How to number contracts in an organization. Numbering of contracts in ordinary business activities

The numbering of employment contracts is not mandatory from the point of view of law, which means that the employer has the right to decide for himself how to number documents in his own enterprise or organization.

In our article we will talk in detail about existing numbering rules, and also shed light on questions that interest you.

The Labor Code of the Russian Federation does not stipulate any norms or special rules that relate to the numbering of employment contracts. However, in a letter from Rostrud dated August 9, 2007, number 3045-6-0, it is stated that the number is not mandatory information, which would be provided for in the fifty-seventh article of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, there is a unified form of maintaining accounting documentation for the accounting of labor and its payment, which was approved by the Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation dated January 5, 2004, number 1, and it also provides for the very fact of numbering such documents.

Nevertheless, this resolution is recommended and not mandatory, which means that the employer himself decides how to number employment contracts.

Numbering tasks

Numbering involves assigning each employment contract its own number. This is customary in business to simplify and systematize work with, as well as to level out possible confusion and inconsistencies.

In practice, numbering helps to keep records of employment contracts and other agreements that were drawn up in the organization and, as a result, a simplified search for these documents in the personnel department or archive of the company.

Recommendations and features of numbering employment contracts

Since the current legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for any special numbering rules, in practice a variety of methods for recording documents in enterprises and firms are used.

The Resolution of the State Statistics Committee of January 5, 2004, which we mentioned above, contains current recommendations for the numbering of TD and other agreements. It is therefore recommended to compose the numbering from the number of the employment contract and the numbers that indicate the day, month and year of its execution.

For example, if the employment contract was concluded on January 8, 2016 and had personal number 11, then the numbering will look like this: 11-0812016. Where 11 is the TD number, and the remaining numbers are the date the document was issued.

There are many other options for maintaining numbering in an organization: you can indicate only the document number and year of registration, or the document number, as well as the month and year of registration, depending on the scale of the organization and the wishes of the employer.

The same Resolution of the State Statistics Committee states that it is recommended to start numbering employment contracts first with the new year. However, in practice, organizations often continue to number TDs without updating them every year. There are no mandatory provisions in this regard in the legislation.

Nuances of numbering additional agreements

In practice, it is also customary to number additional agreements using the recommendations above or the own developed accounting system.

Some organizations keep simplified records of additional agreements, using only the agreement number and the year the document was executed. In this case, the numbering will look like this: 08-2016 or 082016. Where 08 is the personal number of the additional agreement, and 2016 is the year the document was executed.

Thus, everything related to the numbering of agreements and employment contracts in the legislation is purely advisory in nature, and therefore is not necessary for implementation in exactly this form. Still, numbering should be done to simplify accounting and systematize documentation, especially if the organization has a large scale and serious “turnover” of personnel.

Moreover, the features and nuances in such cases are individual and directly depend on the specific company or enterprise, its scale, number of personnel and the desire to keep accurate records of executed agreements and employment contracts.

In office work, a personnel employee always has many different documents. In practice, there are situations when you need to quickly find this or that paper; for these purposes, all documents must be subject to strict accounting. For example, registration of work records is carried out in an additional journal. In order to organize activities and order among documents, it would not be amiss to create a journal in the HR department of the enterprise with the numbering of executed contracts. This article will tell you how to correctly assign a number to a concluded contract.

Is numbering of employment contracts required?

No law regulates whether concluded employment contracts in enterprises and firms should be numbered. In this regard, the employer is given freedom of choice: to register contracts and agreements thereto or not to register. However, the answer to this question is given by Rostrud letter No. 3045-6-0 of 2007, establishing recommendations on putting numbering on employment contracts drawn up with employees.

Thus, the law does not oblige employers to number, but only contains advisory provisions in this regard. It is still necessary to register contracts, since during inspections by labor inspectorates such a log is always requested.

You can find out how the journal of registration of employment contracts and additional agreements is drawn up.

Is the numbering of employment contracts new from the new year or not?

Most often, the numbering of employment contracts begins anew every year, as well as orders. It is also not prohibited to continue recording at the beginning of the new year. In organizations where workers are hired in large numbers, several people a day, it is more convenient to start registration anew every year. At enterprises with low staff turnover there is no need to start new registration every year.

The order of numbering of employment contracts in the organization

Contracts are registered in a special journal. It does not have a unified form; it can be compiled arbitrarily, in a form that is convenient for a personnel specialist. Such magazines can be ordered on the website for the production of ready-made forms; the cost does not exceed 300 rubles.
The accounting journal is stitched, its pages are numbered, for reporting purposes it can be registered in the office of the organization, assigning it a number, and then putting a company stamp on it.

The log may contain the following columns:

• number in order starting from the first;
• date of conclusion of the contract;
• Full name hired employee;
• his position;
• type of work;
• signature of the employee upon receipt of the copy;
• note.

