HR accounting

Building an employment relationship between an employer and an employee is impossible without special reporting. Every business should have a special department, whose representatives are responsible for the preparation of documentation that reflects and records all internal organizational changes.

Main provisions

HR accounting is an important function of any company. Personnel accounting is necessary along with tax and accounting. Without it, the functioning of the organization is impossible. This type of activity refers to the construction of relationships between the employer and the subordinate. Each interaction between these parties must be documented, which requires specialized knowledge and experience, as well as continuous monitoring of changes in Russian laws.

Personnel accounting involves the preparation of documentation for each employee employed in the company and for the organization as a whole. Personnel accounting is mandatory for any business -the number of employed employees and the organizational and legal form do not matter.

Thanks to personnel accounting, it is possible to record all intra-organizational movements, including employment, dismissal from work, change of position, going on vacation, the number of employed persons.

Documenting the movement of employees is the responsibility of the relevant specialists. The accounting service often consists of a number of structural divisions, each of which is responsible for performing a specific task – for example:

• Search for employees, their employment and registration.
• Preparation of hired persons for the performance of work duties, organization of advanced training courses, provision of conditions for their further professional development.
• Transfer of salary, incentive, social payment.

HR accounting and HR management can be outsourced to a third-party organization. This solves many problems related to reducing costs, organizing the structure and documenting all the changes taking place in the enterprise.

Thus, personnel accounting is a list of methods and processes that are related to the recording of full-time and freelance employees, to document management.

The main components

The elements and principles of personnel accounting are as follows:

• Study of office work, current editions of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and the latest legislative innovations.
• Familiarization of the hired persons with the constituent documentation, which allows to prevent contradictions, disputable situations.
• Creating a standard contract form (optional step).
• Creation of standard forms, approval of their set.
• Maintaining registration logs and workbooks.
• Creating the necessary conditions for storing documentation.
• Organization of the archive department.

Required documents

For personnel accounting, the following documents are required:

• A contract with each person hired by the company.
• Staffing table. Each current position is indicated in accordance with its significance. So, the position of the gendir is indicated in the document first, auxiliary positions conclude the list.
• Current job descriptions.
• Regulations on the protection of personal data of employees.
• Regulations on payroll and other payments.
• Internal organizational rules.

The last three documents are mandatory for each manual. These are local regulations that should be in any case – the organizational and legal form and the number of employed persons do not matter. If the authorized bodies reveal their absence during the inspection, the violator will be forced to pay a fine of 30 thousand rubles. As for the lack of consent to the processing of personal data, in this case the amount of the fine increases and can range from 15 to 75 thousand rubles.

There should also be other documents:

• Vacation schedule. The duration of its storage is 12 months. It is necessary that the schedule is dated no later than 14 days before the onset of the year for which it was issued. The deadlines start counting down the next day. In the case of the vacation schedule, the date is December 17. It is important to know whether this day does not coincide with Saturday or Sunday.
• A timesheet for recording working hours. It indicates how many hours each worker has worked. The salary of a person depends on the information specified in the report card.
• Notification of employed persons about the choice of the option of maintaining a work record.
• Payment sheet.
• Employment orders. They are stored for 50 years. They indicate such information as employment, intra-organizational transfer, dismissal, going on maternity leave or infant care, going on unpaid leave, going on annual additional paid leave, foreign business trips and business trips to the territory of the Far North, changing personal information.
• Orders issued before January 1, 2003. In accordance with No. 43-FZ of March 2, 2016, they are stored for 75 years.
• An order on the appointment of specialists who are responsible for the accounting of workbooks, their maintenance and appropriate storage.
• Workbooks filled out and stored by a specialist on the basis of the previous order.

As for the order on the appointment of a person responsible for maintaining workbooks, it is allowed to draw it up in a free form. The main thing is its availability: otherwise there is a risk of facing a fine of 30 thousand rubles. But if it is the head who fills out and stores the workbooks, then no penalty is imposed for the absence of an order. He has the right to work with any documentation without issuing any orders, since he has the appropriate powers under the charter.

How to organize personnel accounting

The correct organization of the activity under consideration eliminates many problems. The work of the accounting department is personnel work that is carried out by the relevant service. It is necessary to record the work of workers, calculate the number of working, non-working and sick days for the correct calculation of wages, calculation of vacations. It is also necessary to submit information to the accounting department in a timely manner.

