Regulatory documents that regulate accounting

Simplified accounting methods

Three groups of organizations have the right to use simplified methods of accounting, including simplified accounting (financial) reporting. The first of them includes small businesses. The second group includes organizations that have received the status of participants in the Skolkovo project. And finally, the third group includes non-profit organizations (the accounting statements of non-profit organizations are also described in our other article).

At the same time, simplified methods of accounting may not be used by:

• organizations whose accounting (financial) statements are subject to mandatory audit in accordance with Russian legislation;

• housing and housing construction cooperatives;

• credit consumer cooperatives (including agricultural credit consumer cooperatives);

• microfinance organizations;

• public sector organizations;

• political parties, their regional branches or other structural units;

• bar associations;

• law offices;

• lawyer consulting;

• bar associations;

• notary chambers;

• non-profit organizations included in the register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent as provided for in paragraph 10 of Article 13.1 of the Law of January 12, 1996 No. 7-FZ.

These are the requirements of parts 4 and 5 of Article 6 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

Concept and general approach

The organization of accounting by an economic entity itself implies measures to establish:

• accounting;
• who will do this;
• storage of accounting documents.

The rules for organizing accounting established by law indicate that all organizational issues are dealt with by the head of the company (IP). A different procedure may be established for budgetary institutions (then the owner of the property).

If an individual entrepreneur or private practitioner maintains accounting in accordance with Law No. 402-FZ, they themselves:

• organize the work of maintaining accounting records and storing its documents;
• bear other responsibilities established by Law No. 402-FZ for the head of the organization.

Organization of accounting

Accounting and storage of accounting documents is organized by the head of the organization (Part 1, Article 7 of Law No. 402-FZ of December 6, 2011).

He must choose one of the following options and consolidate this in the accounting policy:

• entrust accounting maintenance to the chief accountant or other responsible employee of the organization;

• conclude an agreement on the provision of accounting services with a third-party organization (specialist);

• take charge of accounting (for small and medium-sized businesses, as well as non-profit organizations that have the right to use simplified accounting methods).

This is stated in Part 3 of Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

Common accounting mistakes

Enterprises submit reports of several types: management, tax, financial, and so on. The number of such samples is determined by the tax collection system used in the organization.

Due to the large number of samples, errors also appear when maintaining accounting records at an enterprise.

Error 1.

Incorrect organization of preparation for the preparation and transmission of reports.

When drawing up and transmitting reports, it is necessary to organize special preparation, which includes, for example, checking the availability of property in the enterprise and the state of its financial obligations.

If the system for carrying out this process contains any shortcomings, when maintaining accounting records, you may encounter a lack of accurate information.

During the preparatory operations, it is very important to obtain complete information about the financial registers. Otherwise, you will have to solve problems with inaccuracies in reports. Often such an error entails the re-registration of information in accounting records.

Error 2.

Indication of inaccurate monetary amounts when maintaining accounting records of basic material resources.

Generating OS reports is not an easy task. Inspectors often find various errors here. The most common indication of inaccurate monetary amounts is when maintaining accounting records of basic material resources.

However, there are other omissions:

• the costs of various transformations and repairs are included in current costs;
• the price of fixed assets acquired by the enterprise is incorrectly indicated;
• expenses for the purchase and production of fixed assets are not included in the original price;
• When maintaining accounting records, several resources of an enterprise are taken as a unit (or a unit – as several).

To eliminate such errors, as a rule, it is necessary to re-calculate the cost of fixed assets, and this is not so easy.

Error 3.

Incompetent implementation of the final inventory.

This process is an extremely significant operation in accounting at an enterprise. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation has developed instructions for its implementation.

However, when maintaining accounting records, individual entrepreneurs, LLCs, and legal entities make many mistakes in reporting documents for conducting inventory.

Employees responsible for this process should not be allowed to perform their work poorly, conducting inventory “as a distraction.”

Error 4.

Recording production processes in the absence of written evidence of the correctness of making a particular entry in the reports.

It also happened that supporting documentation when maintaining accounting records was simply absent. This is a very serious mistake.

Requirements for the chief accountant of a joint-stock company

Special requirements for the chief accountant are established in the JSC.

