Development of the internal control system in finance and accounting outsourcing

Popularity of outsourcing among Russian enterprises can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, the process is fairly well-developed in Western companies. Secondly, many domestic firms pay attention to increasing efficiency of their activities, improving quality and cost optimization. Transition of modern Russian companies to outsourcing is de- termined by the opportunity to develop business concentrating maximum efforts on the core activities, which is espe- cially important in the context of increased competition and market instability. Outsourcing may be represented by dif- ferent classifications. This article discusses finance and accounting outsourcing. Widespread use of this type of out- sourcing is associated with a number of advantages which it provides business with. However, there are certain risks, as well as a time lag between receiving the service and evaluation of its quality. Having analyzed the problems arising while evaluating whether it is reasonable to use and develop outsourcing, as well as advantages and risks of outsourc- ing, the authors came to the conclusion that one of the risks - namely, the risk of losing control by the customer - is understudied in Russia. The procedure of analyzing the risk of losing control on the part of the customer must be de- signed and adjusted for accounting both company's “own” facts of economic life and operations provided within the process of outsourcing. The latter should take into account the internal control system of the customer. We believe that the internal control system of an outsourcing company should be complex. It should combine the internal control sys- tem required by the legislation on accounting and the internal control system of the auditing type. The article presents a variant of such a combined control system. On the basis of the author's proposals, exploratory analysis of the internal control system at one of Perm outsourcing companies was conducted. It is concluded that the internal control system of Russian outsourcing companies is only being set. We believe that the proposed variant of the combined internal control system will help to develop finance and accounting outsourcing, create and improve the internal control system, reduce the risk of losing control by the customer, and give auditors understanding of the level of internal control in service or- ganizations.