The implementation of accounting at enterprises of various forms of ownership is impossible without documentary reflection. Not a single procedure, not a single project, not a single business operation is carried out without a correctly executed document regulated by internal orders of the enterprise and external legislative norms. Each action performed by an employee, for example, a trading company, starting from the operator of receiving applications and ending with the director, is reflected in the document base, which is based on a list of primary documents.
Concept and significance
It is probably difficult to imagine the functioning of an existing enterprise within any possible field of activity without documents confirming business transactions. As with any other issue, documentation plays a very important role here. It is hardly possible to imagine the high-quality and legislatively substantiated work of an airport allowing a passenger to depart without documents proving his identity - a passport and citizen identification code. In the same way, as it is difficult to assume an admission to the movement of a car, the driver of which does not have the appropriate documentation in the form of rights and a technical passport for the car he controls. So are the primary accounting documents. Any company registered in the state list of entrepreneurs must have a number of documents necessary for accounting, which are the primary and initial link in the regulatory chain of its business processes.
Primary accounting documentation is a set of references, acts, warrants, invoices, statements and reports, through which the fixing of the operating activities occurring at the enterprise and the regulation of its business procedures are carried out.
Types of documents
The classification of accounting workflow includes the following main types of primary documents:
- by functional purpose - accounting, management, personnel;
- according to the degree of regulation - internal and external.
The first direction of the classification makes it possible to distinguish between documents of the three main functional levels of any entrepreneurial company by the nature of their mission, and the second by the way of organizing legal regulation of economic relations. Each of the areas includes a mass of individual types of documents reflecting the performance of specific actions by company employees.
Accounting Documentation
If we consider the accounting source documents, then they, in turn, are divided into regulation of the three stages of conducting business operations.
The first stage is characterized by the conclusion of the transaction. Here, the primary accounting documentation is presented by concluding a contract and invoicing for payment. An agreement is a document regulating the relations of two parties in the order of establishing conditions for interaction between them. A payment invoice is a requirement defining a specific amount, which, according to the terms of the contract, the buyer must pay to the seller for the goods sold or the service provided.
The second stage of entrepreneurial activity is reflected in the documents of payment and is called the stage of payment for the transaction. Based on the fact that payment can be made by bank transfer or in cash, the primary documents are submitted either by bank statements and payment orders, or by cash receipts and receipts for incoming cash orders.
The third, final stage is determined specifically by the receipt of a product or service. Accordingly, it is also regulated by the primary documentation in the form of a waybill, a receipt and an act of acceptance of production or an act of work performed in the case of any type of service.
Management Accounting Documentation
The difference between accounting workflow and management mainly lies in the fact that accounting activities are regulated by state legislation with the framework specifically established by the authorities for reflecting business transactions, and management is determined by internal decisions and personal preferences of the director or direct owner of a company. In other words, the primary accounting documents have a strict form, controlled by the general regulatory framework, and management documents are developed exclusively at the enterprise level. What papers control the management accounting in the company? Among the main ones, the following can be distinguished:
- set of rules of internal labor regulations;
- accounting policy of the enterprise;
- collective agreement;
- regulations and orders of the director of the company;
- job descriptions;
- administrative documents.
HR records
As for the list of primary documents regulating the inter-level relations of employees at the enterprise, as well as controlling the procedure for calculating wages and determining the responsibilities of each of the company's employees, here the working documentation includes the following main types:
- staffing table - involves the totality of all the posts in the enterprise, a reflection of their number and the number of personnel units, as well as a description of their level of salary, the procedure for bonus payments, deprivation, and the adoption of the provision on allowances;
- labor schedule - includes information about the working day, organizational and administrative issues, the rules for hiring and dismissing employees, as well as the conditions for their promotion as surcharges for labor or censure in the form of reprimand and deductions from wages;
- job description - the basis of the work of the personnel department of each enterprise is a set of rights and obligations, general provisions, tasks, responsibilities, qualification requirements and relationships in the conditions of observance of subordination between different levels of staff at the enterprise.
Mandatory documents
Any registered and legally operating company has a list of mandatory documents that must be included in its activities. Mandatory primary documents are the following:
- contract - whatever the transaction, this document is the primary basis in initiating the relationship between two entrepreneurs, between seller and buyer, between supply and demand;
- invoice - when making a decision on the sale of goods or the provision of services, the selling party issues an invoice to the purchasing party as a prerequisite for the transaction;
- strict reporting forms - the agreement process does not do without checks, cash and commodity documents relating to the list of binding;
- waybill - a document that indicates the consignee, carrier, sender of the goods, the goods themselves in the assortment of its range, the number of products shipped, price and amount;
- acceptance certificate of work performed or shipped goods.
Internal documents
As mentioned earlier, the work of any company implies the presence of external and internal documentation. The main primary documents of internal use - this is a list of all those forms, certificates, statements, orders, instructions that are developed directly within the enterprise and apply only to the personnel working on it, having no legislative influence on society outside the boundaries of this company.
External documents
External destination documentation means a higher hierarchical level of subordination, since external documents are those that are regulated by the state and its legislative base. The developed provisions on accounting, the set of accounts for accounting, standards for accounting and financial reporting - all this has a regulatory background and is regulated by the legislative framework of the state.
Document Forms
Forms of primary documents are multifaceted in nature of purpose, type of design and affiliation. The following main divisions are legally distinguished:
- forms of personnel records (orders, instructions, schedules, regular modes and schedules);
- forms of accounting for remuneration of labor and working time (time sheets, personal accounts, magazines, payroll statements);
- capital construction accounting forms (certificates, magazines, acts);
- forms of product accounting (acts and logs of inventory of goods, weight lists, party cards, reports on movement of goods and materials);
- forms of cash accounting (cashier's journal, acts on transfers and cash of the cash desk);
- forms of accounting for trading operations (orders, invoices, acts, specifications, quality certificates);
- forms of accounting for cash transactions (expense report, PKO, RKO, journal of their registration);
- forms of accounting for the results of the inventory (inventory lists , acts, certificates, journals, statements).
In addition to the above, there are also forms of primary documents on the accounting of construction vehicles and mechanisms, road transport, fixed assets and intangible assets, materials, low-value items, agricultural products and raw materials.
Order of registration
Registration of primary documents is carried out due to certain requirements that are mandatory. For example, entries in the documentation should be performed exclusively in blue ink, while they should be decorated carefully and legibly. Also, the document must contain a number of details required for each type and be certified by the personal signature of the head, chief accountant or authorized person, and also be sealed with the seal of the enterprise. The numbers in monetary documents should also be shown in words, and where the column of the document is blank, there must be a dash to avoid the subsequent filling of false numbers with some kind of ill-wisher.
Storage
Storage of primary documents is carried out directly at the enterprise. Or you can use the services of a private (or state) archive. If a tax inspection reveals the absence of a primary document, a fine is imposed on the company, the amount of which is determined depending on the specific type and number of documents lost. According to the current legislation of the Russian Federation, the primary is stored at the enterprise for at least five years.