Primary accounting documents: types, processing and storage

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Carrying out 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 transaction is carried out without a correctly executed document, regulated by the internal orders of the enterprise and external legislative norms. Each action performed by an employee of, for example, a trading company, starting from the operator for receiving applications and ending with the director, is reflected in the documentary base, which is based on a list of primary documents.

Concept and significance

It is probably difficult to imagine the functioning of an operating enterprise within any possible field of activity without documents confirming business transactions. As in any other issue, documentation plays a very important role here. You can hardly imaginehigh-quality and legally justified work of the airport, allowing a passenger to depart without documents proving his identity - a passport and an identification code of a citizen. In the same way, it is difficult to assume the admission to the movement of a car whose driver does not have the appropriate documentation in the form of a license and a technical passport for the car he drives. So are primary accounting documents. Any company registered in the state list of entrepreneurs must have a number of documents necessary for accounting, which are the fundamental basis and the initial link in the chain of regulatory regulation of its business processes.

Primary accounting documentation is a set of certificates, acts, orders, invoices, statements and reports, through which the company's operations are recorded and its business procedures are regulated.

Types of documents

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 among themselves the documents of the three main functional levels of any business firm according to the nature of their purpose, and the second - according to the method of organizing the legal regulation of economic relations. Each of the directions includes a masscertain types of documents reflecting the commission of specific actions by company employees.

Accounting documentation

If we consider primary accounting documents, they, in turn, are divided into regulation of the three stages of business transactions.

The first stage is characterized by the conclusion of the transaction. Here, the primary accounting documentation is represented by the conclusion of an agreement and the issuance of an invoice for payment. An agreement is a document that regulates the relationship between two parties in order to establish the conditions for interaction between them. An invoice for payment is a requirement with the definition of a specific amount that, under 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 payment documents and is called the stage of payment for the transaction. Based on the fact that payment can be made in a non-cash way or in cash, primary documents for it are presented either as statements from the current account and payment orders, or cashier's checks 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 delivery note, a sales receipt and an act of acceptance and transfer of products or an act of work performed in case of providing any type of service.

Management accounting documentation

The difference between accounting and management workflow mainly lies in the fact that accounting activity is regulated by state legislation with a framework for reflecting business operations specifically established by the authorities, and management is determined by internal decisions and personal preferences of the director or direct owner of a particular company. In other words, primary accounting documents have a strict form controlled by a common regulatory framework, while management documents are developed exclusively at the enterprise level. What papers control the conduct of management accounting in the company? Among the main ones are the following:

• code 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 documentation

As for the list of primary documents regulating the interlevel 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 - involves the totality of all positions in the enterprise, a reflection of their number and the number of personnel units, as well as a description of the level of their wagesfees, the procedure for bonuses, de-bonding, acceptance of the provisions on allowances;
• work schedule - includes information about the working day, organizational and administrative issues, the rules for hiring and firing employees, as well as the conditions for their promotion as an additional payment for work or censure in the form of a reprimand and deductions from wages;
• job description - the work of the personnel department of each enterprise is based on a set of rights and obligations, general provisions, tasks, responsibilities, qualification requirements and relationships in terms of subordination between different levels of staff units in the enterprise.

Required Documents

Any company registered and operating legally has a list of mandatory documents that must appear in the framework of its activities. Mandatory primary documents are as follows:

• agreement - whatever the deal, this document is the fundamental basis in starting a relationship between two entrepreneurs, between a seller and a buyer, between supply and demand;
• issued invoice - when making a decision on the sale of goods or the provision of services, the selling party issues an invoice to the buyer side as a prerequisite for the transaction;
• forms of strict reporting - in the process of agreement it is not complete without checks, cash and commodity documents related to the list of mandatory;
• commodity-consignment note - a document that indicates the consignee, carrier, sender of goods, the goods themselves in the assortment of its nomenclature, the number of shipped products, price and amount;
• Act of acceptance and transfer of completed work 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 for internal purposes are a list of all those forms, certificates, statements, orders, instructions that are developed directly within the enterprise and apply only to the personnel functioning on it, without having any legislative influence on the society that goes beyond this company.

External Documents

Documentation of external purpose implies a higher hierarchical level of subordination, since external documents are those that are regulated by the state and its legislative framework. The developed provisions on accounting, the set of accounts of accounting correspondence, the standards of accounting and financial reporting - all this has a regulatory background and is regulated by the legal framework of the state.

Document Forms

Forms of primary documents are multifaceted in their nature of purpose, type of design and ownership. The following main divisions are legally distinguished:

• forms of personnel records (orders, orders, schedules,regular modes and schedules);
• forms of accounting for wages and working hours (timesheets, personal accounts, journals, payroll);
• capital construction accounting forms (certificates, magazines, acts);
• forms of accounting for products (acts and accounting journals of goods and materials, weight sheets, party cards, reports on the movement of goods and materials);
• money accounting forms (cashier journal, acts on transfers and cash at the cash desk);
• trade accounting forms (orders, invoices, acts, specifications, quality certificates);
• forms of accounting for cash transactions (advance report, PKO, RKO, journal of their registration);
• forms for recording inventory results (inventory lists, acts, certificates, journals, statements).

In addition to the above, there are also forms of primary documents for accounting for construction machines and mechanisms, road transport, fixed assets and intangible assets, materials, low-value items, agricultural products and raw materials.

Procedure for registration

Primary documents are drawn up due to certain requirements that must be met. For example, entries in documentation must be made exclusively in blue ink, while they must be neat and legible. 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 sealed with the seal of the enterprise. Numbers in money documentsshould also be written in words, and where the column of the document is empty, there must be a dash in order to avoid subsequent filling in false numbers by any 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 the audit by the tax inspectorate reveals the absence of a primary document, a fine is imposed on the enterprise, the amount of which is determined depending on the specific type and number of lost documents. According to the current legislation of the Russian Federation, primary documents are stored at the enterprise for at least five years.