Internal accounting control, as the internal mechanism of self-regulation and self-restraint in enterprise production and operation activities, its establishment, perfection and implementation are the key to the success or failure of enterprise production and operation. Strengthening accounting supervision and internal accounting control is an important measure to solve the current accounting disorder, accounting information distortion, and safeguard owners' rights and interests, and it is also an inevitable trend of social progress and economic development. On the basis of discussing the basic theory of internal accounting control, this paper analyzes the shortcomings existing in the current internal accounting control and puts forward some targeted opinions.

Keywords: internal accounting controls corporate governance structure, current assets

Theory and Practice of Internal Accounting Control

With the deepening of reform, the increasingly perfect market economic system has put forward unprecedented requirements for accounting work. However, the current accounting work is not satisfactory in terms of ensuring the reliability of information, protecting the safety of enterprise assets, or serving the management objectives of enterprises, and some even reach an unbearable level. Accounting fraud cases of listed companies such as Zheng, Maikete, Dongfang Electronics, Yinguangsha and Lantian Co., Ltd., as well as the huge coffers of Zhengzhou Cooperative Bank Branch, have appeared in the news media and become the focus of people's attention. The defects, ineffectiveness and non-implementation of the internal accounting control system of enterprises are one of the key factors inducing the above cases. Strengthening the research of internal accounting control is of great theoretical and practical significance for the development of enterprises.

First, the internal accounting control theory research

(a) Internal control

Internal control refers to the organization, plans, procedures and methods of various restrictions and adjustments implemented within the unit in order to improve operating efficiency, fully and effectively obtain and use various resources and achieve established management objectives. Internal control is essentially a kind of management control. Specifically, internal control mainly includes internal accounting control, internal management control and internal audit control.

(B) Internal accounting control

The concept of internal accounting control originated in 1958. In order to divide the audit responsibility of certified public accountants, the Audit Procedure Committee under the American Institute of Accountants divides internal control into internal accounting control and internal management control.

1, meaning and scope of internal accounting control

According to the Internal Accounting Control Standards-Basic Standards (Trial) issued by the Ministry of Finance on June 22nd, 20001,2000, the internal accounting control is defined as the company's formulation and implementation to improve the quality of accounting information, protect the safety and integrity of assets and ensure the implementation of relevant laws, regulations and rules. In this definition, internal accounting control is defined as the internal accounting control of the unit, taking into account accounting-related controls. According to the Internal Accounting Control Standard-Basic Standard (Trial), the contents of internal accounting control mainly include: accounting control of monetary funds, physical assets, foreign investment, engineering projects, procurement and payment, financing, sales and collection, costs and expenses, guarantees and other economic businesses.

(C) the objectives of internal accounting control

The goal of internal accounting control refers to the expected effect and basic task that internal accounting control should achieve. Specifically, internal accounting control mainly has the following four objectives.

1. Ensure the authenticity and integrity of accounting data and prevent fraud. Accounting is an economic management activity that confirms, measures, records and reports the economic business of each unit in the process of collecting, processing and providing accounting information, participates in forecasting and decision-making, and implements supervision in order to obtain the best economic benefits. Sound and effective internal accounting control can ensure the timely and accurate management information and avoid or reduce errors in accounting activities as much as possible by formulating and implementing appropriate business control procedures, scientifically and reasonably dividing the scope of responsibilities, establishing a mechanism of mutual coordination and mutual restraint and a timely and smooth information feedback system.

2. Ensure the safety and integrity of the company's assets. Ensuring the safety and integrity of property is not only the internal control goal of property management and use departments and personnel, but also the internal control responsibility of accounting departments, as well as the internal accounting control goal of company investors and management authorities.

3. Ensure the implementation of relevant national laws and regulations and internal rules and regulations of the company. The company's business activities must be carried out under the constraints of laws and regulations, and the company's trading activities must conform to the rules and regulations formulated within the company. Prevent the company from violating relevant laws and regulations through effective procedures such as authorization, review and internal audit.

4. Promote the continuous improvement of economic benefits. This is the basic goal of the whole economic management, and also the goal of the company's internal accounting control. It is the general requirement to implement the internal accounting control of the company and ensure the realization of the economic management objectives of the unit, and it is also the ultimate standard of the internal accounting control of the company.

