How is a stocktake done in Uzbekistan: for a budget organisation and for a company

Avada team · Checked: 26.10.2026

Short answer. In Uzbekistan, budget organisations and companies take stock under one standard, BHMS 19 (2024). The head's order appoints a commission and sets the dates. The commission counts property on site, draws up lists and records differences in a comparison statement; results are booked in the accounts and reports of the month the count ends. Fixed assets: at least once every two years; stock: at least once a year; fuel and lubricants, food products: once a quarter.

One standard for budget organisations and companies

Under art. 16 of the Law on Accounting, the correctness and reliability of the accounting and financial-statement data are confirmed by a stocktake of assets and liabilities. This stocktake is mandatory. «The objects, procedure and timing» of the stocktake are set by the accounting standard on stocktakes.

That standard is BHMS 19 (national accounting standard No. 19), «Organising and carrying out a stocktake», approved by order No. 141 of the Minister of Economy and Finance of 14.06.2024 and amended by order No. 302 of 29.11.2025. It applies both to businesses and to organisations whose main activity is funded from the budget (item 2). Organisations run on a commercial basis, such as a private school, clinic, college or training centre, or a trading firm, are business entities. The rules this page gives for a company apply to them. Sector requirements (for example, on medicines in a clinic) are not covered here. The accounting instruction for budget organisations also requires the results of a stocktake to be booked «in the manner set by law» (item 53), and lex.uz's note to that item names BHMS 19. On lex.uz, the standard and the instruction are in Uzbek only, the Law in Russian and Uzbek; quotes here are our translation.

Note: the 1999 BHMS 19 (registered under No. 833) lost force on 12.08.2024. If an article cites items such as 1.5 or 3.24 of that text, it rests on a void text.

Step by step

1. The order. Apart from the mandatory cases (see the table below), the head decides how many stocktakes to hold in the reporting year and when (item 7). The order sets the start and end dates (item 11); the form of the order appointing the commission is the standard's annex 1.
2. The commission. The organisation has a standing stocktake commission, chaired by the head or a deputy. Where the volume of work is large, working commissions are also formed for the count. If even one member is absent during the count, that is a ground to declare the results invalid (item 8).
3. Before the count. The financially responsible persons hand in all receipt and issue documents for the property to the accounts department or the commission and sign a receipt for it (item 10).
4. The count. Whether the property is there is established «by mandatory counting, weighing and measuring» (item 14), not copied from the books. A fixed asset goes on the list with its full name, purpose and inventory number; an unrecorded object found is valued at current value (item 24). The inventory number does not change, unless the object was put in the wrong group or numbered wrongly (item 25).
5. The lists. Fixed assets go on the stocktake list in annex 4 (INV-1), stock on the list in annex 6 (INV-3). On a paper list, no erasing or overwriting is allowed: a wrong entry is struck through and the right one written in; the correction is made on every copy and signed (item 18). The list is signed by all members of the working commission and the financially responsible persons; at the end of the list, the financially responsible persons confirm that the valuables were checked in their presence (item 16).
6. Differences. Where the count differs from the books, a comparison statement is drawn up (item 68): for fixed assets on the form in annex 15, for stock on form INV-19 (annex 16). What follows depends on what is found (item 69):
   • A surplus is taken in and booked to the organisation's financial results; the causes of the surplus and the persons at fault are to be found. In a budget organisation, a surplus is booked not to financial results but to an increase in funding (funds), as the standard puts it. A budget organisation pays cash found in surplus into budget revenue (the instruction under order No. 105, item 217).
   • Losses within the set norms are written off by a separate order of the head to production and period costs; with no approved norms, the losses count as a shortage. In a budget organisation, such losses are written off to a reduction in funding (funds).
   • A shortage beyond the norms with no one found at fault may go to costs. In a budget organisation, it may go to a reduction in funding (funds). If someone is found at fault, see the question «What happens if a shortage is found?» below.
7. Results and timing. Results are booked in the accounts and reports of the month the count ends; the results of the year-end count go into the annual financial statements (item 70). The standard sets no deadline in days: the order sets the dates (item 11); the data goes to the accounts department no later than the date set in the order (annex 1).

The documents to have at the end:

• the head's order (annex 1);
• the responsible persons' receipts;
• the signed INV-1 and INV-3 lists;
• if differences were found: the comparison statement (for fixed assets, annex 15; for stock, INV-19 in annex 16);
• if losses are written off: the head's write-off order.

What a budget organisation adds

The stocktake standard is the same for everyone, but the instruction approved by order No. 105 of the Minister of Finance of 17.12.2010 (registered under No. 2169) adds a few rules:

• each object gets a 14-character inventory number: characters 1–6 are the sub-account, 7–8 the depreciation group, 9–14 the serial number within the group (item 82);
• when the financially responsible person changes, the fixed assets in their charge are counted and a handover act is drawn up and approved by the head (item 83);
• the chief accountant ensures the results are documented correctly and on time (item 8);
• a shortage is recovered from the person at fault (from an employee, within the limits and by the procedure the Labour Code sets); the amount to be recovered is split between budget and off-budget funds, in proportion to the funds the goods were bought with (items 166–167);
• cash found in surplus goes to budget revenue (item 217).

