Accounting and Bookkeeping

(1) The operation of bookkeeping and accounting.

(2) A separate structure or subdivision of enterprises or organizations charged with accounting and bookkeeping, drawing up accounts, and exercising control over finance and budgetary discipline. In the USSR accounting and bookkeeping activities are regulated by the Statute on Chief (Senior) Accountants of State, Cooperative (Except Kolkhoz), and Public Enterprises, Organizations, and Institutions, by the Statute on Documents of and Entries in the Accounting of Enterprises and Economic Organizations, and by other statutes and instructions confirmed by the Ministry of Finance of the USSR. An accounting department is headed by a chief accountant. In large enterprises the accounting department is divided into groups in charge of separate accounting sectors, such as the materials account, production and cost account, and finished output account. An accounting department works according to a schedule confirmed by the director of the enterprise or organization. The accounting departments of enterprises and economic organizations are subordinate to the accounting department of the higher organization. Ministries and agencies have central accounting departments in charge of the whole work of accounting and record keeping (organization of accounting, bookkeeping, and record keeping for all subordinate enterprises, organizations, and institutions; development of methods of accounting and of auditing and instructions; and development of methods of analysis, advanced accounting techniques, and the drawing up of summary accounts. The central accounting departments are as a rule divided into groups (methodology and instruction, control and auditing, summary and analysis). The capitals of the Union republics, krai and oblast centers, and some big cities now have centralized (branch) accounting departments for similar enterprises and economic organizations in industry, construction, transportation, and trade and in those branches of the national economy that have a small amount of accounting work.