New requirements for accountants have been established in Belarus

According to Article 195.1 of the Labor Code, a professional standard is a characteristic of the qualifications necessary for an employee to carry out a certain type of professional activity. In turn, qualifications must be understood as the level of knowledge, skills, professional skills and experience of an employee. The rules for the development, approval and application of professional standards were approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated January 22, 2013 No. 23. Since then, professional standards have been introduced for many professions. And finally, a professional standard for accountants has appeared. Like all other professional standards, this standard is intended for use (clause 25 of the Rules):

• employers - in the formation of personnel policies and personnel management, in organizing training and certification of employees, developing job descriptions, and establishing remuneration systems;
• educational organizations - when developing professional educational programs.

It is noteworthy that the professional standard “Accountant” is a normative, that is, a document mandatory for universal use, since it is registered with the Ministry of Justice of Russia. And of course, it has primary practical significance for the accounting workers themselves. Professional standards will help each accountant independently assess their professional level and outline areas for advanced training or additional training. Well, employers received a tool for assessing accounting employees.

The standard was developed by the NP “Institute of Professional Accountants and Auditors of Russia” (NP “IPB Russia”) and came into force on February 7, 2015. Let us characterize the structure of the document and focus on the innovations that it brought with it.

General information

According to the Standard, the main goal of an accountant’s professional activity is the formation of documented, systematized information about accounting objects in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation and the preparation on its basis of accounting (financial) statements that disclose information about the financial position of an economic entity as of the reporting date, the financial result of its activities and cash flows. funds for the reporting period necessary for users of these reports to make economic decisions. It must be said that this formulation reproduces (more precisely, combines) a number of provisions of the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ “On Accounting,” which, however, is not surprising. True, Law No. 402-FZ directly mentions only such an official as the chief accountant.

Meanwhile, the Standard, despite its name, divides accounting workers into 4 basic groups (see table). The source of this classification is the All-Russian Classifier of Occupations OK 010-93 (approved by Resolution of the State Standard of Russia dated December 30, 1993 No. 298).

It is noteworthy that “accountants and finance and credit specialists” are included in the subgroup “Other senior professionals,” which also includes lawyers and economists.

The standard establishes the following qualification levels: for accountants - 5, for chief accountants - 6. The description of the levels was approved by Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated April 12, 2013 No. 148n. In terms of powers, these levels require independent activity:

• 5th – for solving practical problems that require independent analysis of the situation and its changes;
• 6th – by determining the tasks of one’s own work and / or subordinates to achieve the goal.

In this case, a 6th level employee is responsible for the result of work performed at the level of a department (in our case, accounting) or organization. He is expected to have the skills to develop, implement, monitor, evaluate and adjust areas of professional activity or methodological solutions.

Functional responsibilities

The main responsibility of an assistant accountant is to support the activities of the chief accountant (or accountant) of the organization.

This becomes possible thanks to the performance of the following functional responsibilities:

1. Working with primary documentation that reflects cash flows.
2. Working with company bank accounts.
3. Submitting payment orders to the bank.
4. Preparation of various financial reports.
5. Control of the process of using and writing off finances.
6. Making payments to state and local budgets.
7. Calculation and control of payments under lease agreements.
8. Storage of accounting documentation.
9. Sending documents to the archive.
10. Participation in the inventory process.
11. Replacement of an absent accountant.
12. Consulting employees (for example, payroll, sick leave calculation, etc.).
13. Assisting other company specialists in matters related to finance.
14. Compliance with labor discipline and all existing requirements at the enterprise (disciplinary, sanitary, security, etc.).
15. Execution of orders directly from the head of the organization.

Labor functions

A labor function is work in a position in accordance with the staffing schedule, profession, specialty, indicating qualifications, or a specific type of work entrusted to the employee (Article 15 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). And an employment contract is an agreement according to which the employer undertakes to provide the employee with work for a specified labor function, and the employee undertakes to personally perform the labor function determined by this agreement (Article 56 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The standard (Section II) identifies two generalized job functions in the accounting profession:

• accounting;
• preparation and presentation of financial statements of an economic entity.

