New accounting law to bring "informal" accountants out into the open

The new accounting law, modified through a government emergency ordinance, for the first time makes a clear distinction between organising and keeping the books, versus doing more advanced reporting (an accountant’s job) and signing for it. The Romanian accounting system takes one more step towards deregulation, which brings it closer to the Anglo-Saxon school, says Marin Toma, chairman of the Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), who has been running one of the most important and stable bodies in Romania for the last 18 years.

Companies with turnover or overall assets worth under 35,000 euros, which will hire based on a contract or on a service agreement graduates of economic faculties to keep the books, risk a lot, because these graduates will be responsible not only for keeping the books, but also for putting together the accounting records and signing for them.

“As an entrepreneur, you have to be really adventurous to accept something like that. I would separate the two processes (organising and keeping the books, and doing accounting and signing for it) because the risk is quite significant. At big companies, only those who have the right to sign can be held accountable. For instance, for a fictitious invoice introduced in the cost category, both the entrepreneur and the graduate of an economics faculty are held to account, it is considered a crime,” Toma says.

A novelty that the accounting law brings is that these graduates of economics faculties will be able to organise, keep the books, as well as do accounting and sign financial statements