It is important to include a column with employee signatures in the book, since if there are signatures, it will not be possible to refute the fact that a copy of the contract was issued to the worker. As a general rule, a document must be issued no later than three days from the moment the citizen is registered for work. The personnel officer can add or remove any columns at his discretion.

Is the numbering of additional agreements to the employment contract per employee or general?

If working conditions or salary change, an agreement is drawn up with the employee about this. Unified accounting procedure for additional There are no agreements for all organizations. Agreements can be registered in three ways:

• in a separate journal established specifically to record additional agreements;
• in the same journal where contracts are maintained;
• by placing a mark in the “Notes” column of the same journal.

The selection is made by the personnel officer taking into account convenience. It is also necessary to register agreements in order to reproduce information after a certain time.

Numbering of employment contracts - sample

Most often the number is given in order. The classic form is to indicate the month and year of admission, and then, through a fraction or a dash, the numbers in order. If the employee, for example, was hired first on February 20, 2018, then the contract registration will look like this: “02/2018-1”.

There is no single template for everyone; each organization develops and agrees on its own form of assigning a number.

Numbering of fixed-term employment contracts

Contracts with an expiration date can be recorded in the same general journal. If the company frequently registers people for a certain period of time, then it is better to create a special book for registration.

In any case, the choice remains with the personnel officer; he acts in the way that is most convenient for him in organizing the accounting of documents.

Numbering of additional agreements to the employment contract

Agreements are registered on the same principle as contracts. Most often, they have a number in order. In order to receive a copy of the agreement in your hands, you will also need to have a signature from the worker.

Thus, in order to organize documents and quickly find the necessary information about the time and conditions for hiring workers, a personnel specialist needs to keep written records of concluded contracts and agreements thereto.

A contract is an agreement between two or more persons on the establishment, modification or termination of civil rights and obligations (in accordance with Article 420 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Correctly adjusted contract work system in an enterprise can prevent unnecessary mistakes and misunderstandings that waste human and financial resources. In addition, it will help avoid many legal disputes.

For example, the simplest error in contract work can bring your organization not only to the arbitration court, but also cause the initiation of a “tax” criminal case. This, in turn, can affect the reputation of the organization, and in the case of tenders, negatively affect their results.

The author of the article, having climbed the career ladder from the position of secretary-assistant to deputy head of the legal department of a large federal unitary enterprise, shares his experience accumulated in the field organization of document flow contracts at the enterprise. In this article we will look in detail at:

• preparation of a draft agreement;
• its approval;
• conclusion of an agreement (signing and sealing);
• registration (including state registration);
• accounting and operational storage, issuance of copies (originals) of contracts;
• formation of a database based on counterparties’ documents;
• organization of contract execution;
• preparation of contracts for archiving.

The main thing is the principle!

At the initial stage of construction contract work systems it is necessary to determine the principle by which it will be built:

• centralized or
• decentralized.

To do this, you should conduct a survey of the business processes and operating methods of the enterprise. Based on the information received, it is possible to decide who will be responsible for organization of contract work:

• a specific structural unit (if choosing a centralized principle) or
• individual employees in different structural divisions (if choosing a decentralized principle).

Having analyzed experience in contract work in Russia, the author of the article can say that in most small and medium-sized companies document flow of contracts“broken” - divided between individual workers. The responsible executor prepares a draft agreement, organizes its approval, the secretary or clerk registers it, and the contract is stored either by the responsible executor, or the chief accountant of the enterprise, or someone else.

In large companies, as a rule, the principle of centralization is used: the responsible executive prepares a draft contract and submits it to the office management service (or contract department), which coordinates, concludes, registers, records and stores contracts, and issues their copies.

At the moment, organizing contract work on a centralized basis is the most optimal for large companies with a network of geographically remote divisions.

Preparation of a draft agreement

Preparation of a draft agreement (drafting your own draft agreement or reviewing one received from the counterparty) carried out by the responsible executor the structural unit that initiates the conclusion of the contract, together with a lawyer.

According to Article 161 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, transactions of legal entities between themselves and with citizens must be made in simple written form, with the exception of transactions requiring notarization.

The draft agreement is submitted for approval and signing as follows: number of copies:

• usually by the number of sides;
• for contracts valid from the date of registration by its authorized body of state power or local government (for example, lease agreements) - by the number of parties + 1 copy for the registering authority.

It is recommended to provide for the following in the structure of any business agreement: sections, which in some cases can be combined or divided:

• Preamble.
• Subject of the agreement.
• Rights and obligations of the parties.
• Cost and payment procedure.
• Special terms of the contract.
• Responsibility of the parties.
• Change, termination and termination of the contract.
• Confidentiality.
• Dispute resolution.
• Force majeure circumstances.
• Duration of the contract.
• Addresses and details of the parties.
• Signatures of the parties.

