Primary Accounting Documents

Every business operation of an enterprise or organization must be documented, that is, it is formalized with the help of the relevant primary documents.

Primary accounting documents are the basis for entering data into accounting registers that reflect business operations in accounting. These documents are fundamental to the preparation of tax and financial statements.

In other words, the primary accounting documents reflect absolutely all the economic operations that the enterprise carries out. They are stored in the organization to ensure its own needs and to present to the supervisory authorities, as well as for other purposes. Primary accounting documents can be destroyed only after the deadlines established for their storage by legislation.

Primary accounting documents record the facts of economic transactions. To organize the data, they are registered in consolidated accounting documents. For the purposes of accounting, two kinds of documents are used : primary documents and accounting registers.

The primary document is a document that contains information about a specific economic transaction and confirms its implementation by its fact.

Primary documents are made in strict accordance with the requirements of the legislation with the inclusion of all mandatory requisites. They include: the name of the document; The place and date of its compilation; The name of the legal entity on behalf of which the document is drawn up; Scope and content of the operation; Units of measurement of the operation; Positions of responsible persons; Personal or electronic signature of the person who carried out the economic transaction. Only under this condition they have legal force.

The main types of primary documents: invoices; money orders; Payment receipts; Acts of the executed works; Cash receipts and receipts, advance reports, etc. These documents contain information about the conducted business transaction.

In a number of cases, established by law, the forms of primary documents refer to forms of strict accountability.

Depending on the type of operation, primary documents are divided into securities for accounting and pay, for accounting of fixed assets, for accounting for cash payments, for accounting for cash transactions , etc.

Primary accounting documents are drawn up during the execution of transactions or immediately after their execution. You can compose them either on ready-made forms in black (blue) ink or using a stamp, facsimile or other fixed method. Unjustified corrections and any erasures in documents are prohibited. Correct errors can only be corrected by striking out the wrong information and inscribing the correct one. The inscription "is corrected" is made, the date is given and the signature of the responsible person is put.

In addition to primary paper documents, there are also electronic documents. They are called documents, the information in which is recorded in the form of electronic data, taking into account all the mandatory requisites. They are created, transmitted, stored and transformed by electronic means into a visual form. According to the legislation, the enterprise has the right to apply documents in its activity in electronic form. The obligatory condition is observance of the law on electronic signature.

Primary accounting documents are kept under the supervision of the chief accountant. For their safety, the owner of the enterprise is responsible. Documents that have been processed must be transferred to the archive. Until then, they are stored in the accounting department in closed cabinets.