Job Description for Accounts Payable Accountant

Are the requirements for the accountant's instructions set out in the legal acts?

A job description is a personnel records document, the use of which, despite its widespread use, is in no way regulated by the provisions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
Such instructions are put into effect exclusively by local legal acts. However, in practice, formalizing labor relations between employers and employees is extremely rare without drawing up job descriptions and signing an employment contract by the parties. Their benefit lies in the ability to formally consolidate the rights and obligations of the parties in an annex to the relevant contract. On the basis of this document, internal corporate relations between employer and employee will subsequently be built.

To draw up a job description, the norms of Russian regulatory legal acts may be used. When creating instructions for an accountant for payments to suppliers, the source of law is the Qualification Directory, approved by Resolution of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated August 21, 1998 No. 37.

Another legal regulation, the provisions of which can be used when drawing up the DI of an accountant for payments to suppliers, is the order of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation “On approval of the professional standard “Accountant” dated 02.21.2019 No. 103n. It is worth noting that its norms are mandatory for use - from April 2021 (as follows from the totality of the provisions of Article 195.3 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as well as Article 7 of the Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ):

chief accountants of public joint-stock companies, insurance organizations, non-state pension funds, banks, non-credit financial organizations;
accountants providing services to enterprises - as outsourcers.

In addition, the professional standard is mandatory for state budget funds, state or municipal institutions, unitary enterprises, state corporations, state-owned companies and business entities with an authorized capital that is more than 50% owned by the state or municipality (Russian Government Decree dated June 27, 2016 No. 584).

The provisions of regulations, as well as facts from the established practice of accountants in accounts payable at Russian enterprises, make it possible to formulate certain criteria for drawing up an effective job description for a specialist in this profile.

You will find a selection of job descriptions for accountants of different areas and competencies in ConsultantPlus. A free trial of full access to the legal system is available.

DI accountant for accounts payable: nuances of the “General Provisions”

Apart from the provisions common to most other accounting firms - that the accountant is appointed as the general director and reports to the chief accountant, the section of the document in question usually sets out the qualification requirements for the specialist.

In most cases, it is recommended to indicate in the DI that the relevant position should be filled by a person with a higher or secondary education, as well as three years of work experience. In fact, this requirement characterizes the work of an accountant of category II and above - in accordance with the criteria that are reflected in the Qualification Directory from the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation.

According to Order of the Ministry of Labor No. 103n, an accountant working with suppliers must meet the 5th qualification level. This level involves performing labor functions in which a specialist works with various documents reflecting the facts of the economic life of the enterprise. To comply with level 5 according to the methodology of the Ministry of Labor, an accountant must have at least a secondary vocational education or undergo training in special programs, and for specialists with the category - have at least 1 year of experience in their specialty.

The DI General Provisions usually list the required skills of an accounts payable accountant, including knowledge of:

accounting forms and methods in specialized software for payments to suppliers;
chart of accounts and correspondence between them involved in settlements with suppliers;
features of document flow according to your profile;
rules for acceptance, capitalization and ensuring the safety of inventory items received from suppliers;
rules of interaction with suppliers who have the status of debtor or creditor;
nuances of inventory of goods and materials received from suppliers.

Basic provisions of the instructions

The section describing the main provisions of the instructions for the accountant on accounts payable and on primary documentation may include the following points:

an accountant is appointed to this post by order issued by the general director and is dismissed in the same way;
a proposal for his appointment or dismissal is submitted by the chief accountant of the company;
This employee reports to the same official;
the requirements for this accountant and the knowledge he needs are also indicated; they will be discussed below in the corresponding section of this article;
it is prescribed that during the period during which the employee is absent, a person is appointed to his position to temporarily perform his duties, and he receives all rights in relation to payments to suppliers and bears due responsibility for them.

A list of regulatory sources that a specialist must follow is also provided. It includes:

various legislative acts, orders, regulations and instructions:
materials of a methodological and regulatory nature, which contain standards for the organization of accounting at an enterprise in relation to the company’s property, its obligations, as well as the rules for drawing up reporting documents;
regulatory acts of a local enterprise, including labor regulations;
orders and instructions of the general director of the company and the chief accountant as the immediate supervisor;
the instructions themselves.

