International trade bookkeeping: how to brief your accountant
Editorial illustration
GURI Journal · Published 31 October 2026
“Handle our overseas transactions” is not yet a workable accounting brief. It may mean recording new purchases, reconstructing an earlier period, reconciling supplier accounts or preparing information for a specialist tax review. Those tasks need different inputs and produce different results. Combining them under one label makes it difficult to judge the scope, timing or quality of the work.
GURI starts with the business process behind the records. The accountant needs to know which entity is involved, what actually happens and how supporting information reaches the accounting team. A folder of bank statements alone may show payments without explaining the goods, services or outstanding commitments behind them.
Identify the entity and the reporting context
State the legal entity, jurisdictions involved, accounting framework and period covered by the assignment. If several group companies use the same purchasing team, identify which transactions belong to each. A shared owner or manager does not make their records interchangeable.
Explain whether the accountant is setting up a future process, taking over current work or reviewing historical records. Provide the available opening balances, earlier reconciliations and unresolved items. A new period cannot be assessed properly if its starting position is treated as reliable without knowing how it was established.
Separate statutory accounting, tax work and management reporting in the brief. They may use related information while answering different questions. Also identify banking, customs and legal tasks that require other specialists. Do not assume that every service associated with international trade is included in a bookkeeping engagement.
Describe the transactions through complete examples
Choose representative purchases, sales and service arrangements. Explain the seller, manufacturer, payment recipient, consignee and other relevant parties where their roles differ. Include the documents supporting the arrangement and mark anything that still needs verification.
Show how an order develops: quotation, agreement, advance, production or allocation, dispatch, receipt and settlement. Add returns, price changes or partial shipments if they occur in the business. The point is not to prescribe accounting entries in advance, but to give the accountant enough facts to assess the treatment.
A hypothetical example is useful. One payment covers two orders, only one shipment has arrived and a transport invoice relates to both. The bank movement is a single figure, while the accounting review needs to understand several connected events. A brief that describes the relationship is much more useful than an instruction to record the payment as a completed purchase.
Explain currencies without choosing a shortcut
List the currencies used in contracts, source documents, payments and existing reports. Explain whether the business also maintains a management spreadsheet in a different currency. Keep original amounts available and identify the basis of any conversions already made.
The IFRS Foundation's IAS 21 overview distinguishes functional currency from foreign currency and presentation currency. For an entity applying IFRS, these concepts need to be considered in the relevant framework. They should not be replaced by assuming that the bank account currency determines every accounting calculation.
The applicable treatment depends on the entity and facts. Ask the accountant what information is required to determine transaction dates, rates and any other relevant assessment. A purchasing estimate prepared for negotiation may be useful management information without being the basis for the accounting entry.
Map documents to the people who supply them
List the sources of agreements, invoices, receiving information, service evidence, bank records and related costs. State who obtains each item and where the current version is stored. A document checklist is useful only if someone can actually provide the required information.
Explain how changes are communicated. A buyer may agree a reduction by email while the finance team still sees the original amount. A logistics colleague may receive a replacement document that never reaches the accountant. The brief should describe the route from the person who knows the event to the person responsible for assessing it.
Where different languages are used, agree how source documents, translations and business explanations remain connected. A manager's summary can clarify context, but should not silently replace the source. Applicable document and retention requirements must be assessed for the relevant jurisdiction and record type.
Describe the systems and the condition of the data
Name the accounting software, purchasing tools and available exports. Explain which records are maintained outside the main system and why. Do not promise an automated transfer before checking that the necessary fields and supporting references are actually available.
Identify known data issues: duplicate supplier records, inconsistent order references, unallocated payments or missing historical documents. These are part of the starting condition. Concealing them inside a general monthly service request makes the eventual workload and result difficult to interpret.
Agree who handles technical configuration, data corrections and access. The accountant may need to review records without needing authority to initiate payments. Define access according to the work and use the organisation's approved process; a shared password is not a substitute for a clear role.
Define the outputs in practical terms
Specify the records, reconciliations, schedules and explanations expected for the period. Include a list of missing information and unresolved differences with owners. If management needs an order-level view, ask for it explicitly and explain how it will be used.
Distinguish a proposed treatment from a completed action and a reviewed item from one awaiting evidence. A clean-looking report should not hide incomplete work. Conversely, a well-founded question is not necessarily a service failure: it may reveal an issue the company needs to resolve before reaching a reliable conclusion.
Agree how important findings will be explained. The business owner should be able to understand what changed, what remains open and what decision is needed, even without technical accounting knowledge. The level of detail should match the decision rather than the volume of data available.
Set responsibilities and a workable review cycle
Define when documents are supplied, who answers questions and how delayed information is handled. Separate the accountant's processing time from waiting for records held by the business or another party. Changes in transaction types, countries or systems should trigger a review of the assignment where necessary.
Plan the handover of records and outstanding questions if responsibilities change. The company needs continued access to its information and a clear history of unresolved items. After the first completed cycle, review where the process failed and adjust the brief. A useful engagement develops into a repeatable flow of evidence and decisions, with each participant knowing what they must provide and what result they can expect.