turnover for this order journal, which, in turn, will cause a chain of changes in all the accounting books of the enterprise. Such multiple changes may result in additional errors.

The Regulations on Accounting and Reporting provide that changes in financial statements relating to both the current and last year (after their approval) are made in the statements prepared for reporting period, in which distortions of its data were discovered.

That is, if an error made in January is discovered in May, then all changes in the books are made in May.

The following methods are used to correct such errors:

Corrective postings;

Red reversal.

Corrective postings are made when it becomes necessary to add amounts to any accounts. They are being done in the usual way. It is only necessary to note that the posting is corrective in nature. This can be arranged accounting certificate, which will be the primary document for this operation.

Red reversal used when it is necessary to reduce accrued amounts on any accounts. This method involves writing a “direct” entry, but the transaction amount is written with a minus sign. In registers, such numbers are written in red or placed in brackets in order to distinguish the minus sign from the punctuation mark dash. When summing up the journal, the red numbers or numbers in brackets are subtracted from the total.

Here it is necessary to draw the attention of accountants to the fact that reversal entries can only be made in order journals. No corrections are allowed in the general ledger.

If errors are found in the submitted reports for previous years, then you should not secretly replace old balance sheets at the tax office. It is necessary to make all the necessary corrections in the accounting records for the current period and reflect them in the reporting of the current period.

Errors made during accounting and not corrected accordingly distort the organization’s reporting and make it difficult for various users of the financial statements to assess the property and financial position of the organization (investors, owners of the enterprise, creditors, other counterparties, etc.). Timely correction of mistakes allows the organization to avoid financial sanctions from the tax authorities, since most errors directly or indirectly affect the amount tax obligations organizations.

The procedure for correcting errors and their consequences is largely determined by the nature of the error made. First of all, from the totality of errors that affect the tax obligations of an organization, we should highlight the so-called technical errors.

Technical errors arise when preparing and calculating tax payments. They are not directly reflected in the accounting registers and are not accompanied by any accounting entries, i.e., the organization fully and timely reflects the transactions performed in the accounting registers.

Technical errors, as a rule, are made in tax returns and, in fact, represent either an arithmetic error in calculating the amount of payments due to the budget, or an error made when transferring accounting data to tax returns (for example, the accountant mixed up the lines). If errors of this kind are detected in a timely manner, the organization does not make any additional records. Nevertheless, these errors can have an impact on the information reflected in the accounting registers, since as a result of them, in essence, the amount of the organization’s tax liabilities and, accordingly, the amount of amounts transferred to the budget changes. Therefore, these errors are recognized as a tax offense in the generally established manner with all the ensuing consequences. Technical errors also include incorrect indication of account details of tax authorities or tax agents when transferring the corresponding tax amounts.

Accounting errors are made as a result of incorrect reflection of financial and economic transactions in the accounting accounts, i.e. these errors are made directly in the accounting registers. Such errors can be divided into two groups.

The first group includes errors that do not lead to overestimation or underestimation of taxable items. For example, a fairly common mistake is to use different accounting accounts. accounts payable: Thus, instead of account 60 “Settlements with suppliers and contractors”, account 76 “Settlements with various debtors and creditors” is used, which is a violation of the accounting methodology and can lead to incorrect interpretation of certain accounting objects.

The second group includes errors that result in overestimation or underestimation of taxable objects. The most common errors here are the following:

Wrongful attribution production costs on cost or financial results;

Understatement of sales revenue;

Illegal recording of transactions in accounting in violation of the methodology, resulting in a change in the objects of taxation.

Errors associated with violations of accounting methodology that do not lead to changes in taxable objects are identified, as a rule, during an audit; given their essential nature financial statements organization may be considered unreliable.

If a taxpayer discovers that information is not reflected or is incompletely reflected in the tax return submitted by him, as well as errors leading to an underestimation of the amount of tax payable, the taxpayer is obliged to make the necessary additions and changes to the tax return. This provision is general, i.e. it applies to all types of errors, both accounting and technical errors, and applies regardless of who and under what conditions the error was identified.

Tax authorities, having discovered during a documentary check of accounting registers errors leading to understatement or concealment of taxable objects, on the basis of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation hold the organization accountable in the form of applying the following measures:

Transfer of tax amounts due to the budget;

A fine, the amount of which is established by separate articles of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation depending on the type tax offense;

Collection of penalties from a taxpayer in case of delay in payment of tax on time in the amount of one three hundredth of the Bank of Russia refinancing rate in force on this moment, but not more than 0.1% per day for each day of delay, starting from the established deadline for payment of the delayed amount. This measure is introduced by Art. 75 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Penalties are no longer financial sanctions and are not considered as a measure of taxpayer liability.

If the taxpayer independently and timely before the inspection by the tax authority identified errors, as a result of which the amounts of taxes and other obligatory payments were not paid to the budget or were not fully paid, and in the prescribed manner made corrections to the financial statements, in the calculation of taxes and payments, made payment of amounts due, then the mistakes made are not tax violations. In such cases, the taxpayer for late payment of taxes and other obligatory payments no penalties will be charged.

The taxpayer is exempt from the application of sanctions, i.e. monetary penalties(fines), if the application for additions and changes to the tax return is made:

Before the deadline for its submission;

After the deadline for filing a tax return, but before the expiration of the tax payment deadline and before the moment when the taxpayer learns that the tax authority has discovered offenses or that a visiting visit has been scheduled tax audit;

After the deadline for filing a tax return and the deadline for paying the tax has expired, but before the moment when the taxpayer learns that the tax authority has discovered violations or has ordered an on-site tax audit, having paid an insufficient amount of tax and penalties.

Thus, the application or non-application of penalties for identifying an error in a tax return is influenced by the timing of filing an application for their discovery and the actual payment, and not by the nature of the error, which resulted in an understatement of the tax payable to the budget.

If the taxpayer independently identifies a technical error in the declaration, on any day after the error is discovered, he submits an additional tax calculation to the tax office. An identified technical error is corrected without additional accounting entries, but if this error entailed an understatement of the object of taxation or a delay in the transfer of tax amounts, additional payments, in particular penalties, and the corresponding accounting entries will be made by the taxpayer.

Corrections to the reporting data of both the current and last year (after their approval) are made in the financial statements prepared for the reporting period in which distortions in its data were discovered, and corrections are made to the data for the reporting period (quarter, from the beginning of the year).

Corrective accounting entries can be made in the following ways:

The most common method is in which the identified erroneous amount is reversed and the correct entry is made. As a rule, this applies when the organization has allowed errors when reflecting transactions in accounting accounts(incorrect correspondence of accounts). This method is mainly used to correct errors of the current period (year). In this situation, we are talking about the year, since many taxes are paid on an accrual basis from the beginning of the year;

If an error is made when reflection transaction amount, then, firstly, you can use the method mentioned above; secondly, it is allowed to bring additional entry for an amount that was not reflected in the accounting accounts or an amount that was reflected was less than required;

Generalized accounting records are also made, as a result of which information is reflected in the organization’s accounting registers, as would be the case in the case of the initial correct reflection of transactions. This adjustment method is usually used when finding accounting errors of previous reporting periods (years).

The procedure for correcting errors affecting tax obligations does not depend on who identified the error. During a documentary check, financial sanctions (fines) will be applied to the violating enterprise.

Inventory represents a certain sequence of practical actions to document the presence, condition and assessment of the organization’s property and obligations in order to ensure the reliability of accounting and reporting data. It contributes to the implementation of the control function of accounting, allowing to identify cases of unjustified decrease in the capital of an economic entity invested in various types of property (assets).

The basis of any inventory is a complete or selective check of the actual availability of material assets, property rights and obligations by a commission specially created in the organization. There are two types of checks: natural and documentary.

With natural (also called material) verification, the quantity, weighing and measurement of observed objects are determined. As a rule, inventories, strict reporting document forms, fixed assets and cash are subject to such checks.

During a documentary check, the organization has property rights ( intangible assets, deferred expenses, accounts receivable etc.) and financial obligations is confirmed directly by documents.

As part of a documentary audit, an accounting or book audit is sometimes distinguished, which is a comparison of entries directly in the accounting registers (for example, when taking inventory of accrued depreciation amounts, estimated reserves).

Mandatory annual inventory must cover all types of property and liabilities without exception. Regulatory acts provide for a special procedure for its implementation; based on the results of the inventory, accounting data is clarified. Therefore, the mandatory annual inventory cannot be replaced by any outwardly similar procedures - internal or external audit, audit of financial and economic activities (although if the organization has a small amount of property and liabilities, the duties of the inventory commission may be assigned to the audit commission).

Mandatory annual inventory of the organization's property and liabilities must begin no earlier than October 1 of the reporting year and be completed before its end.

