Author: Yovan Alfredo Saavedra Cabrejo
Based on a user’s inquiry as to whether accounting vouchers must be signed by the persons involved, the Consejo Técnico de la Contaduría Pública of Colombia issued the following opinion:
“(…) The accounting vouchers were normally signed by all parties according to the rules, However, the application of IFRS, the Banking Law and ICT apparently negate this obligation, The vouchers are accompanied by their supports, but those who intervene as responsible generally do not sign the document, only the full name of the person who prepares it appears, as a consequence of the practice of issuing them in pdf and then storing them in the cloud or in any other device that guarantees their consultation and reproduction, i.e., they are no longer printed.
(…) “TITLE THREE – RULES ON RECORDS AND BOOKS
ARTICLE 7º. ACCOUNTING RECEIPTS. The items recorded in the recapitulative ledgers and in the ledger where transactions are recorded in chronological order must be supported by previously prepared accounting vouchers.
Such vouchers must be prepared on the basis of the supports, by any means and in Spanish.
Accounting vouchers must be numbered consecutively, indicating the date of their preparation and the persons who prepared and authorized them.
They must indicate the date, origin, description and amount of the transactions, as well as the accounts affected by the entry.
The description of the accounts and transactions may be made by means of words, codes or numerical symbols, in which case the list of codes or symbols used must be recorded in the respective subsidiary according to the concept to which they correspond.
Accounting vouchers may be prepared by means of periodic summaries, at least on a monthly basis.
The accounting vouchers must correspond properly with the entries in the subsidiary ledgers and the general ledger in which all transactions are recorded in chronological order.”
(…) Therefore, the guidelines for the preparation of accounting vouchers establish the need to specify who participated in their preparation and authorization, but do not require that they must be signed by the parties involved, for which purpose the provisions of Articles 51, 53 and 55 of the Colombian Commercial Code must be complied with.
Sources:
- Concepto Nº 0527 del 27-11-2023 del Consejo Técnico de la Contaduría Pública
- https://www.ctcp.gov.co/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=159be63e-af0c-4052-9463-471d3664b977
