Filling out unified documents. Mandatory unified forms of primary accounting documentation

Registration of a wide variety of primary accounting documents is an integral part of the daily business practice of any enterprise. Primary accounting documents are used in personnel and financial activities. This article will discuss the preparation and storage of these documents.

From the article you will learn:

Mandatory forms of primary accounting documents

Primary documents contain accounting information on the basis of which confirmation of the implementation of management actions or business transactions is carried out. In the economic and organizational activities of a company, such papers are used very widely.

In the most general form, the document flow of any organization can be classified into three large groups:

• Management documents. Through business papers of this group, administrative management decisions are received and transmitted. These also include papers that contain information used to compile various reports. In turn, management decisions are made on the basis of these reports;
• Personnel documents. These papers contain information about the personnel of the enterprise, data on personnel records, as well as about the organization of work with personnel. This also includes information on personnel rotation, data on changes in positions, and dismissal of employees. Information about rewards and punishments is also included in this group. Finally, vacation schedules, staffing schedules and all primary personnel records are another type of personnel documents.
• Accounting and financial documents. These papers contain information about the economic and production activities of the enterprise. This group includes planning, accounting, analytical and financial reporting, various contracts, regulations and all primary accounting documents.

Standard forms of primary accounting documents

In 2017, different forms of primary documents exist both in personnel and accounting records. This also includes supporting and supporting documents containing initial information about various types of organizational and economic activities of the organization. In view of the fact that primary documents that were drawn up in accordance with established rules have legal significance, these papers become confirmation of the fact of an organizational action or the fact of performing some business transaction and they are filled out immediately after this fact has occurred.

List of forms of primary accounting documents

Personnel and accounting records are maintained on the basis of standard forms of primary documents. Thus, these business papers are divided respectively into primary personnel and accounting documents.

For example, primary personnel records include an employee’s personal card, an order for the provision of leave or an order for the transfer of an employee, a staffing table, a vacation schedule, an order for dismissal, an order for sending on a business trip, a travel certificate, if it continues to be used by the organization in 2017, orders for rewarding and punishing employees.

The types of accounting primary documents are much more diverse. For example, these include records of working hours, settlements with employees regarding wages, evidence of cash and trade transactions, cash receipts received as a result of settlements with individuals during transactions, settlement and payment documents, records of fixed assets and intangibles. assets and much more.

It should be borne in mind that primary documents, according to their origin, can be divided into external and internal. External, i.e. incoming from external sources, represent various payment orders, payment requests, demands-orders and invoices. Internal, that is, created within the company, are of four types: administrative, accounting, executive and combined.

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In 2017, the main document on the basis of which the creation of archives of organizations and the storage of primary documents of all types discussed above is carried out remains the Federal Law of October 22, 2004 No. 125 Federal Law. As follows from this legislative act, the storage periods for business documents are determined not only by federal, but by other regulations.

Application of forms of primary accounting documents

With the introduction of the new Federal Law “On Accounting” several years ago, the forms of primary accounting documents contained in albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation became optional. In this regard, employees of the personnel service, accounting department and preschool educational institutions faced a logical question - do they need to develop their own forms or continue to use the old ones that were approved by the State Statistics Committee?

Using old forms

In order to develop their own versions of primary accounting documentation forms, employees of these departments need special knowledge and experience. When deciding to develop your own forms, you need to clearly assess the feasibility of this step.

The existing unified forms continue to remain relevant and fulfill their accounting function. Moreover, if they are adequate to the business processes in the organization, then there is no point in switching to new forms.

It should also be borne in mind that employees of regulatory authorities are more lenient towards old forms and are prejudiced towards new ones. A labor dispute, if one arises, will be easier to win if you use the old forms of primary documentation.

Another argument in favor of the previous forms is that if you keep records of documentation using software, then continuing to use unified forms will not require changes to existing systems.

For some companies, primarily joint ventures or branches of foreign companies in Russia, the transition to new forms may be very relevant. The fact is that they have to simultaneously keep records according to the laws of their country and according to Russian legislation. Developing their own forms that take into account all the details required by the laws of both countries will help them avoid double preparation of documents.