Its main stages in connection with the functions of the accounting service in the inventory process are given in Table. 4.

Table 4

Mandatory annual inventory begins on the date established by order of the head of the organization. Responsibility for carrying out the inventory rests with the permanent inventory commission. If there is a significant amount of property and liabilities, working inventory commissions can be created by order of the head of the organization. It is also advisable to create them if the organization has separate divisions (branches and representative offices) or operates over a vast territory (in construction organizations, at agricultural enterprises, in timber industry enterprises, etc.). The regulatory documents do not directly prohibit the inclusion of representatives of third-party organizations (auditors, appraisers, experts) in the commissions in order to generate economically feasible and reliable inventory results. An annex to the order may be an inventory plan, which determines the deadline for completing the inventory of individual objects and the duration of each stage, and delineates responsibilities between working commissions.

On preparatory stage, financially responsible persons transfer receipts and consumable documents according to reports (registers), which serve as the accounting department’s basis for determining the corresponding balances on accounting accounts as of the date of the inventory. The completeness of the transfer of primary documents is confirmed by receipts of the indicated persons, as well as holders of accountable amounts or powers of attorney to receive material assets.

Organizational and methodological preparation to carry out an inventory consists of developing internal regulatory documents - instructions, rules, etc., regulating the activities of commissions at each stage.

Instructions may include:

Specific methods for conducting an inventory, a description of the actions of members of working commissions when checking the presence and condition of individual objects;

The procedure for obtaining confirmation of credentials by counterparties - suppliers, buyers, banks, tax authorities, etc.;

The procedure for resolving claims against the work of inventory commissions;

Standard forms of primary accounting documents for recording inventory results, developed by the organization independently.

The second stage of inventory is natural And documentary checks actual availability of property and liabilities. They are carried out by commissions collectively: the absence of at least one member of the commission serves as grounds for invalidating the inventory results.

The main form of primary documentation for recording the results of natural inventory is an inventory list, and documentary is an inventory act.

Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated August 18, 1998 No. 88 “On approval of unified forms of primary accounting documentation for recording cash transactions and recording inventory results” approved 6 types of inventory forms and 8 standard forms of acts. There are currently no standard inventory forms (acts) financial investments, non-cash funds, reserves for future expenses and payments, estimated reserves and a number of other objects, organizations must develop them independently, which reduces the analyticality of accounting information.

In inventories (acts) it is not allowed to leave blank lines; at the end of the inventory, materially responsible persons must sign, confirming the fact that the inspection was carried out in their presence, as well as the absence of claims against the members of the commission and the acceptance of the property listed in the inventory for safekeeping.

Natural and documentary checks during mandatory annual inventory are carried out, as a rule, continuous method. This process is quite labor-intensive, but current regulatory documents allow the use of simplified inventory methods only in a few cases. For example, selective inventory of material assets stored in undamaged supplier packaging is allowed.

Taxiing stage consists of entering into inventories (acts) monetary valuations property and liabilities according to primary documents and accounting records. At this stage, changes in value estimates caused by changes in the physical, functional and other properties of inventory objects are not taken into account. In table 5 shows an approximate list of primary documents and accounting registers containing data on the historical assessment of property and liabilities and used when filling out the corresponding columns of inventories (acts) for journal order form accounting (Table 5).

Table 5.Documents containing information about the value of property and liabilities

* There are no unified forms; documents are developed by the organization independently.

** The numbering of journals, orders and statements is given in accordance with the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated June 24, 1992 No. 48.

*** When accounting for inventory at discount prices.

The comparative-analytical stage of inventory allows you to confirm existing assessments of accounting objects. Need for clarification accounting estimate of certain types of property and liabilities is associated primarily with the identified discrepancies between the values ​​of indicators according to accounting data and their actual values ​​confirmed during the inventory. Calculated deviations are recorded directly in inventory reports or when summing up the results of a natural check in comparison sheets. In addition, adjustments to grades are possible in the following cases:

Changes in state regulated prices, when the assessment is carried out at these prices (for example, when establishing new calculated and selling prices for precious stones);

Rate changes foreign currency if the value of property or liabilities is expressed in foreign currency;

Changes in the amount of receivables or payables when using conventional monetary units in calculations;

Deterioration quality characteristics property of the organization (physical or moral wear and tear, decrease in market prices etc.);

The presence in accounts receivable of amounts that are impossible to collect in full due to the insolvency of the debtors.

The inventory commission must identify the reasons that determine the need to make clarifying entries in the accounting registers and propose ways to reflect them in accounting for inventory results. Here it is important to establish whether there are persons in the organization who are financially responsible for the safety of valuables, to determine the amount of this responsibility, to analyze possible ways collection of doubtful receivables (through debt transfer, barter transactions, etc.). In case of occurrence of surpluses or shortages of material assets, it is necessary to obtain detailed explanations from the responsible persons.

Proposals of inventory commissions based on the results of the comparative analytical stage are summarized in a statement of records of the results identified by the inventory. On final stage The inventory statement is signed by the head and chief accountant of the organization simultaneously with the issuance of an order (instruction) approving the inventory results. The order serves as the basis for making relevant entries in the accounting registers in the final turnover for December. The materials of the commissions’ work are transferred to the organization’s accounting department, where they are stored for at least 5 years.

Currently, there are inventories of those types of property and liabilities for which unified forms of inventories (acts) have not been developed.

Inventory of non-cash funds

Checking non-cash funds consists of comparing accounting data and documented servicing banks balances of the organization's funds in settlement, currency and special accounts (letters of credit, settlements by checks, etc.), as well as transfers in transit. Features of using each bank account organizations are usually established in the agreement on its opening. These features include:

Type of bank account (ruble, foreign currency);

Account type - specifics of operations carried out on the account (current operations - current account, crediting foreign trade proceeds - transit currency account, formation authorized capital– savings account, etc.);

The account user is the organization itself, separate division, specific official;

Account status as of the inventory date (functioning accounts, blocked accounts).

This information should be reflected in the non-cash inventory report (Table 6).

Table 6.Worksheet for the non-cash inventory report

Inventory of financial investments

In-kind verification of financial investments is possible if the organization has securities in documentary form. The result is reflected in the inventory list. When making an inventory of the remaining components of financial investments, only a documentary check is possible, which is carried out by type of investment (by type valuable papers) and individual issuers, indicating in the act the name, series, number, nominal value and actual acquisition costs, maturity dates and total amount of each type of investment. A certain difficulty during verification is the reconciliation of the balances of amounts listed on the corresponding accounting accounts with data from statements of depository organizations that record the availability and movement of securities owned by the organization. This is due to the fact that depositories, like professional participants securities market may revalue securities owned by clients when the quote changes to stock exchange, and non-professional participants (investors) must keep records of the actual costs of purchasing securities. Therefore, the valuation of objects between the organization and the depository will differ. In this regard, it is necessary to reconcile data on the number of securities for storage. To do this, it is advisable to draw up a worksheet for the financial investment inventory report (Table 7).

Table 7.Worksheet for the financial investment inventory report

Inventory capital investments

The peculiarity of the inventory of this type of property is due to the fact that account 08 “Capital investments” takes into account the costs of creating (purchasing) heterogeneous accounting objects - fixed assets, intangible assets, securities. Therefore, an inventory of such property should be carried out in the following areas:

Construction of fixed assets;

Acquisition of fixed assets;

Acquisition of intangible assets;

Purchase of securities.

To obtain reliable data, it is necessary to conduct both a physical inspection of the objects being built and a documentary verification of construction costs.

The act reflects the presence of each facility under construction and the actual volume of construction and installation work completed, which, as a rule, is determined using control measurements. The result of the control measurement is compared with the data of the design and estimate documentation, certificates of the cost of work performed and expenses (form No. KS-3), as well as the general work log (form No. KS-6), which is maintained by the construction work manufacturer.

As a primary document for documenting the results of the inventory of unfinished construction, the act of inventory of unfinished repairs of fixed assets (form No. INV-10) with minor text changes can be used.

Inventory of investments in individual fixed assets involves both checking their availability and condition, and determining the degree of readiness for operation. If the object is actually put into operation, but continues to be listed in subaccount 08-4 “Acquisition of fixed assets”, the organization, on the one hand, has an unaccounted object for property tax from the moment it is actually put into operation, on the other hand, the cost of production is underestimated from -for absence depreciation charges for this object.

At the same time, since the unit of accounting for fixed assets is an inventory object, which can be a separate complex of structurally articulated objects, it is possible that capital investments may include objects capable of independently performing certain functions, but intended to be included in the complex being created. The potential readiness for operation of such objects is not a reason for their inclusion in fixed assets.

When identifying objects for which the accounting registers lack or contain incorrect data, the commission must enter into the inventory the correct information and technical indicators for these objects.

