Does every company need a Chief Accountant?

For many years traditional Russian accounting was based on the model of “one company – one Chief Accountant”, this issue provokes many questions. That’s why we decided to answer a frequently asked question if every company needs a Chief Accountant.

What Russian Federation legislation says?

Federal law № 402-ФЗ from 6/12/2011 “On Accounting” establishes the legal obligations. It says (see below for direct extracts from the Law):

1. Accounting – the forming of systemized databases and reporting about assets, liabilities, income, costs and facts of business activity
2. The Head of an organization must organize accounting of the organization
3. To organize the accounting, he must choose one of the 3 following options:

a) have an in-house Chief Accountant

b) bestow the responsibility for accounting on any another authorized employee

c) complete a service level agreement for the provision of accounting services

Therefore:

• Every organization must organize its own accounting. Though this is a requirement, it is not necessarily a requirement to have a Chief Accountant.
• Having a Chief Accountant is just 1 of 3 possible options. Our clients’ choice is option “C” offered above, and not option “A”. Therefore, according to the law, they should not have a Chief Accountant.

Signatures

The signature of the Chief Accountant on all statutory reports is no longer required, only the signature of the Head of the organization. The field for a Chief Accountant’s signature exists only on a few old and relatively uncommon reports.

Signatures on primary accounting documents – historically statutory document templates have a field for a Chief Accountant’s signature. But on the majority of statutory templates this is no longer obligatory: each organization can create its own forms as part of its Accounting Policy.

Since 1992 Konsu has been providing accounting outsourcing services in Russia. Our accountants specialize in various industries, which together with our state-of-the-art electronic solutions results in an efficient and riskless accounting.