One of the values and goals of informatization is to replace manual work and paper documents. If there is no sufficient reason, just because accounting information is in electronic form, the advantages of informatization will be greatly reduced, which will also dampen the enthusiasm of enterprises for accounting informatization and hinder the in-depth development of accounting informatization. Moreover, the paper-based requirement of accounting information will further lead to the transmission of paper vouchers between enterprises, and the informatization development of the whole economic system will also be restricted, thus hindering the innovation of social products and service models.
Recognizing the validity of electronic accounting data from the policy system level and exempting enterprises from printing accounting data in a certain range is a realistic requirement for building socialist ecological civilization and promoting the further improvement of the overall information level of society. In the process of formulating the Work Specification for Enterprise Accounting Informatization (hereinafter referred to as the Work Specification), the voice of enterprises for paperless accounting information is very strong and urgent. Therefore, Articles 40 and 4 1 of the Code of Work have made corresponding provisions. Although the content is not much, these two regulations have achieved paperless icebreaking at the policy level, which is one of the important breakthroughs in work norms and will have a far-reaching impact on improving the efficiency of enterprise accounting work and even the in-depth application of informatization in the whole society. Although paperless is the direction, the preservation value of accounting information as evidence and clues of accounting results is not unconditional. The provisions in Article 40 and Article 4 1 of the Work Specification have two meanings: first, accounting data can be managed without paper; Secondly, only under the condition of ensuring the traceability and provability of accounting matters can the paperless management of accounting materials be realized.
The difference between these two provisions is that Article 40 is about internal generation of accounting data, while Article 4 1 is about external acquisition of accounting data.
(1) Article 40 of the Specification for Internally Generated Accounting Data stipulates:
Accounting vouchers, accounting books and accounting auxiliary materials generated within an enterprise shall not be exported if they meet the following conditions:
(1) The recorded items belong to the regular daily business of the enterprise;
(2) automatically generated by the enterprise information system;
(3) It can query and output in human-readable form in the enterprise information system in time;
(four) the enterprise information system has an effective mechanism to prevent the relevant data from being tampered with;
(5) The enterprise has established an electronic backup system for relevant data, which can effectively prevent the impact of natural disasters, accidents and man-made destruction;
(VI) The enterprise has established a perfect index system of electronic and paper accounting materials.
1. Accounting data range
This article clearly stipulates that internally generated accounting materials that can be managed without paper include accounting vouchers, accounting books and accounting auxiliary materials. Accounting vouchers here include original vouchers and bookkeeping vouchers, accounting books include general ledger, subsidiary ledger and journal, while accounting auxiliary materials have a broad meaning, including fixed assets cards, project auxiliary accounts, bank statements and other accounting materials.
2. Business scope
For the first condition, we should pay attention to the accurate understanding of "regular daily business". "Recurrence" here refers to repeated occurrence within one year. "Daily" here refers to what can be expected to happen in the business cycle of an enterprise.
Such as purchase and sale business, depreciation of fixed assets, receipt and payment of monetary funds, etc. obviously belong to regular daily business, and relevant accounting materials such as vouchers, general ledger, journals, fixed assets cards, bank statements, etc. are all accounting materials that meet this condition. The enterprise will settle accounts every month, and the relevant accounting vouchers also meet the conditions of "regular daily business" here.
Profit distribution is generally carried out once a year, and the content of each occurrence is not exactly the same, so it cannot be expected to happen, so this condition is not met. Debt restructuring, enterprise mergers and acquisitions and other matters, although it is possible to repeat within one year, but this repetition is not inevitable in the business cycle of enterprises, it is impossible to expect, so it does not meet this condition.
The main consideration for making this provision is that most of the accounting materials of enterprises are related to regular daily business. If these materials are paperless, the main purpose of saving social resources can be achieved. In addition, the business is not only small in quantity, but also high in risk and importance. In accounting supervision, it is likely to consult relevant information. At the same time, because there are no fixed rules for this kind of business, it is generally impossible to generate it automatically by the information system, and it is mainly handled by hand, so it is necessary to keep paper materials for verification.
It should be pointed out that an accounting business involves a variety of accounting materials at the same time, and it should be judged whether all kinds of accounting materials meet this condition separately. For example, debt restructuring is an unconventional business, and the contents recorded in its original vouchers and accounting vouchers are not "regular daily business". However, the contents of accounting vouchers need to be registered in the subsidiary ledger, which may involve the general ledger and subsidiary ledger of financial expenses. The occurrence of financial expenses should be classified as "regular daily business".
3. The "primitive" nature of electronic accounting data
Condition (2) originally refers to "original" electronic accounting data. The so-called "native" corresponds to "paper-to-book conversion". Main accounting data are usually related to regular daily business. For example, for telecom enterprises, the entries to confirm the telephone bill income are transmitted by the business settlement system, and the accounting software is automatically generated according to the established business rules. In this case, the accounting voucher is the original electronic data.