The above features should be reflected in the inventory report of capital investments in the acquisition of individual fixed assets (Table 8).

Table 8.Worksheet for the act of inventory of capital investments in the acquisition of individual fixed assets

The presence of a balance in the organization in subaccount 08-5 “Acquisition of intangible assets” is usually associated with the unfinished process of registering property rights to a specific object in accordance with the requirements of current legislation. For example, an organization has developed (either independently or with the assistance of a contractor) a trademark. The costs of its development are taken into account in subaccount 08-5 until a certificate of registration of the trademark is received in Russian agency on patents and trademarks. The reason for the inability to reflect the actual costs of acquiring intangible assets directly on account 04 “Intangible assets” should be indicated in the inventory report (Table 9).

Table 9.Worksheet for the act of inventory of capital investments in the acquisition of intangible assets

When inventorying the costs of purchasing securities, you need to make sure that they are formed correctly and completely, and identify discrepancies between accounting data and documents confirming these costs. Discrepancies are possible both due to discrepancies in cost estimates (quantitative data) for transactions with securities, and erroneous attribution of costs to other objects. To document the results of the inventory of these costs, it is not advisable to use the form of the act used in the inventory of financial investments, supplementing it with information about the sellers of securities and details of the relevant contracts.

Inventory of estimated reserves and reserves for upcoming expenses and payments

When taking inventory of this type of liability, it is necessary to check operations both on the accrual and use of reserves. At the same time, accounting audit use of reserves.

Sample forms worksheet to the act of inventory of estimated reserves and reserves for upcoming expenses and payments are given in table. 10.

Table 10.Worksheet for the act of inventorying estimated reserves and reserves for upcoming expenses and payments

The calculation of reserves for doubtful accounts receivable is combined with an inventory of settlements with debtors. Since the reserve for doubtful debts is created on the basis of an inventory of receivables, it is advisable to record doubtful debts directly during the audit in the act of inventory of settlements with debtors (Table 11).

The inventory is designed to ensure reflection in balance sheet only those objects that are actually available, and not those recorded on accounts, but missing during verification. However, when writing off missing property and capitalizing previously unaccounted for property, one should be careful, since identifying an object for which there is no data in the accounting registers cannot serve as a sufficient basis for putting it on the balance sheet. In this case, the organization needs to be guided by the procedure for acquiring ownership of ownerless things. Conversely, the mere fact of the absence of an object (for example, as a result of theft) does not lead to the loss of the organization’s ownership of this object.

Table 11.Worksheet for the act of inventory of settlements with debtors

If, based on the results of the inventory, a surplus of property recorded in the accounts is revealed, the organization has an additional object of property taxation. Despite the fact that the results of the mandatory annual inventory are reflected in the balance sheet as of January 1, according to the tax authorities, the base for calculating property tax must be increased from the date when the specified property should have been taken into account in the accounting registers and reflected in the balance sheet asset. If this date can be established from the data of primary documents, then if errors (distortions) are detected in the calculation of the tax base relating to previous reporting periods, tax liabilities are recalculated in the current reporting period for the time from the moment the error was made. And only if the specific period in which the property should have been capitalized cannot be determined, the organization’s obligations to pay tax arise in the current reporting period.

The cost of fixed assets and materials that have fallen into disrepair does not reduce the tax base for property tax until the period in which their write-off will be documented, i.e., an indication in the inventories of the impossibility of further using the property for its intended purpose cannot serve as a basis for excluding this property included in the object of taxation.

Before submitting documents for storage and archives of the enterprise, they must be prepared accordingly.

Homogeneous primary documents should be formed in affairs. In this case, documents must be placed in the case that, in their content, correspond to the title of the case.

When forming cases, the following requirements must be met:

1) documents of permanent and temporary storage periods must be grouped into files separately;

2) originals must be separated from copies;

3) annual plans and reports - from quarterly and monthly;

4) one copy of each document must be included in the file.

Each document placed in the file must be drawn up in accordance with the requirements of state standards and other regulations.

Documents of the same period are grouped into a case - month, quarter, calendar year, except for transferable cases (for example, personal files that are not closed at the end of the calendar year). If there are several months of documents in the file, they are separated monthly by sheets of paper indicating the month.

The case should contain no more than 250 sheets with a thickness of no more than 4 cm.

Attachments to documents, regardless of the date of their approval or preparation, are attached to the documents to which they relate.

There are certain rules for grouping cases into cases by type and chronology. Charters, regulations, instructions approved by administrative documents are appendices to them and are grouped together with specified documents. Orders for core activities are grouped separately from orders for personnel; original copies of orders for main activities are systematized and filed in files along with attachments in the order of their numbers. Documents for orders for core activities are grouped and filed separately.

Orders according to personnel they are grouped into affairs in accordance with the established storage periods. The documents that serve as the basis for issuing an order regarding personnel are filed in the personal files of employees or form an independent file of attachments to these orders.

Planned And accounting documents are stored in the files of the year to which they relate in their content, regardless of the time of their compilation or date of receipt.

Documents in reports must be placed in a certain sequence. For example, report documents financial activities The enterprise, consisting of a balance sheet, an explanatory note and appendices to it, is arranged in the following order: an explanatory note to the report, then the balance sheet and, at the end, the appendices. Personal accounts of employees of the enterprise for wages are grouped into independent files and are arranged in them in the alphabetical order of surnames. Minutes of meetings of the labor collective council or a meeting of shareholders of an enterprise are grouped according to chronology and numerical order. Documents prepared for the meeting are placed after the minutes in the sequence of consideration of issues.

Correspondence is grouped for the calendar year and systematized in chronological order: the response document is placed after the request document. Reviews, memos, acts, certificates and other documents reflecting the main content of the enterprise's activities are grouped in one file, provided that they relate to the same issue.

Folders with documents are intertwined. On title page indicate the name of the enterprise (institution, organization), name and serial number in the file from the beginning of the year, reporting period (year, month), statement number, total number of sheets in the file, storage period of the file.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation has established a storage period for documents related to the calculation and payment of taxes for three calendar years. However, there are special deadlines storage of documents established by others regulations, which are used in the implementation state control from the Federal Archive Service of Russia, off-budget funds and other authorized bodies.

In accordance with the Federal Law “On Accounting,” organizations are required to store primary accounting documents, accounting registers and financial statements for the periods established in accordance with the rules for organizing state archival affairs.

After the expiration of the storage periods established by current legislation for documents in the organization, they are subject to transfer for storage to the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation.

The archival fund consists of two parts:

1) the state part, to which documents are subject to mandatory transfer state enterprises, institutions, organizations;

2) the non-state part, where documents of non-state organizations (corporations, associations, joint stock companies and so on.). The transfer of documents to the non-state part of the Archive Fund of the Russian Federation is not mandatory and is carried out on the basis of an agreement (agreements) between the bodies of the Federal Archival Service of Russia and the owners of the documents.

The list establishes the storage periods for documents for enterprises, institutions and organizations of two categories. The first includes organizations whose documents are received by the state part of the Archive Fund of the Russian Federation. The second category includes organizations whose documents form a non-state part of the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation.

For organizations belonging to the second category, the following storage periods for documents are established:

1) accounting reports and balance sheets of organizations:

Consolidated annual – 10 years;

Annual – 10 years;

Quarterly – 3 years;

2) transfer, separation, liquidation balances- 10 years;

3) personal accounts of workers and employees - 75 years;

4) accounting registers (general ledger, order journals, etc.) – 3 years.

The federal executive body that carries out state regulation in the field of archival affairs and control over the preservation, acquisition and use of documents from the Archive Fund of the Russian Federation is the Federal Archive Service of Russia (Rosarkhiv).

Documents of the state part of the Archive Fund of the Russian Federation are stored in institutions of the Russian Archive, state museums, libraries, etc. These documents, as well as reference books for them, are provided for use by all legal entities and individuals.

Organizations whose documents are classified as a non-state part of the Archival Fund of the Russian Federation must, on their own, ensure their permanent storage in archives or structural divisions specially created for these purposes. These documents cannot be destroyed without agreement with the authorities and institutions of the Federal Archive.

It should be noted that documents of organizations formed in the process of privatization of state and municipal enterprises, still stored in these organizations, are state property. Such documents are not subject to privatization and must be deposited upon the first request of the archive.

At the request of the Rosarkhiv authorities, organizations storing documents of the non-state part of the Archive Fund of the Russian Federation provide information about their funds and documents for the purpose of their state registration.

Organizations can transfer documents into state ownership for storage in institutions of the Russian Archive, state museums and libraries. Documents are transferred to the institutions of the Federal Archive in the event of liquidation of the organization in the absence of legal successors. In the event of an enterprise reorganization, the owners of documents are not obliged to transfer them to the archive for storage. However, the documents must be transferred to the legal successor under a transfer deed or, at the request of the organization, archived. If the owner or place of storage of documents changes, the authorities of the Federal Archive must be notified of the new owner or the place of further storage of these documents.

