Very often on television, in the media, on Internet resources and in the conversations of the townsfolk you can find such an expression as “black bookkeeping”. It’s not easy for some people who, for various reasons, are far from legal and economic categories, to understand the essence of this concept.
Let's try to figure out what is the meaning of this phrase and what it is in real life.
What is black bookkeeping?
Enterprises can be of various forms of ownership. A thousand people work for some, and only five for others. However, they all carry out any activity, only in different areas and volumes.
Accounting for all illegal business transactions, the ultimate goal of which is to conceal income from the state and understate taxes, is black bookkeeping. It doesn’t matter if it is salary "in envelopes", the use of unrecorded fixed assets, the purchase of goods without documents, the provision of services without closing them with appropriate securities, one way or another, shadow schemes will affect all areas of accounting at the enterprise. 
Any of these actions, at least partial, though complex, is considered to be black bookkeeping at the enterprise.
The difference between black and white accounting
Understanding the difference between conventional accounting and illegal is easy. Normal accounting implies a complete correspondence between transactions (trading, leasing, rendering services, etc.), their reflection in the primary documents of the enterprise, further periodic summing up and displaying them in the relevant reports, as well as the submission of relevant documents and declarations to the tax service. And, of course, timely payment of the amounts due to the budget. 
Illegal accounting by the method of processing operations is not much different from white. The whole difference is that white and black bookkeeping is conducted with completely opposite goals. The final result of the latter is the concealment of the real income of the enterprise and the underpayment of taxes to the state. That is, black bookkeeping is not reflected in any official reports. Thus, quite large amounts of money can be hidden from the state, which is a serious violation of the law.
Who leads?
At various enterprises, illegal accounting is delivered in different ways. Naturally, there are no regulatory documents governing its conduct, because black bookkeeping itself is legally unlawful. How to keep such records in the enterprise, the owner decides.
Some executives do this in person by writing notes in notebooks or notebooks. Such conduct is practiced in firms where the turnover is quite small, and there are few people.
In larger companies, this work is delegated to the chief accountant, who, in parallel with white accounting, also deals with black. 
In really large enterprises, this is generally done by an individual person. Most often, this is some kind of authorized representative of a management or relative.
Place of reference
Data on illegal transactions in various places is drawn up and stored, again, depending on who conducts them and what are the volumes of transactions.
If the director does this, then everything can happen right in his office.
When parallel and white and black records are kept by the chief accountant, all operations and the data confirming them are in his office. 
If the volume of illegal activity is large, and black bookkeeping is the diocese of an individual employee, then most often all this is in a separate office, sometimes very carefully disguised as some kind of utility room. Other employees of the enterprise may not even realize that the company has double counting.
Features of automated accounting
Basically, black bookkeeping at a company is not limited to paper records only. An automated accounting system is also used very efficiently.
For example, in a special program 1C, black accounting is conducted by many firms quite successfully. Accountants and programmers come up with various options that they think will be able to deceive the auditors and hide the presence of illegal accounting in the enterprise. For many, this is for the time being successful.
Some create a separate virtual enterprise in the configuration and conduct all illegal operations on it. Others maintain a parallel base, which is stored on removable media, hoping in such a way that when inspectors appear in the office they will be able to quickly remove the removable disk with the program from the computer and hide it. There are many options. However, all of them are sooner or later revealed by law enforcement officials.
Why do you need black bookkeeping?
Why do we need such tricks? Why do people knowingly commit such offenses and still record them on media? Isn’t it easier to keep white bookkeeping and sleep peacefully? Or not store any data that can be detected?
The answers to these questions are simple. Of course, it is easier and more correct to do everything according to the law. However, for many, banal greed prevails over fear of an offense. The business owner wants to withhold his income from the state so as not to pay taxes to the budget. However, he does not trust any of his subordinates. Therefore, you have to record all the operations performed so as not to get confused.
The situation is even worse if the company has several co-founders. All of them may suspect each other of fraud and the desire to cash in at the expense of other partners, but still do not want to pay taxes in full. So they have to control, including each other, to have a person who conducts black bookkeeping.
A responsibility
However, very often, pursuing their mercantile interests and chasing more and more money, business owners and business leaders forget: withholding from the state the real financial condition of the company - this is what black bookkeeping really is. Responsibility for this is very great. And it is not only administrative, but also criminal. Punishments may be administered in the form of:
- fines;
- arrests;
- imprisonment;
- restrictions to hold a certain position;
- prohibition of any activity.
If collusion of a group of persons is proved, then the consequences will be more deplorable, as this is an aggravating circumstance. And one should not forget about the ruined reputation of the company and the refusal of many customers to work with it later (even if it turns out to save the company and get off with a fine).
The good news is that in recent years there has been an increase in the tendency to conduct exclusively transparent accounting at the enterprise, and illegal shadow schemes become remnants of the past and only repel good specialists and potential business partners from cooperation.
