Covering letter for transfer of documents. Covering letter for documents and its sample

Many documents sent by mail include a cover letter. In this article we will look in detail at its purpose, design rules and examples.

From this material you will learn:

what is a cover letter for documents;
how to prepare a cover letter for documents;
list of attached documents.

What is a cover letter for documents

A covering letter is a mandatory attribute if it is necessary to send a package of documents. It has several purposes at once.

Confirmation of the fact of sending. The covering letter for the documents is registered in the company's outgoing documents and has a corresponding number. Thus, the fact of sending documents is recorded on the basis of this letter. Moreover, the addressee also records this letter and the package of documents attached to it.

List of attached documents. Each cover letter about sending documents must contain their complete list and number of copies.

Instructions for handling documentation. It is important to understand that when sending documents, some of them may be returned. In this case, the cover letter should indicate what actions need to be performed: review the documents, agree, fill out, sign and leave or send back. Let us remind you that you can additionally use special stamps for these purposes.

First you need to fill out the address part. It indicates the name, title, address of the company, the surname and initials of the employee and his position (if the documents are sent to a specific person). Next, you need to indicate the date and number of the outgoing document.

The first part of the content of the letter should be a message about the sending of documents. It begins with the words: “We send you ...”, “We present to you ...”, etc. After this, you can indicate the purpose of sending the documents (for review, completion, approval, etc.). If there is one document attached to the letter, then it can be indicated in this part; if there are several, you can use the concept of a “package of documents”, the composition of which will be disclosed below.

The second part of the content consists of specific tasks for working with documents. For example, it may contain instructions about which copies need to be returned, which require a signature, etc.

As can be seen from the example, the deadlines for the execution of documents can also be indicated in the cover letter.

The most important step in preparing a cover letter is marking the availability of attachments. The mark is placed after the end of the text of the letter, no lower than 2–3 lines later. The mark must contain the name of the document, the number of attached copies and the number of sheets.

Application mark must have a complete list of attached documents, the number of copies and sheets. If the attached documents are bound or filed together, then the number of sheets is not required to be indicated (only the number of copies is indicated).

It should also be understood that when indicating the names of attached documents in the text of the cover letter, there is no need to indicate them again in the attachments. In this case, the presence of an application (Appendix 1,2, etc.), the number of sheets and copies is simply indicated.

List of attached documents

There is a possibility that the number of documents attached to the cover letter may be so large that the note about their attachment is not included on the letter page. In this case, we recommend making an inventory of the attached documentation on a separate sheet. When compiling an inventory, the composition of the package of documents attached to the letter is indicated in it. The note about attachments in the cover letter indicates the list of attached documents and the number of sheets. This is formatted as follows:

Appendix: according to the inventory for 2 sheets.

After the “Note on the presence of attachments” detail, the “Signature” detail of the employee who compiled the letter follows.

Every company, regardless of its size and scope of activity, must adhere to business ethics. This not only speaks of its legal literacy, but also confirms the status of a serious counterparty who complies with all the rules in the business environment. An integral part of the relationship between buyers, sellers and other market participants is cover letter.

When sending documents by mail, you must attach a covering letter to them. Some firms that don't want to waste extra time may object and say that this kind of work is pointless. Will they be right? Of course not.

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The role of the cover letter for documents

The role of cover letters in modern business culture is great:

Firstly, having seen the cover letter, your counterparty will not leave the correspondence received to him without due attention. After all, it will contain the outgoing number. This means that the person who received the letter is obliged to write it down in his journal of incoming documents. Therefore, you, as the sender, can dial the recipient’s number a few days later and ask if he has received a package of documents with the specified outgoing number.
Secondly, in the cover letter you can clearly write which documents should be sent back to you with signatures. Believe me, you will not only make your life easier (as practice shows, the counterparty always forgets about any copy of the document), but also help the recipient quickly collect documents for sending.
Thirdly, your counterparty will not tell you that it did not receive any document. Because You indicate in the cover letter all the attachments (with number and date) that you are sending; the recipient will not be able to claim that, for example, he did not receive the protocol of disagreements to the contract.

Writing a cover letter not regulated by regulatory documents, so there is no single model. You can format your cover letter using the example provided at the end of the article.

Given the letter is drawn up in any form, however, you need to consider some points:

The letter must be printed on company letterhead.
In the upper right corner, indicate to whom the cover letter is addressed.
The outgoing number with the date the letter was written should be printed in the upper left corner.
Be sure to write why you are sending the documents to the counterparty. For example, if you are sending a supply agreement to the buyer, then indicate that you are asking the counterparty to familiarize itself with its contents, and then send the agreement by mail with the seal and signature of the manager. In addition, mention that in case of disagreement with some points, the buyer can draw up a protocol of disagreement and send it in two copies.
Do not forget about business ethics, including in the letter such words and phrases as “dear”, “we ask you”, “with respect”.