Responsibilities and tasks

The following is a list of the responsibilities and tasks of a accounts payable accountant.

At various enterprises it can be copied or shortened, excluding items from it whose content is irrelevant for a given company.

Accountant for payments to suppliers and primary documentation:

primarily carries out direct settlements with suppliers;
in addition, takes part in activities the purpose of which is to ensure discipline in the enterprise in financial matters and the reasonable use of funds;
accepts from those who compiled and draws up documents that are considered primary, certifying events related to the economic life of the company;
detects situations in which responsible employees committed violations of the document circulation schedule within the company or violations of the rules governing the transfer of accounting documents classified as primary;
systematizes these documents drawn up during the ongoing reporting period on the basis of the approach adopted at the enterprise to their accounting;
based on primary documents, compiles summary documents for general accounting;
prepares the sending of accounting documents classified as primary to the archive, makes copies of them, including documents that are subject to seizure in accordance with the regulations of the Russian Federation;
supplies the enterprise with information intended for conducting an inventory study of its capital and liabilities on the basis of existing accounting regulations;
enters into accounting accounts all transactions for payment of goods from suppliers;
monitors compliance with obligations towards suppliers in due time;
makes entries in the sales book and purchase book;
checks and registers invoices intended for payment, checks their compliance with contracts and sends them to the heads of the organization's structural divisions for approval;
compares the calculation results with similar results obtained from suppliers;
summarizes the facts of the economic and business activities of the enterprise;
calculates account balances and results for analytical and synthetic accounting;
collects information for the purpose of preparing the general ledger and balance sheet;
draws up explanations, collects the required documents for the purposes of organizing internal control, auditing by departments within the enterprise and external organizations, as well as during a tax audit or audit of documents;
transfers accounting registers to employees of departments authorized to seize them in accordance with Russian laws;
deals with the systematization of accounting registers related to the reporting period, and also completes them.
sends the accounting registers subject to this to the archive;
creates copies of accounting registers at the request of departments entitled to receive them;
enters into documents a description of the differences found between the information entered in the accounting registers and the actual state of affairs;
provides factual information and comparable information related to product accounting to enterprise managers and other persons entitled to do so, in particular investors, creditors and employees of the audit company and others;
makes proposals regarding the details of items used for accounting purposes;
takes part in the development of primary documents for those types of operations for which there are no standard documents;
also takes part in the development of documents intended for internal reporting;
takes part in inventories;
collects information in the field of accounting, which was entrusted to him;
ensures the preservation of accounting documents;
sends documents to the archive;
creates a database containing accounting information that falls within the scope of his responsibility, maintains this database and is engaged in its preservation;
changes regulatory and reference information that is used when performing operations with data.

Every week, a accounts payable accountant is required to submit:

balance sheets for the previous week must be submitted by noon on Wednesday of the following week;
The sales and purchases ledger for the previous week must be submitted by noon on Friday of the following week.

Every month the accountant is required to submit:

balance sheets for the previous month - until the 12th of the next month;
book of sales and purchases for the previous month - until the 16th of the following month.

Documents for download (free)

Sample job description for accounts payable accountant

Requirements for a specialist. What should he know

The following requirements are put forward to the accountant for payments to suppliers based on primary documentation:

higher or secondary vocational education in economics;
Duration of work in the specialty for at least three years.

An employee applying for this position must have knowledge in the following subjects:

legislation of the Russian Federation on accounting, tax legislation, regulatory legal acts in the field of pensions, social insurance and medical insurance;
civil, customs and labor legislation;
domestic law enforcement practice in the field of accounting and development of accounting documents related to primary ones;
internal documents of the enterprise, which describe: the procedure for operations with accounting documents classified as primary;
the procedure for assessing accounting objects;
aspects of employee remuneration;
details related to the grouping of data present in primary accounting documents;

methods and techniques of accounting at an enterprise;

chart of accounts and their correspondence;

arrangement of document circulation in various areas of accounting;

procedure for operations when working with financial resources;

procedure for settlements with counterparties.

What is the employee responsible for?