However, if the original vouchers are scanned from paper to electronic images, or the manually filled accounting vouchers (such as profit distribution) are input into the accounting software, these electronic materials are "converted from paper" rather than automatically generated by the information system. Before filing these accounting materials, the original paper materials should be kept. As for the forms that can be taken for filing, it belongs to the issue of filing management and should follow Article 42 of the work specification.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned "conversion from paper" refers to direct conversion. If paper-based accounting data are converted into electronic data and further processed, and then continue to be converted into other materials, then other materials should be regarded as "original" rather than "converted". For example, the paper sales slip entered into the information system belongs to the "converted" original voucher, but if the system automatically generates accounting vouchers according to the entered sales data, it should be regarded as "original" electronic data.
4. Questionability
The third condition requires that paperless accounting data must be available for inquiry and output. The output here includes display and printing. For this condition, we should grasp the two requirements of "timeliness" and "human readability".
"Timely" means that electronic accounting data should be online at any time, and can be accessed by opening the terminal equipment without complicated technical preparation process. For example, after converting accounting software, some enterprises keep the original software system and related servers online because the data in the original software cannot be migrated to the new software system. This practice meets the requirements of timeliness. If the enterprise stops the system operation, shuts down the server, leaves the enterprise network and is in an idle state, in this case, the information query needs to be re-online, which can not guarantee the normal operation of the original system and does not meet the timeliness requirements.
"Human-readable" means "computer-readable", which includes two meanings: first, data should be presented in a form that human beings can understand, not a bunch of computer codes and pure data, that is, there should be not only data, but also application software that can analyze these data. The application software here is generally accounting software or document processing software. For example, some enterprises only save database files in the form of burning CDs for past accounting data, and there is no relevant accounting software, so these accounting data will not be queried and presented in the correct form, which does not meet this condition. Second, the presentation method should conform to the established content and format in the accounting field, rather than the content format that embodies special business logic.
5. Anti-tampering mechanism
Preventing tampering is the basic requirement to ensure the evidence and tracing value of accounting data. The mechanism of tamper-proof data is a problem at the information system level, which involves not only the functions of accounting software, but also system security, responsibility division, process design and other issues. But for enterprises, the first thing is to choose accounting software to follow the requirements of the second chapter of the work specification. In addition, the accounting software itself should be designed with tamper-proof mechanism, including database encryption, separation control of operating authority of each system, etc.
Due to the cancellation of the accounting software evaluation system, the supervision of accounting software was once weak, which led to some commercial accounting software on the market can not fully meet the above requirements. For example, some accounting software does not have any encryption measures for the database, and it is completely open. Anyone with some knowledge can directly edit and modify the database, bypassing the accounting software. Some accounting software provides various reverse operation functions such as anti-closing, anti-bookkeeping and anti-auditing. There is no detailed log record of the operation content. In this case, if there is no paper data constraint, enterprises can do whatever they want and lose the minimum seriousness of accounting work.
Therefore, in order to implement paperless management of accounting data, enterprises must first evaluate their own accounting software, and only when the conditions specified in this item are met can they be carried out.
6. Standby system
Fifth, the establishment of electronic accounting data backup system is the basic requirement to ensure the safety of accounting data. Electronic materials have more risk factors of loss than paper materials. In the case of printout of accounting data, paper data and electronic data actually form a mutual backup relationship. Once you don't print, you should strengthen the backup requirements for electronic materials.
There are many backup methods, including remote hot backup, disk array, CD-ROM, etc. Mainly technical issues, so I won't discuss them here.
It should be pointed out that "effectively preventing the influence of natural disasters, accidents and man-made destruction" proposed in this item has higher requirements for enterprises. For example, to prevent man-made damage, it is necessary to establish physical protection measures for accounting data storage equipment to prevent irrelevant personnel from touching the equipment. For small and micro enterprises, these conditions are generally unattainable. In order to realize paperless management of accounting data, small and micro enterprises can adopt the accounting software cloud service provided by large accounting software vendors to meet the above requirements. Large accounting software manufacturers have strong strength and scale advantages, and generally have perfect database backup systems. Accounting agencies with a certain scale may also meet the above conditions.
7. Establish an index
The purpose of establishing accounting data index system is to ensure the clue and correlation of accounting data. When the amount of accounting data reaches a certain level, retrievability becomes as important as security and authenticity. Information that cannot be retrieved is no different from no information. That's what the so-called information junk means.