Due to the increasing number of cases of violation of archival legislation, the requirements imposed by registration authorities on constituent documents have become more stringent. Thus, in a number of subjects of the Federation, local authorities are adopting regulations obliging them to include obligations to conduct archival work in the charter of registered enterprises. In this case, the organization’s charter should contain approximately the following provision: “The enterprise, in order to implement state social, economic and tax policies, is responsible for the safety of documents (managerial, financial and economic, personnel, etc.); ensures their transfer in cases provided for by current legislation for state storage. The absence of these provisions in the charters of enterprises may be considered as a discrepancy between the constituent documents and the requirements of the law, as a result of which the enterprise may be denied state registration. In this regard, when preparing constituent documents, we recommend paying attention to the regulations of local authorities.

To organize the work of destroying documents, organizations create expert commissions, which include employees of structural divisions chaired by one of the organization’s senior officials, as well as representatives of the archival institution.

Expert commissions, together with the archive, determine the procedure for selecting documents for storage and destruction, organize an examination of the value of documents and monitor its implementation, focusing on documents subject to transfer to state archives.

It is necessary to describe all documents that are selected by the expert commission for storage. An organization may destroy documents (those that are not subject to transfer to the Archival Fund) only if the inventory is approved by the archival authority. In this case, an act is drawn up and approved by the head of the organization.

It should be noted that without agreement with the authorities of the Federal Archive, an organization can destroy only those documents that should not be deposited in the archive and for which there is no longer a practical need, and the storage period has expired. If there was an instruction from the executive authority to coordinate the destruction of documents with a higher organization, then acts on the documents to be destroyed must be sent for consideration to this organization.

Documents selected for destruction must be transferred to organizations involved in the procurement of secondary raw materials for the purpose of processing in paper mills. Reuse of these documents is prohibited. The delivery of documents is documented by delivery and acceptance invoices.

It should be noted that the destruction of documents from set deadline storage of documents or without prior approval by the archival authority of inventories of permanent storage documents (only for organizations transferring documents to state archives) is illegal and entails liability in the manner prescribed by law.

Bodies and institutions of the Federal Archival Service of the Russian Federation are obliged to provide methodological assistance to organizations in the preservation, acquisition and use of archives, if there is a request from the owner of the documents. Each subject of the Russian Federation has its own structure of archives; in most subjects of the Russian Federation, laws or regulations have been adopted on the archival funds of the subjects of the Russian Federation. It should be noted that the archive must be properly registered and endowed with appropriate powers, which is most often omitted. There is such a problem as the provision of services for the destruction of documents to organizations by private entities, which, as a rule, are not authorized to perform such actions, and inventories for the destruction of documents certified by the seal of such enterprises are invalid.

Thus, the legislation establishes the period and conditions for storing documents that make up the archival fund, as well as the procedure for their destruction. Control over the safety of documents related to the archival fund is carried out by archival management bodies. In accordance with the regulations of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in most regions, in case of violation of archival legislation, authorized bodies have the right to impose administrative penalties on organizations in the form of a fine. Archives management bodies also have the right to submit appropriate requests to the prosecutor's office. However, initiating a criminal case or proceedings for administrative violations on the grounds of loss (non-preservation) of documents is possible only in strictly limited cases.

The Federal Law “On Accounting” establishes that accounting is an orderly system of collecting, recording and summarizing information in monetary terms about the property, obligations of organizations and their movement through continuous continuous and documentary accounting of all business transactions. In accordance with this Law, the main objectives of accounting are:

Formation of complete and reliable information about the activities of the organization and its property status, necessary for internal users of financial statements - managers, founders, participants and owners of the organization’s property, as well as external investors, creditors and other users of financial statements;

Providing information necessary for internal and external users of accounting statements to monitor compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation when the organization carries out business operations and their feasibility, the availability and movement of property and liabilities, the use of material, labor and financial resources in accordance with approved norms, standards and estimates;

Preventing negative results from the organization’s economic activities and identifying internal reserves to ensure its financial stability.

Clause 1 of Art. 6 of the Law “On Accounting” places responsibility for organizing accounting in organizations and compliance with the law when carrying out business operations on the heads of the organization.

Paragraph 2 of this article establishes that the heads of an organization can, depending on the volume of accounting work:

Establish an accounting service structural subdivision, headed by the chief accountant;

Introduce the position of chief accountant into the staff;

Transfer on a contractual basis the maintenance of accounting to a centralized accounting department, a specialized organization or a specialist accountant;

Maintain accounting records in person.

In accordance with paragraph 4 of Art. 7 of the Federal Law “On Accounting”, in the event of disagreements between the head of the organization and the chief accountant, documents on them can be accepted for execution with a written order from the head of the organization, who bears full responsibility for the consequences of such transactions. Article 18 of this Federal Law establishes liability for violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation on accounting.

This article provides that the heads of the organization and other persons responsible for the organization and maintenance of accounting records, in the event of evasion of accounting in the manner established by law of the Russian Federation and the regulations of the bodies that regulate accounting, for distortions of financial statements and failure to comply with the deadlines for their submission and publication, they are brought to administrative or criminal liability in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

In the process of financial and economic activities of enterprises of various forms of ownership, various economic crimes are committed. They can be either intentional or unintentional, resulting from insufficient knowledge of the law, mismanagement and irresponsibility on the part of the subjects of activity.

Economic crimes can be committed for selfish reasons and for other reasons. Acquisitive crimes include abuse of official position and granted powers, deliberate distortion of reporting and inflating the cost of products in order to evade taxes and deceive business partners. In the field of accounting and reporting, serious offenses include veiling and falsification of balance sheets, usually associated with documentary forgery.

Violations of the law for which appropriate sanctions are carried out either on the basis of articles of the criminal code or administratively include theft of property of enterprises of state and non-state forms of ownership; criminal negligence; violation of the rules of state and economic management.

Crimes are characterized by a set of signs of offenses caused by a certain economic situation. Therefore, they can be identified during audits or audits in the form of factual data - documents and material materials, which, according to criminal procedural laws, can serve as the basis for initiating a criminal case. Such signs of an offense, in particular, include:

Facts indicating that the enterprise is engaged in activities not provided for by the constituent agreements, or that the enterprise does not carry out activities provided for by the constituent documents;

Violation of the procedure for managing an enterprise established by the constituent documents and regulations;

Violation of the accounting, reporting, document flow procedures provided for accounting policy enterprises, regulatory and administrative acts and constituent documents;

Detection of shortages or surpluses of material assets and funds;

Incomplete or incorrect reflection of funds received, profits received, understatement or exaggeration of costs;

Incorrect or late payment of taxes;

Violation of the provisions of regulatory documents on accounting;

Inadequate registration or failure to document production, economic and financial transactions on the performance of work, provision of services, receipt and expenditure of funds, as well as the presence of dubious documents in the reports;

Violation of the procedure for receiving, accounting, spending, and repaying bank loans;

Violation of the rules and control procedures established on this enterprise, or the complete absence of such control, failure to conduct or conduct audits, audits, and other checks in violation of deadlines;

Availability of connections with persons or enterprises in relation to whom there is evidence of criminal and other illegal activities.

An accountant is a fighting unit in itself and one of the most responsible and significant positions in any organization. Especially if the accountant is the chief. Very, very much depends on certain actions of the chief accountant. At the same time, the chief accountant must report to the head of the organization.

It's no secret to any of us that currently the vast majority of managers commercial organizations strive to minimize tax payments and set this task primarily to the chief accountant. At the same time, not all managers are picky about methods of tax minimization. Often, an accountant is asked to use obviously illegal schemes.

In such a situation, the accountant must decide for himself: to obey the illegal demands of the manager, having every chance of becoming a perpetrator of a tax violation, or to come into conflict with the manager.

Very often, the chief accountant finds himself in a situation where he is forced, when applying for a new job, to take over the affairs of his predecessor. If an accountant, upon taking office, does not thoroughly check the state of affairs, then all shortcomings will be revealed during the first check tax office with the imposition of an appropriate fine on the organization. Only systematic and orderly handling of cases by the previous accountant can solve this problem.

Any chief accountant who takes up his new position cannot limit himself to only checking the state of accounting at the new place. To guarantee his smooth future work, he is obliged to conduct a comprehensive audit of the state of affairs at the enterprise.

The new chief accountant should accept cases in a certain order. First of all, when accepting cases, the accountant conducts an inventory of funds, monetary documents and strict reporting document forms. Subsequently, an inventory of settlements, inventory items, fixed assets, intangible assets, financial investments, work in progress and deferred expenses is carried out. A mandatory element of inventory is checking primary documents. After the inventory is completed, accounting registers and organizational and administrative documentation are transferred.