We check the counterparty!

At the stage of working with the draft contract, the responsible executor is obliged to ensure that the counterparty provides a package of documents. This is due to a number of reasons. The fact is that the concluded agreement may not have legal force (for example, if it was signed by an unauthorized person). To avoid such excesses, you must carefully approach the verification of the counterparty’s documents.

Based on practice, we can say that a full check of the counterparty’s documents (that is, checking not only registration and constituent documents, but also securities, corporate documentation, assets, auditors’ opinions, financial reports, etc.) is advisable when concluding not all contracts. It may be necessary, for example, when merging an organization, since an operating business is being acquired, during the course of which certain obligations may have been created.

The list of documents provided by the counterparty is determined by the legal service of the organization. We present to your attention a sample list of them:

• documents containing information about counterparties:
  • documents provided legal entity:
    • copies of constituent documents,
    • a copy of the document confirming the authority of the head of the legal entity,
      • a copy of the power of attorney, certified in the prescribed manner by the legal entity, and a photocopy of the representative’s passport (if the agreement is signed on behalf of the legal entity not by its director, but by a representative),
    • a copy of the certificate of state registration of a legal entity with all changes,
    • a copy of the letter from the statistical observation authorities on the assignment of codes,
    • a copy of the tax registration certificate,
    • documents containing information including the company's postal address, telephone and bank details,
      • copies of licenses certified by the seal of the organization and the signature of its head to carry out the relevant type of activity, certificates, etc. (in cases provided for by the current legislation of the Russian Federation);
  • documents provided by the counterparty - by an individual:
    • copy of passport,
    • a copy of the certificate of registration with the tax authority at the place of residence,
      • a copy of the certificate of registration as an individual entrepreneur (for individuals - individual entrepreneurs),
    • bank details (if payment is required through a bank),
    • a copy of the insurance certificate of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation.

There is currently no general legal act establishing the procedure for verifying counterparty documents in all organizations in Russia. Although there are separate special regulations. For example, credit institutions and professional securities market participants have the right to request certain information about the counterparty:

• in relation to individuals - last name, first name, as well as patronymic (unless otherwise follows from the law or national custom), citizenship, details of an identity document, details of a migration card, a document confirming the right of a foreign citizen or stateless person to stay (residence) ) in the Russian Federation, address of place of residence (registration) or place of stay, taxpayer identification number (if available);
• in relation to legal entities - name, taxpayer identification number or code of a foreign organization, state registration number, place of state registration and location address.

Based on work practice, we can say that in most cases documents are submitted by the counterparty without problems. This has become the norm in business communication. Problems begin when checking documents. It may turn out, for example, that a license or power of attorney has expired. If, for a number of reasons, the counterparty cannot or does not want to submit documents, this should alert you.

Approval of the draft agreement

Prepared draft agreement the responsible executor submits to the office management service(or contract department) together with package of documents. At our enterprise it consists of:

• draft agreement in electronic form;
• documents prepared by the counterparty;
• approval sheet containing the following information:
  • Full name the responsible executor, indicating his position, the name of the structural unit in which he works,
  • executive visa,
  • visas of executives of the responsible executor,
  • type of document sent for approval (contract, additional agreement),
  • name of the counterparty,
  • list of endorsers,
  • the date of receipt of the document for endorsement and the date of return of the document by the employees approving the contract.

    The approval sheets for draft agreements are registered in a special journal, which makes it possible to clearly record the number of draft agreements received for approval. The journal also reflects the progress of approval of draft agreements. The presence of links to the date of receipt of the contract for approval and the date of return from the visa specialists helps to track the terms of approval by each visa specialist, as well as their violation;

  • explanatory note (if necessary). The explanatory note signed by the responsible executor must contain the following information:
    • justification for the need to conclude an agreement,
    • justification for choosing a counterparty,
    • about the counterparty,
    • subject of the agreement (briefly),
    • contract amount,
    • terms of payment,
    • conditions for receiving payment or fulfilling obligations;
• feasibility study (TES) of the project if necessary. It contains the following information:
  • justification of the feasibility of the transaction,
  • subject of the transaction, total amount of the transaction, other essential conditions,
  • estimate of costs associated with the execution of the transaction, economic consequences of the transaction,
  • timing of the transaction,
  • description of the counterparty: how long has this product (work, service) been present on the market, how has it proven itself, etc.

Please note that the above list of documents is approximate, because Each enterprise establishes its own procedure for contractual work, which largely depends on the type of activity of the organization and the scope of contracts. From the list above, each enterprise has the right to choose those documents that are most optimal for it.

