Accounting / Bookkeeping
The term accounting describes the comprehensive recording, storage and analysis or evaluation of all measurable business transactions/processes in a company. To this end, profit and balance sheet figures from general accounting are compared with the key figures from the various departments (sales, production, personnel).
The aim of accounting is to systematically record and evaluate all quantifiable relationships(key figures) and processes within a company. It basically serves as the basis for future-oriented planning, control and monitoring of operational activities and their success. From a business perspective, accounting is an independent and autonomous system consisting of the following four subsystems.
- Planning accounting
- Period accounting
- Object and project accounting
- Operating statistics
Accounting focuses on the main cost centers that arise in the aforementioned subsystems and are commonplace. The most common main cost centers include
- Material: procurement, scheduling, goods receipt, warehousing
- Manufacturing; production, assembly, quality assurance, work preparation, development
- Administration: management, accounting, finance, human resources, business organization, controlling
- Sales: marketing, (warehouse) sales, shipping, invoicing (invoice), order management/order processing
- Trade: factory sales, direct sales, sales agent/consignment (owner of the goods)
Accounting, bookkeeping in the commercial code
For legal reasons, a company cannot be managed without an accounting system implemented in the company. Section 238 of the German CommercialCode(HGB) is an example of this. This paragraph describes the accounting obligation and states, among other things, that every entrepreneur is obliged to keep company accounts. The bookkeeping documents the business transactions that occur in the company, such as income from services, material purchases, wage costs and the depreciation of assets due to wear and tear. All business activities as well as company assets, and in some cases also private capital (seizure), are included in the bookkeeping and thus in the resulting balance sheets (cross-section of a company’s success).
From the legislator’s point of view, the accounting system must be designed in such a way that it provides a knowledgeable third party with an overview of the business transactions and the situation of the company within a reasonable period of time. This can prevent the threat of insolvency or the like or even delaying it, possibly putting jobs at risk.
The accounting system also serves as a template for the mandatory and annually recurring filing of accounts. It is presented to the tax authorities and tax consultants.
Further business management aspects of intralogistics can be found in the article Inventory costs.
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