The person charged with accounting (for example, the chief accountant) must meet the following requirements:

• have a higher education (and not necessarily by profession);

• have work experience related to accounting, reporting or auditing for at least three years out of the last five calendar years. If there is no higher education in the field of accounting and auditing, then the experience must be at least five years out of the last seven calendar years;

• he should not have an unexpunged or outstanding conviction for crimes in the economic sphere (Section VIII of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Such rules are established by Part 4 of Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

If the manager entrusts accounting to a third-party specialist, the latter must also meet the specified requirements. If an agreement for the provision of accounting services is concluded with an organization, it must have at least one employee who meets such requirements.

This is established by part 6 of article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

Federal legislation may establish other additional requirements for the chief accountant (another person entrusted with accounting) (Part 5, Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ).

These requirements do not apply if the chief accountant (other person) began his duties before January 1, 2013 (Part 2 of Article 30 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ).

Attention: Part 4 of Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ refers to the chief accountants of open joint-stock companies (OJSC). However, as of September 1, 2014, such an organizational and legal form does not exist. Now all JSCs that place shares by public subscription are considered public joint-stock companies (PJSC). That is, in essence, the requirements for education and work experience apply specifically to the chief accountant of the PJSC, and officials will make a technical amendment to Part 4 of Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ in the near future.

Responsibility for violation of accounting rules

For gross violation of accounting rules, the tax inspectorate may fine an organization under Article 120 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Thus, a gross violation of the rules for keeping records of income and expenses is the absence of primary documents, invoices, accounting registers, systematic (twice or more during a calendar year) untimely or incorrect reflection of assets and business transactions in accounting.

If an organization commits such a violation during one tax period, the fine will be 10,000 rubles. And if within several, the fine will increase to 30,000 rubles. If at the same time the organization also underestimated the tax base, then 20 percent of the amount of each unpaid tax, but not less than 40,000 rubles, will have to be paid to the budget.

There are also penalties for officials of the organization. It is prescribed in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences. Sanctions are provided for gross violation of accounting requirements, including financial reporting. For such actions, a fine of from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles is provided. Repeated violation faces a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 rubles. or disqualification for a period of one to two years.

The punishment upon application of the tax inspectorate is imposed by the court (Part 1 of Article 23.1, Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

In each specific case, the perpetrator of the offense is identified individually. In this case, the courts proceed from the fact that the manager is responsible for organizing accounting, and the chief accountant is responsible for its correct maintenance and timely preparation of reports (clause 24 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of October 24, 2006 No. 18). Therefore, the chief accountant (an accountant with chief rights) is usually found guilty of a violation. A leader is recognized as such only if:

• the organization did not have a chief accountant at all (resolution of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 9, 2005 No. 77-ad06-2);

• accounting and calculation of taxes was carried out by a third-party specialized organization (clause 26 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of October 24, 2006 No. 18);

• the reason for the violation was a written order from the manager, with which the chief accountant did not agree (clause 25 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of October 24, 2006 No. 18).

If the head of the organization has not organized accounting, then the court may recognize such actions as abuse of authority. And if at the same time they prove that he pursued selfish goals, then the court may sentence him to liability under Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

General accounting rules, international accounting standards and accounting rules

The rules that form the system of accounting for business processes and reporting are called “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.” These principles determine in what order and at what time income and expenses, assets and liabilities should be taken into account, and also determine the appropriate measures and evaluation procedure. The form and content of notes (explanations) to the main financial statements are also established by the principles defined by accounting. These principles include both formal provisions and standards established by bodies that are authorized to impose financial reporting requirements, as well as certain accounting rules that have become generally accepted over time.

In the modern world, in order to bring closer and improve relationships in financial reporting, there is a system of international standards.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a system of accounting standards that operates internationally.

How to avoid fines

It is possible to avoid punishment when it comes to distorting accounting data, due to which the organization did not pay additional tax to the budget. Firstly, there will be no fine if you submit an updated tax return (calculation) to the inspectorate, and before that pay off the arrears and pay penalties. Secondly, you can correct errors and submit revised financial statements to the inspectorate. This is stated in paragraph 2 of the note to Article 15.11 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses.

Advice : if inspectors issued a fine for an accounting error that did not affect the amount of tax in any way, then such a penalty can be challenged.

The most common errors in accounting, which are often considered gross, are presented in the table.