For example, in large trading and manufacturing companies, the presence of an explanatory note to the contract is desirable. It gives a clear idea of ​​the purpose of concluding the contract. If the head of an enterprise has to sign a large number of contracts every day, then an explanatory note significantly reduces the time he spends studying the contract. In addition, it provides necessary information for visa officers.

In large trading companies offering goods or services, standard contracts have been developed; in this case, there is no need to prepare an explanatory note, and possibly an approval sheet. There is no need for these documents in small companies, where the manager can sign up to 2 contracts per day. Therefore, the organization of contract work should be approached creatively, analyzing many factors and choosing the most optimal way to negotiate contracts.

Approval of the draft agreement organized by the office management service(or contract department).

Since contractual relations are serviced by legal, accounting, and financial services, it turns out that contractual work should permeate the entire economic activity of the enterprise. Exactly properly organized negotiation of contracts helps eliminate the possibility of negative consequences associated with the invalidity of the contract or additional economic, tax, currency, customs and other losses.

Each enterprise can independently determine the list of persons carrying out approval of the draft agreement, which should be enshrined in local regulations. As a rule, “vising” positions are:

• lawyer;
• financial director;
• chief accountant;
• head of the concerned department.

The availability of additional visas depends on the specifics of the contract sent for approval.

To optimize the process of agreeing contracts in the organization, they are developing standard forms of contracts, which must be approved by order of the head of the organization (see Example 2). As a rule, this applies to contracts, the conclusion of which is related to the main activity of the enterprise: in trade organizations they are standard supply contracts, insurance companies are developing standard insurance contracts.

Upon conclusion standard contract its draft is agreed only with the legal service, which checks the submitted draft document for compliance with the standard one and checks the counterparty’s documents. This significantly reduces the time required to approve a draft contract.

It is necessary to distinguish standard contracts, approved by the organization, and so-called contract templates, representing sample texts of contracts. Unlike draft standard contracts draft contracts that are drawn up using a template must be agreed upon by a full range of specialists at a particular enterprise.

All specialists coordinating the draft agreement make notes in approval sheet(see Example 3), and if they disagree with the draft agreement, they must write a reasoned conclusion on the comments sheet or draw it up in the form of a separate document (see Example 4).

The approval sheet, developed at our enterprise and shown to you in Example 3, contains a section “Signing the agreement”. But it is relevant only for large enterprises with a large number of persons who have the right to sign contracts. The “Notes” section helps confirm the transfer of documents (their list) by employees of the office management service (contractual department) to the responsible executor for sending the documents to the counterparty, which is very important in case of loss of documents.

If there are no explanatory notes at the enterprise, you can enter additional information in the approval sheet by placing it before the “Approval” section:

The timing of approval of the draft contract by each specialist must be determined in a local regulatory act, this may be the Regulation on contract work. At the same time responsibility for compliance with visa deadlines is entrusted to the specialists carrying out the approval, and control over compliance with deadlines is assigned to the head of the office management service (head of the contract department).

If you have any comments from visa persons to draft agreement it is transferred by employees of the office management service (contractual department) to the contractor to eliminate comments, and then re-sent for approval. If disagreements remain, the responsible executive initiates a meeting with the participation of the heads of interested departments. The meeting is recorded, and based on its results, the director of the organization makes a decision on the advisability or inexpediency of concluding an agreement.

When organizing the contract approval process, one nuance should be taken into account. In a local regulatory document, as a rule, the positions of specialists who have the right to endorse contracts without indicating their names are recorded. This is advisable because in case of dismissal or transfer of a visa person, no changes to the local regulations are required.

However, in the absence of employees (when sent on a business trip, on sick leave) who have the right endorsement of contracts, acting duties of the above specialists are not always appointed. Therefore, in order to carry out the continuous process of agreeing on contracts, an order of the organization may grant the right to endorse draft contracts additionally for specific employees. A sample order is given in Example 5.

Conclusion of an agreement
(signing and stamping)

The draft agreement agreed upon by all specialists is prepared by the office management service (or employees of the contract department) for signing.

There are cases when one of the parties, having received an agreement signed and sealed by the other party, replaced some pages, violating previously reached agreements. In order to avoid such situations, there are several ways in the practice of contract work:

• endorsement (initial) of each page of the contract by the persons who sign it. Maybe endorsement of the text of the contract the head of one of the structural divisions who has been granted such a right, which must be appropriately enshrined in the local regulatory act of the organization, for example, the head of the legal service. In this case, initialing can be carried out using a special stamp, which indicates:
  • name of the organization,
  • number of the contract sheet from the total number of sheets, for example, “Sheet No. 1 of 5 sheets”,
  • signature of the relevant manager;
• stitching of contract sheets indicating the number of stitched, numbered sheets and sealing this information with seals and signatures of the parties. Typically, the inscription looks as shown in Example 6. Particular attention should be paid to affixing a seal impression when certifying a document. It should include part of the job title of the person signing the document and part of the sheet on which it is written “Stitched, numbered, sealed ___ sheets.” It is this arrangement of seal impressions that helps avoid document forgery.

