Abstract: With the development of market economy and the intensification of social competition, enterprises are increasingly using commercial credit to promote sales in order to expand market share. In addition, China's social credit foundation is still relatively weak, the social credit system is not yet complete, and the phenomenon of arrears between enterprises is serious, which leads to an increase in current accounts between enterprises and a large number of bad debts. On the basis of analyzing the causes of accounts receivable and its influence on enterprises, aiming at the main problems existing in internal control of accounts receivable, the internal control system of accounts receivable is designed, and effective safeguard measures are put forward to enhance the risk prevention ability of enterprises.

Paper Keywords: accounts receivable; Internal control; Capital chain

As a kind of commercial credit, accounts receivable exist in a large number in the daily production and operation of enterprises, which will lead to the unreasonable occupation of a large number of working funds and increase the financial risks of enterprises. If the accounts receivable are poorly managed, it will cause huge bad debt losses, which can turn the enterprise from profit to loss or even bankruptcy. However, the internal control system of accounts receivable has not been paid attention to by senior managers and accounting functional departments. The reasons are as follows: first, the original old system of the enterprise has caused the extensive management mode of the enterprise; Second, the top leaders of enterprises lack a correct understanding of controlling business risks; Third, many enterprises are confused about how to establish an effective control system.

In May and April of 20 10, 2008, the Ministry of Finance, the National Audit Office, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued "Basic Standards for Enterprise Internal Control" and "Supporting Guidelines for Enterprise Internal Control", aiming at strengthening and standardizing enterprise internal control, improving enterprise management level and risk prevention ability, promoting sustainable development of enterprises, and maintaining market economic order and social public interests. The five departments jointly issued a document to promote the construction of enterprise internal control, which shows the importance of internal control in the process of enterprise operation and corporate governance. However, accounts receivable not only occupy a very important position in production and operation, but also account for a high proportion in the balance sheet, so the study of internal control of accounts receivable plays an important role in the development of enterprises.

I. Problems in Internal Control of Accounts Receivable

At present, there are many reasons for the increase of accounts receivable and the loss of bad debts. The main reasons are as follows:

1. Weak awareness of internal control of accounts receivable.

At present, the internal control of accounts receivable is still a kind of personal management to a great extent, lacking a scientific control system. Many enterprises have not established detailed internal control system of accounts receivable and lack the guidance of necessary rules and regulations. There is a great blindness and arbitrariness in controlling and managing accounts receivable, which leads to the blind release of accounts by business departments and the abuse of credit resources, and enterprises suffer huge risk losses of accounts receivable.

2.？ Lagging? Internal control mode of accounts receivable based on

The traditional internal control mode of accounts receivable is that the risk arises from the inability to recover the money after delivery, and often only stays in the state of collecting debts from accounts receivable afterwards. The main purpose of internal control of accounts receivable is not to nip in the bud, but? Better late than never? . From the business process of credit sales activities, the focus of enterprise control is only on the recovery of accounts receivable after the transaction, ignoring the management before the transaction and the credit management during the transaction, and lacking the scientific customer credit review system and customer credit management system. As a result, the quality of accounts receivable can not be reasonably controlled with half the effort, causing great losses to enterprises.

3. Lack of effective credit management system.

Many enterprises have been in a state of lack of credit management system, with poor functions such as customer data collection and credit investigation, weak pre-credit evaluation, lack of standardized credit sales procedures to restrain them, no in-depth investigation of the payer's assets and liabilities and credit situation, and no attention to the evaluation and analysis of accounts receivable risks. Often in order to unilaterally expand sales and increase market share, the sales department's prior credit investigation is insufficient or ineffective, and the financial department is responsible for collecting money. The lack of communication between them increases the possibility of bad debts and bad debts, thus increasing the business risks of enterprises.

4. Unclear division of institutional responsibilities and poor execution.

The organizational structure and functions of some enterprises cannot meet the requirements of market competition and credit management. The functional departments related to internal control of accounts receivable generally include marketing department, sales department, finance department and risk management department. These institutions are cross-managed, and their responsibilities are unclear. Lack of coordination and communication, unable to timely and effectively monitor the product ordering, sales, payment recovery and sales profits, and no specific responsible subject is responsible for the recovery of accounts receivable. When bad debts occur, various departments shirk their responsibilities, which leads to the ineffective control of accounts receivable.

Second, to strengthen the internal control of enterprise accounts receivable countermeasures

The problems in accounts receivable management come from many aspects. To solve this problem, we must strengthen the internal control management of accounts receivable. Internal control is a management method closely related to practice, so it is necessary to establish a set of internal control system of accounts receivable that conforms to the actual development of enterprises. All accounting control systems of enterprises should have clear control objectives.

1. Establish a reasonable internal control target for accounts receivable.

Control objectives include ensuring accurate and reliable accounting data of accounts receivable business, striving for timely recovery of accounts receivable and reducing the occurrence of bad debt losses. Enterprises shall conduct accounting for accounts receivable business in accordance with the relevant provisions of accounting standards, correctly prepare accounting vouchers, and record accounting books in time to ensure the accuracy and reliability of accounting information for accounts receivable business. Accounts receivable are generated by credit sales, which means that the liquidity of the enterprise is occupied by the other party. If accounts receivable occupy too much capital, it will inevitably affect the speed of capital turnover and lead to the tension of enterprise capital chain. Due to the existence of a large number of accounts receivable, it is inevitable that enterprises will suffer bad debt losses. Enterprises should strengthen credit management, intensify collection efforts, timely conduct aging analysis, timely feedback overdue accounts receivable, and focus on management to minimize the occurrence of bad debt losses.

2. Improve the internal control system of accounts receivable.

(1) Division of responsibilities control. In the business of credit sales, the functions of credit sales approval and sales should be separated, and the responsibilities of delivery, invoicing, collection and bookkeeping should be separated.

(2) Authorization approval control, including credit sales, delivery, sales price, sales conditions, freight, discounts, bad debts, etc. It must be approved by the relevant personnel.

(3) Voucher and record control, including the establishment of various voucher and account book systems, and timely bookkeeping and posting.

(4) Check and control, regularly check the general ledger and subsidiary ledger of accounts receivable, formulate an internal verification system, set up posts, implement the system, and manage sales and collection business.

3. Establish accounts receivable early warning system and responsibility management.

Early warning of the risks arising in the process of enterprise operation can effectively prevent enterprise risks and change ex post control into ex ante control. For example, according to the scale and credit status of credit sales of enterprises, the maximum credit limit and the longest credit period of enterprises are set. If this limit is exceeded, the delivery will be stopped. For customers who are actually higher than the set maximum credit amount, the monthly income will be greater than the supply and gradually reduced to the maximum credit amount; At the same time as setting the maximum amount of credit sales, set the maximum credit sales period, and the business personnel will track the documentary collection before the expiration. If the arrears are not recovered at maturity, the supply will be stopped immediately and the payment will be collected.