The requirements for establishing an index system have three meanings: first, each kind of accounting data should have systematic coding measures, so as to form a cross index among all kinds of accounting data through coding, that is, other related materials can be traced back through one kind of data to ensure the continuity of clues. Second, accounting information can be found through the index. For paper data, the index must contain the physical spatial location information of the data. For electronic data, the information system should be able to access the data through indexing (coding). Third, a unified index system should be established for electronic materials and paper materials. Although the storage methods are different, electronic data and paper data are organically linked as a whole. The index information of related paper materials should be included in electronic materials, and the index information of related electronic materials should also be included in paper materials, so as to realize mutual retrieval of electronic materials and paper materials. Enterprises should formulate general retrieval rules for accounting information index system, and make clear which materials are stored on paper, how to retrieve them, which materials are stored on electronic version, and which functional paths should be accessed through information system.
In short, it is not arbitrary or unconditional for enterprises to implement paperless accounting data. In order to ensure the retained value of accounting data as evidence and trajectory, it is necessary to find a balance between the requirements of accounting data storage efficiency and the needs of query and use. This is the basic consideration of the above provisions in the work specification.
(B) external access to accounting information
Article 4 1 of the Code of Work stipulates that:
Original vouchers and other accounting materials obtained by an enterprise that need to be certified by an external unit or individual shall not be exported if they meet the following conditions:
(a) the accounting information is accompanied by a reliable electronic signature of an external unit or individual that conforms to the Electronic Signature Law of People's Republic of China (PRC);
(2) The electronic signature has been authenticated by a third party in accordance with the Electronic Signature Law of People's Republic of China (PRC);
(three) meet the conditions stipulated in Article 40 (1), (3), (5) and (6).
1. Accounting data range
The external acquisition of accounting information refers to the accounting information whose record content needs the approval of external personnel or institutions of the enterprise. This kind of information covers a wide range, mainly original documents, such as invoices and bank receipts. In addition, it also includes bank statements, purchase and sale contracts and other externally obtained materials. It should be pointed out that externally obtained information does not mean externally generated information. An accounting information produced by this enterprise, but after external recognition, also belongs to the accounting information obtained externally as mentioned here. For example, product purchase orders are generally designed by enterprises, but if customers need to sign for confirmation, they belong to external acquisition of accounting information.
2. Electronic signature
The confirmation of accounting information by external personnel or institutions is in the form of signature or seal. For electronic data, that is to say, there must be an electronic signature. Therefore, Article 4 1 of the Code of Work mostly refers to Article 40, but the difference is that two conditions about electronic signature are added.
(1) What is an electronic signature?
According to the provisions of Article 2 of China's Electronic Signature Law, an electronic signature "refers to the data contained in a data message in electronic form, accompanied by data for identifying the identity of the signer and indicating that the signer approves the content". Article 14 of the law also stipulates that "a reliable electronic signature has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature or seal".
Simply understood, an electronic signature is the signature on an electronic document. Because its validity is confirmed by law, electronic signature enables electronic documents that need to be recognized by interested parties to replace paper documents as evidence. This is the legal basis for external paperless access to accounting information.
In fact, electronic signature can not only achieve the effect of paper signature, but also its reliability is incomparable with paper signature and any paper anti-counterfeiting technology. Electronic signature technology can ensure that the signed electronic data can be found once it has been tampered with, thus ensuring the authenticity and integrity of electronic data. This is why Article 4 1 does not mention Article 40, paragraph 4.
After the implementation of the Electronic Signature Law, electronic signatures have been widely used in domestic e-finance, e-government and e-commerce. The mature technology and market environment supporting paperless accounting data have been formed.
Electronic commercial bill is an electronic signature application led by the People's Bank of China. At present, a considerable number of commercial bills have been generated electronically from issuance, acceptance, endorsement to payment, and no paper documents have been generated in the whole life cycle of bills. By the end of 20 12 and 10, there were 338 institutions accessing the electronic commercial bill system. From October 28th, 2009 to June 3rd, 2009, the total number of electronic commercial bills processed by the electronic commercial bill system was 2,654. This fully demonstrates the high reliability of electronic signature technology. At the same time, the case of electronic bills of exchange also shows that paper vouchers no longer exist in some fields.
Electronic signature has also been successfully applied in government affairs. For example, the State Taxation Bureau and Local Taxation Bureau in Beijing, Hainan, Guangxi and Gansu all use electronic signatures for paperless tax returns. Enterprises in these areas declare their taxes to the tax bureau entirely through the internet, and do not submit paper materials. In some places, this work has been further promoted and real-time online tax payment has been realized.
In business and other social applications, electronic signatures also show their talents and realize paperless in many fields. Many companies, such as Lenovo, apply electronic signature to sales order business to realize paperless sales order management. Many hospitals use electronic signature to realize the completely paperless management of medical records. Some insurance companies use electronic signatures to realize paperless policy sales through mobile electronic devices, which improves the speed and sales volume of policy sales processing.
