What is an accounting book? What contents must be in the accounting books regulated by Vietnam laws?
What are the accounting books according to Vietnamese regulations?
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 24 of the 2015 Accounting Law of Vietnam provides as follows:
Article 24. Accounting books
1. Accounting books are used for recording economic/financial transactions that occurred and are related to the accounting unit.
Accordingly, accounting books are used to record, system and store all arising economic and financial operations related to accounting units.
Currently, the accounting book consists of a general accounting book and a detailed accounting book:
General accounting books are used to record economic and financial operations arising in each accounting period, each accounting year, reciprocal relations of accounts of those operations.
Detailed accounting books are specific notebooks of economic and financial operations arising from accounting accounts. The data recorded in this book is for the purpose of managing each type.
What is an accounting book? What contents must be in the accounting books regulated by Vietnam laws?
What are the contents that must be in the accounting books in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Clause 3, Article 24 of the 2015 Accounting Law of Vietnam provides as follows:
Article 24. Accounting books
...
3. Each accounting book must have:
a) Date of each entry;
b) Numbers and dates of accounting records that serve as the basis for making the entries;
c) Summary of economic/financial transactions that occurred;
d) Amount of money of economic/financial transactions recorded in the accounts;
dd) Opening balance, transactions that occur during the period, and closing balance.
Accordingly, the Accounting Book must contain the following principal contents:
- Date of each entry;
- Numbers and dates of accounting records that serve as the basis for making the entries;
- Summary of economic/financial transactions that occurred;
- Amount of money of economic/financial transactions recorded in the accounts;
- Opening balance, transactions that occur during the period, and closing balance.
What are the principles of opening, bookkeeping, closing and storing accounting books in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 26 of the 2015 Accounting Law of Vietnam, it provides as follows:
Article 26. Opening, recording, closing, and retention of accounting books
1. Accounting books shall be opened at the beginning of the annual accounting period; new accounting units shall open their accounting books from the inauguration date.
2. Accounting records are the basis for making accounting books.
3. Accounting books must be made clearly, completely, and in a timely manner. Information and data recorded in the accounting books must be accurate, truthful, and consistent with accounting records.
4. Economic/financial transactions must be recorded in the accounting books in chronological order. Information and data recorded in accounting books of the next year must continue those on the accounting books of the preceding year. An accounting book must be continuously made from the beginning to the closing of the book.
5. Information and data on the accounting books must be recorded by pen, must not be inserted at the top or bottom and must not overlap; no lines shall be skipped; any empty space of the page must be crossed out; if one page is not enough, a sum must be done at the end of each page and carried forward to the next page.
6. The accounting unit must close its accounting books at the end of the accounting period before making the financial statement and in other cases specified by law.
7. Accounting units may make electronic accounting books. Electronic accounting books must comply with regulations on accounting books in Article 24, Article 25, Clause 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 of this Article, except for regulations on the overlapping seal. After electronic accounting books are closed, they must be printed out and bound into books for each annual accounting period in order to be retained. If electronic accounting books are stored in electronic devices instead of being printed, it is required to ensure safety and security of information and accessibility during the retention period.
Accordingly, the principles of opening, bookkeeping, closing and storing accounting books are:
- Accounting books shall be opened at the beginning of the annual accounting period; new accounting units shall open their accounting books from the inauguration date.
- Accounting records are the basis for making accounting books.
- Accounting books must be made clearly, completely, and in a timely manner. Information and data recorded in the accounting books must be accurate, truthful, and consistent with accounting records.
- Economic/financial transactions must be recorded in the accounting books in chronological order. Information and data recorded in accounting books of the next year must continue those on the accounting books of the preceding year. An accounting book must be continuously made from the beginning to the closing of the book.
- Information and data on the accounting books must be recorded by pen, must not be inserted at the top or bottom and must not overlap; no lines shall be skipped; any empty space of the page must be crossed out; if one page is not enough, a sum must be done at the end of each page and carried forward to the next page.
- The accounting unit must close its accounting books at the end of the accounting period before making the financial statement and in other cases specified by law.
- Accounting units may make electronic accounting books. Electronic accounting books must comply with regulations on accounting books in Article 24, Article 25, Clause 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 of Article 26 of the 2015 Accounting Law of Vietnam, except for regulations on the overlapping seal. After electronic accounting books are closed, they must be printed out and bound into books for each annual accounting period in order to be retained. If electronic accounting books are stored in electronic devices instead of being printed, it is required to ensure safety and security of information and accessibility during the retention period.
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