UIC Leaflet 301 – Accounting regulations for international passenger traffic – is the result of the many years of work performed by the RCF 1 Finance Working Group. The group is composed of member representatives and managers directly involved in back-office affairs with extensive relevant expertise. Over time, RCF 1 implemented, improved and adapted the rules set out in the document in order to take technological and market developments and rules into account and to comply with new international legislation, tax rules, EU requirements, accounting standards, etc. I was part of this group for a very long time and, together with my colleagues, resolved many different issues and questions and provided solutions tailored to companies and to business needs.
Conversion of UIC leaflets to the IRS format is a necessary step for the official recognition of the expertise and professionalism of the railways. The latest changes to Leaflet 301 have been implemented in order to make the document more user-friendly and as comprehensible and detailed as possible prior to migration to IRS 30301.
IRS 30301 presents the structure of the accounts and general back offices rules applicable to passenger revenue-sharing. The files show the information for each sale or after-sales transaction made online and offline in detail. As the structure of the files is standardised, uniform and verifiable results can be provided to all members’ back offices. Such harmonisation results in significant development savings for IT systems.
As the final part of the chain, this IRS is a tool for financial professionals. On the one hand, it takes changes to upstream systems (distribution, reservation, etc.) into account and handles all the data coming from these systems. On the other hand, it produces a solution for reliable accounting results for inclusion in companies’ consolidated accounts in accordance with the applicable international accounting standards.
The first edition of the IRS was successful due in no small part to excellent and professional support from the UIC team. Although RCF 1 does not work for compliments, it is always pleasant and motivating when efforts are recognised. The awards demonstrate this appreciation and the importance of the group’s work. As a next step, IRS 30301 will need to be adapted to all of the new models of distribution and reservation (OSDM) and to continue to offer a high level of quality for revenue-sharing rules.