Basic accounting rules

Organizations must maintain accounting records in compliance with the requirements of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ and a number of regulatory documents. So, when doing accounting you need to be guided by:

• federal and industry standards. Before their approval, documents regulating the accounting procedure approved before January 1, 2013 should be applied (Part 1, Article 30 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ). In this case, these documents are applied to the extent that they do not contradict the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ (information of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated December 4, 2012 No. PZ-10/2012);

• accounting provisions (small businesses, guided by Part 4 of Article 6 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ, have the right not to follow PBU 18/02, PBU 2/2008, PBU 16/02 and PBU 8/2010, PBU 11/2008);

• recommendations in the field of accounting (for example, letters from the Ministry of Finance of Russia);

• standards of an economic entity (i.e., these are instructions and regulations that the organization itself approved in order to streamline accounting);

• other documents in the field of accounting regulation.

This follows from the provisions of Articles 4 and 21 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

The legislation establishes a number of requirements for accounting:

1. The organization is obliged to keep accounting records in rubles.

2. Accounting statements must be maintained continuously from the date of state registration until the date of termination of activities (as a result of liquidation or reorganization).

3. All accounting objects must be reflected in the accounting registers without omissions or exceptions (that is, each object must be documented and reflected in accounting).

4. Reflection of imaginary and feigned accounting objects in accounting registers is not allowed.

5. Accounting must be done using the double entry method (unless otherwise established by federal standards). In this case, it is not allowed to maintain accounting accounts outside the applicable accounting registers.

Such rules are established by part 3 of article 6, parts 2 and 3 of article 10, part 2 of article 12 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

Micro-enterprises and non-profit organizations have the right to keep accounting using a simple system (without using double entry), having provided for this in their accounting policies (clause 6.1 PBU 1/2008, part 4 of article 6 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ) .

Regulatory documents that regulate accounting

Accounting is a field in which work is regulated by law. Therefore, when answering the question of what regulatory documents regulate accounting, one must remember that the system of regulatory regulation of accounting is a complex, multi-component system with several levels of hierarchy. The state pays considerable attention to its development. This is due to the need to generate objective information about the state of the business and prepare accounting (financial) statements. Constantly changing business demands at the local and international levels require modern adaptation of accounting provisions. The active participation of Russian organizations in foreign economic activity, the interpenetration of Russian and foreign investments dictates to business the use of general approaches to the preparation of financial statements, namely IFRS standards (International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS). In 1998, Russia adopted a program for reforming accounting in accordance with IFRS.

Why is a system of normative accounting documentation necessary?

The main goal of the system of regulatory regulation of accounting, regardless of what regulatory documents regulate the process at a particular moment, is the establishment of uniform requirements for accounting and reporting, as well as the creation of a legal mechanism for all economic entities. The information that makes up the accounting (financial) statements must be useful, open and accessible to all users of these statements: business owners, investors, creditors, regulatory authorities, management of an economic entity.

An important factor in achieving a common understanding in assessing reporting indicators for Russian and foreign partners and participants in foreign economic activity is the convergence of RAS standards with IFRS rules. On November 25, 2011, the Ministry of Finance approved Order No. 160n on the introduction of IFRS in the Russian Federation.

By order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated April 28, 2017. No. 69n establishes the priority of IFRS in the order of choice of accounting methods in cases where federal and industry standards do not contain the necessary rules.

An essential factor for the principle of rational accounting is the convergence of accounting and tax rules, which greatly facilitates interaction with tax authorities during audits.

In Russian practice, the Government of the Russian Federation is constantly improving the accounting system so that it can solve the following problems:

• optimizing the quality and reliability of reporting information;
• increasing the flexibility of the accounting regulatory system - direct interaction between authorities and the accounting community on the basis of a reasonable combination and addition;
• increasing the effectiveness of control in relation to the qualifications of specialists who are involved in maintaining accounting records and auditing reporting;
• compliance with the needs of reporting users, the level of development of accounting science and practice;
• effective international interaction between business representatives in a market economy
• application of accounting and reporting principles recognized in international practice.

To achieve these and other goals, regulatory documents must be collected into a clear, logically structured system. In Russia it has four main levels of hierarchy.

Structure of regulatory documentation

The accounting system in Russia is determined by the Federal Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011. No. 402-FZ.

The legislation of the Russian Federation in this area consists of Law N 402-FZ, other federal laws, and regulatory legal acts.

