1. Users accounting

One of the most important functions of accounting is to ensure interested parties and organizations with high-quality accounting information. Users of accounting information, as a rule, are persons who have an interest and need in it and have certain knowledge and skills in order to understand, evaluate and analyze it.

It is obvious that different categories of users are interested in receiving various kinds information. All users of accounting information can be divided into two groups. These are internal and external users. Internal users are users within the business entity itself. First of all, such users include owners (founders, participants), administration (executives, managers and specialists different levels management), employees of the organization.

Owners (founders, participants) want to know how effectively their invested funds are being used. Owners are most interested in the profitability indicators of a particular type of activity, the amount of profit received, the ratio of assets and liabilities, the amount net assets, data on the directions of use of equity capital, etc. Employees of the administration of a business entity, depending on their position and functions performed, need all accounting information presented both in the form of reporting and additional, grouped according to certain characteristics.

The manager, depending on the level of decisions he makes, may request from the accounting apparatus the information necessary for his work. To do this, he must have certain knowledge about what information is contained in primary documents and accounting registers. Special meaning has information about profitability and cost individual species products (works or services), compliance of actual and planned expenses by items and elements, information for monitoring and analyzing the financial results of the organization.

In addition, for managers different levels management needs such accounting information on the basis of which it is possible to build plans and forecasts for the short and long term. Employees of the organization are mainly interested in data on the stability and profitability of its activities, security of job retention and wages.

External users accounting information can be divided into users with direct and indirect financial interest. External users of accounting information with a direct financial interest include persons with close economic ties with the organization. These are, first of all, actual and potential investors, banks, suppliers and other creditors.

Investors and their representatives are primarily interested in information on the basis of which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the scale of the organization’s activities, its financial stability, i.e. ability to repay their obligations in a timely manner, about the riskiness and profitability of the investments proposed or made by them, about the efficiency of using invested funds, etc. Credit organizations, as partners, also need information about the financial stability of the organization, information about the organization’s activities in the future, i.e. how quickly and completely the issued loans and borrowings will be repaid.

In addition, banks are interested in information about the amount of the organization’s own capital and the amount of accounts payable to other persons. Suppliers and other creditors are interested in information about cash, stocks of materials, goods and finished products, accounts receivable, i.e. information on the basis of which it is possible to determine the solvency of the organization.

External users with indirect financial interests usually include bodies authorized to manage public and municipal property, tax authorities, statistical authorities, auditing companies, stock exchanges, buyers, etc. Federal or municipal authorities, authorized to dispose of property located in economic management or operational management, are interested in such accounting information that allows one to evaluate the efficiency of using assets, regulate the organization’s activities in implementing national policy, etc. Tax authorities are interested in data on the state of settlements with the budget.

They are interested in the correctness of the calculation tax base By various types taxes, data compliance tax returns and accounting data, the accuracy of independent information tax accounting. Statistical authorities use indicators of reporting forms filled out using accounting data.

These forms present not only cost, but also natural indicators. These indicators are used in the generation and presentation of information for decision-making at regional and state levels. Audit firms are interested in complete and detailed information about all financial economic activity organization necessary to confirm the accuracy of the information provided financial statements.

It must be emphasized that external users, having the right to part or all of internal accounting information, are obliged not to disclose it and maintain trade secrets. List of information, the disclosure of which may result in a reduction economic benefits for an organization and constituting a trade secret, is determined by its head (in accordance with current legislation) . Thus, when generating accounting information for specific users, it is necessary to detail and group the data in accordance with their requests.

Basically, accounting information is presented in the form of statements, supplemented, if necessary, with explanations and clarifications (disclosure of financial statements indicators). "

2. Structure balance sheet

The main element of the balance sheet (the unit of information reflected in it) is the balance sheet item (line). The balance sheet item corresponds to the indicator (at the beginning or end of the reporting period) characterizing certain types of economic resources(assets) and sources of their formation (owner’s capital and attracted capital or liabilities).

In Russian accounting, the balance is built based on the formal duality equation described by I.F. Sher (Assets = = Capital + Liabilities). All indicators (balance sheet items) reflecting objects of accounting supervision that support production, economic and financial activities are divided into two opposite sides: on the left - assets, on the right - sources own funds (equity) And accounts payable(passives). In current terminology Russian accounting left-hand side The balance sheet is called “Asset”, the right one is called “Liability”. In Western accounting, particularly American accounting, the right side of the balance sheet is called either “Capital” or “Liabilities and Equity”. Obviously, in the near future, such discrepancies will be eliminated, since there are no economic and legal prerequisites for it.