All business transactions carried out by the organization must be documented with supporting documents. These documents serve as the basis for recording business transactions in accounting registers. TO Primary documents include: Bank statements, cash documents, expense reports with accompanying supporting documents, invoices, invoices, contractual and organizational documentation, etc.

Most primary documents must be retained for at least five years. Therefore, when transferring primary documents, you should check the availability of documents for at least the last three years.

When transferring documents, a standard form of transfer deed is usually drawn up. When drawing up the transfer deed, you should take into account the specifics of drawing up this document. According to current legislation, the date of the document is the date of its signing or approval.

In documents containing a description, assessment of facts or conclusions, such as an act or certificate, a third-person form of text is used, for example: “accountant Novikov A.S. transmits following documents", "the commission established." If the document has attachments, then the act must contain a note about the presence of an attachment, which is drawn up as follows: “appendix on 5 sheets in 2 copies.”

If applications are bound, the number of sheets is not indicated. When preparing documents on two or more pages, the second and subsequent pages must be numbered.

The deed of transfer is signed by two parties - the transferor and the recipient - and drawn up in at least two copies.

In the best case, the acceptance of cases can be carried out with the participation of the previous accountant, but often the new accountant must accept cases independently, according to the actual documents available (if the previous accountant quit long ago). In any case, the acceptance of cases is formalized by an acceptance certificate with an attached inventory of the documents received.

When accepting cases, first of all, it is necessary to check the availability of bank accounts, bound bank statements and payment orders.

Balance plausibility check accounts 51 “Current accounts” as of the last reporting date is achieved by summing up the balances of all ruble bank accounts and reconciling the resulting amount with the data reflected in the balance sheet. Balances on foreign currency accounts are checked in a similar manner.

The act notes the presence or absence of an agreement for opening and servicing a bank account and the cash balance limit approved by the bank.

According to Art. 12 of the Federal Law “On Accounting”, if the accountant combined the duties of an accountant and cashier and was thus a financially responsible person, the transfer of primary cash documents must be accompanied by a mandatory inventory of the cash register. It is recommended to carry out a cash inventory when changing the chief accountant. The accountant accepting the case should review the cash book and cashier's reports and make sure that all necessary signatures are present on cash orders and sheets cash book. Based on the results of the inventory, a cash inventory report is drawn up according to a unified form. No. INV-15. The act reflects the results of the inventory of the actual availability of funds, monetary values and documents (cash, stamps, checks, check books etc.) located at the organization’s cash desk.

When there is a change of financially responsible persons, the act is drawn up in triplicate. A copy is transferred to the financially responsible person who handed over the valuables, the second - to the financially responsible person who accepted the valuables, and the third - to the accounting department. During inventory, cash transactions are not carried out.

An inventory of cash, monetary valuables and documents is carried out by a commission appointed by order of the head of the organization. The commission verifies the accuracy of accounting data and the actual availability of funds (cash values ​​and documents) in the cash register by recalculating them.

In a similar manner, an inventory list of securities and forms of strict reporting documents (form No. INV-16) stored in the organization’s cash desk is drawn up.

Before the start of the inventory, a receipt is taken from each materially responsible person or group of persons responsible for the safety of securities and strict reporting documents stating that all expenditure and receipt documents for strictly reporting securities have been submitted to the accounting department.

When there is a change in financially responsible persons, the inventory list is also drawn up in triplicate. An agreement on financial responsibility is concluded with the new accountant, if he takes on the duties of a cashier.

The transfer and acceptance of advance reports must be accompanied by an inventory of settlements with accountable persons. This inventory should help the new accountant avoid further misunderstandings with accountable persons arising from errors in the calculations of the previous accountant. After the inventory, a statement is drawn up to reconcile the balances of accountable amounts, signed by accountable persons.

When transferring primary documents for labor and wage accounting, you should check and reflect in the transfer act the presence of orders for hiring, orders for approval staffing table, statements of calculation and payment of wages and the presence of all necessary signatures on the specified documents.

When accepting contractual documentation, you should check the existence of contracts. Practice shows that when checking, it is convenient to group contracts according to the following criteria: “Debt of the organization” and “Debt to the organization.”

The state of accounting of calculations should be reflected in the act. If in the future there is a need to restore accounting or problems arise with suppliers and customers, the accountant will be able to show management in what period these problems arose.

By calculation inventory results the following are drawn up: an inventory report of settlements with customers, suppliers and other debtors and creditors and an inventory report of future expenses.

TO primary documents, related to the accounting of material assets include documents on the accounting of fixed assets, intangible assets, goods and materials. Depending on the significance of the balance on specific accounts in the balance sheet, the issue of the procedure for accepting these documents should be decided.

An account balance is considered significant if it is at least 5% of the balance sheet currency. In this case, you should focus on the balance in the accounts of material assets that arose in the last month of work of the previous accountant.

When transferring documents on accounting for fixed assets and intangible assets, you should make sure that there are inventory cards or inventory books, commissioning certificates and depreciation sheets for the last three years.

The presence or absence of primary documents should be reflected in the transfer deed. The accountant is recommended to check the balances on the accounts of fixed assets, intangible assets and other non-current assets on the validity of their reflection in the balance sheet. For example, for fixed assets, you should sum up their initial (replacement) cost according to the available inventory cards, subtract the accumulated depreciation according to the depreciation sheet and compare the resulting residual value with the cost of fixed assets reflected in the balance sheet. The coincidence of these amounts will indicate the completeness of the available primary documents on fixed assets.

The above procedure can be used for the acceptance and transfer of other primary documents available at the enterprise (invoices, invoices for the internal movement of valuables, orders, etc.).

When accepting documents, the accountant should first of all focus on the balance sheet, i.e. documents that confirm the balances in the asset and liability accounts in the balance sheet are subject to acceptance.

The enterprise independently establishes the forms of accounting. The accepted form of accounting is approved by order of the manager as an element of the accounting policy. Therefore, the accountant must decide whether he has sufficient knowledge of the form of accounting adopted by the enterprise. Since the accounting policy of the enterprise remains unchanged throughout the year, the transition to another form of accounting, more suitable for the new accountant, can only be carried out from the new reporting year.

In accordance with the chosen form of accounting, the company maintains accounting registers. The list of registers and working chart of accounts must be approved as an element of the accounting policy. If there is no such list, the accountant should draw up a list of accounting registers and a working chart of accounts.

Since accounting registers are consolidated accounting documents, they must contain mandatory details - the name of the organization and the document, the date of preparation, the signatures of the persons compiling it. There should be no unclear abbreviations or unspecified corrections.

When maintaining records using computer technology, it is allowed to store registers on computer media. It is necessary to determine whether the applied accounting program officially registered, write down or ask to remove the password to enter the program, determine the period for which the registers were compiled in full.

It is legal for a new accountant to require registers on paper, since they must bear the signatures of the responsible persons who compiled the document. Such a printout will ensure the safety of the registers and the immutability of the figures reflected in the accounting records by the previous accountant.

Finally, the most important accounting records are financial statements and tax returns. It is necessary to check and note in the act the presence of accounting reporting forms and tax returns for the entire accepted period. Accounting statements must contain the signatures of the director and accountant, the seal of the organization, marks from the tax authority on the acceptance of reports and must not contain unspecified corrections.

To document the audit of the accounting status of an organization, the following documents must be used.

1. Cash inventory report (form No. INV-15).

2. Inventory report of settlements with buyers, suppliers and other debtors and creditors (form No. INV-17).

3. Act on inventory of future expenses (form No. INV-11).

4. Inventory list securities and strict reporting document forms (form No. INV-16).

5. Inventory list of fixed assets (form No. INV-1).

6. Inventory list of intangible assets (form No. INV-1a).

7. Inventory list of inventory items (form No. INV-3).

8. Inventory report of shipped inventory items (form No. INV-4).

9. Inventory list of inventory items accepted for safekeeping (form No. INV-5).

10. Act of inventory of payments for inventory items in transit (form No. INV-6).

11. Inventory report of unfinished repairs of fixed assets (form No. INV-10).

The accountant accepting the case must proceed from the principle that there can never be too many documents drawn up. All areas of work must be inspected and the results of the inspection documented. Documentation the fact of the absence of one or another accounting object is also subject to.

For example, in the absence of fixed assets or bank loans, it is advisable to confirm this with a corresponding act.

Organizational and administrative documentation of an enterprise includes orders, instructions, internal reporting, job descriptions, correspondence, etc. Almost all of these documents relate to accounting. Therefore, the presence of organizational and administrative documentation should be noted in the acceptance certificate.

