Accounting registers are forms or counting tables of a certain form intended for grouping and registration of accounting data on the availability of funds and operations conducted with them. They are built in accordance with the principle of accounting data grouping and reflect information about the property owned by the enterprise and the sources of its formation. Businesses that pay income tax must also maintain tax registers.
The data of these documents is necessary to obtain information about the enterprise conducting its business activities. It is registers that provide this task in the best way, since in them all information of an economic nature is grouped by content.
Accounting registers are distinguished in many ways.
In appearance, accounting registers are divided into cards (accounting of funds, inventory), books (main, cash), statements (on accounting for depreciation of funds), computer and digital media (disks, diskettes).
Cards are forms divided into graphs; necessary to create a file cabinet. They are convenient for grouping credentials. There are contract accounts (for example, on accounts receivable), multigraph (for example, production costs), inventory (accounting for fixed assets), quantitative and total (accounting for material values), warehouse accounting.
Sheets (or free sheets) are used to record all types of records, they are the basis of modern accounting.
Account books - numbered and laced single-format sheets with the signature of the chief accountant. They have a two-sided structure (debit / credit).
By the amount of information they are analytical, in which records are kept on accounts, with a brief description of the contents of operations (accounting of assets, cards, statements, books); synthetic, in which records are kept in monetary terms, without explaining the text (general ledger); combined.
By structure, accounting registers are divided into parallel graphs (advance reports), sequential graphs (turnover sheets, order books), combined (orders, magazines).
In order of recording, documents are manual (cards) and machine (computer).
By the nature of the record, accounting registers distinguish chronological (record transactions by the time they were made, without grouping by accounts), systematic (grouped according to a specific system, reflect operations that are similar in nature: general ledger, statement of stock balances) and combined (journal-orders) .
By structure, they are one-sided, two-sided, multigraphic, chess and linear. In one-sided columns of debit entries and credit (account cards) are combined. Bilateral pages have two pages expanded (on the left - debit, on the right - credit), they are used for accounting in books. Multiple registers are necessary for the possibility of reflecting additional indicators when conducting analytical accounting (for the enterprise as a whole, departments, etc.). Chess - reflect the debit of one account, credit - another (magazines, General ledger). Linear - show each analytical account on one line.
The accounting registers must be kept neatly, without corrections and erasures. Entries made in them should be checked by comparing the data of analytical and synthetic accounting registers, since reports are compiled on them.
Data reconciliation can be carried out by a continuous or selective method. All identified errors must be corrected before the preparation of the final financial statements. Detected errors can be corrected in the following ways: proofreading, additional records and negative numbers. Corrections can be made both before the calculation of the results, and after it, be sure to draw up special certificates with the inclusion of data in the General Ledger.