Document flow schedule for accounting policy: sample. Regulation on accounting policy

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

Document flow of an enterprise is its central nervous system. Legislative regulation of entrepreneurial activity is constantly increasing and improving. Not only the correct organization of the movement of the written form of documents is important, the problem of electronic support for the functioning of the enterprise has become urgent. In many areas of document management, it is the electronic exchange of information that has become mandatory.

Primary documents are not always initially drawn up in writing, but whatever the document is, it has certain properties, time of existence and specific movement through departments and employees. The size of the enterprise, its legal form, scope of competence and area of operation do not matter, but the workflow schedule for the accounting policy at the enterpriseit's better to design it before it's even started.

Accounting policy is a mandatory component of the workflow

Regulations on accounting policies have been in force since the days of the USSR, since 1983! Accounting has never been the heart of the business, but it has always been its fundamental backbone.

Responsibility for the development of accounting policies usually falls on the shoulders of the chief accountant, and is approved by the head of the enterprise. The primary document goes through the following stages:

1. Create or receive.
2. Acceptance and processing.
3. Transfer to archive.

Any action with a primary document is characterized by:

• source or sender of the document;
• recipient or performer;
• date of acceptance for execution;
• execution time;
• destination of the execution result.

Any primary document has significant content, and in the process of its movement it is supplied with status indicators that allow you to monitor compliance with the accounting policy approved by the enterprise.

Usually, a workflow schedule is drawn up for accounting policy in accounting, but it is available and mandatory for all departments of the enterprise within their competence.

Mandatory legal requirements

Documentary proof of expenses is required. And as before, this is the actual presence of a written document drawn up in accordance with the current legislation and localenterprise rulemaking. Timing is also important.

The Tax Code of the Russian Federation requires confirmation of all transactions. This is one of the main conditions for accounting for costs when calculating income tax. However, the movement of documents does not always satisfy the requirements of production activities: payment may go through, and materials may be late with delivery, the goods were shipped, but the consumer did not pay. As a result, some primary documents are late in terms of deadlines in relation to others.

Unforeseen situations are always enough, but the workflow schedule for an accounting policy is an example of an ideal document flow. Deviations from the plan are allowed, but should be minimized as much as possible, and the schedule should provide for the responsibility of each performer.

Document status indicators

It is difficult to find an enterprise that would not use an electronic document management program, but even in an enterprise that does not have a single computer, the creation or receipt of a primary document is accompanied by the creation of an "indicator" of its status.

For large enterprises with numerous divisions and remote branches, tracking the status of all documents is a mandatory and separate production process. Here, the workflow schedule for the accounting policy is a sample, and the actual state is the basis for optimizing the schedule, clarifying deadlines, and punishingviolators and identifying ways to solve emerging production difficulties.

It is important to note that many events are extremely critical in terms of timing:

• providing tax returns;
• paying taxes;
• submission of electronic declarations;
• other legally binding actions.

If violations of the internal production cycle can somehow be leveled, then in relations with government agencies this is unacceptable and is fraught with serious sanctions or losses.

Document flow schedule for accounting policy: sample content

The form of the described document is not essential. As usual, it is developed by the chief accountant, approved by the head of the enterprise and is a table. We bring to your attention an example of such a chart.

Each document has a name, and all table rows are numbered. Minimum two columns required:

• creating or receiving a document;
• checking and processing the document.

The first column contains two positions:

• responsible (employee, department);
• execution date.

Second column - three to four positions:

• responsible for verification (execution);
• execution date;
• term of transfer to the parent organization;
• form of registration of the result of execution.

Enterprises are not limited in the wording of the heading of the table reflecting the scheduledocument flow for accounting policy. The sample below shows one of the options.

It is important that the logic of the table must accurately reflect: what document, how it appears, by whom and where it is sent, by whom and when it is executed, and where the result is sent. Additionally, it is possible to provide for the actual delivery of the spent primary to the archive. Usually, the workflow schedule for the accounting policy of a government institution is accompanied by regulations for working with archival documents. With regard to state entities, this is enshrined in law.

Document archives and retention periods

Archives (even for medium-sized enterprises) quickly reach impressive sizes. It is a good practice to accompany a sample workflow schedule for accounting policies with additional recommendations on archiving and working with archival documents for repetition by branches.

Legislation establishes different retention periods for different documents. The accounting policy of the head office does not have to be the same as that of the branch office. The scope of competence of various departments of the enterprise can be radically different. But it is advisable to build the logic of building a schedule, unambiguous identification of documents, stages of their passage, rules for tracking indicators and regulations for archiving in a single way.

Unification of accounting policies, and archival work in particular, is essential for optimizing the infrastructure of an enterprise andtraffic information.

Any business is not only controlled by state bodies, but also by its own management and founders. The last resort is usually not inclined to understand the nuances and acts according to a single strict algorithm.

Features of accounting policies in the private sector

Many organizations do not limit themselves to the norms stipulated by the legislation, but develop their own regulatory framework. You can often find a workflow schedule for the accounting policy of LLC, production cooperative, partnership, fund and other type of legal entity in the format of your own version of the idea of business processes and their construction in practice, in a real enterprise.

A significant difference between the public sector and private business is the broader financial opportunities that make it possible to base the infrastructure of an enterprise on a popular expensive system, for example, based on the Oracle Primavera Instantis solution. Oracle has plenty of such expensive ideas, but not every enterprise can purchase them and have the equipment sufficient to operate them.

Document Management Software

A characteristic feature that affects the implementation of accounting policies is the availability of high-quality, expensive, complex and in-demand software. Many large businesses are acquiring new solutions that enable distributed processing of huge amounts of information.

However, this radical approach on the ground differs little fromsituation in medium and small enterprises. You can't even mention government organizations. To this day, Excel and similar universal-purpose products and proprietary software developments dominate everywhere.

This circumstance (the coexistence of a serious information system and several proprietary programs) indicates that the software in this area needs constant improvement.

Based on the foregoing, it seems appropriate, when developing an accounting policy for an enterprise, to focus not on the software used, but on the regulatory moment and the compliance of the legal provisions of the workflow schedule with the current legislation and the real need for a particular enterprise.