The set of federal laws and regulations adopted in accordance with them are not given in Law N 402-FZ, that is, the legislative system includes all federal laws. In practice, accounting specialists in their work primarily turn to this law, and then, if necessary, they use the norms of other federal laws that reveal the rules for implementing this or that fact of economic life. These include: Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Customs Code of the Russian Federation, Labor Code of the Russian Federation, Air Code of the Russian Federation, Charter of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation, Charter of Road Transport and other laws.

The rules of Law 402-FZ are mandatory for all economic entities in the Russian Federation: organizations of all types (including government agencies and non-profit organizations), individual entrepreneurs, foreign branches and representative offices.

The Basic Accounting Law (N 402-FZ) identifies four levels of documents in the field of accounting regulation:

• federal accounting standards;
• industry accounting standards;
• recommendations in the field of accounting;
• accounting standards for an economic entity.

Let us explain that the Accounting Standard is a document that establishes the minimum necessary accounting requirements, as well as acceptable methods of accounting.

The hierarchy of levels of accounting regulation in the Russian Federation includes:

• federal level (legislation and standards);
• industry regulatory level (industry standards);
• methodological level (recommendations, letters, clarifications, various information);
• level of the economic entity (internal regulations).

The main bodies of state regulation of accounting in Russia are the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. They approve federal and industry standards within their competence.

The powers of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation include the approval of standards for credit and non-credit financial organizations. Non-credit financial organizations include, in particular: professional participants in the securities market, various investment funds, various financial cooperatives, microfinance organizations, pawnshops.

Federal standards are mandatory for use by all economic entities in the Russian Federation and are issued in the form of Orders of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and Regulations (Instructions) of the Central Bank.

Industry standards can also be approved by individual Ministries within their industry affiliation. Industry standards establish the specifics of the application of federal standards in certain types of economic activity. These include various methodological recommendations on accounting from the Ministry of Agriculture, Roskomtorg, Ministry of Transport, and the State Construction Committee of the Russian Federation.

Industry standards are mandatory for use by all economic entities in the industry, unless otherwise expressly stated in the standard itself and are issued in the form of Orders of the relevant Ministries.

The methodological level of accounting regulation is implemented by issuing recommendations for the correct application of federal and industry standards, reducing the costs of organizing accounting, as well as disseminating best practices in organizing and maintaining accounting. Recommendations are mainly developed by subjects of non-state accounting regulation and are applied on a voluntary basis.

Subjects of non-state regulation in particular include: self-regulatory organizations of auditors, professional accountants, microfinance organizations and others.

The fourth level of accounting regulation is carried out directly in the economic entity through the independent development and approval of accounting policies, regulations and rules, which are fixed by orders or instructions of the head of the economic entity. These standards are applied by all divisions of an economic entity, including its branches and representative offices, regardless of their location, as well as by subsidiaries in cases provided for by the accounting policies of the main company.

Standards at all levels should not contradict each other, but only supplement and specify general rules for their adaptation in specific economic work.

The rules for maintaining accounting records and preparing accounting (financial) statements are defined in Law No. 402-FZ. The Accounting Law includes four sections, in which:

• definitions, objects and tasks of accounting are formulated;
• the key legislative acts that regulate accounting are indicated;
• lists the requirements for maintaining accounting records and documenting the facts of economic life, assessing assets/liabilities, conducting inventories, and organizing internal control;
• the composition, rules for registration and submission of reports are determined;
• documents regulating accounting, the procedure for their compliance and application are indicated;
• subjects of accounting regulation were identified, answers were given to the following questions:

— who performs the functions of state regulation, approving federal and industry standards,

— who participates in non-state regulation, developing these standards, as well as various recommendations, instructions, etc.

• rules for storing/archiving accounting documents have been determined.

The law at the state level determines the obligation for each economic entity to maintain accounting, generate reporting documentation and ensure the continuity, completeness and reliability of the information presented in the reporting.

Direct regulatory regulation of accounting. Legal status of documents.

Let us highlight three “practical” levels that determine the legal significance for participants in economic activities of documents regulating accounting in the Russian Federation. They combine all documents that formulate guidelines, rules, and procedures for organizing accounting, issued by both government authorities and responsible persons of economic entities.

The first level represents mandatory documents issued by executive authorities and having the status of normative documents in the context of law enforcement practice. The procedure for issuing these documents is determined by the rules established at the state level (registration, publication).

These include:

• law on accounting (industry and other federal laws);
• orders of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Regulations and Directives of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (federal standards are PBU);
• orders of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and other Ministries, Regulations and Directives of the Central Bank (industry standards).