Please keep in mind that even if you decide to keep office work using old forms, you will have to make some adjustments to them. For example, remove OKUD and OKPO codes, remove the link to the State Statistics Committee Resolution, allocate space for deciphering the signature of the person signing the document (last name and initials), etc.

Application of new forms

The first step in developing new forms should be to determine who will perform this task. By law, the responsibility for developing such forms lies with the person involved in accounting. The problem is that primary documents include not only accounting papers, but also personnel documents. An accounting employee may not know all the intricacies of personnel records management. Therefore, it is necessary to involve an employee of the HR department in the development of new forms.

Our recommendation for creating unified forms for an enterprise is that the template part of the form must be formulated very briefly, avoiding the possibility of double interpretation of the text. It is advisable to use templates, stencils, standard phrases and expressions: “Control over the execution of (name of document) is entrusted to (position and surname), “In connection with...”, “Taking into account...”, “Based on...”.

Do not rush to abandon those forms that are often used - time sheets, vacation schedules, staffing tables - you can create new forms based on them. If older forms seem too data-heavy, you can simplify them and remove some lines, columns, or redundant information.

Let's give an example. There is a standard form No. T-3 " Staffing table" It contains columns 6, 7 and 8, intended for recording the allowances that are established for the employee. If these columns are no longer needed, they can be deleted.

1. Why are primary accounting documents needed and what will happen if they are missing.

2. What to consider when developing your own forms of primary documents.

3. In what cases is the use of unified forms mandatory?

As is known, the current law on accounting (No. 402-FZ) does not contain requirements for the mandatory use of unified forms of primary accounting documents. That is, organizations and entrepreneurs are given the right to independently develop forms of primary documents, taking into account their needs and characteristics of their activities. However, such a right hides many pitfalls. For example, all primary documents, including those independently developed, must meet certain requirements, and some documents must be drawn up only according to unified forms due to other federal laws. It is necessary to know about such nuances of drawing up primary documents both when drawing up your own documents and when accepting documents from counterparties, because primary accounting documents are the foundation on which not only accounting, but also tax accounting is built. How to make this foundation reliable - we will figure it out in this article.

Why are primary accounting documents needed?

To begin with, let's remember why primary accounting documents are needed in principle, and why it is so important to pay attention to the correctness of their execution. As stated in Law No. 402-FZ, Every fact of economic life must be documented in a primary accounting document(Part 1, Article 9). In this case, a fact of economic life is understood as any event, operation, transaction that has or may have an impact on the financial condition of an economic entity, the financial result of its activities and (or) cash flow. Facts of economic life include, for example, the acquisition of a fixed asset and the calculation of depreciation on it, the calculation of wages and salaries to employees, etc. Thus, virtually all accounting records must be based on the relevant primary accounting documents.

In tax accounting, primary documents also play an important role: according to the provisions of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, justified and documented expenses of the taxpayer are recognized as expenses. That is the presence of primary accounting documents is one of the grounds for recognizing expenses and, accordingly, to calculate the tax base for income tax (or according to the simplified tax system “income-expenses”).

The absence of primary documents is considered by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as a gross violation of the rules for accounting for income and expenses, objects of taxation, for which a fine is provided (Article 120 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation):

• from 10 to 30 thousand rubles. – if the lack of primary documents did not lead to an understatement of the tax base;
• from 40 thousand rubles. up to 20% of the amount of unpaid tax – if the lack of documents led to an underestimation of the tax base.

In addition, the absence of primary documents may serve as a basis for bringing officials to administrative liability for gross violation of accounting rules and the presentation of financial statements in the form of a fine of 2 to 3 thousand rubles. (Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation). A gross violation of the rules of accounting and presentation of financial statements is considered:

• understatement of accrued taxes and fees by at least 10% due to distortion of accounting data;
• distortion of any article (line) of the financial reporting form by at least 10%.

From all of the above, two main conclusions follow:

1. primary accounting documents must be available;

2. primary accounting documents must be properly prepared.

