Procedures for visa (approval) of documents and their types

The activity of any legal entity (enterprise, institution, organization), state or communal enterprise is related to the creation and exchange of a large number of documents with counterparties.

If the enterprise is large, then at such an enterprise dozens of copies of documents can be created per day. In order to prevent confusion in documents, their loss or wrong sending, every enterprise or company should develop a clear system of document circulation. The document management system can be built on an offline basis and approved by the company's charter. For larger enterprises, it is advisable to use specialized services and document management software.

Document circulation in the institution - the movement of official documents from the moment of their creation or receipt until the completion of execution or dispatch (clause 12,, article 2, Section 1 of the Rules
organization of record keeping and archival storage of documents in state bodies, local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions and organizations).

The document circulation system assumes that there is a certain instruction that regulates the entire life path of a document from the moment of its creation to the moment of its execution.

The correct organization of document circulation promotes the efficient passage of documents in the management apparatus, the uniform loading of divisions and officials, and has a positive effect on the management process in general.

On this way, the newly created document must undergo a procedure such as visa (approval).

The visa, of course, is not applied to all documents of a legal entity, but only to those when it is necessary to assess the expediency of its issuance, its validity and establish compliance with the law.

This process is somewhat similar to the law-making process in Ukraine, when after the creation of a draft law, it is sent to the relevant committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for review and approval.

Based on the organizational and legal form, the purpose of activity or the scale of the legal entity, it is advisable to use one or another method of document visa. That is why there are certain differences in the order of visa (approval) of documents.

Online and offline viewing are usually classified - by method, sequential, parallel or combined - by order.

According to the most common classification, internal and external vision are distinguished.

These visa types are also provided for in Section 56 of Section II of the Standard Instructions
on record keeping in ministries, other central and local bodies of executive power" (hereinafter - the Instructions), according to which approval of the document, if necessary, can be carried out both within the institution (internal) and outside it by other interested institutions (external).

Let's consider each of these types of agreement in more detail.

Internal visa (approval).

Internal approval is carried out within the enterprise, institution, organization itself. Visa approval is carried out with structural divisions, officials who, in accordance with their competence, deal with the issues raised in the draft document.

Approver - an official who approves (approves) a draft document (clause 21, Article 6, Chapter I "Instructions for documenting management information in electronic form and organizing work with electronic documents in record keeping, electronic interdepartmental exchange").

Internal approval of the draft document is issued with a visa consisting of the following elements:

the name of the position of the person issuing the document;

• personal signature of a person;
• Name and surname;
• visa date

The list of company officials who must sign the document is determined by its executor, based on the content of this document.

The visa is affixed on the front side or, in the case when there is not enough space on the front side of the last sheet, on the reverse side of the last sheet of the draft document. Visas are affixed to paper copies of documents that are created if there are grounds that are recognized as justified by the institution for creating documents in paper form, and remain in the institution (clause 58, Article 6, Section I of the Instructions).

When we have several approvers, each of them must check the document for appropriateness, compliance with the law and reasonableness, according to the appropriate competence of the particular approver.

In the case of several approvers, the responsibility for the content of the document they approve will be distributed to each of the visitors, according to his competence.

Each of the visitors has the right to submit their comments on the content of the document. Comments by the visitor are submitted on a separate sheet, and the fact that comments were submitted must be noted on the project itself. This can be done by adding the sentence "Comments and suggestions attached", placing it immediately after the person's visa.

If it turns out that additions or significant changes need to be made to the draft document, then such a document in its newly created form will need to be approved anew by all approvers.

External approval.

External approval is the agreement of the document with and by our legal entities regardless of their level of subordination.

External approval of draft documents created in paper form is made by affixing an approval seal to them, which includes:

• the word "AGREED";
• the name of the position of the person and the institution with which the draft document is agreed;
• the official's personal signature sealed with an official seal;
• proper name, surname;
• the date or title of the document confirming approval;
• date and number of the document (index) (clause 62 of Article 6, Section I of the Instructions).

External approval is carried out in cases when one legal entity needs to approve the project, for example with:

• by higher-level organizations if the content of the document concerns management actions, the implementation of which is possible only with the permission of these organizations;
• by state bodies that, in accordance with current legislation, carry out control in a certain field of activity (financial, environmental, occupational health and safety, etc.);
• enterprises of the same level, if the publication of the document affects their interests;
• by subordinate legal entities, if they are a mandatory party for the implementation of the relevant legal relationship;
• by public organizations in case of necessity or in cases stipulated by the current legislation.

The seal of approval is placed below the signature on the last page of the draft document.

In the event that the content of the document concerns more than three institutions, a consent sheet is drawn up, which is noted in the document at the place of the consent stamp, for example: "Consent sheet is attached."

The approval sheet is drawn up on the front and, if necessary, on the reverse side of one sheet (Article 6, Section I of the Instructions).

Procedure for external approval.

