Order as the Main Directive Document of the Company
An order is a directive document issued by the company’s manager based on sole authority and within their competence.
TYPES OF COMPANY ORDERS
Depending on the content of the managerial action, orders are divided into three main types:
- for the main activities of the company;
- for administrative and economic issues;
- for personnel issues.
Orders for the Main Activities of the Company
The content of orders for the main activities concerns the most important issues of managerial and core (e.g., related to the production and/or sale of products and services) activities of the company, including:
- planning, reporting, and financing;
- organization of work;
- changes, reduction, or expansion of activities;
- optimization of the company’s organizational structure;
- distribution of functions and powers among officials;
- creation and amendment of the composition of collegial advisory bodies (board, directorate, commissions, councils, etc.) of the company;
- approval of local regulatory documents (instructions, regulations, rules, procedures, regulations, etc.);
- organization and conduct of important events related to the main activities of the company.
Examples of headings for the text of orders for the main activities:
- “On the approval of regulations on the company’s structural units”
- “On amendments to the company’s staffing schedule for 2025”
- “On the creation of an expert commission”
- “On the expansion of the company’s product market”
- “On the liquidation of a structural unit”
- “On amendments to the composition of the company’s supervisory board”
- “On the approval of the company’s document management instruction”
Orders for Administrative and Economic Issues
The content of orders for administrative and economic issues concerns:
- organization and conduct of certain administrative and economic activities within the company or with the participation of its employees. For example: inventory, training courses, current repairs of buildings and premises, improvement of the territories adjacent to the company’s building, etc.;
- appointment of responsible persons for areas of work not related to the main activities of the company (e.g., occupational safety, fire safety, military accounting of employees, organization of document management in structural units, etc.);
- provision of employees with certain means necessary for the performance of their duties (e.g., transport means, drinking water, special clothing and footwear, personal protective equipment, etc.);
- equipping workplaces with computer and organizational equipment;
- introduction of minor changes in the work of individual structural units or employees of the company, establishment of certain prohibitions or restrictions (e.g., use of heaters, air conditioners, electrical appliances).
Examples of headings for the text of orders for administrative and economic issues:
- “On conducting the annual inventory”
- “On organizing training courses for the company’s HR department employees”
- “On the creation of a commission to check the state of document management and archival storage of documents in the company”
- “On the appointment of persons responsible for fire safety in the company’s structural units”
- “On the introduction of an electronic document management system”
- “On providing the company’s employees with computer and organizational equipment”
- “On the production of business cards for the company’s employees”
- “On the greening, cleaning, and improvement of the company’s territory”
- “On the prohibition of smoking in the company’s premises and territory”
Orders for Personnel Issues
Orders for personnel issues include orders on:
- hiring (appointment to a position);
- transfer (relocation) to another position (job);
- part-time work;
- combination of positions;
- dismissal;
- certification of certain categories of employees (e.g., medical, scientific, pedagogical, social, etc.);
- awarding titles, raising categories, ranks, grades;
- changing biographical data;
- encouragement (awards, bonuses);
- remuneration, calculation of various allowances, bonuses, material assistance;
- additional leave for work in harmful and difficult working conditions, for special nature of work;
- social leave, including in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, in connection with the adoption of a child, for childcare until the child reaches the age of three;
- unpaid leave;
- long-term business trips abroad;
- business trips for employees with difficult, harmful, and dangerous working conditions, including participation in the elimination of the consequences of man-made disasters and accidents;
- short-term business trips abroad and within Ukraine;
- penalties;
- advanced training;
- internships;
- granting annual main and additional paid leaves, leaves in connection with studies, creative leaves, leaves for participation in competitions, etc.
ORDER REQUISITES
Orders are formatted on a special form – the order form. If such a form is not established in the company, the order can be formatted on the company’s general letterhead or on standard A4 paper sheets (210 mm × 297 mm), following the requirements of the National Standard of Ukraine DSTU 4163:2020 “Unified State System of Documentation. Unified System of Organizational and Administrative Documentation. Requirements for Document Formatting” (hereinafter – DSTU 4163:2020).
The composition of the order requisites depends on its type.
We offer you a unified form of the order on the main activities of the company, created in accordance with DSTU 4163:2020.
Fill out the form, and we will send it to you.
In a fully formatted and processed order, the following requisites established by DSTU 4163:2020 can be included:
- image of the State Emblem of Ukraine (only for companies that, according to the charter, have the right to use state symbols);
- image of the emblem or trademark (service mark), registered in accordance with the law (for companies that do not have the right to use state symbols on letterheads);
- name of the higher-level legal entity (only for subordinate companies);
- name of the company – the author of the order;
- company code according to the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations of Ukraine (EDRPOU);
- access restriction stamp (only for orders containing official information accessible to a limited circle of company employees);
- document type name – ORDER;
- document date;
- document registration index;
- place of document creation;
- control mark;
- heading to the text of the document;
- document text;
- mark of the presence of the basis for issuing the order (only for personnel orders);
- signature;
- visas of officials;
- document approval stamp (if necessary);
- mark of familiarization with the document (only for personnel orders);
- mark of document execution;
- mark of the presence of a copy with a paper (electronic) information carrier (if necessary).
