TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR JUNIOR NON-KEY EXPERT ON ACCOUNTING

Transcription

1 TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR JUNIOR NON-KEY EXPERT ON ACCOUNTING 1 CONTRACT OBJECTIVES & EXPECTED RESULTS Background to the Project 2 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK Activities to be carried out by the Expert; List of Tasks, Outputs and Working Days Target groups 5 3 LOGISTICS AND TIMING Location and working language Commencement date & period of execution 6 4 REQUIREMENTS Personnel 6 5 REPORTS Reporting requirements 7

2 1 CONTRACT OBJECTIVES & EXPECTED RESULTS 1.1 Background to the Project Project Title: e-business Development Project No.: EuropeAid/133836/C/SER/RS Contract No.: 2014/ Country: Republic of Serbia Project Start Date: 23 rd of May, 2014 Project Duration: 30 Months Overall and Specific Objectives of the Contract: The overall objective of the project of which this contract is a part is to enhance the competitiveness of the Serbian economy through strengthening of the private sector and its performance. The project specific objective is to increase the productivity and competitiveness of Serbian SMEs, their internationalisation and capacity to innovate, by creating a more favourable environment, promotion of e-business in order to strengthen their efficiency, quality and accessibility of products and services as well as cutting costs and administrative procedures. Purpose: Strengthening the legal and institutional framework to alleviate remaining legal, regulatory and standardisation bottlenecks for a better e-business environment in Serbia (in particular for e- Commerce and e-invoicing and e-ordering with / by the public sector) E-Commerce development in order to facilitate the e-commerce uptake by SMEs and consumers and to facilitate the creation of jobs and to increase trade competition in Serbia G2B reinforcement in view of deploying future technologies to make government more flexible and be able to better serve businesses in Serbia and internationally Main Project Beneficiaries: Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Ministry of Economy Project Components: Component 1: Institutional Capacity Development Component 2: e-commerce Development Component 3: G2B & e-invoicing Support 2 P a g e

3 Expected Overall Project Results: Key government actors and industry representatives are actively participating in the improvement of the e-business environment (in particular in selecting internationally recognised relevant and required standards,), indicatively in the area of e-invoicing but not only. E-Business legal framework improved Regulatory framework and practices improved The MTTT e-commerce unit is established, strengthened (trained and mentored) as well as several hundred civil servants made ready to support the e-business environment SMEs are fully aware of e-commerce benefits and practices E-Commerce support instruments drafted and ready to be implemented SMEs have access to e-commerce practical guides (via a dedicated website) as well as an e-trust Mark Selected high-potential SMEs with a concrete e-commerce project have been advised Serbian e-consumers are more informed on how to benefit from e-commerce and how to use it safely Serbian citizens are informed of C2C and how to benefit from it A G2B Service Bus is designed System specifications for e-invoicing and e-ordering and technical documentation for implementation of this service via proposed G2B Service Bus are prepared The G2B Service Bus is technically fully specified and the associated financing prepared The migration of business identified e-service toward an advanced e-service using the G2B Service Bus is mapped (back and front office), in particular for e-invoicing. 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK 2.1 Activities to be carried out by the Expert; The activities the expert has to carry out are all aligned under tasks of Component 1 in conjunction with specific tasks of Component 3. Component 1 is a horizontal component of the project and it aims to improve the legal and regulatory framework in Serbia. The Component 3 is one of the vertical components of the project, and it aims to prepare the ground for an e-invoicing system enabled by the future deployment of G2B service HUB. The expert will work in close cooperation with the project Key Experts, and other Project Team members, in the field of review, identification and classification of everyday practices followed by Serbian businesses in billing and invoicing / e-invoicing activities. The expert will provide his expertise and practical knowledge in analysing all processes and business practices, which are relevant to billing and invoicing, as well as to physical dispatch of goods and/or services. He/she will also identify the link between those processes and business activities with the existing legal requirements in Serbia. Specifically, the expert has to deliver a detailed Report on the following main subjects/sections: 3 P a g e