Who should sign the cover letter

If you are interested in who should sign the cover letter, then there are several options. When a director sends a letter along with a commercial proposal for cooperation, then, of course, he must sign it. After all, in essence, correspondence is carried out between two managers.

If the cover letter is drawn up by an accountant in order to send primary documents to contractors, then only the chief accountant should sign it. In this case, the letter must indicate that the documents are intended for the chief accountant of the counterparty enterprise.

At the end of the cover letter you must provide your contact details so that the recipient of the correspondence can contact you in case of questions regarding the received documents.

Sample cover letter for documents

*Click on the image to view full size image

In addition to business letters, an entrepreneur regularly has to send various documents to government officials and his counterparties. These can be contracts, invoices, protocols, promotional materials... Sometimes these papers can be sent without accompanying notifications and explanations, but it is better to be more prudent and attach a covering letter to the documents.

What is it and what is it for?

A cover letter for documents is a type of business letter that lists and briefly describes documents (primarily those that do not have an address part) sent to the addressee. The accompanying message indicates the names of all documents being sent, and also contains instructions (or recommendations) on what the recipient should do with these papers.

A cover letter serves three purposes:

Confirms that documents have been sent. The application contains a complete list of documents being sent, so the addressee will not be able to claim that he did not receive any important act.
Provides necessary explanations to the recipient. The text must contain instructions on how to deal with certain papers: sign, seal, make changes and return to the sender, etc.
Allows you to determine the due date thanks to registration data.

In what cases is this document indispensable?

in business relationships with contractors and partners (document flow is inevitable here);
when updating a tax return;
when filing a claim in arbitration court;
when contacting the bank (in some cases).

Let's look at the above points in more detail.

Why do government employees need a letter?

Very often, such a letter is required by Federal Tax Service employees. The most interesting thing is that there are no such requirements in the Tax Code, and the practice of submitting an updated declaration along with an accompanying message was unofficially introduced by the inspectors themselves. In the cover letter, they require that you indicate the reasons for the adjustments in the reporting. Moreover, the more significant the error, the more details will have to be explained.

Ideally, the entrepreneur needs to provide explanations for each adjusted line of the declaration. If there are too many of them, then you can only indicate the total amounts of tax, additional debt and penalties. For additional payments, along with this data, the letter must include the details of the relevant payment orders (or even attach copies of the payments themselves). In general, tax authorities require an almost lengthy explanatory note, but it is still called a covering letter. This is incorrect, but what can you do?

When applying to the arbitration court, this message is attached to the statement of claim. Along with the claim, businessmen always have to submit a bunch of documents - extracts, constituent papers, copies of contracts, etc. All these documents must be listed in the covering letter, otherwise the claim will not be accepted due to violation of the established procedure.

Banks require a letter when opening a current account or in cases when important changes occur with the company (for example, the composition of participants, the organizational and legal form, etc. changes). In all these cases, the entrepreneur brings a package of basic documents, the list of which is indicated in the accompanying message.

Structure and details

You should not think that a cover letter is just an additional notice that has no special significance. No, this is a full-fledged official message, therefore it should be formatted according to the same principles as a classic business letter. It must be written on company letterhead and assigned an outgoing registration number. There is no unified form or single sample, so when drafting, they usually rely on the general principles of business messages.

The structure is like this:

at the top (in the header) the position, information about the company (or about the territorial government body) and the full name of the recipient and sender are indicated;
The date of compilation and the document number are indicated below, and then the title is written;
in the content part there is an appeal to the addressee;
then – a list of applications;
at the very bottom - position, signature and surname with the initials of the sender.

The full list of details looks like this:

name of your organization (full and abbreviated);
reference information about the company;
organization code;
OGRN/TIN;
registration number of the letter;
information about the addressee (not as complete as about your company - just indicate the position, name of the organization and full name);
date;
title;
signature;
notes about the artist and the availability of applications.

Since there is no established sample letter, these details cannot be called mandatory. If you send a letter with documents to partners and contractors, you don’t have to write down all the information about your company. The title is also not always written - it may well be replaced by an appeal like “Dear Ivan Ivanovich!” But when writing a cover letter for documents to the tax office, it is better to use all the details.

The main part of the letter is the list of attachments. The text is short and includes two parts:

message about sending documents;
a request for a timely response (or for review, approval, return of a signed copy - based on the purpose of sending the papers).