Information generated in accounting, is of interest to a wide range of interested users. Interested users are considered legal or individuals who have any information needs about the organization and have sufficient knowledge and skills to understand, evaluate, use, and desire to study data. Users have different requirements for accounting information, which is primarily due to the nature of their interests:

1) owners of the organization interested in the information necessary to assess the organization’s financial prospects in the future and the possibility of receiving income in the form of dividends;

2) board of directors and administrative and managerial staff of the organization interested in information that allows one to assess the financial position of the organization, the volume of products sold (work performed or services provided) and the profitability of certain types of products (works, services), as well as assess the possibility of expanding the scope of business and client base;

3) employees of the organization interested in the information necessary to determine the stability and profitability of the organization, the ability of employers to guarantee wages, the availability social guarantees and job preservation;

4) investors and their representatives interested in the information necessary to assess the financial performance of the organization, the riskiness and profitability of proposed (or made) investments, the prospects for the development of the organization, its ability to pay dividends;

5) credit and financial institutions interested in information that allows us to determine the financial position of a business entity, its solvency, the possibility of timely repayment of debt on received loans or borrowings and the amount of interest due;

6) authorities (federal, regional bodies and organs local authorities) interested in the information necessary to carry out the functions assigned to them regarding the distribution of resources, regulation National economy, development and implementation of national policy, determining directions for regional development, as well as for solving social issues;

7) tax authorities interested in information that allows us to determine the correctness of tax calculations and the formation of the tax base, as well as the timeliness of repayment of debt to the budget;

8) suppliers and contractors interested in information that allows one to determine the solvency of a business entity and its financial stability;

9) buyers and customers interested in information that allows one to determine the business development prospects of an economic entity;

10) audit companies are interested in information that makes it possible to determine, on the one hand, the legality and legality of the transactions performed by an economic entity whose financial statements are subject to audit, and on the other hand, the solvency of the audited entity in terms of repaying obligations for services provided, provided that the audit is paid for by the audited entity itself;

11)public is interested in information that allows us to determine the achievements of a particular economic entity, its contribution to the development of the economy and improving the well-being of society, and the directions of social policy.

Users of accounting information can be divided into groups - internal and external (Fig. 1.5).

Rice. 1.5. Users of accounting information

Internal users - administrative bodies business entity and its personnel who have the opportunity free access to all the necessary financial and management accounting. This group also includes the owners of the organization.

External users operate outside the business entity, they are usually divided into the following groups:

users with direct financial interest- current and potential investors, as well as financial organizations and commercial banks providing lending to a business entity; this group is primarily interested in the financial position of the organization, the financial results of its work and the liquidity of the balance sheet;

users with indirect financial interest- tax and financial authorities servicing banks, government organizations, Insurance companies, whose interests lie in obtaining information about the development prospects of this organization and intentions to continue its activities in the future;

users without financial interest- arbitration and statistical bodies; this group is interested in information in order to verify the legality and legality of transactions performed, as well as in order to obtain statistical information.

External users use accounting (financial) reporting data to evaluate the organization's activities. They can obtain this information from the authorities state statistics or directly within the organization itself. At the same time, tax authorities and audit companies have the right to receive any other accounting information necessary to verify the correctness of tax calculations or accounting.

Since the interests of the users concerned differ, accounting cannot satisfy them information needs V in full. The information generated in accounting satisfies the needs that are common to all users.

Requirements for accounting information.

Based main goal accounting - ensuring all users necessary information to make reasonable management decisions, formation and development of production, economic and financial activities organization and in accordance with the mentioned law, the main objectives of accounting are:

formation of complete and reliable information about the economic and financial activities of the organization, its property status and performance results, i.e. information necessary for making informed management decisions;

providing information necessary to control:

1) compliance with the law Russian Federation when carried out by the organization business transactions and their feasibility;

2) the presence and movement of property and liabilities;

3) for the use of material, labor and financial resources in accordance with approved norms, standards and estimates;

Preventing negative results from the organization’s financial and economic activities and identifying internal reserves to ensure its financial stability. The information generated within the framework of accounting is used, as noted, to develop tactics and strategies for the development of the organization’s activities.

The decisions users make based on accounting information depend on the quality of that information. Therefore, the information generated in accounting must be useful for users. For information to be considered useful to them, it must meet the requirements of relevance, reliability and comparability. Such requirements are also called quality characteristics information.

Relevance information is determined by its ability to influence decisions made by interested users, helping them evaluate past, present and future events, confirming or changing previously made assessments of the organization's activities. The relevance of information is influenced by its content and materiality. Essential information is recognized, the absence or inaccuracy of which may influence the decisions of interested users.

