Responsibilities and functional responsibilities of an accountant for primary documentation

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

This profession is considered very common these days. There are several types of accountants, and one of them is a specialist in primary documentation. It is about him that will be discussed further.

Who is this?

Accountant for primary documentation is not everywhere. Often the functions of this specialist are necessary for very large enterprises or organizations where there is a whole headquarters or department. The duties of an accountant for primary documentation are prescribed by a special job description. The specialist himself is subordinate to the chief accountant.

What exactly is the work of the specialist in question? As is already clear from the name of the profession itself, the employee carries out labor activities with documents that are primary. This includes invoices (both incoming and outgoing types), invoices, payments, various certificates, etc. It is necessary to enter all information about these documents in a special register or database, and then draw upnew acts. Thus, the duties of an accountant for primary documentation are quite extensive, and therefore the work itself is complex.

What kind of education do you need?

It is impossible to get an accountant's profession without special education. In order to become a specialist in question and to fulfill their duties on primary documentation with high quality, it is necessary to have a special diploma. Where exactly can you get it?

You can learn to be an accountant in economic universities. There are many faculties and speci alties where one could master all the necessary information and scientific disciplines. There is another way to get a diploma. This includes special courses that work in almost any city in Russia (or another CIS country). They last much less time than studying at a higher educational institution. The term of study here can be several months.

It is worth noting, however, that a university diploma is much more valued by employers. So, a person applying for a job can immediately receive the first or second professional category. It is really prestigious to be a highly qualified specialist, especially if it is an accountant for primary documentation. Duties and responsibilities, however, for such a specialist will be much higher.

Knowledge required for work

What points should the specialist in question learn during the entire training period? There is a certain list of documents and regulations,the need to know which is the responsibility of an accountant for primary documentation. What can be included here? Here is what the special job description prescribes:

• list of basic accounting terms and concepts;
• all necessary materials, manuals and recommendations;
• statutes of the organization in which the specialist works;
• rules of internal regulations at the enterprise;
• orders and executive orders (including those issued periodically);
• job description;
• safety and labor protection.

An employee must not only know all the provisions presented qualitatively, but also be able to correctly apply them in practice. Simply put, an accountant should never and nowhere make mistakes. Any, even the smallest mistake in the work of a specialist can lead to the worst consequences.

First group of employee duties

The presented specialist really has a huge number of responsibilities. It is unlikely that it will be possible to bring them all in full. In addition, the functions of an accountant in different organizations can vary significantly or differ. So, what does the job description of the employee prescribe? What exactly are the job responsibilities of an accountant?

• Functional responsibilities for conducting all types of financial transactions within their own qualifications.
• Processing of all existing documents (receipt, execution, certification and invoices)actions).
• Work with special programs, data processing with their help.
• Development of new documentary forms, their design and some other responsibilities.

All other employee functions will be discussed later.

Second group of responsibilities

The duties of an accountant for primary documentation are quite extensive. They also include:

• participation in inventory work (sometimes you need to be a member of the inventory commission);
• timely and high-quality development of activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the organization;
• work with types of documents such as written agreements and contracts, acts of services rendered or work performed, interim acts, certificates of prices and costs, invoices, sales or cash receipts, tickets and much more.

All the most basic functions and responsibilities of an accountant for primary documentation were named above.

On employee responsibility

The accountant has a very great responsibility for primary documentation. The duties described above define the level of rights and share of responsibility. Since a fairly large number of functions are assigned to the specialist in question, the share of responsibility also increases significantly. What exactly can be said here? What does the special job description prescribe in this case?

Here are the 4 main employee responsibilities:

• Disciplinary (or organizational). This includes punishments in the form of reprimands, fines, deprivation of bonuses, etc. This type of liability may arise for violation of labor regulations.
• Material (or property). Occurs in case of damage to the property of the organization. The employee in this case is obliged to pay all losses.
• Administrative. The concept of the onset of this type of responsibility in the workplace is very abstract. Here we can single out only the case when documents were not submitted to the tax service on time.
• Criminal. This includes committing crimes in the workplace.

Employee rights

The number of rights of the specialist in question directly depends on the number of professional functions. So, the duties of an accountant for working with primary documentation determine the share of rights. However, only the most important points can be highlighted:

• right to timely payment of salaries;
• right to benefits and state guarantees;
• ability to request all necessary documents from management;
• the right to refuse to perform work in case of violation of optimal working conditions;
• the right to offer management ideas, suggestions and plans for improving the organization and many other rights that are practically no different from the professional rights of other employees.

Pros and cons of the profession

It will not be so easy to single out some specific disadvantages and advantages of the profession. Still, this topic is quite subjective and deeply individual. Each employee will be able to find something of his own in the profession in question: both what he will like, and what he obviously will not like. However, it is still worth highlighting some key points. So, the disadvantages of the profession include:

• Excessive workload. As already mentioned, the duties of an accountant for primary documentation are very complex and difficult.
• For a resume, you need to collect a large number of documents, facts and applications about yourself. However, it is worth noting that almost all official jobs sin like this.
• Not the highest salary level. Although income may also depend on the region, the average salary of an accountant according to primary documentation remains not the highest.

The advantages of the profession include:

• comfortable working conditions;
• career opportunities;
• friendly, as a rule, work team (one cannot do without good relations with colleagues in the work of an accountant).