Please note that the second function includes tax reporting. Thus, tax reporting is classified as financial reporting. And in this regard, there is a “temptation” to extend Law No. 402-FZ to tax accounting. Indeed, the legislator used a compound term - “accounting (financial) statements”, from which two independent parts can be distinguished - “accounting statements” and “financial statements”. However, the interpretation of this terminology introduced by the Standard is unlawful. After all, the Ministry of Labor of Russia, which approved the Standard, is not a federal authority authorized to regulate accounting or taxation. Meanwhile, based on Article 4 of Law No. 402-FZ, the Standard is part of the accounting legislation...

In addition, the second function also provides for internal control of accounting and preparation of accounting (financial) statements. Let us remind you: in accordance with Law No. 402-FZ (clause 2 of Article 19), such control is carried out only by an organization whose accounting (financial) statements are subject to mandatory audit (except for cases where its head has assumed the responsibility for maintaining accounting records). That is, such a labor function is not a mandatory component of the generalized labor function.

We also note that the draft professional standard “Internal Auditor” is currently undergoing approval. In global management practice, internal audit is considered an integral part of the organization’s internal control system. In this regard, it is possible that the corresponding job function of an accountant will be adjusted.

On a note

The Standard reveals an obvious logical inconsistency with Law No. 402-FZ

Namely: in Section II of the Standard, accounting is contrasted with reporting, while from paragraph 4 of Article 6 of Law No. 402-FZ it follows that accounting includes reporting. This is another very serious problem.

According to the Standard, accounting is carried out by an accountant and for this activity a secondary vocational education is sufficient, but at least three years of practical work experience is required - presumably in the status of an employee engaged in accounting operations and accounting. This group includes the cashier and timekeeper. It turns out that in the absence of the necessary experience, a university graduate can only be accepted into the position of such an employee and remain in it for three years. Agree, this is nonsense. It also seems that the labor functions of such employees are not specified in the Standard.

In passing, we note that the Standard does not disclose the content of the labor activity of “employees engaged in accounting operations and accounting.” Presumably, assistant accountants fall into this category. This status and the corresponding labor function are clear to all of us, but they are not recognized by the Ministry of Labor.

Each job function implies:

• labor actions;
• required skills;
• necessary knowledge.

In particular, the performance of the labor function “Acceptance for accounting of primary accounting documents on the facts of the economic life of an economic entity” presupposes:

• labor actions - preparation of primary accounting documents for transfer to the archive;
• necessary skills - to ensure the safety of primary accounting documents before transferring them to the archive;
• necessary knowledge - the basics of the legislation of the Russian Federation on archival affairs; internal organizational and administrative documents of an economic entity regulating the transfer of primary accounting documents to the archive.

We deliberately focused on fulfilling the requirements of the Federal Law of October 22, 2004 No. 125-FZ “On Archiving in the Russian Federation,” compliance with which many accountants neglect.

Take note of how the Standard interprets the “Final summary of the facts of economic life” function. It involves working with accounting registers.

Chief Accountant

The chief accountant needs a higher or secondary vocational education.

It turns out that an employee with an incomplete higher education (in the absence of secondary vocational education) cannot hold the position of chief accountant. However, in practice, such a situation is not uncommon, because before the Standard came into force, such a restriction did not exist in the general case (the education requirement is imposed in special cases listed in paragraph 4 of Article 7 of Law No. 402-FZ). And the Standard is a generally binding document. Does this mean that chief accountants without proper education are subject to dismissal due to inadequacy for the position held?