If everything is clear with the first requirement, then the second, concerning the correct execution of primary accounting documents, should be discussed in more detail. The fact is that, in accordance with the current Law “On Accounting” No. 402-FZ, the forms of primary documents used are determined by the head of the economic entity himself on the recommendation of the official who is entrusted with accounting (clause 4 of Article 9 of Law No. 402 -FZ). The following options for establishing the forms of primary documents are possible:

• use of unified forms of primary documents;
• use of independently developed forms of primary documents (completely independently developed, or created by making changes to unified forms);
• It is also possible to combine these two options for different documents. For example, the use of independently developed forms of an accounting certificate and an act for writing off materials and unified forms of all other documents.

! Whatever option for using the forms of primary documents is chosen, it must be reflected either in the accounting policy itself for accounting and tax accounting purposes, or in a separate order. At the same time, independently developed forms of primary accounting documents are usually given in the appendix, but if unified forms are used, a link is made to the corresponding document (Resolution of the State Statistics Committee). If the used forms of primary accounting documents are not approved by the head, then in the event of an inspection, inspectors may consider that the documents were drawn up in an unspecified form, that is, in violation of the law, and, accordingly, are not the basis for accepting expenses.

Self-developed forms of primary accounting documents

When developing your own forms of primary accounting documents, two options are possible:

• completely independently developed form;
• a form developed based on an existing unified form (for example, by removing or adding details).

In any case, the resulting form of the primary accounting document must contain the following: required details, established by Part 2 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ:

• name and date of preparation of the document;
• name of the economic entity that compiled the document;
• content of the fact of economic life;
• the value of the natural and (or) monetary measurement of a fact of economic life, indicating the units of measurement;
• signatures, surnames (with initials), as well as positions of the persons who made the transaction, operation and those responsible for its execution, or the persons responsible for the execution of the accomplished event. The list of persons authorized to sign primary accounting documents, as well as the forms of documents, must be approved by the manager.

! Note: Law No. 402-FZ does not include affixing a seal on the primary document as a mandatory requirement. Therefore, including this detail in the document form or not is the choice of the organization itself. For organizations that have refused to use a round seal (this right is granted by Federal Law No. 82-FZ dated April 6, 2015), it is advisable to exclude this detail from all used forms of primary accounting documents.

For some documents the following the list of required details can be expanded in accordance with other regulations. For example, a waybill must necessarily contain the following details (clause 3 of Order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia dated September 18, 2008 No. 152):

• name and number of the waybill;
• information about the validity period of the waybill;
• information about the owner (owner) of the vehicle;
• information about the vehicle;
• driver information.

Thus, developing your own forms of primary accounting documents requires in-depth knowledge and analysis of current legislation. Therefore, in some cases it is preferable to use ready-made forms. For example, the form of a universal transfer document recommended by the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation (Letter No. ММВ-20-3/96@ dated 10/21/2013). This document combines the details of the primary accounting document for the transfer of material assets, as well as the details of the invoice, and therefore can be used both for accounting purposes and for tax accounting purposes (for the purpose of calculating VAT). In addition to the universal transfer document, the Federal Tax Service of Russia has also developed a recommended form of a universal adjustment document, which is drawn up in the event of a change in the cost of delivery after shipment (Letter No. ММВ-20-15/86@ dated 10/17/2014). The fact that the organization has decided to use the UPD and UCD forms must be enshrined in the accounting policy or in a separate order of the manager.

Unified forms

Law No. 402-FZ does not contain a mandatory requirement to use unified forms of primary accounting documents, but at the same time does not contain a ban on their use. Therefore, an economic entity has the right to use unified forms of those documents for which they are established. The use of unified forms has a number of advantages:

• unified forms are familiar to most counterparties, so their use will avoid questions and misunderstandings when processing transactions;
• Accounting software typically focuses on the use of standardized forms. The implementation of independently developed forms will require additional costs for setting up programs.

