Spelling of the word "accountant" in the plural: correct form, rationale, usage

According to the current spelling standards of the Russian language, the word “accountant” in the plural nominative case correctly written with the ending “-ы”: “ accountants ”.
For example:

• “Independent accountants -auditors did not identify any significant violations in our reporting.”

The emphasis in this case falls on the syllable “-gal-”, and remains on it in other plural word forms - “accountants”, “accountants”, etc. It is necessary to inflect the word “accountant” according to this scheme in legal documents and strict reporting; in other cases it is recommended and desirable.

Who is appointed to the position of chief accountant?

In Art. 7 of the Accounting Law establishes the requirements for candidates for the position of chief accountant:

• presence of higher education;
• having a certain amount of work experience.

But these requirements, as well as the provisions of the professional standard for accountants approved in 2014, are only advisory for commercial organizations.

However, no manager in his right mind would entrust the position of chief accountant to a person who does not have deep knowledge in the field of accounting and tax law and real experience in his specialty. Typically, the organization's management sets the minimum requirements for a candidate for this position based on the specifics of your organization's work. These qualification requirements are indicated in the job description of the chief accountant - this makes it possible to reject candidates for this position who do not have the necessary skills.

ConsultantPlus experts have compiled a job description for the chief accountant. Use free access to download it.

Accountant vacancies

Roman Terekhin
, chairman of the board of the Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Russia, tried to find other reasons for the high demand for accounting specialists.

The accounting profession indeed remains valuable in the labor market. And there are a number of explanations for the fact that over the past two years the demand for “accountants” has increased almost 2.4 times. Let us note several factors due to which the number of vacancies for accountants is constantly growing in the labor market.

Firstly,

A lot of random people come into the profession. It has become fashionable to study at economic faculties, and the number of universities (and their branches) training accountants is steadily growing. And only by understanding in practice what accounting for a company means can a new specialist evaluate himself in the profession. Many people refuse this job.

Many random people come into the profession. It has become fashionable to study at economic faculties, and the number of universities (and their branches) training accountants is steadily growing.

Secondly,

accounting work, only at first glance, becomes easier. There is a computer on the specialist’s desk, records are kept in an automated way, and there is an electronic exchange of documents, including with the tax office and banks. But the work itself does not become easier. The Tax Code is constantly undergoing significant changes, the fiscal system is becoming more complex, and administration is becoming tougher. The number of reporting forms, for example, in the Pension Fund of Russia, is also increasing. The final documents and their composition are constantly undergoing adjustments. In order to reduce the tax burden, entrepreneurs break their business into many small parts, sometimes keeping two records: separately for the owners, and for the state. The recruited staff cannot cope with such a load. Therefore, companies are forced to open more and more new vacancies, thus expanding the staff of accounting specialists.

Third,

The demand for the profession is subject to seasonal fluctuations. As a rule, the number of vacancies increases during the reporting period or immediately before the start of this period. The phenomenon is easily explained, because an accountant who does not have sufficient qualifications and knowledge tends to leave the employer at the moment when the “real work” begins, when incompetence can be revealed.

Fourthly,

HeadHunter's research does not contain data on the average income that employers who have available vacancies for an accountant are willing to pay. There may be a great need for low-paid accounting specialists. A decent salary is the main condition of an applicant for such a position. That is why the number of vacancies with low salaries is growing. In addition, most likely, employers have inflated requirements for candidates. And since these expectations are not met by people looking for work, a discrepancy arises between the claims of companies and the interests of job seekers.

Hence a large number of vacancies.

Features of labor relations

Who in the organization appoints the chief accountant is the general director of the LLC or another person with such authority. The procedure is regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and other regulations. By agreement of the parties with the chief accountant, it is allowed to conclude a fixed-term employment contract. The probationary period for him, unlike other employees, has been extended and is up to 6 months (Part 5 of Article 70 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

For the main manager of the organization's finances, additional grounds have been established for terminating an employment contract with him: when the owner of the organization's property changes, the new owner, no later than three months from the date he acquired ownership rights, has the right to terminate the employment contract with the specialist in accordance with clause 4, part 1, art. 81 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Just do not confuse a change in the owner of property with a change in company participants; in this case, there are no grounds for dismissing the chief accountant.

Grammar

The word “accountant” is an animate noun of the masculine gender of the 2nd declension. Placement of stress and separation by hyphens buh-gal-ter . Declines like this:

• Nominative: accountant (singular); accountants (plural).
• Genitive: accountant (singular); accountants (plural).
• Dative: to an accountant (singular); accountants (plural).
• Accusative accountant (singular); accountants (plural).
• Creative: accountant (singular); accountants (plural).
• Prepositional: accountant (singular); accountants (plural).

Vernacular case plural forms:

• I. accountant .
• R. accountants .
• D. accountants .
• V. accountants .
• T. accountants .
• P. accountants .

How to write an order for hiring an accountant

The legislation does not establish any special form or unified form for ordering the appointment of an accountant. However, unlike documents on the appointment of other specialists, the order on the appointment of a chief accountant quite often has to be submitted to banks, the tax office and other institutions, so questions sometimes arise regarding its execution.