An exhaustive list of grounds for terminating an employment contract with an employee is established in Article 81 of the Labor Code. Among them (clause 3), indeed, a similar reason is provided - “inconsistency of the employee with the position held or the work performed,” but with the caveat - “due to insufficient qualifications, confirmed by certification results.” As you can see, lack of qualifications must be confirmed by certification. The procedure for conducting certification is established by labor legislation and other regulatory legal acts containing labor law standards, local regulations. However, since we are talking about certification for the presence of education, it is not regulated by labor law norms and only an educational organization has the right to conduct it.

The Federal Law of December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ “On Education in the Russian Federation” does not explain how an employer should act in such a situation. Paragraph 3 of Article 7 of the said law only states that persons mastering the basic educational program in the form of self-education have the right to undergo external intermediate and state final certification in an organization carrying out educational activities according to the corresponding educational program that has state accreditation. Obviously, this conflict of interests between the employee and the employer cannot be resolved by local regulations. As a result, according to the author, the dismissal of an “uneducated” chief accountant at the initiative of the employer is impossible. We also remind you: dismissal for “inconsistency” is allowed if it is impossible to transfer the employee with his written consent to another job available to the employer (either a vacant position or a job that corresponds to the employee’s qualifications, or a vacant lower position or lower-paid job).

The author would like to emphasize that she expresses her personal point of view in the absence of official explanations and rather identifies controversial issues than provides answers to them. Of course, the final word belongs to the Russian Ministry of Labor. The position of the Russian Ministry of Finance would also be very interesting. In general, it is strange to introduce professional standards without coordination with the relevant ministry - the Ministry of Finance of Russia. We find no information about such agreement.

On a note

The standard does not have retroactive force and therefore it is impossible to remove the chief accountant from the work he performs due to the lack of proper education.

But you can and should follow the requirements of the Standard after it comes into force - by hiring a new chief accountant. It is logical to ask: what are the consequences if an employer hires a person for this position who obviously does not meet the educational standards? – According to the author, such a situation can be characterized as a “normal economic risk,” which is a circumstance that excludes the employee’s financial liability. The basis is Article 239 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Further, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (clause “r” of Article 71), accounting is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Consequently, this area of ​​activity is of national importance. And the employer’s violation of the requirements of the Standard is an administrative offense provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. And it entails a warning or a fine - for officials in the amount of 1,000 to 5,000 rubles, for legal entities from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles. Please note that from January 1, 2015, this norm is in force in a new edition introduced by Federal Law No. 421-FZ of December 28, 2013. And we will find a mitigation of liability: previously, the legislator did not provide for such a form as a warning; The administrative suspension of the activities of a legal entity for a period of up to 90 days has been cancelled.

As for the requirements for the practical work experience of the chief accountant, here the Standard mechanically copied the norm established by Law No. 402-FZ (clause 2, clause 4, article 7). But in Law No. 402-FZ, this requirement applies only to chief accountants of economic entities of certain categories. And after reading the Standard, one is left with the impression that it has extended this requirement to all organizations. Meanwhile, paragraph 5 of Article 7 of Law No. 402-FZ clearly states: additional requirements for the chief accountant (in excess of those established by Law No. 402-FZ!) may be established by other federal laws. But not a by-law adopted by the Russian Ministry of Labor.

The chief accountant must know the industry legislation in the area of ​​activity of the organization.

Requirements for the position of leading accountant

Requirements for the position of a leading accountant may include the following main points:

• if an accountant of the 1st tariff category, then he must have a higher specialized education and work experience as an accountant of the 2nd category for at least 3 years;
• if an accountant is of the 2nd tariff category, then he must have a higher specialized education without work experience or secondary specialized education and work experience as an accountant for at least 3 years;
• be able to work with the legislative and regulatory framework and apply it to perform job duties;
• understand the intricacies of keeping records of the company’s property and liabilities;
• navigate the economic activities of an economic entity;
• have an analytical mind and the ability to process a large amount of information, highlighting the main information and data;
• be able to handle office equipment and computers at the level of a confident user.

The employer has the right to supplement the specified list of requirements for the position of leading accountant of the organization. All of them must be reflected in the job description, which is issued to the employee before he is hired for detailed review.