The text of the message begins with standard phrases:

“we will send it to you”;
“we present to you”;
“We are sending it to you.”

The names of the documents and their details: date and number are also indicated. In the second part of the letter, you need to inform the recipient how he should dispose of the documents. For example:

“Please sign, seal and send one copy to our address...”;
“We ask you to familiarize yourself with the sent acts as soon as possible and inform about your decision”;
“Please send by reply letter one copy of a duly executed document...”;
etc.

The final part is drawn up according to the standard scheme: on the left is the sender’s position, on the right is the full name, in the center is the signature. The letter can be signed either by you (as a manager) or by the chief accountant (if we are talking about accounting documents, and the recipient is the Federal Tax Service). In the final part, you can indicate the performer if you want the recipient to address any questions that arise to him.

A sample cover letter for documents can be found and downloaded here.

When composing a letter, adhere to the following principles.

Always write for what purpose you are sending the paper and what it means for the recipient. Forcing him to remember what you agreed with him about and why he needs these documents at all is impolite. Instruct the recipient as specifically as possible. There is no need to write something like “Please think about what you can do about this.” There must be a clear goal - to sign, transfer to a third party, draw up an agreement based on the received papers. The purpose does not need to be indicated only in cover letters for the court and the Federal Tax Service.
After reporting the documents, you can make clarifications and make additional requests. But all comments of this kind must be “to the point,” that is, relate only to the documents being sent. There is no point in mentioning other business issues.
Sometimes there are several recipients, and some of the applications need to be sent to only one of them. In such cases, a note can be made to the corresponding application, for example, “Appendix 3: for 5 l. in 2 copies. only to the second address."
There are cases when it is necessary not only to prove the fact of sending, but also to meet a specific deadline. We'll talk more about this below.

Responsibility for the timely preparation and sending of a cover letter falls on the entrepreneur, and the organization of sending the documents themselves falls on the office management service.

Business ethics

As in a classic business letter, ethics should not be forgotten in the cover letter. Both the address to the recipient and the request to perform certain actions with documents must be presented in a polite and correct form. Some managers like unceremonious phrases like “The response time for a letter is 3 business days.” You shouldn't write like that. Remember that the standard response time for business letters (in accordance with business ethics standards) varies from one to thirty days. You have no right to reduce it, especially with such an ultimatum.

The wording “Please respond within three days if possible” is perfectly acceptable. But only in cases where there are compelling reasons for limiting the period, and these reasons must be indicated. The final phrase will look something like this: “Please, if possible, respond within three business days, since we must provide a response to the Federal Tax Service by October 10, 2015.” Politeness is required not only in the covering letter for documents to the arbitration court (or other government bodies), but also in the message to counterparties and other addressees.

Storing Cover Letters

You received a cover letter from your partner, checked the list of documents received against it and made sure that everything was correct. What to do with the message next? Mark the execution and place it in the file. It is better to store the letter separately from the attachments so as not to create confusion with the papers.

In many companies, a “Covering Letters” file is simply created, which is used as a “basket” for such messages. It doesn’t matter what was attached to them. There is also a more “civilized” option - create several cases using cover letters and place them in the nomenclature of cases of structural divisions. How does this work?

the partner sends you a delivery agreement (for example);
You place this act in the “supply agreements” file;
and send a letter to him to the file “covering letters for supply agreements.”

It also happens that the letter remains in storage at the company, but the application itself does not.

In cover letters, as in other (seemingly) simple acts, the devil is in the details. Lack of a clearly stated goal, incorrect design of the list of applications, incorrect handling - all this refers to gross violations. Of course, no one will fine you for the wrong header of the letter, but even a couple of small flaws can make it difficult to understand the letter and provoke the wrong reaction to it. This is especially sad if you are in “correspondence” with the tax office or other government representatives.

Cover letter- this is a type of business letter that is drawn up when sending documents, a commercial proposal, a resume, etc.

How to write a cover letter

A cover letter is drafted according to the general structure of a business letter. This document consists of:

introduction, which may include the title of the letter, an address to the recipient, the purpose of the letter;
the main part, the text of which should reflect the main essence of the cover letter;
conclusion, which contains the signature of the sender (full name of the sender, his position, signature).

What to write in a cover letter? The text of this document is written in free form. The main task of a cover letter for a resume is to arouse the employer’s interest in your candidacy, in a commercial offer - to interest a potential buyer. Covering letters for the contract and other documents to the tax office contain an inventory of the documents being transferred and instructions for the recipient.

