The first paragraph of Article 36 of the Accounting Law stipulates: "All units shall set up accounting institutions according to the needs of the accounting industry, or set up accounting personnel and accounting supervisors in relevant institutions; If you do not have the conditions for setting up, you should entrust an intermediary agency that has been approved to set up a bookkeeping business to do bookkeeping. " Article 11 of the Law on the Administration of Agency Bookkeeping stipulates: "Units that should set up accounting books according to law but do not have the conditions to set up meeting institutions or accountants shall entrust agency bookkeeping institutions to handle accounting business." It can be seen that small enterprises that do not have an accounting institution can adopt the method of agency bookkeeping.
I. Overview of Agency Bookkeeping
Agency bookkeeping refers to a kind of social accounting service activity in which accounting consulting agencies, service agencies and other organizations are approved to set up intermediary agencies engaged in accounting agency bookkeeping business to accept the entrustment of independent accounting units to handle bookkeeping, accounting and reimbursement business instead of them, which is a manifestation of socialization and specialization of accounting work.
The main body of agency bookkeeping is an intermediary institution established with approval to engage in accounting agency bookkeeping business, including accounting firms, agency bookkeeping companies and other intermediaries with agency bookkeeping qualifications.
The object of agency bookkeeping is an independent accounting unit that does not have an accounting institution or full-time accounting personnel in relevant institutions, such as small economic organizations and individual industrial and commercial households that should set up accounts.
The services of agency bookkeeping include: reviewing original vouchers, filling in bookkeeping vouchers, registering accounting books, preparing accounting statements, providing accounting statements to relevant government departments and other users of accounting statements on a regular basis, providing tax information to tax authorities on a regular basis, and undertaking other accounting services entrusted by clients.
The adoption of agency bookkeeping in small enterprises can not only standardize operations and improve the quality of accounting information, but also have the following advantages: First, the adoption of agency bookkeeping in small enterprises can save expenses and costs. Due to the small business volume of small enterprises, one professional accountant of the bookkeeping agency can complete the accounting business of several small enterprises, and can reduce the fees by virtue of economies of scale.
Second, it can provide specialized services for small enterprises. Accounting is divided into several different positions, and small enterprises, affected by the scale and efficiency of the enterprise, often employ only one accountant. Due to the limitation of their knowledge structure and work experience, they don't know how to deal with difficult problems in finance and taxation. Besides experienced accountants, bookkeeping agencies are also equipped with experts in various fields, such as cost accounting, tax planning and fund management. If small enterprises adopt agency bookkeeping, they can enjoy the professional public resources of agency bookkeeping institutions, and their accounting work will be more professional and standardized.
Third, we can treat every investor more fairly. For small joint-stock or partnership enterprises, if a single shareholder or partner controls the finance, it will also control the whole company. In order to avoid unnecessary disputes between shareholders or partners, enterprises can hire professional bookkeeping agencies to manage accounting affairs, solve the contradiction between investors' suspicion of financial problems, and they can use their rich experience to solve temporary financial problems for customers. It will be more professional, fair and neutral to hire a professional accounting agency.
Fourth, it can avoid financial risks for small enterprises. If a small enterprise hires a full-time or part-time accountant by itself, it is difficult to implement the accounting supervision function, let alone the internal control of accounting, and it is impossible to effectively supervise the work of accounting personnel. If there is a risk of accounting mistakes or penalties caused by taxation, the enterprise itself will bear the responsibility; However, the professional bookkeeping agency has signed a contract with the enterprise. If the above problems occur, the bookkeeping agency will be responsible, so as to avoid financial risks for small enterprises.
Visible, in the process of enterprise development in the new period, professional agency bookkeeping company has its strong vitality and attraction, it can play a greater role in a certain period of time, and there is a trend of rapid development and growth, so it is very necessary to fully understand the agency bookkeeping and develop the agency bookkeeping industry. However, there are many problems in China's agency bookkeeping industry at present, which seriously affect the development of small enterprises' agency bookkeeping.
Second, China's small business problems in bookkeeping
(A) external factors affecting the development of agency bookkeeping
1.The corresponding laws and regulations are not perfect.
Because the development of agency bookkeeping in China is not as sound as that in foreign countries, the government departments have not paid enough attention to the agency bookkeeping industry, lacking legislative supervision and policy guidance, and the corresponding laws and regulations are few and not sound enough. Only 1994 issued the Interim Measures for the Management of Agency Bookkeeping, which was used for more than ten years until the implementation of the new Measures for the Management of Agency Bookkeeping in 2005. Agency bookkeeping is a relatively new undertaking for our country. Therefore, under the condition of incomplete understanding, the relevant preferential policies and policies of government departments to support the agency bookkeeping industry are still relatively few, so the development of the agency bookkeeping system for small enterprises is correspondingly restricted.