(2) Requirements for electronic signature in work specifications
Item (1) of Article 40 of the Work Specification stipulates that external access to paperless accounting information must be accompanied by an electronic signature. Here we should pay attention to two requirements: first, the electronic signature should belong to the external individuals or institutions that recognize accounting information, not the enterprise itself; Second, electronic signatures should be "reliable".
According to Article 13 of the Electronic Signature Law, a reliable electronic signature must meet the following conditions at the same time: "(1) When the electronic signature production data is used for electronic signature, it belongs to the electronic signatory; (2) When signing, the electronic signature production data is only controlled by the electronic signer; (3) Any changes to the electronic signature after signature can be found; (4) Any changes to the content and form of the data message after signing can be found ".
Article 40 (2) of the Work Specification further stipulates that the electronic signature shall be authenticated by a third party. The so-called third-party authentication refers to the mechanism that a third-party intermediary independent of both parties to the transaction issues a digital certificate for electronic signature (that is, "electronic signature making data" as mentioned in the electronic signature law), and the third party authenticates the authenticity of the generated electronic signature. The requirement of third-party authentication is to further improve the credibility of electronic accounting materials. For example, at present, banks generally carry out e-banking business, and customers send instructions such as transfer and payment through the Internet with electronic signatures. Among them, some banks adopt third-party authentication, and some banks authenticate themselves. In the case of self-authentication, it is not credible for a bank to provide evidence for itself according to its own authentication conclusion if there is a dispute between the bank and the customer about a certain business. For electronic banking, if the third party authentication is adopted, the credibility of transaction voucher data obtained by both banks and customer enterprises can be guaranteed.
The work specification requires that the electronic signature should be authenticated by a third party that conforms to the electronic signature law, that is, the electronic authentication service institution established according to law should provide services such as certificate issuance and signature authentication. According to the Electronic Signature Law, the establishment of an electronic certification service institution shall be approved by the competent department of information industry in the State Council. The public can check the directory of legally established electronic certification service institutions through the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Article 4 1 of the Work Specification stipulates that for banks and other enterprises with a broad customer base, it can not only improve their work efficiency, but also provide them with an opportunity to improve customer service and further enhance their competitiveness. For example, a bank can add an electronic signature certified by a third party to an electronic receipt, so that a customer enterprise no longer needs a paper receipt, and the bookkeeping efficiency of the customer enterprise is improved. Enterprises to carry out paperless management of accounting information, but also should pay attention to the following issues:
(A) paperless accounting supervision
The paperless management of accounting data by qualified enterprises means that enterprises are not required to provide a full set of paper accounting data when conducting accounting supervision, including the audit of certified public accountants and the inspection of government regulatory agencies. However, enterprises should provide necessary help and support for accounting supervision. For electronic materials that supervisors need to consult and output, including electronic accounting materials that need to be taken away as evidence, enterprises should still inquire and print as required, and sign for confirmation if necessary.
(B) the format of electronic accounting information
The electronic accounting data mentioned in the job specification does not limit its format. Whether it exists in a structured form such as database and XBRL, or in an unstructured form such as HTML, PDF, Excel and Word, whether it is managed by an accounting information system or a special file system, as long as it meets the conditions stipulated in the work specification, it is not necessary to output paper materials.
For example, an automatically generated accounting voucher, initially stored in the accounting information system in the form of a database, is later converted into a PDF file and stored in the enterprise file management system according to the unified requirements of enterprise file management, and can be printed at any time through the system, which can be regarded as meeting the conditions stipulated in Item (3) of Article 40.
(C) convergence with accounting file management regulations
It should be pointed out that accounting data and accounting files are different concepts. The scope of accounting data is wider than that of accounting files, which are accounting data, but not all accounting data are accounting files, only accounting data with long-term preservation value and archiving are accounting files. Articles 40 and 4 1 of the Work Specification stipulate the paperless conditions of accounting data, while regarding which accounting data belong to accounting files, when to file them, and what form to take, we should follow the relevant national regulations on accounting file management according to the provisions of Article 42 of the Work Specification.
The "regulations on the management of accounting files" here refers to the "measures for the management of accounting files" formulated by the Ministry of Finance and the State Archives Bureau. At present, the method is being revised, and the principle of electronic management of accounting files will be consistent with the work norms. According to the provisions of Article 6 of the current Measures for the Administration of Accounting Files, the accounting files formed in that year can be temporarily kept by accounting institutions for one year after the end of the accounting year and filed after one year. Therefore, enterprises can temporarily not implement the above provisions on the filing management time of electronic accounting data. Before filing, the management of electronic accounting data follows the provisions of work norms.