A covering letter is a universal document used in a wide variety of areas of business activity of an enterprise. A correctly drawn up “accompanying document” will save all parties from many shortcomings and ambiguities. How to write a cover letter for documents?

When is this necessary?

The work of an enterprise, especially a large one, is accompanied by a wide variety of issues that most often have to be documented in writing. Counterparties exchange messages and notifications with each other, documents are required by the bank, tax office, pension fund, and inspectors. Clients also write requests for a wide variety of information and documentation.

In all these cases, a cover letter will be a lifesaver and at the same time a worthy face of the company. Written on a solid form, competently composed and correctly designed, it will not only make a proper impression on the addressee, but will also perform a number of practical functions for the sender:

will explain to the recipient who is writing to him and why;
will take on an informational role, freeing the attached documentation from semantic overload;
record in detail the list of attached documents;
will save money by eliminating unnecessary postal items with an inventory;
will act as compact evidence of the delivery of a whole bunch of documents.

This is how useful a regular “accompaniment” can be with the right approach!

How to write a cover letter for documents?

Not everyone knows how to write a cover letter for documents, although it is important.

Drawing up a “accompaniment” should begin with an introductory phrase: refer to the number of the incoming request or state the essence of the issue on which the correspondence is taking place. In the following paragraphs of the letter, it is logical to indicate the basis for the document: regulations, clauses of the contract, inspection reports, regulations of regulatory authorities, etc.

The statement ends with a request, proposal or demand. After the text is compiled, a list of attached documents with numbering, title and details, as well as the number of attached sheets is indicated.

Required details of a cover letter for documents

We discussed above how to write a cover letter for documents. Now a little about its design.

"Head" of the document. This indicates the position of the head or other representative of the addressee, the name of the enterprise or the full last name, first name and patronymic of an individual; full address and postal code.
The date the cover letter was written, and if the sender is a legal entity, then the outgoing registration number.
Addressing the addressee in accordance with the rules of a business letter. Whether a private individual or the head of an enterprise, he is addressed by his first name and patronymic, adding the address “dear.”
Detailed list of attached documents, because from the name itself it follows that the letter “accompanies” a certain main item.
The letter is signed by the first person or an authorized representative of the organization who has been granted this right by the manager. If the letter is from a private person, then the sender himself or his representative by proxy signs the “accompanying document”. Before the signature, it is customary to add the assurance “with respect” by hand.
Last name, initials and means of communication of the executor of the letter.

These are the basic requirements for the form of the letter.

Sample cover letter for documents

A practice-tested example of a cover letter for documents will be an excellent guide when drafting. Of course, its content will change depending on the needs of the compiler, but the general outline remains unchanged.

Hitrun I.V.

st. Vasilyevskaya, 3,

Kukino - 31005

No. 562 from 04/05/2015

Dear Ivan Vasilievich!

In response to your order No. 12/389 dated 04/01/2015 on the issue of conducting a counter unscheduled non-visit inspection, we inform you of the following.

Some of the documents on contractual legal relations with the private enterprise by the company "Gedeon" were seized on the basis of the seizure protocol dated 03/02/2015 (a copy is attached). We send you the documents at the disposal of the enterprise in the form of duly certified copies according to the attachment.

Application (total for 6 sheets):

A copy of the payment order with bank mark No. 3 dated January 15, 2015 - on 1 page.
A copy of the payment order with bank mark No. 6 dated 02/14/15 - on 1 sheet.
A copy of the reconciliation report under supply agreement No. 56/P dated 12/15/14 - 1 page.
A copy of the seizure protocol dated 03/02/15 - 3 pages.

Golokhvastov F. E.

Performer: Pupko A.V.

This “accompaniment” is suitable for many outgoing materials at the request of government, regulatory and law enforcement agencies, you just need to slightly adjust it to your needs.

Covering letter for contract documents

When concluding business contracts, a situation often arises when the counterparties are geographically remote from each other and cannot afford to travel to another city to sign the contract.

In this case, the execution of a cover letter becomes a kind of beacon that allows you to conclude a legally correct agreement at a distance, without a personal meeting of representatives. With the help of a cover letter, one party can not only send signed contract forms for review, but also state in writing its position on the significant issues of the agreement.

In addition, the cover letter allows you to record what and in what quantity was enclosed and sent to the addressee. For example, the content can be stated as follows.

"We are sending you two copies of the agreement for the provision of information services, signed and certified by our seal. We suggest that you consider the specified draft and, if you agree, sign the agreement, returning one of the signed copies to our address. Appendix: draft agreement in 2 copies on 6 sheets each ".