The workflow of an enterprise is its central nervous system. The legislative regulation of entrepreneurial activity is constantly increasing and improving. It is important not only the proper organization of the movement of the written form of documents, the problem of electronic support of the enterprise has become urgent. In many areas of document management, it is electronic exchange of information that has become mandatory.
Primary documents are not always initially executed in writing, but whatever the document may be, it has certain properties, a lifetime, and a specific movement across departments and employees. The size of the enterprise, its legal form, the sphere of competence and the area of functioning do not matter, but it is better to develop a workflow schedule for accounting policies at the enterprise before its creation.
Accounting policy - a mandatory component of the workflow
The provisions on accounting policies have been in force since the USSR, since 1983! Bookkeeping has never been the heart of a business, but it has always been its fundamental foundation.
Responsibility for the development of accounting policies usually rests with the chief accountant, and is approved by the head of the enterprise. The primary document goes through the following stages:
- Creation or receipt.
- Acceptance and processing.
- Transfer to the archive.
Any action with a primary document is characterized by:
- source or sender of the document;
- the recipient or contractor;
- date of acceptance for execution;
- lead time;
- the addressee of the result of the execution.
Any primary document has substantial content, and in the process of its movement it is supplied with status indicators that allow monitoring compliance with the accounting policies approved by the enterprise.
Typically, a workflow schedule for an accounting policy in accounting is drawn up, but it is available and mandatory for all departments of the enterprise within their competence.
Mandatory legal requirements
Documentary evidence of expenses is required. And as before, this is the actual availability of a written document drawn up in accordance with the current legislation and local rule-making of the enterprise. Timing is also important.
The tax code of the Russian Federation requires confirmation of all transactions. This is one of the main conditions for cost accounting when calculating income tax. However, far from always the movement of documents satisfies the requirements of production activities: payment may pass, and materials may be delayed with delivery, the goods were shipped, but the consumer did not pay. As a result, some primary documents are late in time in relation to others.
Unforeseen situations are always enough, but the workflow schedule for accounting policies is an example of the ideal movement of documents. Deviations from the plan are allowed, but should be minimized as much as possible, and the schedule should include the responsibility of each contractor.
Document Status Indicators
It is difficult to find an enterprise that would not use an electronic document management program, but even in an enterprise that does not have a single computer, the creation or receipt of a primary document is accompanied by the creation of an “indicator” of its status.
For large enterprises with numerous divisions and remote branches, monitoring the status of all documents is a mandatory and separate production process. Here, the workflow schedule for accounting policies is a model, and the actual state is the basis for optimizing the schedule, clarifying deadlines, punishing violators and identifying ways to solve production difficulties.
It is important to note that many events are extremely critical in terms of timing:
- reporting to the tax;
- payment of taxes;
- filing electronic declarations;
- other legally binding actions.
If violations of the domestic production cycle can somehow be leveled, then in relations with state bodies this is unacceptable and fraught with serious sanctions or losses.
Workflow Chart for Accounting Policies: Example Content
The form of the document described is not significant. As usual, it is developed by the chief accountant, approved by the head of the enterprise and is a table. We bring to your attention an example of such a schedule.
Each document has a name, and all rows of the table are numbered. Minimum two columns are required:
- creating or receiving a document;
- verification and processing of the document.
The first column contains two items:
- responsible (employee, unit);
- period of execution.
The second column is three to four positions:
- responsible for verification (enforcement);
- period of execution;
- term of transfer to the parent organization;
- form of execution result execution.
Enterprises are not limited in the wording of the table heading, which reflects the workflow schedule for accounting policies. The sample below shows one of the options.
It is important that the table logic should accurately reflect: which document, how it appears, by whom and where it is forwarded, by whom and when it is executed and where the result is sent. Additionally, you can provide for the actual delivery to the archive of the spent primary. Typically, the workflow schedule for the accounting policies of a public institution is accompanied by regulations for working with archival documents. With regard to state entities this is enshrined in law.
Document archives and storage periods
Archives (even in medium-sized enterprises) quickly reach impressive sizes. It’s a good practice to provide branches with a sample workflow schedule for accounting policies for additional policy recommendations for archiving and working with archival documents.
Legislation sets different retention periods for different documents. The accounting policies of the head office need not coincide with the policies of the branch. The sphere of competence of various departments of the enterprise can radically differ. But the logic of charting, the unambiguous identification of documents, the stages of their passage, the rules for tracking indicators and the rules of archiving should be built in a single key.
The unification of accounting policies, and archival work in particular, is essential for optimizing the enterprise infrastructure and the movement of information.
Any business is not only control by state bodies, but also its own leadership and founders. The last resort is usually not inclined to understand the nuances and acts according to a single strict algorithm.
Features of accounting policies in the private sector
Many organizations are not limited by the norms prescribed by law, but are developing their own regulatory framework. Often you can find a workflow schedule for the accounting policies of an LLC, a production cooperative, a partnership, a fund, and another type of legal entity in the format of its own version of the idea of business processes and their design in practice, in a real enterprise.
A significant difference between the public sector and private entrepreneurship is the wider financial possibilities that make it possible to base the enterprise’s infrastructure on a popular, expensive system, for example, based on Oracle Primavera Instantis. Oracle has plenty of such expensive ideas, but far from every enterprise can acquire them and have the equipment sufficient for their operation.
Electronic Document Management Software
A characteristic feature that affects the implementation of accounting policies is the availability of high-quality, expensive, complex and popular software. Many large representatives of big business are acquiring new solutions that provide distributed processing of huge amounts of information.
However, this cardinal approach on the ground does not differ much from the situation in medium and small enterprises. Government organizations may not even be mentioned. Everywhere to this day, Excel and its similar universal products and its own software developments dominate.
This circumstance (the joint existence of a serious information system and several proprietary programs) indicates that the software in this area needs constant development.
Based on the foregoing, it seems appropriate when developing the accounting policy of the enterprise to focus not on the software used, but on the regulatory moment and the compliance of the legal provisions of the workflow schedule with current legislation and the real need for a particular company.