Accounting of the future

What will be the accounting of the future? I see her quite clearly. But before I set out my visions, let's agree on the necessary conventions:

• firstly, it is assumed exclusively non-cash money circulation. Does anyone have any doubts that non-cash circulation will sooner or later force out the name?
• secondly, the widespread use of computer technology is assumed,
• thirdly, I omit the complexity of implementation and use, including technical, geographical and political, and consider only the methodological implications of computer accounting.

What will it be? What awaits accountants in the future?

Registration of transactions

Do I have to say that accounting will become completely computer ?! Fully means in this case completely, and not by a quarter or half, as it is now.

Fully computerized accounting is accounting:

• first of all without paper documentation. Because what is the paper documentation in computer accounting ?! It's funny to even talk about it. Only electronic documents - in the form of records in databases, - and no paper;
• Accounting, in which the transaction is considered completed at the time of its electronic registration.

Let us dwell on the second in more detail: the point is unusual, but it is extremely important for understanding the future accounting methodology.
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If we discard paper documentation, how should we register transactions? With the help of electronic documents, of course, that actually means: records in registration databases. In paperwork, a document is first drawn up indicating the completion of the transaction, then the document is registered in the database. In electronic paperwork there is no paper document: the mere fact of registering in the database — certified, of course, by appropriate digital signatures — is evidence of the transaction. Now, if we want to get a paper document in our hands, we can print it out, but the confirmation of the transaction will not be paper, as before, but the corresponding entry in the database. The difference is obvious and huge.

Just do not say that the transaction can not always be registered electronically: we agreed in advance on the abundance of technology, by which we mean:

• computers,
• where the use of computers is impractical, special terminals.

Employees of firms make transactions using computers.

What is a deal? The deal, apart from the legal side of the issue, is a kind of economic action carried out by mutual agreement of the parties. For automated registration of the transaction requires the identification of the parties and confirmation of their mutual consent. Of course, another model contract - without it, no automation is possible: you cannot imagine an automaton with an unlimited set of functions ?! This means that you will have to forget about the freedom of business: the list of possible business operations will be as wide as possible, but limited.

The company has many workers, each with their own rights and obligations. It is obvious that within the framework of general office work, it will be necessary to establish the rights and obligations of each of the workers: in aspects that interest us, this is just an opportunity to dispose of certain material assets. Thus, in addition to identification, when making a transaction, an employee of the enterprise must be confirmed the right to perform a business transaction. For IT people this is not news, of course.

This is what concerns the functioning of enterprises. And ordinary citizens for making transactions will be able, in addition to computers, to use terminals. You enter the store, select purchases, after which the terminal identifies you, identifies purchases and debits the corresponding amount from your account. Nothing beyond the capabilities of modern electronics - I'm afraid, even too trite.

Collapse

To complete a transaction, it is necessary to express one's will, but there is no need to register anything, since only the act of registration — and not anything else, in particular, not a paper document — testifies to the completion of the transaction.

Once again: the parties express their will, and the transaction is made by registering a typical business transaction in the database. Thinking about some accounting entries there is no longer necessary than when using a modern ATM: the data structure and record types are embedded in the computer program in which registration takes place, and users (not only individuals, but also enterprises) are familiar with the software once and forever spared.

What does this lead to? To two obvious consequences:

• the first is that since we have agreed to ignore geographic and political factors, software should be standard,
• second, for the same reasons, the database should be unified. Do not conduct the database separately for each enterprise, in fact?

Under these conditions, there are tremendous opportunities for collation. This term, rarely used in accounting, means the simultaneous and consistent reflection of a transaction with all parties involved. At present, the collation in accounting is not respected due to incompatible software and alternative accounting methods practiced by various individuals. Not for nothing is observed, but with meaning: the inconsistency of data in the accounting systems of the parties often covers unseemly financial fraud. What is fictitious - existing only in the imagination - firms and for what they are used, we all know. So, the automatic registration of transactions inherent in computer accounting allows one to achieve 100% collapse, and this promises unprecedented control functions for accounting in relation to material values ​​in particular.