In addition, replacing all unified forms with independently developed ones is risky, since forms of primary accounting documents established by authorized bodies in accordance with federal laws and on their basis are still mandatory for use (Information of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. PZ-10/2012 to the Federal Law No. 402-FZ). Such documents include, for example, registration documents. Directive of the Bank of Russia dated March 11, 2014 No. 3210-U “On the procedure for conducting cash transactions by legal entities and the simplified procedure for conducting cash transactions by individual entrepreneurs and small businesses” provides for the use of the following unified forms:

• incoming and outgoing cash orders (forms No. KO-1 and KO-2);
• cash book (form No. KO-4);
• book of accounting of funds accepted and issued by the cashier (form No. KO-5);
• settlement and payment statements (forms No. T-49 and T-53).

Thus, cash transactions must be formalized with documents drawn up according to unified forms approved by Resolutions of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated August 18, 1998 No. 88, dated January 5, 2004 No. 1.

Particular care must be taken when developing personnel documents, as well as documents on labor accounting and payment, and, if possible, use unified forms of such documents. This is due to the fact that personnel documents and labor accounting documents must meet the requirements of labor legislation, which do not always coincide with the requirements of Law No. 402-FZ: starting from the composition of the details (for example, a time sheet, an employee’s personal card, etc. .) and ending with the form of the document (the Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not provide for the preparation of personnel documents in electronic form).

So, in this article we recalled the importance of primary accounting documents for accounting and tax accounting, and also made sure that in the case of primary documents, “form matters.” To summarize, let us once again briefly formulate main conclusions:

• Each fact of economic life must be documented in a primary accounting document.

• The form of the primary accounting document must contain the mandatory details established by Law No. 402-FZ, and in some cases - details established by other regulations.

• The forms of primary accounting documents used must be approved by the manager in the accounting policy or in a separate order - this applies to both independently developed forms and unified ones.

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Normative base

1. Tax Code of the Russian Federation
2. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
3. Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”
4. Federal Law No. 82-FZ dated 04/06/2015 “On amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation regarding the abolition of the mandatory seal of business companies”
5. Directive of the Bank of Russia dated March 11, 2014 No. 3210-U “On the procedure for conducting cash transactions by legal entities and the simplified procedure for conducting cash transactions by individual entrepreneurs and small businesses”
6. Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated September 18, 2008 No. 152 “On approval of mandatory details and the procedure for filling out waybills”
7. Information of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. PZ-10/2012 “On the entry into force on January 1, 2013 of the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”
8. Letters from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation

• dated October 21, 2013 No. ММВ-20-3/96@
• dated 10/17/2014 No. ММВ-20-15/86@

Find out how to read the official texts of these documents in the section

♦ Category: , .

We have developed an accounting policy. Do we understand correctly that all primary forms we use need to be approved in its composition: both those developed independently and those used according to unified forms?

Forms of primary accounting documents developed independently must be provided as applications to accounting policies clause 4 PBU 1/2008. Should go there:

• document forms developed by you that are not contained in albums of unified forms;
• unified forms that your organization has supplemented with its details.

If you use document forms approved by Rosstat (Goskomstat) without making any changes to them, then there is no need to make them annex to the accounting policy. In this case, it is enough to indicate that you prepare the primary accounting documents according to unified forms. This can be done by adding, for example, the following phrase:

“To document the facts of economic life, the organization uses unified forms of primary accounting documentation approved by:

• Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated January 21, 2003 No. 7 “On approval of unified forms of primary accounting documentation for accounting of fixed assets”;
• Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated October 30, 1997 No. 71a “On approval of unified forms of primary accounting documentation for accounting for labor and its payment, fixed assets and intangible assets, materials, low-value and wearable items, work in capital construction”;
• Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of Russia dated December 25, 1998 No. 132 “On approval of unified forms of primary accounting documentation for recording trade operations,” etc..”

For the first time, the accounting policy and appendices to it are approved by order of the head within 90 days from the date of entering information about the creation of the organization in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Then there is no need to approve a new accounting policy every year or issue an order to extend the validity of the old one. If necessary, the accounting policy can be changed or supplemented Art. 313 Tax Code of the Russian Federation; pp. 4, 8, 9, 10 PBU 1/2008.