Right to sign an agreement have:

• persons holding the relevant position, in accordance with the constituent documents of the organization,
• persons who have received a power of attorney.

It should be taken into account that even whenthe contract is signed not a representative A the first person of the company - it may not always have the authority to complete a transaction.

For example, a decision to make a major transaction, the subject of which is the property of a joint-stock company, the value of which is more than 50% of the book value of the company’s assets as of the date of the decision to make the transaction, must be approved by the general meeting of shareholders (Article 79 of the Federal Law of December 26, 1995 No. 208-FZ “On Joint-Stock Companies”).

A similar procedure has been introduced for managers of unitary enterprises. In accordance with Article 23 of the Federal Law of November 14, 2002 No. 161-FZ “On State and Municipal Unitary Enterprises,” the head of a unitary enterprise is limited in the size of transactions. Thus, a transaction for the alienation of property should not exceed 10% of the authorized capital or 50 thousand minimum wages established by law (currently this is 5,000,000 rubles). To conclude larger transactions, it is necessary to obtain the consent of the owner.

Similar restrictions are also provided for in Art. 46 of the Federal Law of 02/08/1998 No. 14-FZ “On Limited Liability Companies”.

In addition, additional restrictions on the powers of the company's first person may be contained in the constituent documents of the enterprise. If such restrictions exist, it is necessary to ensure that the decision to enter into a contract is approved by the relevant persons. Otherwise, the contract may be declared invalid by virtue of Art. 174 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

If the agreement is signed by a person on the basis of a power of attorney, It is necessary to pay attention to what type it belongs to. Depending on the content of the powers specified in the document, the so-called ones are distinguished:

• general powers of attorney (issued for a representative to carry out a wide variety of transactions on behalf of the represented person),
• special powers of attorney (issued for concluding homogeneous transactions (agreements), for example, only purchase and sale agreements) and
• one-time powers of attorney (issued to sign a specific agreement, and the power of attorney must indicate the number and date of the agreement, the name of the counterparty with whom this agreement must be concluded, briefly the subject of the agreement, as well as the amount for which the agreement is concluded).

Why is it necessary to know this difference? The mere fact that the person signing the agreement has a power of attorney does not mean that the person has the authority to enter into this agreement. Let's imagine specific situations (see Examples 7 and 8). In both cases, the transactions will be invalid.

It should also be taken into account that power of attorney is issued for a certain period, which is established at the discretion of the person who issued it, but cannot exceed 3 years (Article 186 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). If the validity period is not specified in the power of attorney, it remains valid for a year from the date of its issue. A power of attorney that does not indicate the date of its issue is void. This document must be signed by the head of the organization or a person authorized to sign powers of attorney. A power of attorney issued by way of delegation is valid only if notarized in accordance with clause 3 of Art. 187 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (with the exception of certain cases), the validity period of such a power of attorney cannot exceed the validity period of the power of attorney on the basis of which it was issued.

A sample of a special power of attorney is given in Example 9. Please note that the seal impression must include part of the title of the position of the person signing the power of attorney. In addition, we will give an example of drawing up an order to revoke a power of attorney for such a common reason as the dismissal of an employee (see Example 10).

In the office management service (contractual department) there should be keep copies (or originals) of powers of attorney for the right to sign contracts. For systematization of information on powers of attorney a Register of powers of attorney for the right to sign contracts is compiled (see Example 11). Copies of powers of attorney must be provided to the heads of departments preparing draft agreements. Based on the issued powers of attorney, a Register of sample signatures of persons entitled to sign contracts is compiled (see Example 12).

We present to your attention a matrix of the process of agreeing and signing contracts (for a sample, see Example 13).

Legend: P - signs; MP - can sign; B - endorses. Pay special attention to the symbol MP - can sign. From a legal point of view, several people can have the right to sign the same agreements at once (primarily the first person of the organization, as well as other persons who have the appropriate powers of attorney). However, according to the procedure established within the organization, homogeneous agreements can be signed by only one person, while other persons have the opportunity to exercise their powers only in the event of his absence (illness, being on a business trip, etc.).

If the enterprise has a practice of sending cover letters along with contracts, the office management service (contract department) may be assigned the function of preparing them. Letters are submitted for signature by the manager along with the draft agreement.

All contracts signed by the first person of the organization or a person authorized by him on the basis of a power of attorney are certified by the seal of the organization. The seal is placed on the contract when:

• availability of signature;
• availability of visas of the required persons;
• if the signature on the contract matches the sample signature of the authorized person in the Register of Sample Signatures.

Registration of contracts

All contracts signed by the head of the enterprise (authorized person) are transferred to the records management service (contract department) for registration and assignment of the corresponding number to the contract.

