71 account. 71 accounting accounts

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

In every enterprise, from time to time, it becomes necessary to issue cash to employees for various purposes, for example, such as:

• advance travel expenses;

• Advance payment for administrative needs, the purchase of inventory items, spare parts, postage and representation expenses, as well as various fees.

So, let's figure out exactly who is en titled to receive funds under the report, what grounds are needed for this, how to properly draw up documents and accounting operations for issuing money, and also correctly draw up an advance report on the costs incurred.

Reportable persons - who are they?

There are cases when an inexperienced or negligent accountant writes out a sum of money to representatives of a supplier or customer and puts it on 71 accounting accounts. Basically, small businesses are guilty of this, believing that in this way they settled with the creditor or paid for the order. This is a gross violation of the statutory regulations.

Reportable persons are necessarily employees of the enterprise. In addition, the issuance of money under the report precedes the conclusion of an agreement with the employee on materialresponsibility, which determines its measure and stipulates the rights and obligations of the parties.

As a rule, the circle of materially responsible and accountable persons is established by the head, issuing the appropriate order, annually updated. Accounting for accountable amounts reflects 71 accounts.

Travel expenses

Accountable amounts of money for travel expenses are issued from the cash desk or transferred to the employee's card on the basis of a written application with the resolution of the head. Of course, in this case, it is not necessary to conclude a liability agreement, because any employee of the company can go on a business trip, and the basis for the trip is the order of the management, and the accounting account 71 reflects the operations.

Grounds for the payment of funds under the report

Such issuance is regulated by the current legislation, and the main rules for this operation are as follows:

• it is forbidden to issue documents for the payment of money under the report, if the employee did not report for the amounts received earlier;

• money is issued upon an application endorsed by the head with a note on the amount of the amount and the period for which it is issued;

• The report on expenses incurred is compiled and signed within 3 days after the end of the business trip or the expiration of the deadline set by the manager.

Documentation

So, after the expenses are made, or upon arrival from a business tripthe employee is obliged to report within 3 days and submit to the accountant an advance report form AO-1 with attached documents proving the viability of the expenses incurred.

In the advance report, the totals are calculated and the result is displayed:

• There is no balance of money, as all funds have been spent;

• There is a balance, as less spending was made than planned;

• overspending of the issued funds, as they were spent in a larger volume.

The balance is returned to the cash desk of the company for the PKO, and the amount of overspending is given to the hands of the cash settlement. All accounting operations on accountable amounts reflect 71 accounting accounts.

If the rules established by law are not followed, the amount of accountable funds is withheld from the salary or reflected as a shortage and subsequently recovered by court decision.

How the account works

The account in question summarizes information on settlements with employees on funds issued under the report. These amounts are debited to account 71, corresponding with cash accounts, for example, 50 - "Cashier". Documented amounts of costs are debited from the credit of account 71 to the debit of cost accounts, for example, 10 - “Materials”, etc.

The amounts not returned by employees are written off from the credit of account 71 to the debit of account 94 - "Shortages". Subsequently, these amounts are debited from credit 94 to the debit of account 70. If deduction from wages is impossible for any reason, then account 73 is debited and the question arises of reimbursement to the enterprisedamage.

It should be noted that analytical accounting is kept separately for each employee with the obligatory output of monthly totals. Mechanized accounting using the 1C program allows you to draw up the necessary document in the context of the amounts issued or written off, set the time range or set the list of accountable persons, all data is combined by account card 71. The accountant must report on each amount issued, compiling an advance report within the allotted time. Analytics are combined into a journal-order on account 71, which is drawn up at the end of the reporting period.

Accounting accounts

Each advance report is worked out by an accountant with posting data to account 71. Postings reflecting operations for accounting for accountable amounts:

• Dt 71 – Kt 50 – accountable amount issued from the cash desk.

• Dt 71 – Kt 51 – the amount was transferred from the current account to the employee's card.

• Dt 41 – Kt 71 – purchase of goods from accountable amount.

