Crucial requirements for chief accountants in Vietnamese businesses

When registering a business, do you not need to declare the Chief Accountant’s information?”, “Are business activities required to have a Chief Accountant?” These are common questions asked by enterprises when starting operations. What does the law provide for in practice? Is it mandatory for every enterprise to have a Chief Accountant? Through this article, we hope that enterprises will get answers to the regulations regarding the position of Chief Accountant in enterprises.

1. Chief Accountant

According to the Accounting Law 2015, it is stipulated that the Chief Accountant is the head of the unit’s accounting apparatus and is responsible for organizing and carrying out accounting work in the accounting unit.

The main tasks of a chief accountant include guiding, directing, inspecting, and adjusting the work that accountants have performed in accordance with regulations. At the same time, they oversee general direction and main advice to superiors on finance and propose financial and accounting strategies for enterprises.

2. Standards and conditions of the Chief/Accountant

• Standards: Have professional ethics, honesty, integrity, awareness of law enforcement, and professional qualifications in accounting.
• Conditions: have accounting expertise and skills at the intermediate level or higher, and have a chief accountant training certificate.

3. Requirement of the Chief Accountant

Under Vietnamese law, newly established enterprises aren’t mandated to appoint a Chief Accountant. However, they can designate someone responsible for accounting duties or engage a service that adheres to regulations. The maximum duration without an assigned accounting role is 12 months. After this period, the enterprise must appoint a Chief Accountant.

Normally, depending on the needs and operating conditions of each business, the business chooses the appropriate method of using human resources. Given the current context, most enterprises tend to cut personnel costs, management costs, and recruitment time. Therefore, they pay more and more attention to using chief accountant services to ensure that financial activities are always smooth, stable, and comply with tax and accounting laws.

However, not all businesses are required to have a person in charge of the Chief Accountant, such as in the following cases:

• Micro-enterprises, according to the provisions of law on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, are assigned to oversee accounting without being required to appoint a Chief Accountant.
• Accounting units in the state sector include: Accounting units with only one accountant or one concurrent accountant; The budget accounting and finance units of communes, wards, and towns do not appoint chief accountants but only appoint accountants.

In addition, Decree 80/2021/ND-CP stipulates that micro-enterprises include the following enterprises:

• Micro-enterprises in the fields of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; The industrial and construction sectors employ no more than 10 employees participating in social insurance on average each year and the total revenue of the year is not more than 3 billion VND or the total capital of the year is not more than 3 billion VND.
• Micro-enterprises in the field of commerce and services employ workers participating in social insurance with an average of no more than 10 people per year and total revenue of the year not exceeding VND 10 billion or total capital of the year not exceeding VND 3 billion.

Thus, not all businesses, such as micro-enterprises, must have a chief accountant. Micro-enterprises can be assigned a person in charge of accounting instead of the Chief Accountant.

4. Penalty for failing to arrange a Chief Accountant

What is the penalty for enterprises for failing to arrange a chief accountant position in mandatory cases?

A fine from 20,000,000 VND to 40,000,000 VND shall be imposed for not arranging an accountant or chief accountant or not hiring an organization or individual providing accounting services to be an accountant or chief accountant according to the regulations.

Therefore, except for micro-enterprises, any enterprise needs a Chief Accountant not only to comply with the law but also to avoid causing unforeseen consequences, even violating the law.