Accounting Office – Accounting and Bookkeeping Services in Poland

Books of account and financial statements are an invaluable source of knowledge about the company. Thanks to them you can easily follow and control financial flows – not only related to revenues and costs – but also those resulting from receivables (e.g. issued and unpaid invoices) or liabilities (e.g. contracted credits) that have not yet been actually settled.

Such knowledge, combined with professional management, allows to identify the sources of financial losses and indicate the areas of activity which bring the highest profits. On this basis, new strategies can be created and decisions can be made on the direction of the company's development, allowing for an effective improvement of the financial result.

When analysing accounting books and drawing up a company development strategy, it is worth taking advantage of the support of an experienced advisor.

Read more: Management consulting

Polish regulations allow several forms of simplified accounting, however the term "full accounting" (pełna księgowość) is commonly used to describe the most complex way of keeping accounts in a company or institution, on the basis of the books of accounts – in accordance with the Accounting Act (Journal of Laws of 1994, No. 121, item 591, as amended).

Despite the fact that the system of keeping such accounts is very complex, detailed and requires specialist skills – the idea itself is very simple: the point is to record, i.e. make appropriate notes on everything that is directly related to earning, spending and transferring money in a company (so-called "economic events").

The obligation to keep books of accounts results from the Accounting Act and depends primarily on the type of business entity. According to the regulations, books of accounts has to be kept by:

• commercial companies;
• Entrepreneurs (in accordance with the Entrepreneurs' Law and the Law on Succession Management of a Natural Person's Enterprise and other facilitations related to business succession), whose net revenues exceed the annual limit of EUR 2,000,000;
• Enterprises in inheritance, if books of accounts were kept in them before the opening of the inheritance;
• organisational units operating under the Banking Law;
• municipalities, districts, provinces and their unions (along with their units and budgetary establishments);
• organisational units without legal personality (with certain exceptions);
• branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises (in accordance with the Act on the Principles of Participation of Foreign Enterprises and Other Foreign Persons in Business Operations in the Republic of Poland);
• other entities if they receive grants or subsidies from public funds (state budget, budgets of local government units or special purpose funds).

No need to keep books of accounts for entities whose net income from:

• sole tradership,
• civil partnership,
• general partnership,
• partnership,
• inherited enterprise,

did not exceed EUR 2,000,000 for the previous fiscal year. This limit is converted according to the exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland as at the first working day of October of the previous tax year.

It is not easy to keep your own books of accounts and prepare financial statements in accordance with the Polish Accounting Act. It is necessary to hire an experienced accountant who knows the current regulations perfectly well and is characterized by high accuracy and work discipline. However, in the ever-changing legal and economic environment – even the most experienced employee will require continuous training, courses and time to upgrade its' skills to keep up with the changes.

Another challenge faced by entrepreneurs hiring an accountant is to ensure continuity of bookkeeping. Any absence due to random factors can lead to serious tax arrears and result in additional costs related to penalties. Choosing outsourcing as a solution for keeping books of accounts in an enterprise provides security and continuity of tax settlements.

Many companies are confronted with the need to reduce accounting costs and to comply with the required financial reporting standards. Compounding this problem is the requirement that they must address these requirements, with resource constraints on their capital budget and staffing. These compliance standards have also added complexities to many of the financial processes.