You should especially carefully check the availability of a set of constituent documents. If these documents are kept by the manager, the accountant should see the originals and obtain copies. An accountant may need:

2) constituent agreement;

3) minutes of shareholder meetings;

4) taxpayer registration card;

5) statistics codes;

6) information about registration with social funds;

7) correspondence with the tax office;

8) licenses;

9) ongoing arbitration claims;

10) writs of execution;

11) guarantee, sponsorship and other obligations;

12) estimates, plans, projects.

The transfer of cases is completed signing the acceptance certificate and a written report to management about any deficiencies found. Management must decide to allocate additional time or funds to restore missing registers or source documents. If the enterprise is subject to mandatory audit, you can invite an auditing firm to conduct an audit for the interim period, and then the transfer of cases becomes quite simple - the auditor can analyze the available documentation.

A document is an information message (certificate) encoded in a certain way and recorded on a special medium, certifying that a fact of economic life either exists, has been committed, or should be committed.

Primary accounting documents- a written certificate of a completed business transaction or giving the right to carry it out. According to the Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ, all business transactions must be reflected in accounting on the basis of source documents.

From January 1, 2013, the forms of primary accounting documents contained in albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation are not mandatory for use. At the same time, the forms of documents used as primary accounting documents established by authorized bodies in accordance with and on the basis of others federal laws(for example, cash documents) (information of the Ministry of Finance of Russia N PZ-10/2012).

Each fact of economic life is subject to registration with a primary accounting document. It is not allowed to accept for accounting documents documents that document facts of economic life that have not taken place, including those underlying imaginary and sham transactions.

The required details of the primary accounting document are:

1) name of the document;

2) date of preparation of the document;

3) name economic entity who compiled the document;

5) the value of the natural and (or) monetary measurement of a fact of economic life, indicating the units of measurement;

6) the name of the position of the person (persons) who completed the transaction, operation and the person(s) responsible for its execution, or the name of the position of the person(s) responsible for the execution of the accomplished event;

7) signatures of the persons responsible for carrying out the operations, indicating their last names and initials or other details necessary to identify these persons.

The primary accounting document must be drawn up when a fact of economic life is committed, and if this is not possible, immediately after its completion. The person responsible for registration of the fact of economic life ensures the timely transfer of primary accounting documents for registration of the data contained in them in the accounting registers, as well as the reliability of this data. The person entrusted with maintaining accounting records and the person with whom an agreement has been concluded for the provision of accounting services are not responsible for the compliance of primary accounting documents compiled by other persons with accomplished facts of economic life.

The forms of primary accounting documents are determined by the head of the economic entity on the recommendation of the official responsible for maintaining accounting records. Forms of primary accounting documents for organizations public sector are established in accordance with the budget legislation of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with Federal Law dated 04/06/2011 N 63-FZ “On Electronic Signatures” (as amended on 07/02/2013) in cases where federal laws and other regulatory legal acts that entered into force before July 1, 2013 provide for the use of electronic digital signature, an enhanced qualified electronic signature is used.

The primary accounting document is drawn up on paper and (or) in the form of an electronic document signed with an electronic signature.

If the legislation of the Russian Federation or an agreement provides for the submission of a primary accounting document to another person or to a state body on paper, an economic entity is obliged, at the request of another person or government body, at its own expense, to produce on paper copies of the primary accounting document compiled in electronic form document.

Corrections are allowed in the primary accounting document, unless otherwise established by federal laws or regulatory legal acts of authorities government regulation accounting. The correction in the primary accounting document must contain the date of the correction, as well as the signatures of the persons who compiled the document in which the correction was made, indicating their surnames and initials or other details necessary to identify these persons.

If, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, primary accounting documents, including in the form of an electronic document, are seized, copies of the seized documents, made in the manner established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, are included in the accounting documents.

The list of persons authorized to sign primary accounting documents is approved by the head of the enterprise in agreement with the chief accountant.

Types of audits of accounting documents. All primary documents received by the accounting department must be checked in form, arithmetically and in essence - this is one of the stages of accounting processing. During a formal check, it is determined whether a form of the appropriate form was used, whether all the necessary details are indicated, whether the document contains the necessary signatures, whether there are erasures, blots and unspecified corrections. A counting check allows you to establish the correctness of arithmetic calculations and taxation results. The purpose of the substantive check is to identify the legality and expediency of the business transaction recorded in the document. At the same time, it is also checked whether this operation was actually performed and to the specified extent. If errors are found in cash and bank documents, they should be rewritten; corrections are not allowed. It is not allowed to execute transactions that contradict the law and the established procedure for handling funds and other valuables.

Test methods:

· solid

· selective

Continuous, of course, this is the entire primary data for the period under review. During audits, it usually covers the cash desk, the bank, the salary of management and the chief accountant.

Selective method - checking a certain part of an array of documents, if, for example, these are advance reports, then at the discretion of the inspector, documents for even months, for a certain quarter, or reports from such and such number to such and such can be selected, in general, it all depends on the imagination of the inspector and the extent to which he admits that you may have errors and violations in this area (the so-called degree of audit risks).

As for the methods.

1. Checking the document itself:

ü availability of mandatory details - date, signatures of responsible persons, contents of the transaction, etc.

ü logical control - comparison of the content of the operation and the cost; reflected physical characteristics with the amount of the document; the date of the document and the period to which it is attached;

ü the legality of the operation or its economic feasibility;

ü arithmetic check - whether the totals go with the sum of the positions, the turnover in the journals with the turnover in the general ledger, etc.

2. Inventory - comparison of accounting data with actual availability.

3. Analytical procedures - many different techniques, for example, comparing production volumes and resource consumption: electricity, materials, etc.

4. Use of external sources of information - counter check (documents and (or) information are requested from counterparties, regulatory authorities).

Document flow is a system for creating, interpreting, transmitting, receiving and archiving documents in an organization from the moment they are created or received until the completion of execution or dispatch. The electronic document management system controls the execution of work with documents and protects documentation from unauthorized access.

Document flow is one of the enterprise management tools used for exchanging electronic information both within the enterprise (between employees of the enterprise) and with external counterparties. There is also such a concept as “paperwork”, which is often used as a synonym for the term “document flow”, but they should be separated. Record keeping is a set of activities in an organization to provide documentation support for management. The term “document flow,” in turn, describes the movement of documents within the framework of documentation support for management.

Document flow in an organization it can be either centralized or represented at the level of specific divisions. In centralized document flow, three main types of documents are considered: incoming (from external contractors), outgoing (from departments) and internal (for distribution within the organization).

There are a number of main stages document flow:

ü Drawing up a document (when performing a business transaction)

ü Transfer to accounting department

ü Check accepted documents accountant

ü Taxation, grouping and systematization of documents in accounting

ü Deposit for storage in the archive (last stage life cycle document within the document flow)

The main communication problem of a mid-level enterprise is the problem associated with document flow. Document flow may be of poor quality, unreliable, unformalized, etc. These problems are a source of information loss, unproductive expenditure of enterprise resources, which ultimately results in financial losses. A means of regulating (normalizing) interaction at such an enterprise is the optimization of document flow and its subsequent automation, i.e. Creation electronic document management systems (or EDMS). At the same time, automation of document flow often occurs in parallel with the establishment and automation of accounting at the enterprise.

Document flow automation systems came into wide use abroad earlier than in Russia; accordingly, their own terminology has developed to describe various areas of electronic document flow. There is a whole class of products for document automation, the so-called electronic document management systems, or EDMS.

On the most widespread platform in Russia "1C:Enterprise 8.2." Full-fledged document flow on 1C appeared along with the creation of the 1C:Enterprise 8 platform, when the distribution of the 1C program family was reoriented from small to medium and corporate segments of enterprises. Electronic document management is an attribute of a complete information system.

Software products on the 1C platform are traditionally strong in the field of accounting and management. Due to this document flow on 1C has a number additional benefits. These include full integration with accounting data - documents and reference books, without which it is impossible to build a system of comprehensive automation of business processes.

There are a number of standard applications for the electronic document management system on 1C, for example, automation of contract work. But solving such problems as personnel document flow, work with business trips and advance reports, requests for funds, processes for supporting sales, procurement, production and warehouse document flow can only be resolved in a unified information system with an accounting program. For example, on the 1C 8.2 platform. the electronic document management system ": Process Management" can work in a single database with the product "1C: Salary and Personnel Management" or "1C: Manufacturing Enterprise Management", which allows you to comprehensively solve both functional tasks (for example, recruitment) and accounting (accrual salary) and management (making a motivational decision on a salary increase or a fine), and tasks of interaction and information transfer (passing a document along the route, associated with timely notification of all interested participants in the process in accordance with a previously approved procedure). The functionality of software products that solve interaction problems is also standard for electronic document management systems.

