Yearly stock-taking of assets and liabilities is a process of establishing the real balance of assets and liabilities, according to which, existing balances recorded in the books are adjusted to real balances determined during stock-taking. Stock-taking of all the assets and liabilities is obligatory. Stock-taking includes non-owned assets on separate inventory lists (so that these assets wouldn´t be considered as a surplus and so that the real owners know the balance on the day of stock-taking). Damaged and unusable assets (for write-off), contentious claims/receivables and liabilities are listed on separate inventory lists, and further steps are proposed in the report (asset write-off proposal, receivables and liabilities impairment, etc.).
Participants in the yearly stock-taking:
- Head of the budget, or rather of the budget user;
- Head of stock-taking;
- Stock-taking committee (or more committees);
- Employees handling the assets that are subject to stock-taking;
- Employees who are responsible for fixed asset registry and liabilities that are subject to stock-taking;
- Non-employees can also participate in the stock-taking (as members of the stock-taking committee or as experts).
Considering that the purpose of yearly stock-taking is control, employees who are responsible for assets subject to stock-taking, their direct superiors, employees who are responsible for fixed asset registry and liability balance, as well as head of an accounting department and employees who are responsible for supervision, shouldn´t be a part of stock-taking committee.
Stock-taking of assets and liabilities includes physical check of existence of assets (counting, etc.) and evaluation of condition (is it still usable or not), entry of this data on inventory lists, entry of data recorded in the ledger on the lists, calculation of value of assets listed, determining the differences between fair value (determined by stock-taking) and book value and determining the reasons for this difference.
Assets check can be done before 31st December. In this case, the inventory list will be created on the day of stock-taking, but the balance must be adjusted to 31st December by adding all new entries and exits between the day of stock-taking and 31st December. Stock-taking of financial assets, receivables and liabilities are done after the final date of the balance when all documentation for the previous year is received and recorded because the stock-taking is done according to the balance of assets and liabilities in the ledger.
Deadlines for yearly stock-taking aren´t regulated, however, considering that results of the stock-taking have to be included in the closing balance for the previous year, yearly stock-taking should be done in time to include and record the results in the balance sheet for the previous year.
