In any sphere of the national economy, there must necessarily be paperwork that includes many functions. Among them, the accounting of incoming and outgoing correspondence is one of the main ones. There is not a single enterprise operating in isolation from other organizations. Be sure to communicate and cooperate with customers, suppliers, financial and other institutions. Therefore, the production process cannot do without correspondence. Who is involved in the registration of incoming and outgoing letters? How to keep their records? Who needs it and why? Consider these issues in the article.
Categories of correspondence. Features of outgoing documentation
There are a great many forms and types of documents, but all of them are divided into only two main categories:
- Sent (outgoing correspondence).
- Received (incoming correspondence).
Consider the meaning of each category.
Correspondence referred to as outgoing may be sent to such recipients:
- Higher authorities.
- Downstream organizations.
- Partner enterprises.
- Departments, workshops and other structural divisions of the enterprise.
What documents are sent to higher authorities?
Almost every enterprise is subordinate to any organization (district, departmental, regional, as well as ministries). Outgoing correspondence sent to these institutions may be reports, reports, plans for the month, quarter, year, answers to requests. As a rule, it is drawn up on approved standard forms or on ordinary sheets with the company logo.
Documents for downstream organizations
Not all, but many enterprises work with organizations under their jurisdiction. It can be executive bodies, branches, small firms and others. Correspondence sent to him may constitute directives, orders, notifications, provisions, regulations, training materials. It is also issued on letterhead or regular sheets with the company logo. In addition, instructions and training materials may take the form of brochures and manuals, but they must be accompanied by instructions on standard forms or cover letters with seals and signatures. If there are none, then the manuals and brochures themselves must have the seal of the sending company and the signatures of the responsible persons.
Documentation for partner firms
As a rule, in this case we are talking about suppliers, distributors and customers. The correspondence sent to him is orders, notifications of receipt of goods, claims, handouts, messages about changes in any conditions of the contract or contract, business offers.
It should be noted that advertising materials, price lists, congratulations, invitations, for example, to the presentation do not need to register.
Organization-wide documentation
This type of outgoing correspondence takes place at enterprises where there are 2 or more departments, workshops, units. In such cases, the management team issues orders, decrees, manuals, instructions and similar documents that are sent to departments and workshops. Then for managers and administration such correspondence will be outgoing, and for the workshop or department - incoming.
Magazine Rules
No matter where the document is sent, it must be accounted for. For this, there are outgoing correspondence logs. In times when computers and the Internet did not exist, such magazines were handwritten. They could have an arbitrary look. Could be used general notebook, book of account, notepad. The main thing was that the magazine should have stitched sheets so that they could not be pulled out. In addition, they needed to be numbered. On the front page of the journal the date when it was started was indicated. Previously, pages were required to be stitched with threads, their ends should be sealed with a sheet of paper, on which it was necessary to stamp and sign the responsible person. Also on this sheet was the total number of numbered pages. Corrections were not allowed.
Now flashing the magazine with threads is preserved during the registration of especially important documents of financial or legal value.
Pages in the magazine are numbered at most enterprises.
When the last line of the journal is filled, the date of its end is stamped. It is stored from 3 to 5 years. It depends on the type of correspondence registered in it. Of particular importance are court orders, financial accounts, long-term contracts, and the like. The journal can only be disposed of if each of the documents recorded in it has lost its legal force.
Computer to the rescue!
In our age of computer technology, it is difficult to find a clerk who hand-draws a journal of incoming and outgoing correspondence. Now there is a certain program that allows you to print forms or keep records in the computer. To use it, you need to have:
- Computer with programs MS Office, MS Excel.
- A printer.
- Scanner.
- Computer email.
- A stamp of this kind: “Entrance. No. _______, "____" ___________ 20 ___ g. " It can be dialed manually or purchased ready.
Next you need to go into the program, download the desired form and start working with it. You can print the form, make many photocopies, sew them. It will turn out a journal in which you will need to make notes by hand. You can not print, keep registration directly in the computer. As a rule, this is a record of documents for which you do not need to sign.
How many magazines do you need?
Most often, enterprises have one outgoing correspondence journal. However, some organizations with many partners and other recipients may start several such magazines, for example, such:
- To register correspondence sent to third parties and for documents within the enterprise.
- For letters sent to domestic companies and foreign.
- For documents intended for certain organizations (for example, the central administration, the ministry and so on) and all the rest. This is done for the convenience of document management, but any journal is issued according to a single standard.
In addition, some organizations have separate journals for each type of documentation. For example, to register outgoing orders, accounting orders, notifications, manuals, customer complaints, protocols, and so on. Forms with other columns may be used to record such documents.
How to keep a journal entry
It should be said that the forms are approximately the same for all types of outgoing correspondence. A sample demonstrating what the design should be is given in our article.
At the top of each page there is a “header” with graphs:
- The serial number of the record, it is also affixed to the document.
- Departure date.
- The name of the document (for example, “Progress Report”).
- Summary (just a couple of sentences, you can also put down the document number).
