What responsibility does my accountant have?
IMPORTANT! It’s good to know that the accountant’s duties listed below are the duties of my company and me as its manager. For example, if an annual financial report is not drawn up, my company will be fined, not the accountancy firm that works for it.
The contract we have signed determines the accountant’s responsibility towards me. If it is a contract of employment, the accountant bears disciplinary responsibility. If it is civil or commercial, then his responsibility is for non-performance or inaccurate performance, and he may also owe penalties.
The accountant bears personal criminal liability when he avoids the payment or establishment of tax obligations by destroying, concealing or not keeping accounting documents, when he does not comply with accounting legislation, prepares an accounting document with false content, or falsifies it. If such a crime is committed, the offender may be sentenced to imprisonment from 1 to 6 years and a fine of up to BGN 2,000.
What are my accountant’s rights?
For my accountant to do his job well, it is logical that I provide him with access to documentation and accounting information. In addition, the documentation itself must be kept accurately by my company and contain correct information. I can only expect my accountant to do his job successfully if I give him access to valid and accurate information about my company’s business activities.
What tasks can my accountant perform?
IMPORTANT! The accountant’s duties are defined by the contract I have signed with him. This means that I, as the manager, determine which duties the law obliges me to perform. I transfer to the accountant and which I keep for myself. The accountant’s tasks listed below are exemplary and most common.
- Managing the accounting activities of my company
The accountant’s primary duty is to organize my company’s accounting activities and prepare and report the financial statements. This is why accountants are also known as ‘compilers of financial statements’. It is the accountant who determines how the accounting information will be collected and stored. As soon as I hire him, the accountant should explain to me what order he wants me and the workers in my company to follow.
- Collection and verification of accounting information
He has the right to request any accounting information and/or accounting documents from me and my employees. Accounting documents contain information for carrying out the so-called “business operations” – actions related to my business activity. For example, I’m in the restaurant business and stock tomatoes to make salads for my customers. Buying tomatoes itself is a business operation.
Accounting documents are primary and secondary. The primary accounting document is the one that carries the information about the business operation. For example, the invoice, the receipt, the public transport ticket that an employee brings me to reimburse for his commuting expenses, etc. A secondary accounting document is usually a list of business transactions based on information collected from primary documents. Such a list can be divided into partitions/types of accounting operations, etc., i.e. the accounting information in it is differentiated.
- Checking and/or keeping accounting records
My company should keep accounting registers. The registers contain the accounting information collected from the primary and secondary accounting documents for a specified period. The register itself is also an accounting document.
The different registers must be related to each other, and their information must not be contradictory. My accountant must have access to these registers and ensure that they are adequately maintained. It is he who verifies that the individual registers contain consistent information and that there is a link between them. Important! An accountant must not permit business transactions to be recorded in books or registers that are not accounting. If the register needs to be completed or contains accurate information, he should inform me, and we will make the necessary corrections.
- Monthly and annual closure of registers
The Accounting Officer also carries out interim and annual closure of the accounting registers. This is usually done for each month and for the whole year.
He also carries out an inventory. This is a periodic review of my company’s liabilities and assets. In addition, the accountant also monitors the company’s funds and all the income and expenses.
- Storage of accounting information
The accountant must keep my company’s accounting records and financial statements for 10 years. If I change accountants, my old accountant must hand over all the paperwork to the person I nominated. This is often the new accountant, but I can assign another employee to receive the documentation.
