Setting Up Accounting From Scratch: A Step-by-Step Plan

A plan for a new company

• the director is responsible for organising accounting: they may create an accounting department, engage an accountant under contract or outsource accounting to a specialised firm (Art. 11 of the Law on Accounting);
• choose a tax regime: turnover tax with income up to UZS 1 billion, or the general regime with VAT (Art. 461);
• obtain an electronic digital signature (EDS) and access to the taxpayer's personal account (Art. 56 of the Tax Code);
• approve the accounting policy — a duty of the director (Art. 11);
• set up e-invoicing (ESF) and document flow (Art. 47);
• arrange for documents to be stored for at least five years (Art. 29).

What the setup involves

• Developing an accounting policy for the specific type of business
• Building a working chart of accounts
• Configuring the accounting system and reference data
• Defining the document flow and deadlines for handing over documents
• Allocating responsibilities among staff
• Defining the composition and schedule of reporting

The accounting policy is not a template

An accounting policy copied from another company does not describe your accounting. It contains methods that are not actually applied and omits those that are. In an inspection this becomes obvious immediately.

Document flow

The most common source of problems in new companies is not methodology but the lack of rules for handing over documents. An "I'll hand it over when I remember" arrangement turns, six months later, into an accounting restoration that costs more than keeping the books properly.