Specialists organize the search for subordinates, their recruitment, arrange them in accordance with the necessary qualifications. For fast and effective selection, there are separate strategies-for example:

• Sending data about current vacancies to the employment service of the population, to job search sites.
• Use of selection methods, testing of candidates for the position.
• Carrying out activities aimed at adapting employees in a new team and in a new position.
• Providing conditions for professional development.

Specialists are obliged to send timely information about subordinates to the FIU of the Russian Federation, insurance organizations, the Federal Tax Service, the FMS.

Organization of reporting

The procedure for carrying out this activity depends on the scale of a particular business.

Personnel accounting requires the formation of the department structure, the calculation of the required number of specialists. These factors depend on how many people work in the company in total, and what kind of activities the organization conducts.

• So, if the company employs up to 100 people, the department may consist of 1-2 specialists responsible for maintaining personnel records. Also, in small firms, the corresponding obligations can be fulfilled by the general manager or the chief accountant – then a separate specialist is not appointed.
• In medium-sized companies, where 100-500 people work, the department should consist of 3-4 specialists.
• The optimal number of employees in corporations with a staff of at least 500 persons is 7-10 specialists.

HR specialists actively cooperate with other departments. So, interaction with the accounting department is necessary for the correct accrual and timely payment of wages. HR specialists send documentation, copies of orders on employment, dismissal, business trips, vacations, incentive and motivational payments or fines to the accounting department.

HR specialists interact with the legal department in order to receive all the necessary data on the latest innovations in Russian laws in a timely manner. Also, representatives of the legal department provide HR specialists with consultations and legal support at any stage of their activities.

The main advantages of outsourcing

Outsourcing allows you to optimize the costs of doing business, reduce costs and form a staff more efficiently.

Outsourcing also involves the transfer of responsibilities for the selection and hiring of employees, related office work to specialists of a third-party company. Sometimes outsourcing these responsibilities is the only way out for a business.

The advantages of this solution include the following:

• No expenses for the search and formation of staff.
• Lack of payment of salaries, social benefits, taxes on personnel officers.
• There is no need to bear the costs of organizing a workplace for HR specialists.
• Increase in labor productivity and profit due to professional selection of employees.

Outsourcing of responsibilities prevents the human factor. If there are no personnel officers, it means that the owner will not face a situation when people close to these employees are hired. The decision to hire a particular employee is as independent and objective as possible: it depends only on the knowledge, skills, skills and education of the candidate for the position.

Switching to outsourcing is optimal in such situations:

• For some reason, the manager cannot afford to hire a professional and qualified personnel officer.
• The owner of the enterprise does not want to form an appropriate division in its structure.
• The business strives to reduce costs by all means in order to ensure savings and optimize costs.
• A large number of people are employed, and HR specialists are not able to perform an impressive amount of tasks.
• The company has several branches, but the staff data must be processed in the same place.
• A foreign organization opens a representative office in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Thus, the transfer of responsibilities to outsourcing allows the manager to focus on the main commercial activity, getting rid of the need to solve secondary, routine tasks.

In addition, it may be profitable to keep a minimum number of employees in the state for other reasons. So, if a company is considered small, then it has the right to claim certain benefits, state support. Specialists of an outsourcing agency perform duties in the interests of the head, but the latter does not hire them in the state, keeping the minimum number of employees in his organization for personal interests.

Basic errors

Practice shows that the management of personnel records is often accompanied by the following errors:

• The contract is concluded in a single copy.
• The contract does not contain the date of its registration, there are no signatures of the manager and the hired person.
• In the contract drawn up for the employer, there is no signature of the subordinate that he received his copy.
• A person was accepted to work in the company for a probationary period, but the terms of the latter are not spelled out in the employment contract.
• The contract does not specify the specific amount of salary that an employee is entitled to, there is no information about when and where it will be paid. However, if the terms of payment of wages are specified in the rules of the internal labor regulations, then there is no need to additionally prescribe them in the contract.
• The mode of performing duties and going on vacation is not specified, if this mode does not agree with the one established in the rules of the intra-organizational work schedule.