To date, 24 Accounting Regulations (PBU) and Regulations on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation have been approved and are in force.

By introducing amendments to Law 402-FZ (Law 160-FZ of July 18, 2017), all PBUs issued after October 1, 1998 inclusive, were given the status of federal standards, except for the Regulations on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation (Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 34n). Representatives of the Ministry of Finance believe that many of the rules of this Regulation are outdated and changed, so this document cannot claim federal status. But the rules of the Regulation continue to apply and are mandatory for use by all economic entities in the Russian Federation.

The regulations define the rules for performing basic accounting processes. They cover:

• accounting policies and reporting;
• accounting in certain areas - from assets/liabilities and inventories to construction contracts or information about related parties;
• recognition of enterprise income and expenses, events after the reporting date, contingent facts of activity and estimated liabilities;
• accounting for the costs of their maintenance.

At the second level of regulatory documents, we highlight methodological recommendations, instructions, letters from the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service, other Ministries, explaining the general rules for the application of regulatory documents and individual accounting situations.

Documents at this level are not considered normative in the field of accounting; they are advisory in nature and not mandatory for use.

The chart of accounts and instructions for its use can be identified as the most significant document of this level.

Chart of accounts for accounting financial and economic activities of organizations, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 94n dated October 31, 2000. and the Instructions to it are applied in organizations of the Russian Federation of all forms of ownership and organizational and legal forms, but this is not a normative document.

Letters from the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation are also not of a regulatory nature, but they are significant for law enforcement practice, as they help participants in disputes to objectively consider specific transactions and their tax consequences. When protecting his interests, the taxpayer has the right to take into account the position set out in letters from the Ministry of Finance of Russia, but must be guided by the legislation on taxes and fees.

The heads of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation indicate that the taxpayer's execution of written explanations on the payment of taxes and fees can relieve him from liability only if these explanations were given to him personally or were sent to an indefinite number of persons, as indicated in the letter.

In tax disputes, the priority of resolutions, decisions, information letters of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation was officially recognized by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in 2013.

The third level is documents that are mandatory not for all organizations, but for a specific organization. In addition to accounting policies, these include provisions approved by the head of the business entity. These are local regulations. Internal regulations cover issues of accounting and tax accounting, document flow, internal control, provisions on remuneration and bonuses, internal regulations, travel expenses, operation of road transport and other aspects of the organization's activities.

Despite the fact that the internal standards of an economic entity are legal only for a specific company, they must be drawn up according to general rules. The content of these documents is essential for the economic justification of the organization’s expenses for profit tax purposes.

Let us present in the form of a table the differences in the status of documents regulating accounting.

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PBU 18/02 from the middle of the year

Situation: how to start using PBU 18/02 if an organization has lost the right not to apply it in the middle of the year (for example, it has lost its status as a small enterprise)?

PBU 18/02 must be applied from the beginning of the calendar year.

This is explained as follows. The income tax that must be paid to the budget is defined as a tax calculated from the organization’s accounting profit, adjusted to the amounts of permanent tax liability, permanent tax asset, deferred tax asset and deferred tax liability (clauses 20, 21 of PBU 18/02).

Income tax is calculated based on the results of the tax period - the year (clause 1 of Article 285, clause 2 of Article 286 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Therefore, in order to do this correctly based on accounting data and their relationship with tax indicators, PBU 18/02 must be applied from the beginning of the calendar year.

In this case, it will be necessary to identify all the differences between accounting and tax accounting that arose from January 1 to the beginning of the quarter in which the organization lost its status as a small business entity. As of this date, permanent and deferred tax liabilities (assets) must be reflected. That is, an organization that has lost the right not to apply PBU 18/02 in the middle of the year must make additions to its accounting, reflecting all the necessary adjustments for the period when this provision was not applied. Do this in the period in which the obligation to apply PBU 18/02 arose.

An example of how to reflect the differences between accounting and tax accounting. The organization has lost its status as a small business entity

Alpha LLC lost its status as a small business entity in September 2021. The accountant reflected the differences according to PBU 18/02 from January 1, 2021. In the organization’s accounting from January 1, 2021, the accountant identified only one difference between accounting and tax accounting: in the residual value of the fixed asset. In tax accounting it amounted to 50,000 rubles, and in accounting – 60,000 rubles. The depreciation rate per month in tax accounting is 1,389 rubles, and in accounting – 1,667 rubles. There are 24 months left until the end of the useful life (both in accounting and tax accounting).