In addition, the job description contains information about the duties, rights and responsibilities of the leading accountant, so that the labor relationship between him and the employer is clearly regulated and legalized.

Additional educational programs

The standard allows for the possibility of additional professional education: for an accountant - according to special programs, for a chief accountant - according to advanced training and professional retraining programs. What is meant by such programs? — For the answer, let’s turn to the law on education.

Additional professional programs are advanced training programs and professional retraining programs (clause 2, clause 4, article 12 of Law No. 273-FZ). As for special educational programs, they are provided for students with disabilities (clause 3 of article 79 of Law No. 273-FZ). In most cases, various accounting courses do not provide additional professional education.

According to the author, the Standard does not indicate whether the presence of a document on professional retraining is a sufficient condition for working as a chief accountant. Advanced training presupposes its original existence.

Employee rights

An employee has the right to a full-fledged workplace, timely payment, compliance with all labor rights, and receipt of materials and documents necessary for work.

So, an assistant accountant is a hired specialist who reports to an accountant, chief accountant, or other authorized person.

The employee must have certain education and professional skills. His main responsibility is to support the activities of the accountant. The responsibilities of a specialist are determined by the provisions of the employment contract and job description.

The instructions are approved by the head of the enterprise and comply with all labor legislation requirements. The instructions specify all the functional responsibilities of the employee, as well as his rights and responsibilities.

An accountant is a responsible profession. The economic activity of an enterprise is vigilantly regulated by law. The first conductors between the financial affairs of a legal entity and the servants of state control are accountants. The daily routine work of quantitatively counting everything that is taken into account falls on their shoulders. The responsibilities of a materials accountant are even more complicated: each stud must be reflected in the balance sheet.

Entry in the work book

The appearance of the Standard makes you wonder whether the requirements for entries in the work book will change?

Based on clause 3.1 of the Instruction, approved by Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated October 10, 2003 No. 69, an entry is made in the work book about the specialty, profession, indicating qualifications.

Professional standards are subject to application by employers when forming personnel policies. Therefore, the entry in the work book of the employee performing the corresponding job function must comply with the Standard. But what, for example, should we do with the position “deputy chief accountant,” which is common in large companies? It is not provided for by the standard.

Another problem arises, no less serious. Law No. 402-FZ (clause 3 of Article 7) allows you to assign accounting responsibilities not only to the chief accountant, but also to another official of the organization. Often the labor functions of the chief accountant are performed by the financial director. But the Standard strictly linked qualifications to two specific positions - “accountant” and “chief accountant”. And thereby essentially obliges the organization to have a chief accountant - by introducing this position into the staffing table.

Finally, based on the Standard, we can conclude that an individual entrepreneur does not have the right to have a “simple” accountant on staff, since tax accounting must be carried out by no less than a chief accountant.

Let's sum it up

The document is very significant for the accounting industry, but its use raises a number of serious questions. One could turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of the Standard, but it is registered with the Russian Ministry of Justice. It is impossible not to apply the Standard in part that contradicts Law No. 402-FZ. Challenging regulatory legal acts is carried out in the manner established in Chapter 24 of the Arbitration Procedure Code.

In conclusion, let us inform you: professional standards for auditors and tax inspectors have also not yet been published and the author has not found any projects for them. It is curious that in the All-Russian Classifier of Occupations OK 010-93 these professions are not directly named. It features "state tax officials" and "state welfare and pension employees." Also mentioned is the “accountant-auditor (auditor)”, who is classified in the basic group “accountants and finance and credit specialists”. Finally, the All-Russian Classifier of Worker Occupations, Employee Positions and Tariff Grades OK 016-94 (introduced by Decree of the State Standard of Russia dated December 26, 1994 No. 367) provides for an “accountant-expert”. This type of accountant is not mentioned in the Standard. Apparently, the requirements for all “non-chief” accountants are the same.

E.Yu. Dirkova

, for the magazine “Regulatory Acts for Accountants”

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