Control of enterprise resources, management and organization of the correct work of departments, optimization and improvement of the enterprise’s work are solved through the use of an electronic document management system.

Forms of primary documents classified as strict reporting forms must be numbered in the order established by ministries and departments (numbering, typographical method).

Responsibility for the timely and correct preparation of documents, for the accuracy of data, as well as for the timely transfer of documents to the accounting department lies with the persons who compiled and signed these documents.

The rules for document flow and the technology for processing accounting information are approved as part of the accounting policy adopted by the enterprise. For the rational organization of document flow at an enterprise, a document flow schedule must be approved by order (instruction) of the manager. Control over compliance by performers with the document flow schedule is carried out by the chief accountant of the enterprise.

Accounting registers. Data contained in primary accounting documents are subject to timely registration and accumulation in accounting registers.

Accounting registers- books, cards, magazines or individual sheets obtained using computer technology, magnetic tapes, disks, floppy disks and other computer media intended for systematization and accumulation of information contained in primary documents accepted for accounting, for reflection in accounting accounts and in accounting statements. When maintaining accounting registers on computer media, it must be possible to output them to paper media.

Omissions or withdrawals are not allowed when registering accounting objects in accounting registers, registration of imaginary and feigned accounting objects in accounting registers. An imaginary object of accounting is understood as a non-existent object reflected in accounting only for appearance (including unrealized expenses, non-existent obligations, facts of economic life that did not take place); a pretend object of accounting is understood as an object reflected in accounting instead of another object with the purpose of covering it up (including sham transactions). Reserves, funds provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation, and the costs of their creation are not imaginary objects of accounting.

Accounting is carried out by means of double entry in the accounting accounts, unless otherwise specified federal standards. It is not allowed to maintain accounting accounts outside the accounting registers used by the economic entity.

Mandatory details of the accounting register are:

1) name of the register;

2) the name of the economic entity that compiled the register;

3) the start and end date of maintaining the register and (or) the period for which the register was compiled;

4) chronological and (or) systematic grouping of accounting objects;

5) the monetary measurement of accounting objects indicating the unit of measurement;

6) names of positions of persons responsible for maintaining the register;

7) signatures of the persons responsible for maintaining the register, indicating their surnames and initials or other details necessary to identify these persons.

The forms of accounting registers are approved by the head of an economic entity upon the recommendation of the official responsible for maintaining accounting records. Forms of accounting registers for public sector organizations are established in accordance with the budget legislation of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with Federal Law dated 04/06/2011 N 63-FZ (as amended on 07/02/2013), in cases where federal laws and other regulatory legal acts that entered into force before July 1, 2013 provide for the use of an electronic digital signature, a strengthened qualified electronic signature.

The accounting register is compiled on paper and (or) in the form of an electronic document signed with an electronic signature.

If the legislation of the Russian Federation or an agreement provides for the submission of an accounting register to another person or to a government body on paper, an economic entity is obliged, at the request of another person or government body, to make, at its own expense, on paper copies of the accounting register compiled in electronic form document.

Corrections in the accounting register that are not authorized by the persons responsible for maintaining the specified register are not allowed. A correction in the accounting register must contain the date of the correction, as well as the signatures of the persons responsible for maintaining this register, indicating their surnames and initials or other details necessary to identify these persons.

If, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, accounting registers are seized, including in the form of an electronic document, copies of the seized registers, made in the manner established by the legislation of the Russian Federation, are included in the accounting documents.

Regardless of the method of accounting, it is based on documentation, where documents serve as primary carriers of accounting information (completed business transactions). Grouping, generalization and accumulation of daily transactions are carried out in accounting registers developed by enterprises in compliance with general methodological principles. Registers by appearance are divided into cards, free sheets and books, according to content - into analytical registers, synthetic accounting and combined, i.e. combining these two types of accounting.

Classification of documents. The composition and analysis of the structure of documents on this basis make it possible to assess the ratio of the volumes of internal and external document flow in the organization, analyze the degree of autonomy of the enterprise’s activities (by calculating the ratio of units of incoming information and internal information), and assess the activity of the organization’s circulation in the external environment (by the proportion of outgoing documents).

By purpose documents are divided into administrative, executive, combined and accounting documents.

Administrative documents contain orders, instructions on the production, implementation of certain business operations (orders of the head of the enterprise and persons authorized by him to carry out business operations).

Executive documents certify the fact of business transactions. These include receipt orders (acts of acceptance) of materials; acts of acceptance and disposal of fixed assets; documents on acceptance of manufactured products from workers, etc. Executive documents are signed by persons responsible for carrying out business operations and for the correctness of their execution in documents, for example, shop managers, warehouse managers (storekeepers), foremen, etc.

Combined documents are both administrative and executive. These include: incoming and outgoing cash orders; payroll statements for the payment of wages to employees of the enterprise; advance reports of accountable (seconded) persons, etc.

Accounting documents are compiled in the case when there are no other documents for recording business transactions, or when summarizing and processing executive and administrative documents. These include certificates, distribution statements, reserve calculations, financial statements, etc.

The documents used in accounting are also divided into one-time and cumulative.

One-time primary documents document each business transaction and are compiled in one step.

Cumulative documents are compiled over a certain period through the gradual accumulation of homogeneous business transactions. At the end of the period, these documents calculate the results for the corresponding indicators. Examples of accumulative documents are two-week, monthly work orders, limit cards for the release of materials from enterprise warehouses, etc. Accumulative documents are an element of the first stage of systematization and generalization of accounting information.

Unification and standardization of documents. Currently, unified, specialized and individual forms of primary documents are used. Unified documents are standard documents, approved in the prescribed manner and intended for registration of homogeneous transactions in organizations with different forms of ownership and different industry characteristics.

In the unified forms of primary accounting documentation (except for forms for recording cash transactions), the organization can, if necessary, enter additional details. Exclusion of individual details from unified forms is not allowed.

Changes made must be documented in the relevant organizational and administrative document of the organization. Standard unified primary documents are issued in albums, in which they are formed in the context of homogeneous sections of accounting and have their own distinctive number.

Unified forms of primary accounting documentation for accounting of fixed assets apply to legal entities all forms of ownership operating on the territory of the Russian Federation (with the exception of credit institutions and budgetary institutions).

The forms have information coding zones that are filled out in accordance with All-Russian classifiers:

management documentation - OKUD;

enterprises and organizations - OKPO;

fixed assets - OKOF.

If necessary, in order to further systematize indicators for automated data processing, you can enter additional codes according to the coding system adopted in the organization.

When producing blank products based on unified forms of primary accounting documentation, it is allowed to make changes in terms of expanding and narrowing columns and adding lines (including free ones) and loose sheets for the convenience of placing and processing the necessary information. The material carrier of the document can be an accounting form or a magnetic disk, depending on whether the accounting information is recorded on paper or magnetic media.

The introduction of unified forms of primary accounting documentation in organizations on the territory of the Russian Federation as an element of accounting policy is carried out from the beginning of the financial year and must be formalized by the relevant organizational and administrative document of the organization.

Intersectoral unified standard forms are intersectoral in nature and are used by all organizations. They are approved by resolutions of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation.

Standard unified industry forms are specialized forms of documents intended for use by organizations in certain industries. Thus, standard forms for accounting have currently been developed and approved by the State Statistics Committee: trading operations;

operations in organizations Catering; cash settlements with the population using cash registers;

capital construction and repair and construction work;

operation of construction machines and mechanisms;

operations in road transport;

agricultural products and raw materials.

Individual forms of primary accounting documents are developed and used in an organization that has specific operations that are inherent only in a single case. Such forms of documents must also contain mandatory details and be approved in the order on the organization’s accounting policies.

Standardization of documents is the establishment uniform sizes forms of similar documents in accordance with the resolution of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Standardization and Metrology dated 03.03.2003 No. 65-st “On the adoption and implementation of the state standard of the Russian Federation”.

Requirements for document preparation in accordance with GOST 6.30-2003 “Unified documentation systems. Unified system of organizational and administrative documentation" came into effect on July 1, 2003.

From January 1, 2013, the forms of primary accounting documents contained in albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation are not mandatory for use. At the same time, forms of documents used as primary accounting documents established by authorized bodies in accordance with and on the basis of other federal laws (for example, cash documents) continue to be mandatory for use.

Status and prospects for the implementation of “paperless accounting”. There have always been attempts to automate accounting - abacus, adding machines, calculators and, finally, computers with programs designed exclusively for accounting. If modern computer technologies are used correctly and effectively, accounting in an organization can be brought to high quality new level: store paper documents in the archive, and work exclusively with their electronic copies.

