AUDIT OF CASH ACCOUNTING

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the basics of organizing an audit of accounting for the movement and distribution of funds and possible abuses associated with their theft.

Keywords: cash, audit, bank accounts, cash desk, organization, non-cash payments.

Cash is the fundamental object of the audit, which is due to the continuity of their circulation over time, as well as the fact that this economic category is directly or indirectly accompanies any business operation of the enterprise.

An audit of cash transactions includes an audit of cash, banking and foreign exchange transactions. The main purpose of the audit is to establish the legality, reliability and appropriateness of transactions with the company's funds, the correctness of their reflection in the accounting.

At most enterprises, the volume of transactions with funds is significant, so checking them is a laborious process, although the procedure itself is quite simple. Increased attention is required from the auditor, since in practice the largest number of violations and abuses by officials is associated with this particular area of accounting.

In the course of the audit, the auditor is guided by the legislation of the Russian Federation and the regulatory documents of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Central Bank of Russia.

During the audit of cash transactions, the following tasks are solved:

• familiarization with the conditions of keeping cash, securities and other monetary documents at the cash desk;

• study of the actual procedure for documenting transactions for the receipt and consumption of funds, maintaining a cash book, accounting for cash transactions;

• verification of compliance with cash discipline (timeliness and completeness of posting cash at the cash desk and return to the bank of excess cash balances established by the rules for cash settlements with legal entities, the procedure for issuing and returning to the cashier of accountable amounts, the targeted use of funds received from the bank by checks, including currency, etc.);

• establishing the number of ruble and foreign currency accounts opened with banks, the legality of transactions on each account;

• determination of the legality and expediency of operations for the receipt and withdrawal of funds from the bank accounts of the enterprise, including foreign currency, the correctness of their reflection in the accounting;

• checking the status of payment and settlement discipline under concluded agreements.

Sources of information for checking cash transactions are: cash book; cashier reports with attached primary documents (incoming and outgoing cash orders, payrolls, receipts, etc.); cash check books, bank statements for ruble and foreign currency accounts with attached primary documents (invoices, payment orders, payment orders, advice notes, etc.); logs of registration of incoming and outgoing cash orders, payment orders, etc .; accounting registers (statements, journals, orders, machines) for accounts 50, 51, 52, 55, 57, etc .; Main book; balance sheet (form No. 1); Cash flow statement (form No. 4), etc.

The main violations of the accounting of funds arise as a result of non-compliance with the norms of legislative acts (the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the Federal Law "On Accounting" dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ, Regulations on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation ( approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of July 29, 1998 N34n), Regulations on the rules for transferring funds (approved by the Bank of Russia on June 19, 2012 N 383-P), Federal Law "On the use of cash registers in the implementation of cash settlements with the population" of 22 May 2003 No. 54-FZ, Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation "On approval of the Chart of accounts for accounting of financial and economic activities of organizations" dated October 31, 2000 No. 94n, Instructions of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation "On the procedure for conducting cash transactions by legal entities and a simplified procedure for maintaining cash operations by individual entrepreneurs and small businesses "N 3210-U of March 11, 2014, Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation "On approval of guidelines for inventory of property and financial obligations" dated June 13, 1995. N49, Regulation on accounting "Financial statements of the organization" PBU 4/99 (approved by the Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of July 6, 1999, No. 43n).

There are ways to prevent violations in the field of accounting for enterprise cash flows. First of all, this is the improvement of the qualifications of employees of the accounting department, as well as the setting up of an orderly and functional system of internal control (in large enterprises by creating entire services (for example, the Internal Control Service), and in small companies the function of the controller can be performed by the manager himself). The last aspect is intended to limit the powers of the accountant within reasonable limits, as well as control the distribution of financial flows.

And, finally, one of the most effective measures is the creation of an internal audit service in the organization, whose work would stimulate the desire for the correct conduct of accounting and other processes.

When starting to check cash transactions, it is advisable for the auditor to obtain, if possible, complete information about the state of internal control in this area of accounting. Often, funds, both cash and non-cash, are the object of theft and abuse by the cashier, accountant and other officials. It is possible to find out how cash discipline is observed at the enterprise, how tightly control over cash transactions, including with foreign currency, is ensured, how clearly the authorization of various payments from the settlement and other accounts of the enterprise is ensured through actual verification, examination, observation, etc. Testing against a pre-prepared questionnaire is also a useful way of obtaining data.

Questions for assessing the internal control system in the area of accounting for cash transactions may be as follows:

• whether an agreement on liability has been concluded with the cashier;

• whether conditions have been created to ensure the safety of funds;

• whether cases of signing of blank checks and payment orders are allowed;

• whether cash orders, bank payment documents are registered in registration journals;

• whether the necessary details in the cash documents are fully filled in;

• whether cash balances are withdrawn daily at the cash desk;

• how regularly the cashier's reports are submitted to the accounting department and checked by the chief accountant;

• are there any sudden checks of the cash register;

• whether the head of the enterprise signs the cash receipts;

• whether the completeness of the posting of the receipt of funds is checked;

• whether the established cash limit is observed;

• whether the use of funds received from the bank is checked;

• whether there are cases of return of unused reporting amounts received in foreign currency, in ruble equivalent;

• how the chief accountant regularly checks the compliance of the data of primary bank documents and accounting registers;

• whether the compliance of the performed banking operations with the contracts is checked.

To check the status of the cash accounting system, the following questions can be proposed:

• whether schemes have been developed for reflecting cash transactions on the accounts;

• how often the cash book data is checked against the data of accounting registers and primary documents;

• how the bank statements are regularly processed and reflected in the accounting records;

• whether the data of the accounting registers correspond to the Cash Flow Statement (Form No. 4);

• whether the correspondence of the data of the registers for the accounting of cash flows and settlements, etc. is checked.

Based on the test results, the actual attitude of the administration to the organization of accounting, ensuring the safety and targeted use of funds at the enterprise is established. Accordingly, the auditor outlines for himself the objects of increased attention when planning control procedures, the sequence of stages of the audit, specific sources of data, clarifies the audit risk. In order to streamline his actions, it is recommended to develop a special verification program

A correctly drawn up verification program will help the auditor in the future to consistently study various areas of accounting for cash transactions, avoiding repetitions and omissions, purposefully collect the necessary evidence and document it.

References:

1. Federal law No. 402-FZ of 06.12.2011 (ed. of 29.07.2018) "on accounting"// SPS ConsultantPlus.
2. Federal law No. 307-FZ of 30.12.2008 (as amended on 23.04.2018)" on audit activities " // SPS ConsultantPlus.
3. Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation from 31.10.2000 No. 94n (ed. from 08.11.2010)" on approval of the accounting Plan of financial and economic activities of organizations and Instructions for its application " // SPS ConsultantPlus.
4. Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 13.12.2010 No. 167n (ed. from 06.04.2015) "on approval of the accounting Regulations" Estimated liabilities, contingent liabilities and contingent assets" (PBU 8/2010) " / / SPS ConsultantPlus.