Centralized accounting is no longer the prerogative of municipal institutions in recent times. Large private companies also work in accordance with this principle, small ones prefer to abandon the idea of forming their own staff of accountants and turn to special organizations engaged in outsourcing.
Definition
Centralized Accounting (CB) is an institution that performs the functions of accounting services for several companies at the same time. This organization is practiced in accounting and tax accounting for enterprises of different ownership forms.
Possible organization of the Central Bank in the following forms:
- outsourcing company;
- services in the field of insourcing.
When outsourcing, an accounting company, by agreement in the form of an agreement, receives on a fee basis the opportunity to keep accounting and tax records for other organizations. In the case of insourcing, accounting functions are accumulated in the parent organization.
A special characteristic of the centralization of accounting services in the municipal sector is the implementation of accounting responsibilities, but does not provide for the payment of such services.
If possible, centralization distinguish the following methods of accounting:
- full centralization;
- form of partial centralization;
- control in work in a particular sector - in the field of centralized procurement of material assets and goods;
- preparation of consolidated reporting.
Normative base
The main regulatory acts that regulate the activities of centralized accounting in municipal educational institutions are:
- management orders, internal company rules;
- collective agreement;
- documents on the organization of the bonus system;
- financial policy of the company.
The meaning of creation
The letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of 08.19.2003 No. 03-01-01 / 11-241 indicates the main task of centralizing accounting in the municipal sector: the need to minimize costs and increase the productivity of accounting services.
The list of tasks that are solved by the efforts of the Central Bank include:
- Increased credential accuracy
- the ability to use a single methodology for various accounting cases;
- tax risk reduction;
- operational preparation of all types of reporting;
- maintaining a payroll by reducing the total number of employees who work in financial departments;
- reducing the cost of keeping records in the organization.
Law No. 402-FZ “On Accounting” speaks of the right of a managing economic entity to independently decide how to keep records in an organization: without the help of other companies, by third parties or special companies on a contractual basis.
Various securities structures are created with the following objectives:
- the establishment of uniform methodological and legislative provisions on centralized accounting;
- record keeping;
- minimization of costs in the company in the preparation of reports;
- collecting accurate information for servicing the Central Bank;
- more rational use of budget amounts.
It must be emphasized that the order of organization and the functionality of the Central Bank do not depend on whether it acts as a unit or as an independent legal entity.
The main tasks of the service
Among the main tasks of the Central Bank are:
- organization and conducting accounting of FCD companies;
- control over the economical use of material and financial resources in the company, in its divisions;
- ensuring the rational organization of accounting and reporting in the company and its divisions on the basis of maximum centralization and mechanization of educational and computational work, progressive forms, as well as accounting and auditing methods;
- development and implementation of measures that were aimed at the implementation of monetary discipline.
Functions
The functions of centralized accounting are as follows:
- organization of accounting of incoming cash, stocks, actual reflection on the accounts of accounting operations that are associated with the movement of inventory items;
- accounting for the implementation of cost estimates, the results of the economic and financial work of the organization, cash, settlement and credit operations;
- provides control over the legality, timeliness and correctness of documents, preparation of economically viable reports, over payroll calculations with employees of the organization, the correct calculation and transfer of payments to budgets of various levels, contributions to state social insurance;
- conducts economic analysis of economic and monetary work in accordance with accounting and reporting;
- takes constructive measures to prevent shortages, misappropriation of funds and inventory, violations of monetary and financial laws;
- carries out work to ensure the implementation of personnel, monetary and cash discipline, the preparation of cost estimates and the legality of write-offs.
The rights
Basic rights of the Central Bank:
- receives the necessary documents for accounting;
- prepares draft legislative acts regarding the work of the Central Bank;
- sends requests to structural units, documents, as well as information necessary for the implementation of accounting capabilities;
- Participates in meetings convened by company officials when discussing monetary matters.
Features the organization of centralized accounting
In the process of independent work, centralized administrative bodies draw up and approve local rules in the form of the following documents:
- orders, instructions and administrative documents that have been approved by the manager;
- collective agreement and contract;
- provisions on accounting policies and staff remuneration, remuneration;
- internal rules.
The purpose of centralized bookkeeping for servicing institutions is the maintenance of taxation and accounting.
The multifunctional obligations of the Central Bank also include:
- reporting;
- possible reflection of operations in physical and value terms;
- verification of the primary, revision of the deadlines for its delivery;
- monitoring the dynamics of the quantitative and qualitative composition of stocks;
- audit of the use of labor resources and financial management of the company;
- Settlements with contractors and employees.
Central Bank employees play a large role in the inventory and provide advisory services.
The tasks of centralized accounting may include the submission of reporting documents to regulatory authorities and management accounting, the preparation of analytics, the calculation of estimates of income and expenses, and the verification of the approved budget.
Benefits
The positive results of the implementation of centralized accounting can be:
- no need to maintain their own departments of accounting and finance;
- management costs are reduced;
- implementation of planned projects and programs in a short time;
- a separate approach to the implementation of the objectives of accounting;
- the use of the company's resource base becomes more efficient due to the dual monitoring system;
- there is no need to spend financial resources and time on continuing education courses and a special assessment of the work criteria for accounting;
- the risks of financial work are minimized due to the fact that the qualification level of all centralized accounting professionals is extremely high.
disadvantages
The disadvantages include the following:
- reduced opportunities for the head of centralized accounting in relation to the process of spending funds;
- centralized accounting will correlate all types of costs with the revenue plan for the year;
- the introduction of additional obligations for employees of the Central Bank can only be in the case of an increase in payment under the contract.
For the municipal sector, there are no direct levers of influence on the list of services that are provided by the customer.