When a stocktake is mandatory

These cases are set by BHMS 19 (item 5; the last row, item 6). In the cases marked * we advise checking all property, fixed assets and goods included (our reading). The standard lists these cases in item 5 under its line on production stocks. In a budget organisation, the instruction under order No. 105 separately requires a count of the fixed assets in the financially responsible person's charge when that person changes (item 83).

Item 5's quarterly row does not divide food products by use; so we advise a company that trades in food products to count them once a quarter too (our reading).

Item 5 does not say how the year-end count fits with the «at least once every two years» rule. So set in the order beforehand which property is counted at year-end.

The head sets the number and dates of any other stocktakes (item 7).

How a QR register and an ordinary phone help

BHMS 19 allows the lists to be completed «using technical means, an information system and information technologies» (item 18); it says the same of comparison statements. The standard does not name QR codes or phones. A QR register is one way to use this permission; in practice it works like this (our reading):

• each item gets a QR label carrying its existing inventory number, not a new one, since the number must not change (item 25); in a budget organisation, that is the 14-character number (item 82);
• the commission goes round the rooms and stores and reads the labels with an ordinary phone's camera: no separate scanner, no typing numbers by hand;
• in a warehouse, if goods or materials cannot be labelled one by one (bags, rebar, dressings), the label goes on the shelf or pallet, and the quantity is still found by counting, weighing or measuring (item 14);
• once a room or store is checked, two lists show at once: what is on the books but not found, and what is found but not on the books; that makes the comparison statement easier to draw up.

What a system does not replace:

• the head's order and the full commission (items 8, 11);
• counting the items themselves: you check the item, not the label (item 14; our reading);
• signatures: the lists are signed by all members of the working stocktake commission and the financially responsible persons (item 16);
• decisions on differences: writing losses off and finding who is at fault (item 69).

Even if you keep the list in a system, set beforehand, in the order or the accounting policy, how it is to be signed.

Example: an Avada project

The asset register Avada built for a university holds more than 9 000 items with QR labels, across two campuses, in one register. That is the number of items on the books, not the result of a stocktake. Under the standard, the commission and the responsible persons draw up and sign the lists, comparison statements and acts: the system does not replace this.

Questions and answers

How often must fixed assets be counted? BHMS 19 item 5: fixed assets at least once every two years, library funds once every five years, stock at least once a year, cash once a month. The head may order counts more often (item 7).

Who carries out the stocktake? A standing commission chaired by the head or a deputy; where the volume of work is large, working commissions appointed by order do the count (items 8, 11; the order's form is annex 1). The financially responsible persons attend and confirm it at the end of the list (INV-1, INV-3; item 16). In a budget organisation, the chief accountant ensures the results are documented on time (the instruction under order No. 105, item 8).

Is a stocktake with QR codes and a phone lawful? The standard allows lists to be completed with an information system and information technologies (BHMS 19, item 18). But the order, the full commission, counting on site and the signatures are still required (items 8, 14, 16).

What happens when a financially responsible person leaves? BHMS 19 item 5 requires a count on the day of the handover. The standard lists this case under production stocks; we advise checking the rest of the property, goods included, that day too. In a budget organisation, the fixed assets in their charge are counted and a handover act, approved by the head, is drawn up (the instruction under order No. 105, item 83).

What happens if a shortage is found? First establish whether the losses are within the set norms. Losses within the norms are written off by the head's write-off order (BHMS 19, item 69). Losses within the norms are set after surpluses from mixed-up grades are taken into account; if a shortage remains after that, natural-loss norms may be applied only to the items where the shortage was found (item 69). Where no one is found at fault for a shortage beyond the norms, it may go to costs, or for a budget organisation to a reduction in its funding (funds) (item 69). If the person at fault is found:

• in a budget organisation, the shortage is recovered from them (the instruction under order No. 105, items 166–167);
• for a company, item 69 of BHMS 19 sets no procedure for recovery.

If the person at fault is an employee, in a budget organisation and in a company alike, the limits of their material liability and the procedure for recovering the damage are set by the Labour Code (chapter 19). Settle it with a lawyer (our reading).

This page does not answer four questions: who approves the loss norms; on what terms a surplus and a shortage offset each other when grades are mixed up; who in a budget organisation decides to write off a shortage beyond the norms when no one is found at fault; and what the tax effects of a write-off are. Settle them with an auditor.

One step: open the asset register demo (in Russian).

This page is general information, not accounting or legal advice. Go through your own case with an auditor or a lawyer.

Sources (lex.uz; Checked: 26.10.2026):

• Law «On Accounting» (as worded by Law No. ZRU-404 of 13.04.2016): art. 16 — lex.uz/ru/docs/2931251
• BHMS 19 «Organising and carrying out a stocktake» (order No. 141 of 14.06.2024, reg. No. 3548 of 12.08.2024; amended by order No. 302 of 29.11.2025): items 2, 5–8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18, 24, 25, 68–70; annexes 1, 4, 6, 15, 16 — lex.uz/acts/7058433 (in Uzbek); amendment — lex.uz/acts/7886493
• Instruction on accounting in budget organisations (order No. 105 of the Minister of Finance of 17.12.2010, reg. No. 2169 of 22.12.2010): items 8, 53, 82, 83, 166–167, 217 — lex.uz/ru/docs/1714691 (the instruction's text is in Uzbek)
• Labour Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (28.10.2022): chapter 19 — lex.uz/ru/docs/6257291 (in Russian)