Each party to the contract must, after signing, assign it a serial number and ensure its internal registration. Therefore, the contract number is usually complex, consists of separate numbers of counterparties, which are written through a fraction, which is not always convenient (see Example 14).

In practice, another way is possible assigning a contract number: if the organization receives a contract that is already assigned the number of one side, then the second party, having completed internal registration, indicates its registration number on the back of the last page of the document. In this case, a special stamp is used, which indicates the name of the organization, the registration number of the agreement and the date (see Example 15). In this case, the contract number will be considered the number assigned by the counterparty (see contract No. AB104 with Leos LLC in Example 16).

When an organization receives an agreement without a number, it is assigned a number that matches the registration one, then it is placed on the first page of the document (see agreement with ZAO MOR No. 116/10/06 in Example 16).

For large companies we can recommend the following structure contract registration number: serial number of registration in the office management service, number of a structural unit in accordance with the approved classification in the organization or letter designation of a structural unit, year of conclusion of the contract. For example: 108/07/06 or 199-KS/06, where KS is the letter designation of the commercial service.

Registration of contracts carried out in a special journal, which is usually maintained electronically. We recommend the following composition of columns in the Contract Registration Journal:

• registration number;
• additional number (counterparty number);
• contract date;
• name of the counterparty;
• subject of the contract;
• validity period;
• responsible department (responsible executor);
• contract price;
• availability of applications;
• who signed the agreement.

If the organization uses fractional numbering of contracts, then instead of two columns “registration number” and “additional number (counterparty number)”, one is entered - “contract number”.

In a number of cases determined by law, contracts require state registration. For example:

• a lease agreement for a building or structure concluded for a period of at least a year is subject to state registration and is considered concluded from the moment of such registration;
• licensing agreements (registration and re-registration of brand names, trademarks, service marks, assignment of rights of claim under trademarks) come into force only after their registration with Rospatent;
• transactions with land and other real estate are subject to state registration in accordance with Art. 164 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Transfer of the signed contract to the counterparty

The agreement signed on behalf of your organization is transferred to the responsible executor against signature on the approval sheet (see Example 3 in the first part of the article on page 35 of the March 2006 issue of the magazine) for transfer to the counterparty. In our organization, responsibility for delivering the contract to the counterparty rests with the contractor under the contract. As a rule, in large enterprises the sending of documents is entrusted to the preschool educational institution service, which must maintain a Register of sent documents.

The agreement can be sent by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt. It can be handed over against signature to authorized officials of the counterparty organization or in another way that allows you to reliably confirm the fact of receipt of the contract.

When sending important documents by mail, you should do so by registered mail with return receipt requested. Tracking the return of notifications will allow you to monitor the progress of delivery of contracts to partners. In some cases, it is appropriate to send documents with an inventory of attachments (in the form of valuable letters and parcels).

Unfortunately, when sent by mail, documents may be lost, damaged, or not delivered on time. In all these cases, according to the Rules for the provision of postal services (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 15, 2005 No. 221), you can contact the post office with a claim. Moreover, both to the postal operator who accepted the item, and to the postal operator at the destination of the postal item. Postal providers are required to accept your claim for consideration within 6 months from the date of sending the documents you are looking for or the documents they have damaged.

The claim must be submitted in writing. Copies of all documents related to the issue under consideration are attached to it. First of all, this is a shipping receipt and an inventory of the attachment (if we are talking about a valuable item). A copy of the contract for the provision of postal services is attached only if one has been concluded. If the essence of the claim concerns a delay in the delivery of a simple item, then it is necessary to present its envelope with the dates of receipt and receipt of the postal item indicated on it.

The time frame for consideration of claims depends on the geography of movement of the postal item with which problems arose. For shipments within the same locality, you should receive a response within 5 days. For all other postal items and transfers - within 2 months.

Issuance of originals and copies of contracts

Issuance of originals and copies of contracts carried out by employees of the office management service (contractual department) based on a written request. At our enterprise this is documented in an internal memo. It must indicate the rationale for the need to obtain the document, to whom (full name, position) and for how long it is issued. For examples of memos, see Examples 17 and 18. For a method of filling out a special journal that records the fact of issuing and returning documents, see Example 19.

At issuance of the original contract Employees of the office management service (contract department), according to the established procedure at our enterprise, are required to make a photocopy of the contract and place it in the file.

To maintain order and avoid losing important documents, you can periodically perform the following procedure. At the end of the month, the office management service (contract department) prepares a report on the movement of contracts. On its basis, memos with a list of contracts that need to be returned are sent to all heads of structural divisions (see Example 20).

