Any company should reflect the processes occurring in it in the documents. This is necessary for internal organization, it is required for reporting to various regulatory bodies. Moreover, all used papers and information are constantly updated: some appear, others become outdated. And, finally, there is an exchange between departments, departments, just specialists. This whole process is the workflow in the organization.
The document itself is a tangible object on which information is fixed in the form of text, sound recordings, or video images. The last two categories until some time ago were generally not considered as documents of legal entities. However, now, when the organization of electronic document management is developing at an unprecedented pace, such formulations do not surprise anyone. A document is intended for storage and transfer of this information to other persons, while ways of protection against unauthorized use are provided.
How does workflow for small businesses begin
Naturally, there are certain principles that must be observed when document flow is formed in the organization. We characterize them for the newly created legal entity.
The first thing that needs to be done is to create at least a short register of documents required in the activity. There is no such law where they would all be thoroughly painted. But there is a proven practice.
Be sure to have a charter, certificates of registration, etc. All documentation begins with them, which at first fits in one file.
But then primary documents will begin to accumulate , which, incidentally, should be stored for at least five years. This includes invoices, invoices, payment documents - everything that can confirm the legality of the transactions. This is considered the most important category.
In addition, the document flow in the organization should provide for the accumulation of contracts with partners and contractors - those agreements that accompany the businessman throughout his activities. Here you can use the experience of predecessors. Drawing up a lease of premises, concluding a contract with a foreign company, you can use approximate samples. They combine mandatory provisions with those where initiative can be taken.
Finally, there are internal documents created in departments and forever remaining in the bowels of office filing cabinets. This includes all kinds of regulations, instructions, orders, reports and more. A separate line can only be called documentation on the remuneration of employees. There are very stringent legislative requirements in terms of compilation, and in terms of shelf life in the archive.
What to take as a basis?
As a result, in order to create a more or less satisfactory workflow in the organization, it will be necessary to review many instructions and laws. But another thing can be advised: take a similar legal entity with a similar taxation regime and business history as a model. And if there has already been a tax audit, then you can definitely get a quality consultation.
As a result, the workflow of an organization classified as a small business is not very difficult to organize. It is only necessary to show some scrupulousness.
It is more difficult in large companies, where it is a whole system, where the circulation of a document goes through a full cycle: creation, registration, forwarding to the addressee or transfer to the contractor, familiarization and, finally, execution. They even provide workflow schedules - schemes that reflect the procedure for moving documents, starting from the moment they are created and ending with their transfer to storage. Naturally, unification is impossible here due to the difference in the structures of enterprises. Therefore, each organization develops these schedules independently.