Reliable information is considered to contain no significant errors. To be reliable, information must objectively reflect the facts of economic activity. The latter should be reflected in accounting based not so much on their legal form how many of them economic content and business conditions, i.e. The priority of content over form must be respected. Reliability of information is ensured by:

truthfulness- objective representation of the actual state of affairs;

neutrality- information should be free from one-sidedness and should not influence the decisions and assessments of interested users in order to achieve predetermined results or consequences;

prudence(caution) - property and income should not be overstated, and liabilities and expenses should not be understated. In this case, the creation of hidden reserves is not allowed. One of the specific manifestations of prudence is the reflection of profit in accounting only after the completion of business transactions (facts of economic activity), and loss - from the moment the assumption of the possibility of its (loss) occurrence arises;

completeness- information generated in accounting must reflect all the facts of economic activity.

Comparability means that interested users should be able to compare information about the organization across different periods time to determine trends in financial situation And financial results activities of the organization. Users of information must also be able to compare information different organizations to compare their financial position, financial performance and changes in financial position.

Compliance with the comparability requirement is ensured by ensuring that interested users are informed of the accounting policies accepted organization, any changes in such policies and the effect of these changes on the financial position and financial performance of the organization. Ensuring comparability does not mean unification and does not imply any obstacles to improving accounting rules and accounting procedures. An organization should not at all keep records of any fact of economic activity in the same way as before, if the adopted accounting policy does not ensure the implementation of the requirements of appropriateness and reliability.

In practice, there is often a choice between different requirements. The challenge is to achieve an optimal balance between requirements. Thus, when generating information in accounting, factors limiting the relevance and reliability of information must be taken into account.

One factor that may limit the relevance of information is its timeliness. Excessive delay in providing information to interested users may lead to loss of relevance. To ensure the timeliness of information, it is often necessary to provide it before all aspects of the business are known, thereby compromising the reliability of the information. Waiting for the moment when all aspects of the fact of economic activity become known can provide high reliability information. but make it of little use to interested users, i.e. the information will lose its relevance.

It should be noted that the benefits derived from accounting information must exceed the costs of preparing (receiving) the information. This means that accounting should not be cumbersome and the costs of maintaining it should be lower than the cost of the results expected from using the generated information.

In a broad sense, users of accounting information are legal entities or individuals interested in obtaining accounting information about an organization.

Interested users of information generated in accounting are considered to be persons who have any needs for information about the organization and have knowledge and skills sufficient to understand, evaluate and use this information, as well as having a desire to study this information.

Interested users of information, in addition to the management and owners of the organization, include tax, financial and regulatory authorities, banks, insurance companies, audit firms, buyers and customers, suppliers and contractors, investors and other third-party users of accounting information.

The management and owners of the organization are among the internal users, and the organization's employees and third-party users are among the external users of accounting information.

Providing accounting information to internal and external users is one of the main purposes of accounting.

With respect to information for internal users, the purpose of accounting is to generate information useful to the organization's management for making management decisions.

In relation to information for external users, the purpose of accounting is to generate information about the financial position, financial performance and changes in the financial position of the organization that is useful to a wide range of interested users in making decisions.

Interested users pursue the following main interests in the information generated in accounting:

1) investors are interested in information about the riskiness and profitability of the investments they intend to make or make; about the possibility and feasibility of managing investments; about the organization’s ability to pay dividends;

2) employees of the organization and their representatives are interested in information about the stability and profitability of employers; about the organization’s ability to guarantee wages and job security;

3) lenders are interested in information that allows them to determine whether the loans they provided to the organization will be repaid on time and the corresponding interest will be paid;

4) suppliers and contractors are interested in information that allows them to determine whether the amounts due to them will be paid on time;

5) buyers and customers are interested in information about the continuation of the organization’s activities;

6) tax and other regulatory authorities are interested in information to carry out their functions, etc.

Since the interests of interested users vary significantly, accounting cannot fully satisfy all the information needs of these users.

The information generated in accounting must satisfy the needs that are common to all users.

To meet the general needs of interested users in accounting, information is generated about the financial position of the organization, the financial results of its activities and changes in its financial position.

The financial position of an organization is determined by the resources at its disposal, the structure of sources of these resources, the liquidity and solvency of the organization, as well as its ability to adapt to changes in the operating environment.

Organization providing accounting information various categories users, should ensure efficiency (timeliness), reliability of the information should not be contained significant errors and distortions), neutrality (information should be free from one-sidedness), comparability and consistency of information for different periods of time.

At the same time, all users of accounting information are required to keep the organization’s trade secrets.