Accounting policies and accounting policies for tax purposes can be drawn up: in the form of two separate documents or in the form of one document with two sections (one on accounting issues and the other on tax issues).

Option for an order for approval of accounting policies:

Limited Liability Company "White Swan"

ORDER No. 10
about accounting policies

Podolsk

In accordance with Federal Law dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”

I order:

1. Approve the Regulations on the accounting policy of the organization for accounting purposes for 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) (appendix to this Order), including the album of forms of primary accounting documents, which is an appendix to the Regulations.

3. Entrust control over the implementation of this order to the chief accountant Olga Konstantinovna Petrova.

I have read the order:

June 27, 2016 On January 1, 2013, Federal Law No. 402-FZ dated December 6, 2011 “On Accounting” (hereinafter referred to as Law No. 402-FZ) came into force. It does not contain requirements for the need to compile primary accounting documents according to unified forms. Does this mean that absolutely all previously used unified forms are not required to be used?

The issue of registration of primary accounting documents is extremely important for business entities. After all, documents drawn up in accordance with the law, in particular, confirm for the purposes of calculating income tax the expenses incurred by the taxpayer, and also prove the validity of applying VAT deductions. Therefore, the use of documents whose forms do not comply with established requirements may lead to unfavorable consequences for business entities.

1. Drawing up primary accounting documents

In accordance with Part 1 of Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ, each fact of economic life is recorded as a primary accounting document. Let us note that until January 1, 2013, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 9 of the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 N 129-FZ “On Accounting” (hereinafter referred to as Law N 129-FZ), the specified document was drawn up for each business transaction. However, the concepts of “business transaction” and “fact of economic life” are not identical.

A fact of economic life is a transaction, event, operation that has or is capable of influencing the financial position of an economic entity, the financial result of its activities and (or) cash flow (clause 8 of Article 3 of Law No. 402-FZ). Law No. 129-FZ did not define the concept of “business operations”, but from paragraph 2 of Art. 1 of this Law it followed that all operations carried out by organizations in the course of their activities were recognized as such.

Thus, the concept of “fact of economic life” contained in Law No. 402-FZ is broader than the concept of “business transaction”, which was used in Law No. 129-FZ. And here the main question that worries specialists arises: what facts of economic life can be documented in primary accounting documents, which are compiled according to forms independently developed by the organization, and when does the use of unified forms remain mandatory? After all, the resolutions of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, which approved unified forms of primary accounting documentation, have not been canceled.

2. Own forms of primary accounting documents

According to Part 4 of Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ, the forms of primary accounting documents used by an organization (except for public sector organizations) must be approved by the head of the organization. At the same time, this Law does not contain a requirement for the mandatory use of unified forms. Let us recall that before January 1, 2013, it was possible to use independently developed forms of primary documents only if the required form was not available in the albums of unified forms of primary accounting documentation (clause 2 of Article 9 of Law No. 129-FZ). However, we note that even when drawing up primary documents not according to unified forms, taxpayers managed to defend in court the legality of recognizing expenses (for more details, see the Encyclopedia of Disputed Situations on Income Tax).

When developing your own forms of primary accounting documents, you can take the unified forms as a basis, adding or removing some of the details. In addition, it is advisable to use GOST R 6.30-2003 "Organizational and administrative documentation. Requirements for document preparation."

When developing, it should be taken into account that the primary accounting document must necessarily contain the details listed in Part 2 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ:

Name and date of preparation of the document;

Name of the economic entity that compiled the document;

The value of the natural and (or) monetary measurement of a fact of economic life, indicating the units of measurement;

Signatures, surnames (with initials), as well as positions of the persons who made the transaction, operation and are responsible for the correctness of its execution, or of the persons responsible for the accuracy of the execution of the event.

It must be borne in mind that the list of details for individual primary accounting documents can be expanded by other regulations. For example, the requirements for the details of the waybill are contained in Order of the Ministry of Transport of Russia dated September 18, 2008 N 152, adopted in pursuance of Part 1 of Art. 6 of the Federal Law of November 8, 2007 N 259-FZ “Charter of Road Transport and Urban Ground Electric Transport”.