2. Lack of publicity and understanding.
Due to the insufficient publicity of the Accounting Law, especially the Administrative Measures on Agency Bookkeeping, people's understanding of the Accounting Law and agency bookkeeping is insufficient, resulting in many small economic organizations, including industry and commerce, construction industry, especially the vast number of individual industrial and commercial households, knowing little about agency bookkeeping, lacking understanding and understanding. Many smaller companies often hire part-time accountants or full-time and handyman accountants with low quality through the recommendation of friends, and even regard whether they can make false accounts as the primary condition for hiring accountants. Such accountants are in a state of disorderly management, their professional level and integrity can not be standardized, and the employing units can not guarantee to get the services they deserve at a lower cost. However, due to the lack of understanding of the agency bookkeeping system, I don't know how to entrust the agency bookkeeping intermediary to carry out agency bookkeeping, which seriously affects the development and growth of small enterprises.
3. The supervision of the agency bookkeeping institution is not in place.
The examination and approval department of the agency bookkeeping institution is the financial department, which conducts a routine annual inspection of the agency bookkeeping institution every year. However, in some places, the financial department's management of the agency bookkeeping institution only stays in the audit when approving the annual inspection of the agency bookkeeping license, and has not conducted necessary supervision on the working procedures and business quality of the agency bookkeeping institution, and has not been able to effectively guide its operation, internal management and system construction, resulting in ineffective supervision of the agency bookkeeping institution, resulting in many problems.
(B) the internal factors affecting the development of agency bookkeeping
The internal factors that affect the agency bookkeeping of small enterprises include the problems of the agency bookkeeping staff and the problems existing in the agency bookkeeping industry itself.
1.Agent Bookkeeper's own problems
First, the overall quality of accountants is not high. On the one hand, the employment of accounting personnel is driven by interests and troubled by human relations, resulting in uneven quality of accounting personnel, and even the phenomenon of undocumented posts occurs from time to time. On the other hand, because the licensing measures of "agency bookkeeping" are not very effective, a small part of the current agency bookkeeping business is undertaken by accounting firms, while most of them are concurrently held by others. Many "entrusted agency bookkeepers" do not have legal qualifications, which not only interferes with the seriousness of the law, but also easily breeds many other problems. Therefore, the employment situation of accounting personnel is really not optimistic.
Second, accountants are not strong in principle and professional ethics. Because the agent bookkeeper is paid for serving the enterprise, some enterprises will make some unrealistic accounts for their own enterprises and other illegal requirements, while the agent bookkeeper often has weak principles and professional ethics, and agrees to the requirements of the enterprise. This will easily lead to the fact that the authenticity of the original accounting documents provided by the agent bookkeeping object can not be verified during the entrustment process, which will lead to the distortion of financial statements, cause certain judgment errors to information users and cause huge losses to the country. There are also some individual enterprises that provide false tickets such as costs and expenses, have tickets but no physical objects, fill out tickets with false quantity and amount, and sell raw materials without tickets; Forge bank documents. In the light, the data of report users is inaccurate and supervision is not in place; What's more, it has helped enterprises to evade taxes and caused great losses to the national tax revenue.
2. Problems existing in the agency bookkeeping industry itself
First of all, the development of the industry is not perfect. The agency bookkeeping industry itself has not developed for a long time, and it exists with the development of economy and the needs of companies. Therefore, the soundness of this industry itself is not enough, and the bookkeeping services of many bookkeeping companies are inconsistent and mixed. However, small enterprises don't know about the selected agency bookkeeping company, so they may choose a bookkeeping company with poor service level, which leads to nonstandard and untrue bookkeeping in the bookkeeping process.
Secondly, the business quality of the agency bookkeeping institution is not high. The expansion of agency bookkeeping business is not suitable for the professional level and quality of employees. Most agency bookkeeping institutions are limited to bookkeeping for entrusting units, preparing financial and accounting statements, providing tax information to tax authorities (or engaging in tax agency), etc., and have not really fulfilled their accounting supervision functions. However, in the implementation of accounting supervision, many bookkeeping agencies only pay attention to the commitment of bookkeeping business, ignoring the research and formulation of specific operating procedures and internal quality control system of bookkeeping business, which is arbitrary in business operation.
Third, the countermeasures and suggestions to promote the development of agency bookkeeping industry
(A) the relevant countermeasures for the external factors of small enterprises' agency bookkeeping
1.Improve relevant laws and regulations Relevant departments should actively formulate relevant laws and regulations for small business bookkeeping and their implementation rules, and improve the legal norms for small business bookkeeping. Make it have laws to follow, clarify legal responsibilities, and strictly abide by the law. Clarify the respective rights and obligations of the principal and agent, and help both parties to clarify their respective legal responsibilities in the form of contracts. And further standardize the establishment, examination and approval, annual inspection and business management of agency bookkeeping institutions. Strictly examine the qualifications of bookkeeping agents, and clean up the bad personnel in the bookkeeping team.
