The departure of a chief accountant is a sensitive moment for any company. Finding a new specialist can take months. But accounting cannot pause: periods must be closed, reports submitted, the statutory audit passed and the books adapted to legislative changes.
In such situations a temporary outsourced chief accountant can help. Using the example of an international chocolate importer, we show how this solution helps get through the transition, keep accounting continuous and hand the function over to a new specialist.
The accounting and tax records of the Russian division of an international confectionery brand are kept by an in-house team: two specialists and a chief accountant who coordinates the work and is responsible for period close, tax reporting and the accuracy of the books.
When the chief accountant, who had worked at the company for more than 15 years, announced her departure, it became clear that finding a specialist with SAP experience quickly would not be possible. At the same time, the annual audit was starting the following week.
The company handed the chief accountant function to UCMS Group for the transition period, to keep accounting continuous, submit the annual reports, pass the statutory audit and support the accounting team until a new specialist joined.
Ekaterina Buldina, project manager:
“We joined the project on a Thursday, and on Monday the chief accountant had her last working day. The handover effectively amounted to one call, during which it turned out that the tax registers were kept manually rather than in the system. To rebuild the picture of the books and prepare for the audit, we went to the client's office, scanned the working notes with calculations and spent the whole weekend reconciling them with SAP data.”
The UCMS Group team had to support the audit of the 2025 financial statements prepared by the previous specialist. We had to quickly understand the logic of the calculations, prepare supporting materials and answer the auditors' questions on data we had not produced.
A separate task was to rebuild the tax registers, since the chief accountant had previously kept them on paper and we could not rely on those calculations. UCMS Group specialists re-exported the data from SAP and built the tax registers in Excel using their own templates, which are used on other company projects. This made it possible to respond to the auditors' requests quickly and confirm the calculations.
During the audit it emerged that the fixed assets needed to be revalued. The team promptly made the necessary adjustments to the books and prepared updated data for the auditors.
The company received an unmodified opinion: no qualifications and no material findings.
Besides supporting the audit and the monthly period close, we handled tasks beyond the standard chief accountant function: we helped adapt SAP to legislative changes and advised on matters involving accounting risks.
Formulating SAP customisations.Unlike 1C, SAP is not updated for Russian legislation automatically. Each change comes with technical notes that must be turned into requirements for the system customisation and then tested. For example, at the first quarter close it was necessary to take into account that the VAT rate had increased from 2026 and the declaration form had been updated.
Natalia Shvedova, chief accountant on the project:
“As an accountant I formulated the requirements: which new fields had appeared in the declaration, what an advance invoice should look like, how to complete the declaration itself under the new rules. The SAP support specialists then wrote technical specifications for the system customisation to meet these requirements.”
The customisations were tested and the generation of advance invoices for received advances was additionally configured. The first-quarter declaration was submitted under the new rules and no requests came back from the tax authority.
Highlighting accounting risks beyond our area of responsibility.The company adopted a new customs regime: goods began to pass through a temporary storage warehouse and Chestny ZNAK marking. Although the source documents were handled by the logistics department, how the transactions were recorded depended on the moment ownership transferred under the contract.
Together with UCMS Group methodologists, the company determined that ownership transfers from the date of customs clearance and developed a procedure for recording the transactions correctly. This helped avoid errors when putting goods on the balance sheet and in subsequent recording.
When the company found a new chief accountant, the handover took minimal time. The new specialist received structured working materials, including tax registers in Excel with ready-made formulas where only the source data needs updating for each new period. Using the VAT declaration as an example, the team also showed how to identify and resolve discrepancies that can carry over from previous periods.
The new chief accountant closed the first reporting period independently, while the UCMS Group team stayed in touch for consultations.
A temporary chief accountant function is insurance for the transition period: while the company looks for a permanent specialist, reports are submitted on time and knowledge of the processes is not lost with the departing employee.