As already mentioned, the head of the organization needs to approve the used forms of primary accounting documents (Part 4, Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ).

It should also be noted that the primary accounting document can be compiled in electronic form (Part 5, Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ). And as you know, to exchange electronic documents it is necessary that the participants in the electronic document flow have compatible document formats. Accordingly, when developing your own forms of documents and their formats, difficulties will arise in implementing electronic document management. Let us note that on the basis of unified forms, recommended formats for widely used documents have already been developed and approved by Order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated March 21, 2012 N ММВ-7-6/172@: invoice of goods (TORG-12) and acceptance certificate for works (services). These documents can be submitted electronically to the tax authority (to confirm expenses for the purpose of calculating income tax and for other purposes at the request of the inspectorate) and counterparties.

3. Unified forms of primary accounting documents

Since January 1, 2013, there is no requirement to use unified forms when preparing primary accounting documents in Law N 402-FZ, but their use is common for many business entities. In addition, independent development of document forms other than the unified ones requires time, special knowledge and additional costs for setting up software for new forms, and the use of such forms can cause difficulties in working both within the organization and with counterparties.

Law No. 402-FZ does not contain a ban on the use of unified forms, so they can still be applied by approving such a decision in the accounting policy or by a separate order of the manager.

In addition, refusing to use all unified forms is quite risky.

In Information No. PZ-10/2012, the Ministry of Finance of Russia noted that forms of primary accounting documents established by authorized bodies in accordance with other federal laws and on their basis remain mandatory for use (for example, forms of cash documents).

Indeed, the Regulations on the procedure for conducting cash transactions with banknotes and coins of the Bank of Russia on the territory of the Russian Federation (approved by the Bank of Russia on October 12, 2011 N 373-P) provide for the use of the following unified forms:

Receipt and expense cash orders (forms N KO-1 and KO-2);

- (form N KO-4);

Book of accounting of funds accepted and issued by the cashier (Form N KO-5);

Settlement and payment statements (forms N T-49 and T-53).

These forms are approved by Resolutions of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated 08/18/1998 N 88, dated 01/05/2004 N 1.

Note that these are not all unified forms, which are still mandatory for use in 2013, despite the freedom provided to develop your own forms.

In addition, the failure to use standardized forms of documents when recording labor and its payment may lead to undesirable consequences for organizations. The next section of this special issue is devoted to the issue of using these forms.

There are other mandatory forms of primary documents. However, the requirement contained in Part 4 of Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ, general: the forms must be approved by the head of the economic entity. Therefore, in order to avoid disagreements with regulatory authorities, it is better to approve the use of unified forms by order of the manager or provide for it in the accounting policy.

4. Features of the use of unified forms of primaryaccounting documents for labor accounting and payment

The issue of using unified forms to document events that occur in the field of labor relations (hiring an employee, granting him leave, etc.) deserves special attention.

According to Rostrud, after the entry into force of Law N 402-FZ, that is, from January 1, 2013, non-governmental organizations have the right to use forms of primary accounting documents developed by them independently (Letter dated February 14, 2013 N PG/1487-6-1) .

As an example, Rostrud mentions the employee’s personal card (Form N T-2) and notes that the primary accounting document must contain all the mandatory details established by Part 2 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ. The form of the employee’s personal card (form N T-2), as well as other unified forms of primary accounting documents for recording labor and its payment, was approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated January 5, 2004 N 1 (hereinafter referred to as Resolution N 1).

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that the requirements for the use of this unified form for maintaining military registration are established by clause 27 of the Regulations on military registration (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 27, 2006 N 719 in accordance with clause 6 of Article 8 of the Federal Law of March 28, 1998 N 53-FZ “On Military Duty and Military Service”).

Considering the issue of preparing primary documents when sending an employee on a business trip, the Ministry of Labor of Russia in Letter No. 14-2-291 dated February 14, 2013 noted that the relevant documents (in particular, a travel certificate) must be drawn up according to the forms approved by Resolution No. 1.