The Accounts Payable Accountant is responsible for:

for improper performance of the duties assigned to him, described in these instructions;
for other violations. including administrative, criminal, labor and civil legislation, in particular those related to causing material damage to the organization.

This video contains interesting and useful advice from Irina Khakamada on how to become a truly successful accountant and how to build a career in this field.

What are the responsibilities of an Accounts Payable Accountant?

If we talk about the responsibilities of an accountant of the profile under consideration, then the most characteristic responsibilities for him can be called such responsibilities as:

maintaining accounting records for payments to suppliers;
ensuring the receipt and control of primary documents related to settlements with suppliers;
formation of registers of receivables and payables, which reflect interaction with suppliers;
control over the fulfillment of contractual obligations with suppliers regarding payment for supplies;
registration and analysis of invoices for payment, submitting them for approval to competent employees;
checking payments to suppliers;
providing the necessary data on payments and document flow with suppliers to interested parties;
participation in the improvement of profile charts of accounts;
participation in the inventory of goods and materials received from suppliers;
timely provision of SALT, purchase and sales books (weekly and monthly - on time).

The responsibilities of an accountant are complemented by rights - let’s study the specifics of how they are reflected in financial statements.

Key Responsibilities

The responsibilities of an accountant may vary depending on the requirements of the enterprise, but it must always be within the competence of the specialist. As a rule, competencies are determined by the employee’s existing knowledge, so it is better to indicate them in a separate paragraph. In order to take a closer look at the responsibilities of a accounts payable accountant, let us turn to the following example from the job description.

The accounts payable accountant is required to keep records of monetary transactions with suppliers in full; deal with the accounting of basic materials and funds, their acceptance, entry into the program, as well as control of calculations.
The responsibilities of an accountant include working with documents regulating the financial base of the enterprise. As part of this activity, the specialist must process and control primary documents related to the receipt of works, services, and inventory items; keep a journal of invoices; compile purchase books.
As part of the control activities, the accountant is required to monitor accounts payable and receivable; reconcile mutual settlements with counterparties; control and stabilize the legality of VAT refunds based on calculated invoices.
If difficulties arise in work, as well as questions and problems, the employee must coordinate further actions with management to optimize work and eliminate problems within his competence.

Please pay special attention to the fact that the “Responsibilities” paragraph must describe in detail the clear actions of the employee, since in individual work he will rely on the job description and perform only what is indicated in it.

DI accountant for accounts payable: section on rights

The DI of the accountant of the profile in question must necessarily state that he has the right to:

generating requests to other employees and company management to provide documents necessary for work;
familiarizing management with draft local regulations that relate to the interaction of the company (and the accountant in particular) with suppliers.

The remaining rights of an accounts payable accountant are generally the same as for most other positions. In particular, this is the right to advanced training, to assistance from management in fulfilling obligations, to increased salaries, and improved working conditions.

Sign up for a free trial access to ConsultantPlus and download a ready-made sample job description for an accounts payable accountant, which you can use as an example or completely use in your work.

Employee rights. Examples

The minimum rights of an accountant for settlements with suppliers are presented in the regulatory documents of the Russian Federation. The employer does not have the right to infringe on the employee’s rights, but can expand them through this clause of the job description. An employee’s rights can be expanded due to his work experience, competencies, knowledge and position.

As examples, you can study the following rights granted to an accountant by an employer:

An accountant can put forward proposals for improving and optimizing the quality of work within his competence.
An accountant has the right to receive various types of information, including confidential information, if it is required for the successful performance of work.
The accountant is given the right to demand assistance or assistance from the company's management in resolving emerging problems related to the implementation of job responsibilities.

The rights provided by the employer and specified in the job description cannot subsequently be reduced, infringed or not fulfilled, therefore it is recommended to be careful in the development and drafting of this clause.

Results

The job description of an accounts payable accountant in many aspects is characterized by fundamental similarity with similar instructions for other positions in the company, but it also contains a large number of specific provisions. It is extremely important for the firm's management and its HR department to reflect such provisions in the DI in order to ensure effective interaction with the accounts payable accountant.

You can study other nuances of personnel records management that are characteristic of modern Russian enterprises in the articles:

“Regulations on official business trips - sample 2021”;
“Internal labor regulations - sample 2021.”

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.