The magazine "Aktualnaya buhalteriya"
Very often, the head of a company is very uneasy losing touch with his chief accountant. He or she insists that the chief accountant should remain available even when vacationing. Let us give you some advise as to how to prepare for your chief accountant's vacation, minimizing the risks of his or her absence.
In small companies, where the chief accountant is the only financially competent employee, the preparation must be more careful. While CA is on vacation, the general director, a deputy of his or another proxy has to take care of everything important. Normally, these people are not quite as competent in accounting. The general director must personally appoint a proxy. This is to say that even though accounting information is considered public, it should be made accessible only to people trusted by the CEO and CA.
To begin with, the general director and the chief accountant should together discuss the company's plans for the time of the latter's vacation. If any important meetings or projects are scheduled for the period, they must isolate problems that may not be resolved in the absence of the CA. They must assess the importance of chief accountant's participation in the projects in question. For that purpose a meeting attended by the CA and the company's administrators must be held.
Besides planned and scheduled things, contingencies may arise. To make sure the company is prepared, the chief accountant must inform his/her deputies or the general director of the whereabouts of the principal data they may need in order to handle things. If the company is in the process of acquiring a loan, a certain report for a certain period may become necessary. The CA must explain and show his/her proxies how to generate the necessary data. Yet it is always better to arrange for a deferment and produce the data after the chief accountant comes back.
Before leaving for a vacation, the chief accountant should do an express inventory of settlements with suppliers and make the payments that become or are about to become due. This includes lease, telephone, water delivery, hygiene materials, stationery and similar payments.
Besides, essential materials and services provided by contractors must be paid ahead for. This should be no problem, chief accountants normally being well aware of how their companies' production chains work. If tax agencies demand any information, it is better to arrange for a deferment, explaining that the chief accountant is vacationing and indicating the time when the required info should become available. Most often tax agencies will oblige.
Another important issue is the right of signature. Financial documents that involve banking operations may be signed only by persons indicated on the bank card. The primary signatory is normally the general director. Secondary signatories may be more than one. In case any of them is vacationing, on a business trip or sick and the person who signs a document is not indicated on the bank card, the process may become lengthy. Normally, the list of signatories indicated on the bank card is put together at the time the company is founded. If payments made through internet banks need to be signed, the signatory may be identified with the use of a physical key (a flash card) containing the signature of its owner. With the permission of the CEO or CA, this key may be temporarily given to other employees. Yet officially, the key may be used by its owner only.
If necessary, the chief accountant may be officially recalled from vacation. Yet this may be done only with his / her written consent*(1). According to the law, the unused portion of the vacation must be either afforded to the chief accountant during the current year, at his / her convenience, or added to the next year's vacation. However, if the CA refuses to go back to work while he / she is on vacation, whatever the reason, it may not be considered as a violation of discipline*(2).
This is to say that should serious contingencies arise, the chief accountant may be recalled from vacation if he / she is reachable while vacationing in the city or town where the company's office is located. If, for instance, the CA is vacationing abroad, he or she may hardly be reached and recalled.
Practically, if a company is aware of its vacationing CA being reachable if need be, he / she may be contacted and asked to come to work. Otherwise, the company will have to manage. Most often, companies manage successfully. This is to say that the principal problem is not the absence of the chief accountants at work but companies' fear of such situations.
Some chief accountants, leaving on vacation, ask their fellow employees to contact them in case of need. Some others, on the contrary, don't want to be disturbed during their vacations. If the head of a company respects his/her chief accountant, he or she should understand that vacationing people should not be disturbed without good reasons.
Substitution for vacationing chief accountants should be worked out by personnel departments. Employees may be charged with added work outside their job descriptions only with their written consent and for added pay*(3). The amount of that added pay must be agreed between the parties, the nature and amount of work taken into account*(4). The Labor Code does not prescribe the minimum or maximum amounts to be paid for such substitution. However, if substitution for vacationing chief accountant is not outside the employee's job description or is included in his or her employment agreement, there may be no added pay.
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*(1) Article 125 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation
*(2) Item 37 of No. 2 Directive of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Dated 17.03.2004
*(3) Article 60 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation
*(4) Part 2 Article 151 of the Labor code of the Russian Federation
The author is Elena Nechayeva, a group head of the Accounting Practices Department of the BDO outsourcing Division