A document appointing a person responsible for accounting is issued upon hiring and concluding an employment contract. Like other orders for personnel, it contains:

• date and serial number;
• full name of the organization;
• FULL NAME. the appointed person;
• date of appointment to the position of chief accountant (if different from the date of publication of the document);
• manager's signature;
• personal signature of the employee confirming familiarization.

The document also reflects the procedure for establishing a probationary period, assigning full financial responsibility and granting the right to sign financial documents. Here's a sample:

IMPORTANT!

The content of the order on the appointment of the chief accountant cannot contradict or not comply with the terms of the employment contract concluded with the chief accountant. And in terms of testing, and in terms of financial responsibility, and in other points.

Here is a sample order for the appointment of a chief accountant in an LLC that can be used:

Due to the need to maintain accounting records, I order:

1. Appoint Zinaida Petrovna Zaitseva as chief accountant and entrust the organization and maintenance of accounting records of Clubtk.ru LLC to Zaitseva from February 20, 2021 (other information about the person provided for by the charter or internal documents of the employer) for one year, until February 19, 2022.
2. Establish the official salary of Zinaida Petrovna Zaitseva in accordance with the employment contract concluded with her, in the amount of 80,000 (eighty thousand) rubles per month.
3. For the purpose of checking Zaitseva Z.P. compliance with the assigned work, set the test period to 4 months, until July 19, 2021.
4. Establish full financial liability of Zaitseva Z.P. from February 20, 2021.
5. Head of the HR Department Kurochkina I.G. familiarize Zaitseva Z.P. by February 20, 2021 with the order.

Head __________________ Voronov A.P.

"19" February 2021

Acquainted with __________________ Zaitseva Z.P. 02/19/2021

Lawyer Vitaly Viktorovich Yakushev +375 (29) 667-35-78 +375 (17) 236-11-92 Minsk

The presence of a chief accountant or accountant on the staff of an organization is mandatory, with the exception of micro-organizations. The head of a micro-organization, a partnership of owners, a public and religious organization (association) has the right to keep accounting records and prepare reports personally if this head meets the requirements for a chief accountant established by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Accounting and Reporting.” Micro-organizations are understood as commercial organizations registered in the Republic of Belarus with an average number of employees per calendar year of up to 15 people inclusive. In other cases, it is necessary to hire a chief accountant or accountant, or enter into an agreement for the provision of accounting and reporting services with a specialized accounting organization or a specialist accountant who is an individual entrepreneur.

A person who meets the following requirements may be appointed to the position of chief accountant

• availability of higher or secondary specialized education, which, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, grants the right to work as an accountant, and work experience as an accountant for at least 3 years;
• the absence of an outstanding or unexpunged conviction for committing a crime against property and the procedure for carrying out economic activities.

A person who has a higher or secondary specialized education, who, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, provides the right to work as an accountant, without presenting requirements for work experience, can be appointed to the position of an accountant .

Quite often, at the initial stage of a company’s activities, a chief accountant or part-time accountant is hired due to the lack of a large amount of work and to reduce wage costs, which is absolutely legal and economically feasible.

The chief accountant manages the accounting in the organization and reports directly to the head of the organization. The competence of the chief accountant includes the following issues:

• formation of the organization's accounting policy;
• setting up and maintaining accounting records in the organization;
• preparation and timely submission of organization reports;
• other responsibilities in the field of accounting and reporting.

The instructions and orders of the chief accountant, within the limits of his competence, are mandatory for all structural divisions and employees of the organization.

If disagreements arise between the head of the organization and the chief accountant regarding the execution of certain business transactions, the situation is resolved as follows: documents on these transactions must be accepted for execution by the chief accountant on the written order of the head of the organization, who bears full responsibility for the consequences of such transactions.

When hiring a chief accountant or accountant, it is necessary to check him for compliance with qualification requirements, i.e. check his education (confirmed by a diploma of education in the established form), work experience as an accountant (confirmed by entries in the work book) and absence of a criminal record (confirmed by the appropriate certificate).

To formalize an employment relationship with the chief accountant (accountant), you must:

• write a job application - written by a person hired for the position of chief accountant (accountant);
• conclude an employment agreement or contract with the chief accountant (accountant). An employment contract is concluded for an indefinite period; an employee can be dismissed only if there are grounds provided for by the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus. The contract is concluded for a specific period from 1 to 5 years and allows the employer and employee, upon expiration of the contract, to terminate it without giving reasons due to the expiration of the contract. In most cases, employers prefer a contract. The contract also allows the employee to establish a salary increase of up to 50% inclusive and additional leave of up to 5 calendar days inclusive at the expense of the organization’s expenses taken into account for tax purposes;
• issue an order for employment - signed by the head of the organization, the employee must be familiarized with signature;
• make a record of employment in the work book and familiarize the chief accountant (accountant) with this record. When hiring a chief accountant (accountant) part-time, there is no need to make an entry in the work book; it can be made at the request of the employee by the employer at the place of his main job on the basis of a document confirming part-time work (a copy of the order of the employer for whom the employee works part-time) .