2. Continue to vigorously promote agency bookkeeping.
The new "Management Measures for Agency Bookkeeping" has been implemented for two years, and the agency bookkeeping industry is constantly developing. However, there are still many groups who have insufficient understanding of agency bookkeeping, which affects the development of agency bookkeeping. Under the background of the implementation of the new enterprise accounting system, vigorously promoting agency bookkeeping by various media means can further highlight the legal status of agency bookkeeping, enhance the understanding of small-scale enterprises, individual industrial and commercial households and other small economic organizations on agency bookkeeping, and clarify the implementation norms of agency bookkeeping, so as to achieve certain economic benefits by rational use of agency bookkeeping system, thus promoting the popularization and perfection of agency bookkeeping system.
3. Strengthen supervision and government support.
The financial department should strengthen the supervision and management of agency bookkeeping institutions, conduct a comprehensive clean-up of all individuals and institutions engaged in agency bookkeeping, and establish an archive of agency bookkeeping institutions; Establish a system of regular inspection and annual inspection, and rectify the bookkeeping agencies that have not passed the inspection or annual inspection; Standardize the practice behavior of bookkeeping agencies and personnel. At the same time, we should actively study the measures and methods to support the development of the agency bookkeeping industry and introduce some fiscal and tax preferential policies in due course. Take targeted measures to actively promote the implementation of agency bookkeeping. In particular, the tax authorities should take advantage of their close ties with small-scale business organizations to help promote agency bookkeeping.
(B) to strengthen the management of bookkeeping agents.
1.Strengthen high-level, diversified and follow-up education.
The level of higher accounting education determines the quality and work quality of accountants, and will affect the social and economic development to a certain extent. Accounting education should not only attach importance to strengthening high-level academic education, but also carry out diversified education, so that the academic level and knowledge literacy of accounting personnel can be comprehensively improved. However, there is an inevitable connection between follow-up education and improving the quality of accountants. Through follow-up education, the professional ability and professional ethics of accountants can be improved, so that they can better meet the requirements of economic development. Only through large-scale training, improving the moral, professional and overall quality of accounting team and updating knowledge through regular continuing education can we reverse the unfavorable situation of accounting team and cultivate high-quality accounting personnel.
2. Establish correct values and strengthen professional ethics awareness.
Integrity, objectivity, independence, confidentiality, technical standards, professional ability and moral self-discipline are the quality abilities that accountants must possess. We should put honesty in the first place and take honesty as the standard of life. An excellent accountant should not only have first-class professional knowledge, but also have first-class professional ethics. Strictly regulate accounting behavior, strictly perform statutory duties, be loyal to their duties, adhere to principles, establish a correct value orientation, and strengthen professional ethics awareness to ensure the quality of accounting work and be responsible to the employer.
(C) Countermeasures for the problems existing in the bookkeeping of small enterprises.
1.Strengthen control and standardize operation.
The bookkeeping agency shall formulate a sound internal control system and specific operational norms, and strictly implement the relevant laws and regulations. Strictly control the quality, handle related businesses in accordance with strict accounting operation standards, and implement a strict four-level review and inspection system. After recording vouchers, it is necessary to keep accounts first, then review them, so as to clarify economic responsibilities, reduce accounting errors, and ensure timely and effective service to the entrusting unit.
2. Strengthen internal management and establish a sound quality control system.
First, standardize accounting procedures. A special person is responsible for auditing the original vouchers provided by the enterprise, accounting treatment and preparation of financial and accounting statements, and auditing work. To achieve unified procedures, clear responsibilities, strict supervision, and checks at all levels.
Second, formulate a quality control system and implement responsibility management. Formulate corresponding standards and requirements for each link of accounting, and all agencies should regularly assess and comment on the process and results of accounting and auditing for each employee, and link the results of assessment and evaluation with wages and bonuses, and give certain rewards and punishments. Implement the system of survival of the fittest, resolutely dismiss employees who do not meet the work requirements, and improve the work quality of employees.
Third, earnestly perform the accounting management function and improve the service level. Agency bookkeeping institutions should strictly follow the accounting requirements, do a good job in bookkeeping, accounting, preparation of financial and accounting statements and other daily work, and also assist the entrusting unit to do a good job in management and be good staff. Financial analysis is an important means for accountants to provide services. Agency accountants should establish a set of scientific and applicable financial analysis index system according to the scale and operating characteristics of the entrusting unit, regularly analyze and judge the profitability, solvency and operating ability of the entrusting unit, timely assess the financial status and production and operation efficiency of the entrusting unit, and provide reference information for the owner's business decision-making. Assist the entrusting unit to establish and improve the financial management system, cashier and warehouse keeper post responsibility system, internal audit system, etc., and regularly visit the entrusting unit to check the implementation and implementation of the above systems and solve the existing problems.
IV. Concluding remarks
With the development and progress of society, the economy is also accelerating development and improvement. The financial control goal of many enterprises is to "maximize enterprise value", and agency bookkeeping can not only save expenses for small enterprises, but also provide professional accounting services for enterprises. Therefore, although there are some problems in implementing agency bookkeeping in small enterprises, its advantages cannot be ignored. As long as we treat it correctly, use it and improve it, we believe that agency bookkeeping is a good existence for small enterprises and its prospects will be bright.