- Name of institution where correspondence is sent.
- Signature of the person in charge of registration.
- Method of departure (by regular or e-mail, fax). This item was added with the advent of new technologies. Previously, it was not in the correspondence registers.
- If a response is sent to a request or a performance report, the number of the document on the basis of which the sent letter is created should be noted in the journal. It is also necessary to indicate the data on the contractor (name, position).
- The number of copies. Sometimes a column is highlighted separately, in which the number of pages in an instance is affixed.
- Note. Information that is not included in the previous columns is indicated here.
If the outgoing document is not a response to the request or the report, dashes are placed in the execution columns and the person in charge.
Nowadays, the contents and filling of the outgoing mail journal have not changed much. The sample is presented above.
Incoming mail
Letters and documents can come to the enterprise from the following sources:
- Higher authorities.
- Downstream organizations.
- Partner companies.
- Other institutions not related to the previous paragraphs (police, banks, courts, private citizens and so on).
- Inside the enterprise, incoming correspondence can come from the administration or another structural unit, for example, from the accounting department.
We have examined above which papers may constitute correspondence from the organizations indicated in the first three paragraphs.
Documents from other institutions can be a summons to an employee, a writ of execution, a court decision, a lawsuit, a complaint or a statement by a private person, and so on.
Papers representing the document flow inside the enterprise can be very different: orders of the management, orders, instructions, instructions, standards, safety rules, notices, and so on.
Work with incoming documents
It is necessary to keep not only records of outgoing correspondence, but also incoming. The journal where the letters arriving at the enterprise are registered is executed according to the same rules as for the documents sent.
The difference is in the “cap” on the forms. It should contain the following graphs:
- Serial number. He is affixed to the document.
- Date of receiving.
- Organization sending the document.
- How it was received (by fax, email or regular letter).
- Document's name.
- The number of copies.
- Where the document is sent (workshop, department or folder name).
A sample of one of the forms of the journal incoming mail is presented below.
If the incoming document is an instruction or instructional instruction received by the workshop (department) for execution, the registration log must indicate who is the person in charge, as well as an execution note, date and signature of the executor.
Who keeps records?
Any responsible person appointed by the head can register incoming and outgoing correspondence. In this case, this type of work should be included in his job description or approved by order of the head of the enterprise. As a rule, the secretary is engaged in clerical work in organizations. In addition, a clerk or administrator (in small companies) can register correspondence. In some organizations, two people are involved in correspondence accounting - a drafter and a secretary.
Workshops and departments also keep records of incoming and outgoing documentation. The employee is engaged in this, to whom this type of activity is charged with responsibility by an order of management.
How to keep records of incoming documentation?
Registration of incoming and outgoing correspondence is not a difficult business, but a responsible one. All documents received at the enterprise are subject to accounting. If they came from organizations, they must necessarily bear the seal and signature of the head. Sometimes the signature of responsible persons is required, for example, the chief accountant, if this is an invoice issued to the company. Letters from private individuals, for example, explanatory or claims, can only bear the signature of the person who compiled this document.
At most enterprises, all the incoming correspondence must be reviewed by the head to be aware of the production processes. He himself decides what to do with the received documents - accept for execution, familiarize with the information of the parties involved or simply file the paper in a folder. Therefore, the secretary, having registered the correspondence received in the journal, provides it to the head. The one on each document puts a mark in which department he should be sent.
Based on this “verdict”, the secretary in the journal of registration of incoming correspondence notes in the corresponding column the further “fate” of each letter. For example, a new regulation on calculating premiums can be sent to bookkeeping, methodological guidelines for TB can be sent to the technical department, and a complaint from citizen Ivanov to the product quality control department. This concludes the work of the secretary with the incoming documentation.
How to keep records of outgoing correspondence?
We have examined above which papers may relate to this type of documentation. In some organizations, individual requests must be answered by the assistant secretary or drafter. According to GOST R 6.30-2003.12, such a document is drawn up on a special form or on a blank sheet with the company logo. Any business letter sent to an organization or private individual must bear the seal and signature of the manager. As a rule, the secretary should make a photocopy of the document, which must be filed in the correct folder.
Registration of outgoing correspondence is carried out in the appropriate journal. The secretary must check whether there are all the necessary seals and signatures, details of his company and the organization for which the document is drawn up, put down on it the number corresponding to the one under which it is entered in the journal, the date of departure, the name of the folder in which the copy is filed. If the correspondence to be sent is a response to the letter received, you must also put down the number under which it was registered. Documents must be sent on the day indicated in the registration journal.
Why is correspondence required?
Some people, far from production, believe that the scrupulous registration of incoming and outgoing correspondence is an extra work, the so-called paperwork. In fact, correspondence accounting performs the following functions:
- Organizes the workflow.
- Provides timely response to incoming signals.
- Streamlines the exchange of information within production.
- It guarantees effective participation of the company in external economic life.
- Helps to quickly find the necessary document.
The importance of this work is obvious, therefore it is necessary to approach its implementation responsibly.