The chief accountant or accountant has the right to second sign documents for making payments in non-cash or cash form when conducting transactions on bank accounts. This means that the signature of the chief accountant or accountant is included in the card with sample signatures of officials of the legal entity who have the right to sign documents for settlements, and a seal imprint.

One order or two

Usually, when hiring a person, the management of the organization issues one employment order. But the chief accountant is a special position, so many managers are wondering whether an order is needed to appoint a chief accountant if there is an order to hire him? There are no direct instructions in this regard in the legislation, and most organizations issue one combined document. The difficulty lies in the fact that the order for the chief accountant must be presented to different authorities: to the Federal Tax Service, to the bank, to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and other bodies, and sometimes to counterparties. In order not to reveal the nuances, it is permissible to transfer to interested parties not the document itself, but an extract from it. This is what a sample extract from an order for appointment to the position of chief accountant looks like:

Explanation

The point here is the origin of the word. The Russian “accountant” is a tracing paper from the German Der Buchhalter, which means “book holder”; This refers to the general ledger of material and financial accounting.

Of the Romano-Germanic languages, German is closest to Russian in grammatical structure. Of all the major Western European languages, only in it, for example, adjectives are declined according to number, gender and case, just like ours. But proximity and coincidence are not at all the same thing.

The gender of a Russian noun can be determined by its ending ("accountant - accountant"; "skier - skier"; "master - hostess"), and simultaneously with number and case: "accountant - accountant - accountant - accountant - ...". That is, the ending of a word has a very important semantic meaning; in fact, it bears the lion’s share of the semantic load of the word.

In German, the same gender is fixed once and for all by a special part of speech standing before the word - the article; There are no articles in purely inflectional Russian. Der Buchhalter means that the word is masculine. “She is an accountant” in German would be Sie ist der Buchhalter, which in Russian literally comes out like “She is an accountant.” To say Sie Buchhalterein, a German would probably not immediately understand that this is a female accountant, and not some incomprehensible female monster. After thinking about it, he will still understand, but a meaningful conversation in this spirit will turn out to be extremely tiresome. The same goes for numbers: “accountants” in German Die Buchhalter is a different article, saying that he (she) is not one, but there are two or more of them.

It follows that the German understands and pronounces Der Buchhalter as an expression, a phrase, even if in a particular sentence the article is omitted according to certain rules of German grammar. Let's say, if we are talking not about a position, but about a profession - “Sie ist Buchhalter”. Articles of words are stressed; Moreover, they are often accentuated for greater expressiveness: “Wieviel kosten DIESE Schuhe?” (“How much are THESE boots?”). In Russian, pronouns and particles are used for this purpose (“How much are THESE apples?”; “Show me THAT suit”).

As a consequence, in German pronunciation the emphasis naturally falls on the root. The article, so to speak, prepares the consciousness for the perception of a meaningful word, the root of which must be highlighted. The role of the ending, if there is one, is secondary.

A Russian person, firstly, perceives “accountant” as one word, and it is quite long and tricky for Russian speech: three closed syllables in a row. Secondly, because of this, it is already phonetically (for pronunciation) difficult for him to keep the stress on his middle syllable all the time - the clarity of the ending is “blurred”, and, therefore, the expressiveness of the utterance decreases. In the singular there is also this and that: here most often you only need to distinguish the case. In the plural, at least two-factor identification is required: number, case. Perhaps also three-factor: gender, number, case (“accountants”, “accountants”, “accountants”, etc.). And all this needs to be recognized by just one ending, “lost” at the end of a rather difficult to pronounce word. In this case, shifting the emphasis to the ending in Russian pronunciation looks quite natural: it is what needs to be highlighted, like an article in German. This is why the colloquial plural forms of “accountant” are not considered erroneous.

Note: the plural of “director” - “directors” - has established itself as normative for directors - people. “Directors” are guiding elements and systems within technical devices. But there are no accountants built into antennas, pumps, turbines, etc.

What to do if your employer refuses you?

“Rejections are part of the job search, so you need to treat them rationally. Analyze the last meeting and think about what can be changed for the better. Don't give up - a few rejections don't mean anything. Look for additional motivation and continue going to interviews,” Anna Khvostova reassures. “In any case, there is no need to be upset - there can be many reasons: for example, HR, being inside the company, may understand that this position will not reveal your potential, and you will simply become bored,” continues Maria Orlova.

If the reason for the refusal is not clear, do not hesitate to ask the recruiter for the reason. True, experts say that they may not answer you frankly, but it’s worth a try. Sometimes an employer can agree to a meeting and even recommend literature or sites for professional development.

Don't forget to thank us for the pleasant communication and leave your contact information for the future. You can also subscribe to company vacancies on the website or join groups to stay up to date. Don't settle on one company, consider as many options as possible. Choose an employer that's right for you: We spend most of our lives at work, and it's important to choose the right second home.

Important.

If the employer does not call you back within the promised time (usually a week), you can call him yourself. It is possible that the specialist had an emergency or was not on site for objective reasons. However, it’s worth thinking about whether you need a job in a company where they are not willing to give feedback to potential employees.

We wish you success!