Accountant - this is the name of the profession derived from the word "buchhalter", which in German means "accountant; counter; the one who keeps account books. " Account books began to start back in ancient Rome.
In the era of market relations, the importance of the accounting service in general and the chief accountant in particular, is growing immeasurably. Indeed, it is precisely from their qualifications, ability to promptly and correctly respond to the latest legislation, the financial well-being of the enterprise is completely dependent.
The duties of the chief accountant are determined by his enormous responsibility for the results of the enterprise. They include:
- formation of accounting. Supervision over the saving of all types of enterprise resources, over the safety of its property;
- the formation, based on current legislation, accounting policies corresponding to the structure and characteristics of the enterprise;
- the duties of the chief accountant also include direct supervision of the work on drawing up a chart of accounts; development of forms of internal accounting documents for which there are no standards; control over the quality of enterprise accounting, as well as over inventories;
- ensuring rational accounting based on modern technologies; timely formation and reporting of the enterprise on its financial and economic activities;
- organization of accounting of material and monetary resources of the enterprise; their timely reflection in the accounts; conducting settlement, credit and financial operations;
- ensuring the correct and lawful payroll, preparation of costing products, as well as the calculation and timely transfer of all types of taxes, fees, contributions, payments. Timely repayment of bank loans and the transfer of funds to the material incentive fund for employees of the enterprise;
- control over the establishment of salaries; conducting checks of the state of accounting in all subordinate units of the enterprise, as well as documentary audits and inventories;
- prevention of shortages, financial violations of the enterprise, illegal spending of funds;
- the accumulation of financial resources of the enterprise to ensure its sustainability;
- the duties of the chief accountant also include interaction with banks on settlement transactions, the acquisition and sale of securities, the placement of enterprise funds on various deposits;
- control over compliance with financial, staff and cash discipline, the correct debit of various shortages, losses and debts from the accounts. As well as control over the safety of accounting documents and their timely delivery to the archive;
- ensuring timely and correct preparation of the balance sheet, statistical and accounting reports and their submission to the relevant authorities;
- the provision of methodological assistance to all accounting employees of the enterprise;
- management of accounting personnel.
This is a basic list. But it can be supplemented, clarified during the development of job descriptions , depending on the specifics of a particular enterprise.
The chief accountant, whose responsibilities are so extensive, of course, has certain rights. The main ones are:
- the right to sign economic and financial documents on issues that fall within the scope of his official powers;
- the right to represent the enterprise in various organizations;
- the right to interact with other organizations, enterprises in order to quickly resolve various issues within their competence;
- the right to request and receive documents and materials on issues within its competence;
- the right to give instructions to subordinate services and employees and monitor their implementation.
As you can see, the rights and responsibilities of the chief accountant are so vast that the specialist appointed to this position needs to constantly work to improve their professional level.