The Ministry of Finance of Russia in Information No. PZ-10/2012 indicated that from January 1, 2013, forms of primary accounting documents established by authorized bodies in accordance with other federal laws and on the basis of such laws remain mandatory.

In addition, it should be noted that the requirements for primary accounting documents contained in Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ can only be partially applied to documents used to document events in the field of labor relations. So, in part 5 of Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ provides for the possibility of drawing up a primary accounting document in electronic form. At the same time, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law norms do not allow such a possibility. For example, in para. 3 clause 26 of the Regulations on the peculiarities of sending employees on business trips, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 13, 2008 N 749, it is directly established that the employee’s report on the work performed on a business trip is submitted to the employer in writing. Unified forms of an official assignment, a report on its completion and a travel certificate are also contained in Resolution No. 1.

Taking into account the above, we can come to the conclusion that the execution of documents using independently developed forms for recording labor and its payment may cause claims from inspection authorities, since the new form may not take into account (not fully take into account) the requirements of labor legislation for a specific document.

For example, it should contain columns in which it is necessary to enter information about the work performed, transfer to another permanent job and dismissal (clause 12 of the Rules for maintaining and storing work books, producing work book forms and providing them to employers, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 16, 2003 N 225). At the same time, this information is not included in the list given in Part 2 of Art. 9 of Law No. 402-FZ.

Thus, with regard to the preparation of documents on labor accounting and payment, at present it is more expedient for organizations to use the unified forms approved by Resolution No. 1. And, as already noted, the use of these unified forms in accordance with Part 4 of Art. 9 of Law N 402-FZ must be approved either by a separate order of the head of the organization or by an appendix to the accounting policy.

The enterprise carries out dozens of operations every day. Accountants send money to counterparties, funds and founders, calculate salaries, receive computers and furniture, charge penalties, calculate depreciation, etc. For each such operation, it is necessary to draw up a primary document (Clause 1, Article 9 of the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”, hereinafter Law No. 402-FZ).

The primary document is created at the time of the transaction or upon its completion as confirmation of the fact of the transaction (Clause 3 of Article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ). Based on the primary data, accountants make entries.

An invoice, an act for the provision of services for creating a website, an accounting certificate - all these are primary documents that accountants use in their daily work. There are many types of primary products, and their diversity depends on the characteristics of the company’s activities. For example, in a transport company one of the main types of primary documentation will be a bill of lading, and in a library - an act of writing off literature.

Primary documents are supposed to be stored at the enterprise for at least five years, and the period begins to count after the reporting year (Clause 1, Article 29 of Law No. 402-FZ). That is, a document dated 07/03/2016 must be stored at least until 2021 inclusive. Separate storage periods for primary materials are established by the List approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture dated August 25, 2010 No. 558. To preserve accounting documents, enterprises often create special archives.

The primary document can be paper or electronic. In practice, more and more companies are using electronic document management (EDM). In particular, companies exchange contracts, invoices for payment, acts, delivery notes and invoices.

EDI significantly simplifies the procedure for processing primary documents from the moment they are created to the moment they are recorded, and speeds up work between counterparties. A big plus is that electronic documents do not need to be printed if this does not contradict the law or the terms of the contract (Clause 6, Article 9 of Law No. 402).

The electronic document is certified with a qualified electronic signature. If the parties make an appropriate decision, the primary document can be signed with a simple or unqualified signature (letter of the Department of Tax and Customs Policy of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated September 12, 2016 No. 03-03-06/2/53176).

The absence of primary documents in a company may entail a serious fine of 10,000 to 30,000 rubles (Article 120 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Tax authorities will also issue a fine for errors in registration. In addition, persons responsible for processing documents may be fined under Article 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation in the amount of 2,000 to 3,000 rubles. There is another danger: if during the audit the tax authorities do not find the required document, they may remove part of the expenses from the taxable base, therefore, the company will have to pay additional income tax.