Accounting for counterparties' documents

The internal regulatory document must define a list of registration and constituent documents that should be requested from the counterparty before concluding a transaction with him. The composition of the documents depends on who your organization is dealing with - an individual or a legal entity, a resident or non-resident of the Russian Federation (we discussed this issue in more detail in the first part of the article published in the previous issue of the magazine).

All documents necessary about the counterparty are provided by the responsible executor along with the contract to the office management service (contract department), where they are subject to storage. Contractor documents are formed into cases using a card index system in alphabetical order with a general directory, which is usually maintained in electronic form (it indicates the case number in which the counterparty’s documents are stored). Each counterparty can be assigned a code.

When concluding several contracts with the same counterparty, resubmission of documents is not required. Upon receipt of each new contract, the documents are checked for:

• the right to sign the agreement, the term of office of the head of the enterprise;
• validity period of the license, powers of attorney;
• registration addresses;
• compliance of the subject of the agreement with the direction of the counterparty’s activities in accordance with the charter.

If the need arises, additional documents may be requested from the counterparty.

Storage of contracts

Contracts signed by an authorized person of the organization are transferred by employees of the records management service (contract department) to the responsible executor, and contracts that have the signatures of all parties (as a rule, these are bilateral transactions) remain in the records management service for operational storage.

All contracts are formed into cases in accordance with the nomenclature of cases of the records management service (contractual department), which is part of the Consolidated Nomenclature of Cases of the enterprise. When compiling a nomenclature, it is very important to choose classification schemes for its construction.

In some cases, it is possible to form cases based on object characteristics. So, in one case, contracts will be formed, concluded with a specific organization, which will act as a specific object.

Therefore, when developing case nomenclatures, you must first develop principle of classification of contracts at the enterprise in such a way that it ensures the fastest possible search for contracts, allows for the reasonable distribution of documents and the formation of cases. After all, contracts are often concluded not for one year, but with the possibility of their subsequent extension. Therefore, usually in the office management service (contractual department) a large number of existing contracts concluded several years ago may be stored.

Document retention periods are established in accordance with the “List of standard management documents generated in the activities of organizations, indicating storage periods” (M., 2000), with departmental lists of documents and other regulatory documents. In this case, contracts with a permanent shelf life should be distinguished separately, for example:

• gift agreements;
• contracts for the purchase and sale of land, buildings, premises;
• agreements on long-term lending and investment activities;
• contracts for the right of ownership, possession, use, disposal of property (a permanent storage period for all contracts of this group is established by Article 57, while for individual contracts of this group the List establishes exceptions - shorter storage periods, for example, Article 28 obliges to store purchase agreements -sale of shares by shareholders only 5 years after their expiration);
• agreements for registration and re-registration of company names, trademarks, service marks;
• agreements on acceptance and rental of premises;
• privatization agreements;
• agreements on economic, scientific and cultural relations;
• contracts for the supply of materials (raw materials), products, equipment for government needs.

It should be noted that when storing and forming cases, each agreement must be accompanied not only by additional agreements on its amendment and addition, but also, if determined by the terms of the agreement, letters on changing the details of the parties, as well as letters on unilateral termination of the agreement ok. Such letters received from the counterparty must be registered. Letters sent by your organization to the counterparty must also be registered and marked as having been received by an authorized person of the counterparty. In addition, approval sheets for specialist visas may be attached to each contract.

Let us give as an example a fragment of the nomenclature of affairs of the office management service, directly related to contract work:

1 See Federal Law No. 115-FZ of August 7, 2001 “On Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism.”

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• The court of general jurisdiction left the claim without consideration because the plaintiff did not comply with the pre-trial procedure. The appeal upheld the private complaint due to procedural irregularities. What will happen to the case?
• One LLC participant transferred a share in trust to the second participant. How to enter information about this into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities?
• Is it possible to appeal a “refusal determination” in the supervisory order?

Question

How to correctly (in accordance with the law or business rules) number contracts. In our joint stock company engaged in agricultural production, the following order of numbering of contracts has been established. They are numbered in order from the beginning of each year. Agreements for the sale of agricultural products are numbered: "01-16/сх (where 01 number in order -16 year and сх - the nature of the contract for the purchase and sale of agricultural products. All other contracts (loan, provision of services, supplies, etc. are numbered separately, for example: 01- 16/pd (where “pd” means other contracts). The company has a non-public railway track, in connection with the operation of which contracts are concluded. Due to their importance, it is advisable to separately account for them. Is it permissible (in accordance with the law, or). business rules) number them separately, for example 01-16/railway (where railway means railway)?

Answer

The numbering of contracts in ordinary business activities is not regulated.

Legislation regulates only the signing of agreements, but not its structure (preamble, presence of clauses, chapters, title, numbering of the main text or additional agreements, etc.).

The numbering of contracts does not refer to law, but to “legal technique”, which is both not mandatory and is distinguished by its variety of applications.