To fulfill these requirements and have a clear understanding by any users of the valuable accounting data and financial reporting indicators of a particular organization, it is necessary to have unified legal and methodological foundations organization and maintenance of accounting as a whole for the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the RF).

To solve this and other problems in the Russian Federation, a system has been developed and is constantly being improved. regulatory regulation accounting.

This system is aimed at continuous improvement of the accounting process and understanding the role of accounting as a management function.

All users of accounting information belong to one of two groups - internal or external users.

To internal users include those who perform managerial functions, owners, managers. They need accounting data so that they can plan, control and evaluate the organization’s activities, as well as to perform other functions.

To external users include third-party consumers of information who have a direct or indirect financial interest.

External recipients accounting information is represented by the following legal entities and individuals: - not working in the organization, but interested in its successful life (for example, investors, buyers, shareholders or creditors); - those who do not participate in the work of the enterprise, but are indirectly interested (federal and municipal authorities, tax services, stock market participants); - not interested financially, but in a situation of business cooperation ( audit organizations, arbitration, government bodies statistics).

As a rule, all users value high-quality and useful accounting information. Useful accounting information is distinguished by two fundamental characteristics - value (significance) and reliability (reliability) of the data.

The value (significance) of information can be judged by its ability to influence whether certain management decisions will be made. Factors by which you can determine how valuable this or that information is include:

1. Timeliness. The user must receive information on time, otherwise it will not reflect the real state of affairs at the enterprise.

2. Predictiveness. This characteristic shows the development trends of the enterprise, which helps predict the organization’s work for the future.

3. Feedback from the source of information.

It helps to effectively implement operational management decisions.

4. Reliability (trustworthiness). This factor guarantees that the user is provided with exclusively objective, reliable and as complete data as possible. The information obtained can be considered reliable if it is characterized by impartiality (objectivity), as well as transparency, with the help of which business transactions that have already occurred are verified and confirmed.

3. Fundamentals of organizing financial accounting. In the economy of any socio-economic system, various economic entities arise and function - enterprises and organizations of all forms of ownership. Organization management is carried out on the basis of information

most of which is supplied according to accounting data. Accounting represents an ordered collection system, registration and summarization of information in

Accounting financial accounting provides accounting information about the organization's performance to its external users: shareholders, partners, creditors, tax and statistical authorities, banks providing financing, etc. From these positions, data financial accounting don't represent trade secret. Maintaining financial records is mandatory and in a strictly regulated form in accordance with legal requirements. Financial accounting is characterized by adherence to generally accepted accounting principles, application monetary units measurements, frequency and objectivity.

Accounting challenges are as follows: tasks:

generation of complete and reliable information about the business processes and results of the organization’s activities, necessary for both internal and external users of financial statements;

ensuring control over the availability and movement of property, the use of material, labor and financial resources in accordance with established standards, standards and estimates;

timely prevention of negative results of economic activities of organizations and identification of intra-economic reserves to ensure its financial stability.

promoting competition in the market.

Information generated in accounting must be useful users, appropriate from the point of view of interested users (if the presence or absence of it has or is capable of influencing the decisions of these users), significant(lack or inaccuracy of information may influence the decisions of interested users), reliable(must objectively reflect the facts of economic activity to which it actually or supposedly relates), neutral(free from one-sidedness), full.

Accounting theory. Cheat sheets Olshevskaya Natalya

12. Internal and external users of accounting information

There are internal and external users of accounting information.

Internal users– persons employed in the management apparatus, owners, managers who need accounting information to plan, control and evaluate business operations, and perform other functions.

External users– third-party consumers of information with direct or indirect financial interest.

External users of accounting information include organizations:

Not working in the organization, but directly interested in its successful activities (shareholders, investors, creditors, buyers, etc.);

Those who do not directly participate in the work of the organization, but have an indirect financial interest ( tax service, government authorities, various financial institutions and stock market participants);

Having no financial interest other than business cooperation (audit firms, statistical bodies, arbitration and other entities).

High-quality and useful accounting information is especially important for users. The usefulness of information is characterized by such features as value(significance) and reliability(reliability) of information.

Value (significance) of information is determined by its ability to influence the adoption of certain management decisions. The factors that determine the value of information are:

timeliness - information must reach the user on time, otherwise it will no longer reflect the real state of the organization;

predictiveness– reflects the development trends of the organization and thereby serves as the basis for predicting the organization’s work for the future;

Availability feedback with a source of information– ensures the implementation of operational management decisions;

reliability(reliability) is the presentation of truthful, complete and objective data to the user. Information is considered reliable if it has transparency, allowing you to check and confirm the facts of completed business transactions, and neutrality.