Second, the status quo of internal control of enterprise accounting in China

Internal accounting control is closely combined with enterprise management process, and its establishment, perfection and implementation are the key to the success or failure of enterprise production and operation. However, the present situation of internal control in Chinese enterprises is not satisfactory.

(A) weak basic accounting work

1, fabricate false accounting information at will. Due to lax internal management, some units have weakened the basic accounting work, confused accounts, untrue property and distorted data. Forging or altering false accounting vouchers, accounting books and accounting statements without authorization in order to cover up the real financial situation and operating results; In some units, the number of accountants is insufficient and their quality is not high, which leads to random bookkeeping, unclean procedures, serious mistakes, loss of accounting data, false accounting, distortion of accounting information and so on.

2. Internal management responsibilities are not clear. The corporate governance structure of some units is not perfect, and there is no mechanism for the separation and mutual restriction of final accounts, execution and supervision within the units. The unit legal person acts arbitrarily, resulting in major decision-making mistakes such as capital and asset scheduling; Internal management authority is out of control, incompatible responsibilities are not effectively separated, responsibilities are unclear, and actions are ultra vires, creating opportunities for abuse of power and corruption.

3. The expenses are out of control and the assets are seriously lost. Some enterprises allow department managers to master a certain proportion of business expenses, but do not stipulate the specific scope of expenses, which leads to extravagance and waste of some department managers; Some units failed to supervise the procurement of materials, property management, product sales and other links, coupled with lax review in economic exchanges, resulting in a large loss of state-owned assets and increased unit losses.

4. Violations of laws and regulations occur from time to time. Some accountants violate accounting professional ethics and do not seriously exercise their accounting supervision power, so that some financial leaders and enterprise managers take advantage of lax internal control and illegally occupy enterprise funds by using false invoices; Some accountants participate in illegal and disciplinary activities, accept bribes, embezzle and misappropriate public funds, and even make suggestions for illegal and disciplinary activities.

(B) loopholes in the current assets link

The current assets of enterprises are mainly distributed in cash, bank deposits, inventory materials and current accounts, which is also the most easily out-of-control link in the internal control system. For example, some cashiers issue receipts with only their own signatures that are inconsistent with the amount paid by salespeople, and some cash is intercepted; Some cashiers sign cash checks to withdraw money from banks, which is corrupt; Some salespeople use two unnumbered receipts at the same time, one to put the money in the cashier and the other to put it in their pockets; Some accountants conceal from the leaders that the recovered money does not belong to accounting and is deposited in the bank in private name; At the end of the month, some custodians took out the inventory materials and sold them privately, neither taking stock nor making accounts. Some operators put the purchased goods directly on the counter for sale, without going through the warehousing procedures or paying the financial account for the goods, and engage in "extracorporeal circulation". All of the above are disciplinary actions of internal control positions in charge of money, affairs and accounts.

(C) The accounting supervision system is out of touch with the corresponding supporting system of production, supply and marketing.

In the current management system of state-owned enterprises, due to the separate management of enterprise operators, the management is decentralized. The financial department mainly accounts after the event, and it is difficult to control beforehand and supervise during the event. Often the product has been issued, and the financial department does not know whether it has achieved sales. Due to the fraud and dereliction of duty of the supply department, the purchased materials are of high quality, and the financial department still has to pay at the price.

(D) The main investment links are out of control.

Buying fixed assets and investing abroad are important economic activities of enterprises. According to the regulations, relevant meetings should be held in advance to solicit opinions from all sides, make market forecasts, select the best scheme and demonstrate the feasibility of the scheme. On the other hand, if only the top leaders of enterprises make subjective assumptions, other participation and supervision will be excluded from the whole investment process, and the role of accounting control will be ignored, leading to investment losses until bankruptcy.

Third, improve internal accounting control measures

Good internal accounting control can ensure the strict implementation of national financial discipline and related systems, and is conducive to protecting the safety and integrity of enterprise property and materials. When establishing internal accounting control, we should start from the following aspects.

