How to draw up an organization’s accounting policy

The accounting policy is a set of rules for reflecting the movement of property, income, expenses, and other operations related to accounting and tax accounting, which the organization constantly and without fail follows.

Its formation is an obligatory stage in its activity, not only for the purpose of regulating accounting but also for taxation purposes.

Tax accounting policy

The policy contains rules, based on which the organization systematizes and summarizes information on its own business operations during the reporting period in order to calculate the tax base for specific tax deductions. Accordingly, in the process of drawing up the Policy, one of the main goals is the formation of a tax accounting system that is optimal for a given organization.

For tax purposes, the Policy also addresses the following issues:

• Income tax calculation method.
• Methods for assessing the value of inventories.
• The ability to create reserves.
• VAT calculation method.

Accounting accounting policies

For the purposes of booze. Accounting Policy provides guidance on the grouping and assessment of the facts of economic activity, the repayment of the value of assets, the organization of workflow and inventory, the use of accounts and systems of accounting registers, as well as the processing of collected information.

Also Read: What is Net Working Capital? How to Calculate Net Working Capital

In addition, for the booze. accounting, the preparation of accounting policies allows you to solve the following issues:

1. Acceptance of forms of primary documents and accounting registers to be directly used.
2. The choice of the depreciation method.
3. Choosing a method for distributing income and calculating revenue.

Features of formation and approval

As a rule, the chief accountant is responsible for drawing up accounting policies. After drawing up, the policy must be approved by an order or order of the head, drawn up in any form. A sample order is indicated at the end of the article.

In fact, the formation and approval of the Policy is carried out once when the organization is created. In the future, this Regulation may be amended and supplemented, but only at the end of the current year (no later than December 31) to enter into force next year (from January 1). During the year, it is impossible to change the Regulation, except for the onset of special circumstances, consisting in changing Russian legislation or regulations, creating new methods of keeping records, or significantly changing the conditions in the conduct of business by the company itself.

Sections and applications of accounting policies

Domestic legislation does not indicate certain requirements for the preparation of sections of the accounting policy. However, traditionally, this provision is divided into two parts – accounting and tax.

An accounting policy may include the following sections:

• Organizational and technical. Includes a description of the structure of accounting, the form of accounting (journal-order or automated) and the order of the inventory process.
• Methodological. Includes an indication of the methods of accounting, as well as the chart of accounts used.

The tax part of the accounting policy may include three sections:

1. An indication of the principles of tax accounting.
2. Bringing methods for calculating certain taxes.
3. Bringing tax accounting registers.

The policy statement may be supplemented with annexes, the specific list of which remains at the discretion of the policy maker.

For the methodological part of the Regulations, such appendices may include lists of fixed assets and intangible assets for which depreciation is accrued in one way or another, as well as a nomenclature of items for accounting for costs and commercial expenses.

For the organizational and technical part, applications can consist of:

• accounting regulations;
• job descriptions of the chief accountant, accountants and cashier;
• working chart of accounts;
• forms of primary accounting documents;
• approved forms of tax accounting registers;
• workflow schedule;
• nomenclature of accounting cases;
• a list of persons entitled to sign accounting documents, etc.

Accounting policies

The formation of the Organization’s Policy is based on the basic principles of accounting. These include the principles:

• integrity and continuity of accounting;
• property isolation (from other organizations);
• documenting all activities;
• quantitative measurement and calculation of the facts of economic activity;
• rationality and consistency; and other economic principles.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be noted that the accounting policy is a set of rules and methods for conducting accounting and tax accounting, which the organization constantly and without fail follows.

For tax purposes, the Policy provides the rules, based on which the organization systematizes and summarizes information about its own business operations during the tax period in order to determine the taxable base for specific tax deductions.

For the purposes of booze. accounting The policy solves issues related to the preparation of a chart of accounts, the adoption of forms of documents and registers, and the preparation of specific instructions for keeping records. 

The Chief Accountant is involved in drawing up the Regulation, after which it is approved by the head.

Accounting policy is divided into two parts – accounting and tax, including methodological and organizational and technical sections.

The policy is based on the basic principles of accounting, and the preparation of the Regulation is mandatory for every business entity.