4 A. Business s processes on invoicing, including accounts payable and accounts receivable management. This section will describe in detail, all formal and informal business processes that take place in a (typical) everyday business transactions, like: o Order Receiving and invoicing, including: Processing of the ordering information (including articles code matching) Formal documents preparation for goods and/or services delivery (dispatch/delivery notes, invoice as dispatch note, packing list, etc.) Processing of delivery confirmation Credit notes handling Invoice generation and submission Processing of invoice delivery confirmation and error(s) handling Payment requesting Completing accounts receivable (incl. matching of payments to corresponding invoices and records creating). o Invoice receiving including : invoice validation, acceptance and confirmation invoice processing and recording into the database system invoice Payment Completing accounts payable o Invoice management (storage, archiving, retrieval, etc.) B. Business s processes on formal reporting requirements (based on the existing Serbian legal obligations). o Formal periodical reporting requirements regarding invoicing (for instance for VAT) o Reports structure and content o Reports submission methods All the aforementioned processes and transactions that will be included in the report should be presented in detail, explained clearly and justified either legally or as business practice. Moreover, the report should present all parties involved, such as: Seller, Buyer, Banks, Service Providers, Tax and other Governmental Authorities, etc. All business process, as well as all main actors (parties involved) should be represented graphically using standard symbols of BPML (Business Process Modeling Language) tools. The report should also provide detailed references to all Serbian legal provisions, relevant to the aforementioned business processes (articles and/or clauses in Laws, bylaws, Rulebooks, Ministerial Decisions, etc.) and specifically to Tax and Trade legal requirements. Annexes can be also used for that purpose. 4 P a g e

5 The report then will be used as an input information for all relevant tasks in Components 1 and 3, such as: Activity 1.1: Legal strengthening Activity 1.1: Regulatory strengthening Activity 3.1: e-invoicing / e-ordering detailed technical specification Activity 3.2: G2B GSB conceptual action 2.2 Commencement date & period of execution The activities are planned to start in December 2015 or at the date of the issue of the approval by the Delegation of the European Union and will finish in February 2016 The total number of working days foreseen is 20, to be performed at both the project office in Belgrade and at other locations in Serbia. As per the requirements of the project Terms of Reference, 100% of the working days should be implemented in Serbia. 2.3 List of Tasks, Outputs and Working Days The expert will deliver the report mentioned in previous section 2.1, which relates to the following results: Result 1. Tasks Comp 1 : improve the legal and regulatory framework in Serbia 1.1: Legal strengthening 1.2: Regulatory strengthening Comp 3 : prepare the ground for e-invoicing in Serbia 3.1: e-invoicing / e-ordering detailed technical specification 3.2: G2B GSB conceptual action Outputs Final mission report Maximum working days Target groups The main target groups are the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Economy (MoE) and other project stakeholders. 5 P a g e

6 3 LOGISTICS AND TIMING 3.1 Location and working language The project office in Belgrade will be the operational base of this assignment but some of the activities may be required to be performed in other locations throughout Serbia. The working language is the English language. All final deliverables and reports will be in English. Serbian language could be used whenever is deemed as necessary or it is asked by Beneficiaries. 3.2 Commencement date & period of execution The activities are planned to be carried out between January 2016 and April The maximum number of working days foreseen for this assignment is REQUIREMENTS 4.1 Personnel The assignment shall be carried out by a Junior Expert. The expert should meet the following requirements: Qualifications and skills A bachelor's degree (where a university degree has been awarded on completion of three years study in a university or equivalent institution) in economics, accounting, and/or business management; Fluency in English (written and spoken); Excellent communication, analytical, report writing and presentation skills; General professional experience Minimum 5 years of post-graduate professional experience in the areas of Accounting and/or Business Management. Specific professional experience Minimum 3 years of post-graduate experience on accounting activities relevant to ordering, invoicing and payment processes. Proven experience in using Accounting Software packages and ERP systems would be an advantage; 6 P a g e

7 Experience in cross-border invoicing and tax compliance matters will be considered as an advantage Further requirements: The selected expert is not a Civil Servant or other staff of the public administration of the beneficiary country; There is no conflict of interest, further to the Article 9 of the General Conditions, Service contract, with the selection of the expert. 5 REPORTS 5.1 Reporting requirements The expert will provide the Team Leader with a written activity report on a monthly basis. The activity report must be provided within 3 working days from the end of each month or mission completion date. Within 10 days after the end of the last mission, the expert will prepare and submit a Final Report to the project Team Leader covering all implemented missions and/or activities, as per these Terms of Reference. The report templates to be followed by the Expert will be provided by the project office. 7 P a g e