(A) to establish a sound corporate governance structure

Perfect corporate governance structure is the basis of effective implementation of internal accounting control system. As far as accounting control is concerned, the person in charge of the unit, as an enterprise operator, is not only the subject of accounting control, but also the object of accounting control. The personal qualities of leaders and their attitudes towards accounting control play a key role in the implementation of internal accounting control. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a perfect corporate governance structure, establish a mechanism in which ownership, decision-making power and management power are separated and balanced, and solve the problem that insider control and supervision are not in place, so that operators can make decision-making management within the scope authorized by the board of directors and be strictly supervised and restricted, thus ensuring the effective implementation of enterprise management systems, including internal accounting control. In state-owned enterprises, it is necessary to strengthen the democratic supervision function of the workers' congress, implement financial disclosure, and enhance the self-control consciousness of operators.

(B) improve the internal accounting control system

Internal accounting control system: the core content of accounting control. Generally speaking, the link setting of internal accounting control is restricted by the scale of the enterprise. For small enterprises, the internal division of responsibilities is not very detailed, and there are often not enough managers to engage in internal control. For enterprises with sufficient scale, it is feasible to carry out extensive internal control, and they have the conditions to establish a sound internal accounting control system. For large enterprises, a higher level internal accounting control system should be established. The main form of accounting control is system control. An enterprise shall, according to the requirements of the Internal Accounting Control Standard of the Ministry of Finance and its own reality, improve and perfect the internal control system suitable for the characteristics of the enterprise, and realize the standardization and effectiveness of accounting and economic behavior of control entities at all levels, so as to achieve the purpose of accounting control.

(C) to strengthen internal audit

Internal audit is one of the important means to ensure the internal accounting control of enterprises, an important part of the internal accounting control system of enterprises and an institutional arrangement to strengthen internal accounting supervision. Through relatively independent internal audit, we can prevent minor delay, find and correct all kinds of fraud in time, and find loopholes and signs of violation of laws and regulations in management in time, thus protecting the safety and integrity of enterprise property. Internal audit should be relatively independent, institutionalized and routine, and internal designers should focus on the interests of enterprises and investors everywhere, help to stop leakage and strengthen management, and become "legal consultants" of enterprise leaders and "diagnostic doctors" of enterprise economic behavior; The focus of internal audit work should be shifted from post-audit to in-process and post-event audit, and the work content should be shifted from investigating violations to internal control audit and performance audit. It is necessary to implement comprehensive budget management, strictly control the audit before and after the event, and strive to eliminate the problems of enterprises in the bud. While strengthening internal audit, we should take management audit as the development direction of internal audit and make up for the shortcomings of internal audit from the perspective of strengthening management.

(D) improve the overall quality of financial personnel.

Enterprise internal accounting control is a system for effectively monitoring all aspects of enterprise management, which goes far beyond the knowledge field of financial accounting and is the integration of investment, finance, market, marketing, law, materials, information, institutions, production and other aspects of knowledge. If enterprise financial personnel do not have a certain comprehensive quality, internal accounting control can not be fully in place. Therefore, it is urgent for enterprise financial personnel to really shoulder the heavy responsibility of internal accounting control, constantly update their knowledge and improve their business ability. This requires enterprise financial personnel to strengthen their conscious study, and at the same time, strengthen the follow-up education of enterprise financial personnel by financial departments at all levels, continuously deepen the study of professional knowledge, and deepen the study of modern business theory, accounting means and methods.

conclusion

Internal accounting control of enterprises is a systematic project, which needs many efforts. The basic daily standard of internal accounting control design of enterprises should be to ensure the smooth operation of enterprises without losing control under the premise of maximizing the economic interests of enterprises. At the same time, it should be able to effectively deal with unconventional business, and ensure the effective self-discipline of internal control through the detection and evaluation of internal control.

References:

1. Document of the Ministry of Finance: Internal Accounting Control Standards-Basic Standards (for Trial Implementation) June 22, 2006 5438+0.

2. Zhao Xin-dao: "On the internal accounting supervision of units", contained in Friends of Accounting, No.8, 2002.

3. Li Xingchen: "Internal Accounting Control and Corporate Governance Structure", Journal of North China University of Science and Technology, No.3, 2003.

4. Chen Juan: "On Establishing and Perfecting the Internal Accounting Control System of Enterprises", Journal of Central South Forestry College, No.3, 2004.

5. Yin: "Internal Accounting Control Measures under the New Form", Modern Enterprise Management, No.6, 2004.

6. Zhang Lixiang: "Problems that should be paid attention to in internal accounting control of enterprises", contained in Development of Mechanical Management, No.5, 2005.

7. Li Fengming: Internal Control Design, Beijing: Economic Management Press, 1997.