Imagine that an enterprise has received a smuggled product and wants to sell it. But as? In order to receive money for a product, it is necessary to officially possess this product (provided that the buyer wishes to receive the product legally): the accounting system will not be able to arrange the sale of goods, which according to official data is missing. And it is impossible to write a fictitious invoice, supposedly the goods were received from a company that does not actually exist, while observing the principle of collation. It is possible to register a company specifically for this purpose, but where does the fictitious company get the goods from? Obviously, it can only be obtained from the seller who actually possesses this product: he produced it himself or purchased it from the real seller. In the end, everything depends on the manufacturer of the goods, which will not succeed in agreeing on a non-existent purchase of goods, actually smuggled, for the reason that the manufacturer buys a certain number of materials from which the goods are produced: the manufacturer cannot even sell the goods if desired. than purchased materials - the accounting system will not allow. In this sense, only extractive enterprises, which, without acquiring extractive resources, can “write out” any number of them “from nature” possess some possibilities of manipulation. But this is unlikely to help our original enterprise, the seller of the smuggled goods: it will not be possible to register the sale of the smuggled goods, nor will it be possible to register the purchase transaction. Collation - and if taken broader, then universal and unified computer accounting - destroys standing-up smuggling.

Yes, I know that it is possible to transfer the smuggled goods from hand to hand, and get money, let's say, for consulting or intermediary services. To stop this possibility, it is necessary to improve civil legislation, allowing you to pay any amount literally for nothing, without any “material” justification. However, I remind you that the conditions of the problem assumed that the buyer of the goods wants to receive a legal product, with a registration record accompanying it, and not just a material shell.

By this, the control possibilities of collation are far from being exhausted: with proper accounting, unsecured transactions are simply not registered!

By unsecured, I mean obligations that are not based on anything. For example, you promise to give a million rubles in a week, but you don’t have any money in the near future. How to verify that there is no money at the moment, it is clear - on the balance in the bank account - but how to check that money is not expected in the near future? For other obligations. What does “expected in a week” mean? Only that you are a creditor of a person or company who has committed to transfer a certain amount to you before the end of the week. If the named amount is a million rubles, that is, until the end of the week you have to transfer a million rubles, then in a week - but not earlier - you have the right to promise the given million to someone, otherwise the transaction will not be registered. Transactions involving the emergence of obligations are recorded depending on whether the debtor will have the necessary amount at the time of the intended payment.

I understand that for IT people my reasoning sounds alien and unconvincing, but I assure you that this is - neither more nor less - an automatic warning of bankruptcies. No one will be able to undertake, if at the intended time of performance the obligation does not possess (should not have) the necessary amount or necessary things. However, the system can not provide for emergencies and natural disasters, leading to the loss of values. The company had something tangible and pledged to them, however, as a result of the earthquake, valuables were destroyed, as a result of which the debt was not repaid. But the malicious commitment - the ability to promise something obviously impracticable - will be completely excluded.

Effects

The consequences of true computerization of accounting is easy to calculate. The main one is that the need for accountants in their current understanding will disappear due to the disappearance of the following accounting functions:

• write out paper documents and register documents in computer databases. This was said;
• make accounting reports. What other reports, when accounting is carried out in a single database? Go to the database and, if you have the appropriate rights, generate a request. Asking someone to draw up an accounting report is as illogical as hiring a special person to google. Yes, even if someone came up with such a thought, the preparation of an accounting report will take exactly one second needed to press a button - the records in the database are standard, respectively, and the algorithm for preparing an accounting report is also standard;
• understand accounting regulations. Actually, no standardization will remain: who needs it with universal computer accounting - to the few developers of typical accounting software and specialists in setting up terminals?

That's right: computer accounting denies accountants, just as automatic turnstiles deny ticket collectors. There will be no accountants in a fully computerized society, as well as auditors and tax specialists associated with their existence. Due to the extinction of accountants, there will be no one to audit auditors; representatives of the tax services will also be out of business, since taxes will begin to be charged and charged automatically when conducting cash transactions. What, I note, is the only correct and possible solution when automatically making registration records: the parties agree on the transaction, respectively, are charged in favor of the state - automatically, on the basis of algorithms embedded in the program! - taxes. It is technically impossible to err in calculating the tax or maliciously failing to transfer what is due to the taxpayer.

This will be the bookkeeping of the future - deserted and safe.



If modern accounting is not yet, then not because of the lack of technical capabilities - not because of it! - and because of the presence of a huge number of people who are vitally interested in using outdated methods, and if more specifically, in their personal participation in it. Accountants, auditors, tax authorities - all of them will remain without work upon the implementation of this computerized accounting.

On the methodology of the future accounting, read in my past posts:
Accounting ... social network ,
Project "Creation Creation". Do it yourself .