updated 21 Jan 2024
The Accounting Law (82/1991) stipulates that Limited Liability Companies (SRL) “have the obligation to carry out a general inventory of items of the nature of assets, liabilities and equity held at the beginning of the activity, at least once during the financial year, and in the case of a merger, division or liquidation and in other situations provided by law." (Art. 7.1)
The Order of the Minister of Finance no. 2861 of October 9, 2009 approving the Norms on the organisation and performance of the inventory of elements of the nature of assets, liabilities and equity provides, in Article 2, that "responsibility for the proper organisation of inventory works, according to Law no. 82/1991, republished, and in accordance with the applicable accounting regulations, is the responsibility of the administrator, the authorising officer or another person who has the obligation to manage the entity."
⚠️ Article 41.2.d) of the Accounting Law states that non-filing the annual inventory represents a contravention, and Article 42.1 of the same law, modified by GO 115/2023, states that the penalty for this type of contravention is between RON 3 000 and RON 20 000.
In order to be compliant with the law, I have two ways of preparing the annual inventory documentation:
either I do it myself;
or I have it done by an accountant, for a fee.
If I want to prepare myself the documentation for the annual inventory, in my quality of administrator - or director -, then the templates are below. Once I fill them all in, I have to send them to my accountant for validation.
1️⃣ Inventory Procedure
2️⃣ Inventory Decision. It must be issued by myself as administrator in December and has the following contents:
information about the company;
the way in which inventory is performed;
inventory method used;
object of the inventory: goods purchased for resale | raw materials | consumables | packages | fixed assets;
starting date of the inventory;
end date of the inventory;
members of the Inventory Commission.
3️⃣ Inventory List. In this list I must display all the company's assets & liabilities, grouped by type and categories. I need to list the values as of 31 December for the following:
fixed assets: and I need to check that they actually exist in the company. I also need to ensure I have scrapping notes (=ro. proces-verbal de casare) for the fixed assets which are entirely amortised and which I no longer use in my business activity;
inventories: I need to check that they actually exist in the company - and I have to fill in the Inventory List with the goods identified on-site: goods purchased for resale, raw materials, and consumables. I also need to send my accountant degraded inventories notes (=ro. proces-verbal cu stocurile degradate).
4️⃣ Inventory Note (=ro. proces-verbal de inventariere) - members of the Inventory Commission.
💡 Chapter 9 of the book "Business in Romania" by Dr Maria Piroi and Dr Bogdan Năstase is presenting this issue in detail, together with other risks faced by foreign businesspeople in Romania - and ways to prevent mistakes.