External approval in the case of a need defined by legislation is carried out in the following sequence:

- with institutions of the same level and other institutions;

- with public organizations;

- with bodies that exercise state control in a certain area;

- with institutions of higher level (clause 22.12 Chapter 22 "Instructions on record keeping in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine") .

It is also important to remember that the period between the date of external approval of the draft regulatory act, which is subject to state registration, and the date of adoption of such an act should not exceed 60 days.

Online and offline viewing.

Offline visa is usually used in enterprises, small institutions, when we deal with a small number of documents. The document in paper form is physically moved from one approver to another, after which it is endorsed.

For larger enterprises, it will be more appropriate to use online visa. It is possible only when an electronic document management system is introduced at our company and we use electronic documents.

For this type of document flow, special services and software are used, which allow the company to facilitate and optimize its resources related to document flow.

We remind you that electronic document circulation (circulation of electronic documents) is a set of processes of creation, processing, sending, transmission, receipt, storage, use and destruction of electronic documents, which is carried out with the application of an integrity check and, if necessary, with confirmation of the fact of receipt of such documents.

According to the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Documents and Electronic Document Management", a document certified by an electronic digital signature is recognized as an electronic document. And a document in electronic form is a document in which information is recorded in the form of electronic data without an electronic digital signature (in scanned form).

Electronic signature (ES) - electronic data that is added by the signer to other electronic data or logically linked with them and used by him as a signature.

EP is a mandatory requisite of an electronic document, which is used to identify the author and (or) signatory of an electronic document by other subjects of electronic document circulation. Relations related to the use of electronic digital signatures are regulated by the Law of Ukraine "On Electronic Trust Services".

In the event that visa is required, the draft document is sent to all visitors using the electronic document circulation system and its visa is carried out.

Signing and approval of draft electronic documents

The procedure for visa and approval of draft electronic documents was approved by CMU Resolution No. 55 of January 17, 2018.

In accordance with this resolution, the approval of a draft of an electronic document consists in its approval by the authorized persons specified in the registration and monitoring card, which is provided by the electronic document circulation system of the institution based on the created list of approvers specified in the registration and monitoring card.

Information about approval, rejection or return is automatically entered into the registration and monitoring card.

Approval and signing of the draft electronic document is carried out in the following order:

1. the draft of the electronic document is initially endorsed by its author, the head of the subordinate unit and the head of the structural unit (responsible unit) and authorized persons of other structural units of the institution specified in the registration and monitoring card;
2. the draft electronic document is approved by the deputy head of the institution, who coordinates the work of the structural unit responsible for the preparation of the draft electronic document (the approval of other deputy heads of the institution, who coordinate the work of the interested units, is not required);
3. in the case of approval of draft orders (orders) in electronic form, the draft order (order) is endorsed by an authorized representative of the legal service based on the results of a legal examination and the head of the structural unit (specialist) in matters of prevention and detection of corruption, as well as the editor;
4. the draft of the electronic document is endorsed by all officials (approvers), whose visas are provided for in the registration and monitoring card, while the endorsement of the draft of the electronic document does not approve the specified document;
5. the project is signed by the manager (signatory), who approves the electronic document (clause 105 of the Resolution of the CMU No. 55 dated January 17, 2018).

A draft of an electronic document that is not approved in the appropriate manner is not submitted for signature (approval).

The approver is responsible for the appropriate approval (clause 109 of the CMU Resolution No. 55 of January 17, 2018).

It should also be noted that the electronic transfer of the same document in the office of the institution electronic and paper forms are not allowed.

Parallel, sequential and mixed imaging (reconciliation).

Parallel approval is a type of approval that lacks any approval conditions or sequence. Each of the approvers has the authority to approve the draft document, independently of other approvers.

In cases where a clear hierarchy is established at the enterprise, or the charter of the enterprise or legislation requires a clear order of approval from the executor to the highest link in the structure of relationships, then sequential approval is used. It is an established sequence of approvers, according to which a draft document is sent from one visitor to a higher-ranking visitor. With this type of approval, the lower level visitor cannot approve the document, if it has not been done by the higher level visitor who is in front of him.

With electronic document management, in the case of sequential approval, the system specifies a certain sequence, according to which the draft document is sent to the approvers in turn.

A mixed type of approval can combine both features of parallel and sequential approval of documents.

For example, when we use external consent with different legal entities, a consistent consent may be applied in the middle of one of them. However, we have no set sequence between these two legal entities and they use parallel consent.

In Ukraine, electronic document management is gaining more and more popularity for both small and large enterprises. This significantly reduces resources and optimizes the work of enterprises, institutions, and organizations.

With the help of our service https://instaco.com.ua/ you can easily implement electronic document management at your company. You will be able to use the services of receiving and sending electronic documents through our service, as well as use the extended functionality of the system in terms of keeping a register of counterparties, generate a document filled with data and sign it with a qualified electronic digital signature.