Often, employers or representatives of the personnel accounting service make mistakes related to incorrect maintenance of workbooks. This also leads to unpleasant legal consequences. For example:

• When receiving a work record upon dismissal, the employee did not sign it after the signature of the boss. This is a mandatory step: the dismissed employee must make sure that all the records specified by the employer are correct and put his signature after the employer’s signature.
• There is no employee who is responsible for the correct maintenance and registration of the workbooks of subordinates, for the timely indication of information about the activities of subordinates in electronic format.
• There is no information about the employee – for example, if he has received a higher education.
• There is an incorrect numbering in the workbook.
• There is no record of the employee’s transfer.
• The employer refuses to issue a work record to a student who works part-time at the same time as studying at a university.
• Information about the work is indicated in the work book in an inappropriate form, with errors.
• Reporting on workbooks is conducted by a specialist or a manager incorrectly or is completely absent.
• The information section about the subordinate is empty, his signature is missing.
• The name of the employer is indicated in an abbreviated, incomplete form.
• The dismissed subordinate received a work record by mail, although he did not send a written application with this request.

Often mistakes occur when conducting personal affairs of subordinates. The opening of documents is carried out after the employment of a person, closing-after dismissal. Errors include:

• the absence of important certificates in the personal file (or the presence of those certificates and papers that should not be);
• non-compliance with the order of documents;
• lack of timely reconciliation of personal files.

It is also a mistake to transfer personal files to third parties and firms. If copies of his personal documents are stored in the personal file of a subordinate, the employer may be brought to administrative responsibility because of his non-compliance with the provisions of the legislation on personal information.

Proper management of personal files of subordinates is necessary in order to ensure quick access to the requested documentation and their reliable protection.

At the same time, maintaining personal files is mandatory only for civil and municipal civil servants.

Attention! The above errors should be completely eliminated or at least minimized. Otherwise, the owner of the organization risks facing unpleasant consequences and legal liability.

The work record, information about the activities of a subordinate in the form of STD-R are important for every person. It is in them that the accumulated experience throughout his life is recorded. Errors and violations related to the registration of a work record book should be excluded or minimized. The mistakes listed above cast a shadow on the reputation of not only the manager, but also on his entire enterprise. Additionally, the management risks facing sanctions, fines, and other financial liability.

For this reason, personnel records can be trusted only to reliable outsourcing agencies, whose representatives are fully versed in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and monitor all the slightest changes in this area.

Brief information: The STD-R form is sent to the FIU. It contains information about the subordinate, about the nature of his work, transfers to another permanent position, about dismissal, about the reasons for the termination of the contract.

Why do I need to take into account the staff

Personnel accounting has the following objectives:

• Ensuring the correct use of working hours by employees.
• Control over the compliance of positions and salaries of subordinates with the staffing table.
• Control over settlements with workers, with the Federal Tax Service and funds for the timely fulfillment of tax obligations, social insurance obligations of subordinates.
• Maintaining internal organizational discipline.
• Timely recording of changes in official documents.
• Collecting statistics on” turnover”, developing measures to minimize it.

So, HR specialists should monitor the correctness and timeliness of reflecting the changes that occur in the enterprise subsystem.

Mistakes can lead to unpleasant consequences – for example, to civil, administrative (fines), criminal liability. The main supervisory body that monitors the correctness of activities in the field of personnel accounting is the State Labor Inspectorate.

Representatives of the Federal Tax Service may also request additional documentation. If it is not submitted, the head risks facing legal consequences under Article 126 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

Partial outsourcing for large businesses

In such a situation, office work is transferred to third-party employees, and the company’s own employees solve all issues related to management. The result is the concentration of our own employees on the staff, the transfer of all routine tasks for the preparation of documentation to outsourcing. Such a solution is especially beneficial for large businesses.

How to record changes in the state

The personnel accounting process requires documenting all the facts that occur in the system of official relations and resources. When each person is employed and dismissed, a personnel accounting specialist must create an order and create a personal file for the new employee – a set of documents for the employed employee.

In your personal file, you must record:

• An inventory of documents for an employee (about employment, appointment to a position, intra-organizational transfer, going on vacation).
• Questionnaire on personnel accounting, additions.
• If necessary, an autobiography.
• Copies of the employee’s education documentation, including certificates confirming professional development, retraining, and course completion.
• Written recommendations from previous employers, characteristics from previous places of employment.
• Additional information – for example, publications of a candidate for a position in scientific publishing houses.

Also, a personnel accounting specialist should keep timesheets for fixing working hours, calculating salaries, and statements.

Thus, the activity of documenting the staff is a complex and responsible work. In many cases, it is more profitable and easier to shift these responsibilities to a reliable professional agency that values its reputation and will do everything to ensure the confidentiality of such issues.