FEATURES OF FORMATTING SOME ORDER REQUISITES
The name of the company – the author of the order is indicated in full in accordance with the charter or regulations of the company. Under the full name, the abbreviated name can be indicated in parentheses or without them.
The date and registration index are affixed on the day the order is signed by the company head. The date can be formatted either in word-numeric or numeric form. A letter designation can be added to the registration index. The indexing system of orders is developed taking into account the specifics of their creation, registration, and formation in cases, introduced in a specific company and defined in the documentation instructions.
The place of document creation must correspond to the name of the settlement where the order was actually created.
In the heading to the text of the document, the content of the order is briefly stated, starting with the preposition “On” and composed using a verbal noun (e.g., “On approval…”, “On dismissal…”) or a noun (e.g., “On results…”, “On outcomes…”). If the heading to the text exceeds 150 characters (5 lines), it is allowed to continue it to the right margin and center it above the text.
The structure and content of the document text depend on the type of order.
The text of orders on the main activities and administrative and economic issues usually consists of two parts – the stating and the ordering parts, each of which has certain formatting features. The stating part of the text is printed from a paragraph, and no period is placed at the end of the sentence. This part indicates the basis, justification, or purpose of issuing the order. The ordering part of the text begins with the word “ORDER”, printed in capital letters without a paragraph and without quotation marks, followed by a colon. Below, from a paragraph, the content of the actions to be performed is formulated. The ordering part of the text is divided into points and subpoints, numbered with Arabic numerals. Each point should indicate the executors (structural units or specific officials), specific tasks (assignments), and deadlines for their execution. Executors can be named generally, e.g., “heads of structural units”. The text should not contain vague assignments with words like “accelerate”, “improve”, “activate”, “pay attention”, etc. If the order cancels the previous corresponding order, the ordering part of the text includes a point starting with the words: “Recognize as invalid…”. The last point of the ordering part of the text, if necessary, may contain a decision to assign the functions of control over the execution of this order to a structural unit or specific official. The company head has the right to leave control over the execution of the document to themselves, e.g., “I retain control over the execution of this order”.
The text of personnel orders usually does not contain a stating part.
The ordering part of the text begins with the corresponding imperative verb “ACCEPT”, “TRANSFER”, “DISMISS”, “GRANT”, “SEND”, etc., printed in capital letters below the heading to the text without a paragraph and without quotation marks, followed by a colon.
Below, from a paragraph, the following is indicated: SURNAME (in capital letters), first name, patronymic, position title (to which the employee is accepted or from which they are dismissed, etc.); name of the company’s structural unit where the employee works; date of acceptance (transfer, dismissal, sending on a business trip, etc.); conditions under which the employee is accepted for work or transferred to another position, or reference to the article of the Labor Code in case of dismissal, etc.
More details on the preparation of personnel orders and the requirements for formatting their requisites will be discussed in a separate publication.
If other documents (regulations, rules, instructions, procedures, etc.) are attached to the order, they are formatted on separate sheets as appendices, and references are made in the relevant points of the ordering part of the text: “attached” or “(attached)”. In this case, the requisite “Mark of the presence of appendices” after the text of the order is not formatted independently.
The visa of the order draft depends on its type and content.
Visas for orders on the main activities and administrative and economic issues are affixed in the following sequence:
- by the employee who prepared the order draft;
- by the head of the structural unit where the order draft was created;
- by functional, territorial structural units mentioned in the text of the order draft;
- by specific officials indicated in the order draft as executors;
- by the financial service official or chief accountant (if the order draft concerns financial issues);
- by the legal service official (legal advisor) if necessary;
- by the deputy head of the company responsible for the issues contained in the order draft.
Visas are affixed only on the first copy of the order, which is attached to the relevant case. This requisite is placed below the “Signature” requisite on the front or back of the last sheet of the document. If significant changes are made to the order draft during the visa process, it is subject to revision, reprinting, and re-visa.
Order drafts affecting the interests of other companies must be pre-approved by them. In this case, an approval stamp is formatted in the order, or a separate approval sheet is drawn up and attached to the document. If there are discrepancies, comments are added to the order draft, or the essence of the discrepancies is indicated in the cover letter.
The order takes effect from the moment it is signed by the company head and registered unless another term is specified in the text of the order.
The order can be canceled, amended, or supplemented only by a new order of the corresponding type.
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