That is, there are no restrictions on the use of the algorithm specified in the question.

The rationale for this position is given below in the materials of the “Lawyer System” .

“The legislation does not contain an unambiguous answer to this question.*

Mandatory information that an employment contract must contain is listed in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. An employment contract concluded with an athlete or coach must additionally contain the mandatory conditions listed in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. The employment contract number is not required information.

At the same time, some unified forms of documents for recording labor and its payment provide for the numbering of employment contracts (for example, approved) (if the organization has not approved the independently developed form). Therefore, in order to correctly fill out documents, it is advisable to assign numbers (numeration) to employment contracts.

The procedure for such numbering is not regulated by law. Therefore, the organization has the right to develop it independently. In practice, a system is used in which the number of the employment contract consists of its own contract number and numbers indicating the month (year) of its conclusion (for example, an employment contract concluded in March 2007 is assigned the number 16/03, where 16 is the serial number of the contract, 03 - month of conclusion of the contract).

A professional help system for lawyers in which you will find the answer to any, even the most complex, question.

An employment contract is the most important document, both for the employee and for the enterprise as a whole. The organization maintains strict accountability for these documents and ensures their registration and preservation for 75 years. Even for small companies, the annual hiring and dismissal of personnel without assigning numbering to agreements will sooner or later lead to confusion, and for large enterprises, the lack of proper registration can undermine all office work. In this article we will look at various options for assigning numbers to agreements concluded when hiring.

Numbering of the employment contract starting from the new year

All issues that relate to the relationship between employee and employer, as well as the work of the personnel service, are regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Article 53 describes the procedure for drawing up a working agreement and the points that must be included in it. Assigning a mandatory number to a document is not a point of this article. The onset of a new year marks the beginning of a new countdown for office work. This raises the question: is it necessary to start numbering employment contracts from the new year?

There are no rules on this matter, but there are recommendations that are expressed in This resolution recommends starting a new countdown every year. That is why in many organizations the numbering of employment contracts begins anew every year. However, this fact does not allow us to assert that this method of maintaining documentation is the only correct one.

The procedure and rules for numbering employment contracts in an organization

In 2007, Rostrud explained in its resolution that assigning numbers in agreements when hiring is not a mandatory rule for organizations. This act allowed each company to make its own decision on how to correctly number employment contracts.
In its advisory notes, Goskomstat proposes rules for recording documents and the procedure for assigning license plates. Here is how working agreements are numbered according to Goskomstat rules:

• First, the serial number of the agreement is indicated;
• Then the date of his conclusion. For example, 27-20022017 or 27/20-02-2017.

The proposed combinations help solve many problems during the subsequent search for the necessary document, even after ten years.

Changing the numbering in the employment contract

The work of an organization's HR department involves making changes to existing agreements. This may be due to changes in legislation, as well as changes in working conditions or remuneration. Adjustments are made by drawing up a mandatory additional agreement, which is introduced by order of the organization and must be certified by both the employer and the employee.
It is recommended that you adhere to the following rules when changing certain aspects of the agreement:

• Sequence of presentation from smallest to largest;
• First, indicate the word or phrase in quotation marks that is to be replaced, and then give the new word to replace;
• New paragraphs are introduced under new designations, with the obligatory indication of paragraph and subparagraph;
• The order of the excluded item is prescribed.

Numbering of additional agreements to the employment contract

Additionally concluded agreements are also subject to numbering, which is the correct method for relating the additional act to the original employment contract. The rules for assigning numbers for additional documents depend on the initially adopted system in the organization. It is usually practiced to put an extension number with the date of conclusion through a fraction with the original document number. Thus, the additional act continues the first document, and this further eliminates the possibility of errors.

Numbering of fixed-term employment contracts

Fixed-term employment contracts are numbered separately from open-ended ones and are also filed in a separate manner. They even have their own logbook. Therefore, according to the proposed rules, the numbering of contracts begins with the number one, but a letter designation is added so that it can be immediately determined that this document is urgent.
Fixed-term work arrangements are also kept in the company archives for 75 years. It is this fact that forces us to think through the rules for putting down designation numbers and subsequent identification.

Example of numbering of employment contracts

The employment contract concluded under No. 27 on 02/20/2018 will be assigned the number 27-20022018 or 27/20-02-2018. If the concluded agreement under number 27-20022018 has undergone changes expressed in addition No. 1 dated March 15, 2018. The new number assigned to the addition may look like this - 1-16032018/27-20022018.
Urgent work arrangements are numbered separately, for example No. 2 dated 03/03/2018 will look like 02-03032018 or from 02-03032018.

When registering a new employee at an enterprise, formalizing a professional relationship with him is of great importance. For greater convenience, a method has been developed to assign a separate serial number to each document. However, it should be borne in mind that each company chooses for itself an individual option for conducting office work.