According to the Law “On Accounting”, primary documents must be stored for at least five years. Primary accounting documents, accounting registers, accounting (financial) statements, audit reports it is subject to storage by organizations for periods established in accordance with the rules for organizing state archival affairs, but not less than five years after the reporting year. Accounting policy documents, standards of an economic entity, other documents related to the organization and maintenance of accounting, including tools that ensure the reproduction of electronic documents, as well as verification of the authenticity of an electronic signature, are subject to storage for at least five years after the year in which they were used for preparation of accounting (financial) statements for the last time.

Completely transfer accounting to paperless technology scanning all primary documentation is still hardly possible, since many documents from previous years must be digitized, electronic signatures of persons who can confirm the authenticity of documents must be prepared, special programs electronic document management, and more. Therefore, the transition to “paperless accounting” will be gradual as the storage period for paper documents expires.

Much has already been done to reduce the paper circulation of documents. For example, transfer of receipts and invoices to suppliers and customers. Current accounting practice involves the production of documents first in the warehouse (invoice), then in the accounting department (invoices, invoices), collecting signatures, sending by mail or courier.

Computer technology can significantly speed up the entire process. The storekeeper will fill out a document (invoice, transfer certificate or acceptance certificate) electronically, will enter it into the program, the accountant will draw up an invoice, put an electronic digital signature on it and send it to the recipient. A computer document management program can be configured to control payments, both in terms of timing and volume.

All this allows you to reduce the volume of paper documents and make it easier to find the necessary information.

Primary accounting documents or primary records, as accountants call them, are the basis of accounting, both accounting and tax. Without correct design, maintenance and primary documents to maintain legal entrepreneurial activity impossible.

The Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ indicates that “every fact of economic life is subject to registration as a primary accounting document.”

To make sure everyone is available necessary documents, it is worth regularly checking your accounting, and for those who do not have time for this, we recommend a free accounting audit service.

The primary document proves in writing the fact of a business transaction, confirms the commission of business expenses when calculating the tax base, and establishes the responsibility of performers for the performance of business transactions. Primary documents are requested tax inspectors when checking declarations and reports, and they are necessary when passing inspections.

Considering that not only accountants, but also managers, individual entrepreneurs, sales managers and other employees fill out and prepare primary documents, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the requirements for these documents.

Who develops the forms of primary documents?

Primary accounting documents are unified(the form of which was developed by Rosstat (formerly Goskomstat of the Russian Federation) or the Central Bank) and independently developed by taxpayers.

Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ contains the following list of mandatory details of primary documents (unified or independently developed):

• Title of the document;
• date of document preparation;
• name of the economic entity that compiled the document;
• content of the fact of economic life;
• the value of the natural and (or) monetary measurement of a fact of economic life, indicating the units of measurement;
• the name of the position of the person who completed the transaction, operation and the person responsible for its execution;
• signatures of these persons.

As for the seal, although it is not listed among the required details, if there is a field “M.P.” (space for printing) its imprint is required.

If the taxpayer is satisfied with the unified forms from Goskomstat (fortunately, the list of them is huge), then it is not necessary to develop your own forms. There is also the concept of “modernized primary”, i.e. unified primary documents to which the taxpayer has made his own additions.

Note, You cannot independently develop and approve forms of the following primary documents:

• cash documents;
• payment order and other bank settlement documents;
• unified forms for payments using a cash register;
• waybill;
• payroll and payroll.

Such primary documents can only be unified.

Where can I find samples of unified primary documents?

The development and approval of forms for primary documents is the responsibility of Goskomstat (now Rosstat). Today, unified forms developed in the 90s of the last century continue to be used. Only settlement (payment) documents developed by the Bank of Russia have a relatively new edition - from 2012.

Such documents are called differently: acts, journals, invoices, statements, orders, books, instructions, calculations, powers of attorney, orders, etc. Using this table, you will find in which Resolution of the State Statistics Committee the unified forms of primary documents you need are published.

On our website you can download forms of unified primary documents and by .

A strict reporting form (SRF) is also a primary document, but there are special requirements for it. The list of mandatory BSO details is wider than the list of ordinary primary documents, in particular, the TIN and the presence of a seal are required.

In the article "" you can find out in what cases it is necessary to use unified form this document, and when it can be developed independently.

Errors in primary documents

First of all, the source documents must contain correctly specified mandatory details. According to the Ministry of Finance, a taxpayer can take into account expenses on the primary tax return if it contains only minor errors.

Such errors should not interfere with the accurate identification of the seller and buyer, the name of the goods and their value, and other circumstances of the documented fact of economic life (from the letter of the Ministry of Finance dated February 4, 2015 No. 03-03-10/4547).

Unfortunately, the typical streamlined formulation of officials’ explanations often does not make it possible to clearly understand which inaccuracies or errors in the primary documents will be considered insignificant.

For example, is it a minor error if a taxpayer's name is in lowercase letters instead of uppercase letters? In another letter - dated 05/02/2012 No. 03-07-11/130, the Ministry of Finance indicated that errors such as replacing capital letters with lowercase ones and vice versa; reversing letters; incorrect indication of the organizational and legal form is not an obstacle to identifying the taxpayer (if the TIN and other details are correctly indicated).

But the following errors can be considered significant for primary documents:

• arithmetic errors (the price/quantity of the product or the tax amount is indicated incorrectly);
• different names of the same product (for example, in the specification for the supply contract the candies are called “Waffle candies in chocolate”, and in the invoice - “Bear in the North”);
• inaccurate job titles of those who sign the primary documents (for example, the power of attorney states “Deputy general director”, and in the acceptance certificate - “Deputy Director”);
• the amounts in figures do not coincide with the same amounts indicated in words (instead of 155,000 rubles (one hundred and fifty-five thousand rubles), 155,000 rubles (fifty-five thousand rubles) are written).

The tax office may not accept expenses for such primary documents; the counterparty may also have problems when deducting VAT.

You can correct primary documents only in a corrective way(incorrect text is crossed out with one thin line, and the correct text is written on top). Corrections are accompanied by the inscription “Corrected”, the date and signatures of the responsible persons. Corrections to receipts and expenditure orders, bank documents and BSO. They need to be compiled anew.

Pay attention to the fact that the primary documents are signed during the validity period of the power of attorney issued for their signing, otherwise the inspectors will consider that the documents were signed by an unauthorized employee. The same thing needs to be monitored regarding the signatures on your primary document of representatives of counterparties: the powers of attorney issued to them must be current.

When preparing primary documents, you need to be careful not only about filling them out, but also about the correspondence of their dates and other details with other documents, for example, contracts and invoices. Thus, the deduction of VAT on an invoice drawn up earlier than the delivery note will be controversial.

Questions from the tax authorities will be raised by invoices or acts signed earlier than the agreement, the execution of which is confirmed by primary documents. There is a way out of this situation, provided for in paragraph 2 of Art. 425 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation: indicate in the text of the agreement the following clause: “The terms of this agreement also apply to the relations of the parties that arose before its conclusion.”

Or, for example, the act states that the work was completed in the period from March 10 to March 30, while in the contract the period of work is set as from April 10 to April 30. In this case, you can draw up an additional agreement to the contract, which indicates the actual deadline for completing the work or indicates in the act itself that the work was completed ahead of schedule.

Contractors need to be careful when the customer signs work completion certificates. If subcontractors were involved under the contract, the contractor must sign agreements with them before the work is handed over to the customer. If these dates do not correspond, tax authorities may consider the costs of the subcontractor unjustified and not recognize them when calculating the tax base.

Document flow of primary documents

The document flow of primary documents includes the following stages:

• preparation of the primary document;
• transfer of the document to the accounting department, where it is checked and entered into the registers;
• current storage and subsequent transfer of the document to the archive.

It’s not an idle question: when should primary documents be drawn up? The answer to this is in Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ “The primary accounting document must be drawn up when committing a fact of economic life, and if this is not possible, immediately after its completion.”

It is unacceptable to draw up primary documents several days after a business transaction. All employees who have the right to draw up primary registration must comply with a document flow schedule, in which you can set, for example, the following deadlines for submitting documents to the accounting department:

• incoming and outgoing cash orders - on the day of preparation;
• documents related to sales registration - no later than the next working day;
• advance reports - no later than three working days after the funds are spent;
• certificates of incapacity for work - no later than the next working day after returning to work, etc.

As for documents signed by counterparties, the obligation to transfer them in a timely manner can be provided for in the text of the contract, for example, as follows: “The Buyer undertakes to transfer to the Supplier the originals of signed delivery notes, acts and invoices no later than two business days from the date of their signing.”

When submitting a signed primary document, the accounting department checks the form of the document; availability of required details; the legality of the business transaction; arithmetic calculations. Data from verified primary documents are entered into accounting registers.

Current storage of primary records is usually carried out in the accounting department, and at the end of the year, documents are grouped by date, collected in bundles and transferred to the archive. Primary documents must be stored for at least five years.