• Dt 10 – Kt 71 – procurement of materials.

• Dt 26 - Kt 71 - general business expenses were written off, for example, postal services were paid.

• Dt 20 – Kt 71 – travel expenses written off.

• Dt 50 - Kt 71 - the balance of the accountable amount is paid by the employee to the cashier.

• Dt 70 - Kt 71 - the balance of the accountable amount is deducted from the employee's salary.

• Dt 94 - Kt 71 - the employee did not report on the expenses incurred by the due date.

• Dt 73.2 – Kt 71 – retention of shortagesemployee.

• Dt 91.2 - Kt 71 - attributing the amount of shortage to other expenses if recovery is impossible.

Features of account 71

The account is active-passive. Above, we examined the traditional accounting entries for account 71, when it acts as an active one, that is, it is debited when money is received and credited when expenses are written off. As a passive account, it is used less often, but such cases do happen.

For example, there is no money in the company's cash desk, but it is necessary to go on a business trip, and the employee agrees to use personal finances on the condition that travel expenses will be paid upon return. In this case, posting Dt 20 - Kt 71.

In this case, there are expenses before they are paid, and the company undertakes to reimburse them. In this example, 71 accounts are passive.

If the company is a VAT payer

If a company is a VAT payer and accumulates the amount of tax paid for goods or services on account 19 - “VAT”, then when purchasing materials or paying for services from accountable amounts, it is necessary to reflect the amount of VAT by posting Dt 19 - K -т 71 – for the amount of tax paid.

Base for write-offs

Accepting the advance report, the accountant checks the documents confirming the expenses. These can be invoices, bills and invoices for the acquisition of property, cash and sales receipts confirming payment for various services, i.e. primary documents that are the fundamental basis for attributing costs to 71 accounts.

The main requirement for holdingbusiness transaction in accounting is a written confirmation of the transaction. In other words, all expenses indicated in the advance report must be justified and confirmed by primary accounting documents, correctly executed, with completed details, necessary signatures, seals and stamps. Expenses that are not supported by documents or confirmed by incomplete paperwork cannot be accepted and reflected in the accounting, and this is fraught with unpleasant consequences. The employee will pay such costs out of his own pocket.

Therefore, the accountable person should take seriously the issue of drawing up an advance report, timely demand correctly completed documents for expenses incurred.

Accountant's actions

The accountant who accepts the advance report checks the arithmetic calculations, the availability and execution of supporting documents, makes entries on the reflection of expenses in a special section, reconciles 71 accounts, confirming the posting with his signature. Then he writes out an incoming or outgoing cash order for the amount of discrepancies between the issued and spent amounts, hands it to the cashier and closes the advance report.

Things to remember during tax audits

The term for which the accountable person is given funds for household needs is not established by law. It can be determined by the head of the organization. However, the law does not treat this as a duty of the director. When a deadline is set, the employee is required to report on expenses within 3 days after its expiration. And if no deadline has been set,then, even for a long time without reporting on the accountable amount, it cannot be violated. Therefore, if the company does not determine such a period, then the claims of the tax authorities regarding the long-term presence of the accountable amount on hand will certainly be presented, although they cannot be considered justified.

When detecting such cases, the tax authorities qualify them as receiving an interest-free loan, requiring them to determine the amount of material benefit that the employee has received, include it in his income and withhold personal income tax.

Such a tax requirement is illegal, since the concept of material benefit, established by Art. 212 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation does not include the situation described above. In accordance with the Tax Code, material benefits are income received:

• from savings on interest for the use of funds from credit institutions;

• from the acquisition of property or services under a civil law contract;

• from the purchase of shares or other securities.

The arguments of the tax authorities in this case are unlawful, since loans from credit institutions are formalized by an agreement, and the issue of the accountable amount is carried out upon application. But it is in the interests of the management of companies to correctly draw up documents for the issuance of funds under the report in order to avoid claims from inspection bodies.