Mandatory details of the primary document

Only the primary document with all the required details has legal force (clause 4 of article 9 of Law No. 402-FZ):

1. title (for example, “Act of services rendered”, “Payment order”, “Accounting certificate”);
2. Date of preparation;
3. name of the document originator (for example, OJSC SKB Kontur, LLC Soyuz, IP Ivanova E.V.);
4. the content of the document or business transaction (for example, “Internet access services”, “Materials transferred for processing”, “Payment of the invoice for office supplies”, “Interest accrued under the loan agreement”);
5. natural and monetary indicators (pieces, meters, rubles, etc.);
6. responsible positions (for example, “Accountant”, “Storekeeper”, “HR Manager”, “Head of Sales Department”, etc.);
7. personal signatures of the parties.

A properly executed document will help if necessary in legal proceedings, for example, when the buyer does not pay the debt or tries to invalidate the transaction. But a document with errors or fictitious signatures can play a cruel joke - so you should never sign for the supplier if he suddenly forgot to sign. Carefully store all primary documents and always carefully check all the details in incoming documents.

In practice, it is still possible to encounter customer complaints regarding the lack of a seal. Let us remind you that as of 04/07/2015, the seal has been canceled for most organizations and can be used at will (Federal Law of 04/06/2015 No. 82-FZ). Information about the organization's seal must be specified in the charter. If the counterparty insists on putting a stamp, and you do not have one legally, you can notify the counterparty in writing about its absence and provide an extract from the accounting policy.

Forms of primary documents

In your work, you can use unified and your own forms of primary documents (clause 4, article 9 of the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”). In this case, a homemade primary document must have all the required details. Many companies are forced to develop their own version of the materials write-off act, since there is no unified form of the document.

It is permissible to use a combined form of the primary document, when the unified form is taken as a basis and supplemented with the necessary columns or lines. In this case, all mandatory details must be preserved (Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated March 24, 1999 No. 20).

The company's choice regarding the forms of primary accounting used must be specified in its accounting policies.

In the process of activity, the need for new primary documents may arise, then they can be developed and approved by the accounting policy.

Note! Since your counterparty can also use an independently developed primary document, your accounting policy must indicate that you also accept these documents for accounting.

For most documents, you have the right not to use unified forms, but cash transactions should be executed only according to approved document forms (information of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. PZ-10/2012).

Types of primary documents

Specialists can find the main forms of primary documents in albums of unified forms approved by the resolutions of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation. Here are the most common ones.

Documents for accounting of trade transactions

• TORG-12;
• Product label;
• Universal transfer document.

Documents for accounting of fixed assets

• OS-1 “Act on acceptance and transfer of fixed assets (except for buildings, structures)”;
• OS-4 “Act on write-off of fixed assets”;
• OS-6 “Inventory card for recording fixed assets.”

Primary cash register

Cash transactions are executed exclusively in accordance with the Procedure for conducting cash transactions (Instruction of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation dated March 11, 2014 No. 3210-U). You cannot, for example, design a “consumables” in free form or develop your own version.

The forms of primary cash documents are approved by Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated August 18, 1998 No. 88:

• KO-1 “Cash receipt order”;
• KO-2 “Cash expenditure order”;
• KO-3 “Journal of registration of incoming and outgoing cash documents”;
• KO-4 “Cash Book”;
• KO-5 “Book of accounting of funds accepted and issued by the cashier.”

Cash documents need to be checked very scrupulously, because such primary documents are directly related to the movement of cash and always attract the attention of the inspection authorities. For example, tax authorities will definitely pay attention to PKO, in which the amount exceeds 100,000 rubles. And all because you cannot pay in cash with one counterparty in an amount exceeding 100,000 rubles. The absence of signatures in cash documents will also be a reason for proceedings with the Federal Tax Service.

Let's summarize. So, primary documents are an integral part of accounting and tax accounting. Transactions cannot be carried out without supporting documents. Often accountants create accounting entries based on a copy or scan of the primary document. It is very important to replace copies with original documents in a timely manner, otherwise regulatory authorities may consider the operation or transaction fictitious. Only documents drawn up in accordance with the law are a guarantee of the security and reliability of accounting in the company.