The accountant of Alpha LLC made the following entries in 2021:

Debit 68 subaccount “Calculations for income tax” Credit 77 – 2000 rubles. ((RUB 60,000 – RUB 50,000) × 20%) – deferred tax liability is reflected;

Debit 44 subaccount Credit 02 – 1667 rub. – depreciation has been calculated;

Debit 77 Credit 68 subaccount “Calculations for income tax” – 56 rubles. ((RUB 1,667 – RUB 1,389) × 20%) – reflects the decrease in deferred tax liability.

Over the course of 24 months, the accountant will charge depreciation and write off the deferred tax liability.

Make additional entries based on supporting documents (Part 1, Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ of December 6, 2011). For example, these could be:

• primary documents indicating the emergence of differences between accounting and tax accounting;

• accounting certificate justifying the entries made.

If necessary, make a change to the organization's accounting policy for the current year: specify the obligation to use PBU 18/02 and the procedure for its application (clause 10 of PBU 1/2008).

Working chart of accounts

The obligation to approve the working chart of accounts is established in paragraph 4 of PBU 1/2008. When developing a chart of accounts, it is necessary to rely on accounting policies for accounting purposes. At the same time, the working chart of accounts must take into account the specifics of the organization’s activities. This can be achieved if synthetic and analytical accounting is optimally constructed.

The work plan should include only those synthetic accounts that the organization will use in practice. Please note that new synthetic accounts (not provided for in the chart of accounts) can be added to the work plan only with the approval of the Russian Ministry of Finance. This is stated in paragraphs 4 and 6 of the Instructions for the chart of accounts.

An organization can determine the structure of analytical accounting (types of subaccounts, depth of analytics, etc.) independently. In this case, analytical accounting data must correspond to the turnover and balances of synthetic accounting accounts.

In the Instructions for the chart of accounts, after the characteristics of each synthetic account, a typical scheme of its correspondence with other synthetic accounts is given. If facts of economic activity arise, correspondence for which is not provided for in the standard scheme, the organization can supplement it, observing the uniform approaches established by the Instructions (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated March 24, 2009 No. 07-02-06/90).

Disagreements between the chief accountant and the director

Situation: what should the chief accountant do if disagreements arise between him and the head of the organization regarding the reflection of a particular transaction in accounting?

The chief accountant needs to request a written order from the manager to formalize the controversial transaction.

It is with the written order of the head of the organization that one can reflect or not reflect accounting objects and take into account (or not) the data of primary documents in a situation where there is a disagreement on this issue between the director and the one who is responsible for accounting. In this case, the manager is solely responsible for the accuracy of the reflection of the financial position, financial result, cash flow and other information.

This conclusion follows from Part 8 of Article 7 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ.

Without a written order from the manager, dubious documents should not be accepted for execution.

Situation: how to transfer affairs when changing the chief accountant?

If the chief accountant resigns, he is obliged to transfer to his successor all documents and material assets for which the accounting department is responsible. In practice, they usually draw up an act of acceptance and transfer of documents or a special inventory. At the same time, keep in mind that accounting documents, in particular primary reports, registers, accounting policies, audit reports, etc., must be stored for at least five years (Article 29 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ). That is, all such documents for such a period must be included in the inventory or in the act.

If there is disagreement

In practice, disagreements may arise regarding accounting between the manager and the chief accountant/official/outside specialist. Then the following rules apply:

• primary data is accepted or not accepted for registration and accumulation in accounting registers by written order of the manager, who is solely responsible for the information created as a result;
• the accounting object is reflected or not reflected in the accounting (financial) statements on the basis of a written order of the manager, who is solely responsible for the reliability of the presentation of the financial position of the enterprise as of the reporting date, the financial result of its activities and cash flows for the reporting period.

Also see: Accountant Professional Standards in 2021.

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Internal control

The organization is obliged to organize and carry out internal control of the facts of economic life (Part 1, Article 19 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ). How exactly it is necessary to organize such control is not explained in the legislation. In practice, for this purpose, an internal control service of the organization is usually created or a responsible employee is appointed. Specify the functions and tasks in the job descriptions of employees who are responsible for internal control and in the Regulations on Internal Control.