The formation of organizational structure. Legal form of the Central Bank
The creation of centralized accounting can be carried out as follows:
- determination of the legal type of structure;
- registration in government bodies;
- formation of a financial authority;
- formation of a standard contract for the provision of accounting services;
- staffing and staffing;
- creating a price list of services.
Responsibility for the completeness of accounting lies with the director of the Central Bank. In the variant with the allocation of accounting in a separate unit, it will be necessary to amend the Charter, add to it an additional type of activity - the provision of accounting services.
Organizational Formation
When developing the optimal organizational structure of centralized accounting, it is necessary to provide for:
- management of reporting documentation;
- planning-analytical or financial department;
- a group of leading professionals;
- counters;
- accountant;
- business unit.
Contract for services
The form of the contract is developed separately when providing services for free or for a fee. The document should read:
- tasks and goals of the Central Bank;
- rights and obligations;
- liability for certain violations;
- a list of persons who are entitled to sign accounting documents;
- deadlines for registration of the primary and its processing;
- workflow regulations;
- the possibility of organizing the storage of documents and working with the archive.
What is the staffing table?
In accordance with the developed organizational structure of the service, its staffing table is compiled. For vacant posts, competent specialists in a narrow profile are selected.
The selection of employees should be organized on a competitive basis.
The number of employees is calculated based on an estimate of labor costs for labor in each accounting segment.
Centralized accounting is the best solution for budget companies and large private companies.
Chief Accountant
The accounting department of the organization is headed by the chief accountant appointed and dismissed by the head of the organization.
The chief accountant of the Central Bank can be appointed or dismissed only by those management bodies that are superior in relation to those companies in which the Central Bank is created. He enjoys the rights and obligations that are provided for by the relevant Regulation and personnel documentation. The chief accountant is subordinate to the leadership of the organization at which the Central Bank was created.
The leading goal of the position is the organization of the management of activities and the development of the accounting system in the management structure of the organization. The capabilities of the chief accountant are established by legal acts, labor contract and job descriptions.
The chief accountant is accountable to the head of the organization and is responsible for the formation of accounting policies, accounting, up-to-date presentation of full accounting.
The official ensures that the company's business operations comply with Russian legislation, control over the movement of property and the implementation of responsibilities.
The requirements of the chief accountant for documenting business operations and submitting to the centralized accounting department the necessary documents and information are mandatory for all employees of the company.
Without the signature of the chief accountant of financial and settlement documents, monetary obligations for debts are considered invalid.
The position of chief accountant is usually held by a person with a higher financial education, and in some organizations with a certificate of a professional accountant. If necessary, a person who does not have a higher special education may be appointed to the post of chief accountant if he has more than 3 years of experience in this specialty.
Central Bank in the public sector
For state institutions, accounting can be organized on the basis of the centralized accounting department or centralized accounting department of the district administration.
This approach allows to increase the productivity of treasury operations in budgetary institutions, as well as minimize the costs of preparing and maintaining activity reports.
The creation of centralized accounting of municipal educational institutions saves the organization’s expenses for the creation and maintenance of accounting.
Accounting provides additional services: tax advice, storage of documents, representation in regulatory authorities.
MKU "Centralized Accounting" is a separate independent structural unit of the executive-administrative body of local self-government of municipalities. It is intended to organize the accounting process for the indicators of FCD in relation to municipal institutions and local governments.
Central Bank in the Moscow region
On December 16, 2016, the Concept of Centralized Accounting in the Moscow Region was adopted. It was approved by the State Budgetary Institution of the MO "Centralized Accounting in the Moscow Region". About 418 state institutions of the region were taken for service.
Of them:
- at the Ministry of Health - 293 units;
- in the Ministry of Education - 73 units;
- in the Ministry of Culture - 26 units;
- in the Ministry of Physical Culture - 26 units.
The main contacts of the institution: Moscow, st. Kokkinaki, 6.
Centralized accounting in the Moscow region provides services in the following areas:
- accounting - the formation of a system of documenting information about accounting objects and the preparation of their reporting;
- tax reporting.
The organization has an approved structure and staffing.
Kindergartens. Central Bank Features
The centralized accounting of kindergartens is engaged in the formation of estimates of the movement of budgetary funds on the basis of the data on income and expenses of enterprises provided to them. The degree of centralization in this case is established not by the serviced company, but by the main managers of the funds. In a special agreement, the degree of centralization, the basic functions, duties and rights of the parties are signed.
How to increase work efficiency?
For the normal work of accounting, managing several municipal institutions, appropriate software is required.
It is necessary to process a lot of data in a reduced time, to keep a history of accounting operations.
Automation of accounting makes the whole process more transparent. This minimizes errors and difficulties with regulatory authorities.
The centralization of accounting allows you to reduce the cost of the company maintaining financial statements.
Eliminates the need to search for new employees and the formation of accounting. The Central Bank saves the funds of municipal institutions. For the implementation of accounting services an appropriate contract is concluded.
After weighing the pros and cons, the management decides how to maintain accounts: form your own department or keep records centrally.
Conclusion
The format of bookkeeping through the Central Bank is the highest degree of systematization of accounting, which involves maintaining specialized reports for several types of enterprises of the same type of work.
This approach has a lot of advantages that provide more efficient reporting, minimize the company's costs of maintaining a staff of specialists.
The main feature of the Central Bank is that it carries out complex interaction with a huge number of budgetary institutions. Therefore, a clear regulation of such contractual relations is required.
Thus, the main advantage of using the Central Bank is the economic benefit for the company’s budget in terms of saving costs for the maintenance of accounting personnel. The disadvantage is the remoteness from the actual location of the budget institution.