Bank Transactions Accountant: What the Role Covers

Taxes and reconciliation with the budget

• taxes are paid from the bank account, while returns and reconciliations go through the taxpayer's personal account on the tax portal, accessed with an electronic digital signature (Art. 56 of the Tax Code);
• if taxes are not paid, the tax authority first recovers funds from bank accounts and then from other property (Art. 120);
• information on taxes paid and on tax arrears is not a tax secret (Art. 29).

What the work includes

Daily processing of bank statements, allocation of receipts and payments by counterparty and contract, control over payment references, and handling of foreign currency transactions.

In addition, preparing payment orders and dealing with the bank's requests.

• processing bank statements
• allocating payments to contracts
• checking payment references
• foreign currency transactions
• preparing payment documents

Typical problems

Payments without a clear reference, receipts from third parties, unallocated amounts stuck in suspense accounts, and differences at period close.

All of this surfaces at month end and turns into a hunt for documents after the fact.

How to set up the function

Process statements regularly rather than in a batch right before reporting, and require counterparties to use correct payment references.

It also helps to keep a list of complex transactions so that they are not worked out from scratch every time.

Why the bank function sets the pace for all accounting

The bank statement is the only source confirmed by an external party. Everything else in the books is reconciled to it one way or another, so delays here hold up the whole period close.

Transactions are best posted as statements arrive: unclear payments are then clarified straight away, while the parties to the deal still remember what they were for.

Foreign currency transactions

Settlements in foreign currency add translation and exchange differences. The error is most often not in the amount itself but in the date of the exchange rate used.

Transactions spread over time need particular attention: an advance in one period, the delivery in another. The translation approach for these should be fixed in the accounting policy.

• receipts and payments on accounts
• transfers between the company's own accounts
• bank charges
• foreign currency transactions and translation
• card acquiring and card receipts

Acquiring and transfers in transit

Money received by card reaches the account later and net of the fee. If this is not recorded correctly, revenue and balances diverge from the actual figures.

The same applies to transfers between the company's own accounts: recording only one side creates a fictitious movement of cash.

Unidentified payments

Payments with a vague reference are a constant problem. Leaving them for later is risky: after a few months it is almost impossible to reconstruct what the transaction was about.

A practical solution is a clearing rule: any unidentified transaction is clarified with whoever initiated it within the current period, not in reporting week.

Differences between an individual entrepreneur and a company

An individual entrepreneur (IE) usually has a single account, but a higher risk of mixing personal and business funds. A company has more accounts, so control over transfers between them comes to the fore.

In both cases the basis is the same: balances per bank statements must agree with the books at every reporting date.

What to prepare to put things in order

We will need statements for all accounts for the period under review, contracts for large receipts and explanations for transactions with unclear references.

These data usually reveal the source of differences: most often unposted bank charges, transfers between own accounts and advances that were never closed.

How we help

We run the bank function as part of our accounting services and test it when auditing financial statements.

Leader Audit is an audit firm with 13 years in practice and more than 220 audits.