PRIMARY DOCUMENTS IN ACCOUNTING: ESSENCE AND DIRECTIONS OF PERFECTION

Abstract

Introduction. Accounting begins with primary documents, therefore, improving the forms and content of documents is an integral part of solving problems of increasing the efficiency of accounting and the quality of accounting information in the context of ensuring its compliance with modern management needs. Methods. Theoretical and methodological basis of research are the works of leading domestic and foreign scientists on the theory of accounting, legislation regulating accounting. To study the hierarchical structure of the accounting system and its functional integrity, a functional approach and structural analysis were used. Retrospective and other methods of analysis were used to study the evolution of document forms Results. The article substantiates the essence and composition of documents as a source of primary accounting information on the basis of a critical analysis of modern approaches to document definition. It is proved that the contents of the document form its requisites, that is why the factors influencing the contents of the requisites of the documents are analyzed. Methodological recommendations on forming indicators of primary documents that correspond to economic features of accounting objects and types of economic operations are developed, and also integration of various types of accounting is ensured. To account for fixed assets, a list of conditionally fixed and conditionally variable indicators was developed that can be used to modernize the forms of documents. Discussion. The use in the accounting of forms of primary documents, most of which were approved before 2000, predetermines their inconsistency with the norms of national accounting provisions (standards) (hereinafter - NP(C)BU) and international financial reporting standards (hereinafter IFRS), inconsistency with results of modern scientific research in the field of accounting, and therefore not the ability to satisfy information requests of users, not the suitability for compiling accounting registers and reporting forms. In this regard, especially promising areas of research is the scientific justification of the forms of primary documents by bringing them in line with modern economic realities, characterized by a variety of information requests for business and the emergence of new accounting objects.