From September 12, how are state budget accounting policies implemented?

To be specific, regarding the content of accounting vouchers, Circular 77/2017/TT-BTC stipulates that accounting vouchers are documents or media reflecting financial and economic operations that have arisen and have been completed, serving as the basis for bookkeeping. Accounting vouchers must contain all the essential contents as prescribed in Article 16 of the Accounting Law 88/2015/QH13 dated November 20, 2015.

In addition to the essential contents as stipulated above, in state budget accounting and operational activities of the State Treasury (KBNN), if necessary, accounting vouchers can be supplemented with other contents as regulated by the General Director of KBNN.

Accounting voucher templates include mandatory accounting voucher templates and guided accounting voucher templates.

For mandatory accounting voucher templates, these are special vouchers with values equivalent to money, including checks, receipts, fee collection tickets, bonds, promissory notes, treasury bills, and other mandatory accounting vouchers. Mandatory accounting voucher templates are printed and issued by the Ministry of Finance or an authorized unit by the Ministry of Finance. The accounting unit must comply with the template and the content recorded on the voucher.

Guided accounting voucher templates are accounting voucher templates regulated by the Minister of Finance (or the General Director of KBNN authorized by the Minister of Finance) regarding forms and recording contents. Accounting units are allowed to create accounting vouchers on computers but must ensure the correct form and contents as specified on the voucher.

Regarding electronic vouchers, KBNN can use electronic vouchers (including electronic vouchers of KBNN, electronic vouchers transferred by banks and related agencies) to perform payments and accounting according to the regulations of the Government of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance.

Electronic vouchers are used as accounting vouchers when they have all the prescribed contents for accounting vouchers and have been encrypted to ensure data safety during processing, communication, and storage. Electronic vouchers are stored on media (magnetic tapes, disks, electronic storage devices, payment cards) and are preserved and managed like original accounting documents, with adequate equipment available for use when necessary.

Electronic vouchers that have expired according to the prescribed storage period, unless there is a different decision from a competent state agency, may be destroyed. Destroying electronic vouchers must not affect the integrity of the remaining electronic vouchers and accounting documents, and must not disrupt the normal operation of the accounting information system.

Electronic vouchers engaged in transactions during the storage period cannot be destroyed. Any errors in electronic payments can be specifically adjusted, as guided in the operational sections.

Regarding the conversion of electronic vouchers to paper vouchers, the Circular clearly states that when necessary, electronic vouchers can be converted to paper vouchers, but must meet the following conditions: (i) Fully reflect the content of the electronic voucher; (ii) Have a specific symbol confirming the conversion from an electronic voucher to a paper voucher; (iii) Have the date, signature, and name of the person performing the conversion.

When necessary, paper vouchers can be converted to electronic vouchers but must meet the following conditions: (i) Fully reflect the content of the paper voucher; (ii) Have a specific symbol confirming the conversion from a paper voucher to an electronic voucher; (iii) Have the signature and name of the person performing the conversion.

When a paper voucher is converted into an electronic voucher for payment transactions, the electronic voucher will be valid for performing payment operations, while the paper voucher will only have archival value for monitoring and checking, and will not be valid for transactions and payments.

When an electronic voucher that has executed economic and financial operations is converted into a paper voucher, the paper voucher will only have archival value for bookkeeping, monitoring, and checking, and will not be valid for transactions and payments.

The conversion of paper vouchers to electronic vouchers or vice versa is carried out according to regulations on the creation, use, control, processing, preservation, and storage of electronic and paper vouchers, and in accordance with regulations on electronic transactions in the financial sector, KBNN...

Regarding the creation of accounting vouchers, Circular 77/2017/TT-BTC stipulates that all economic and financial operations arising related to the revenue and expenditure of the State Budget and the operations of KBNN must have accounting vouchers created; each economic and financial operation can only have one accounting voucher created.

Paper accounting vouchers can be manually created or created on a computer and printed out as paper copies. For accounting vouchers created and printed on computers, they must ensure the content of the accounting vouchers as prescribed in Article 16 of the 2015 Accounting Law and specific regulations for each type of accounting voucher in current regulations.

Regarding the requirements for creating accounting vouchers, the content on the accounting vouchers must be fully, clearly, and accurately recorded as prescribed; The handwriting on the voucher must be consistent, clear, fully reflecting the content and not using erasing; writing must use the same ink color and non-fading ink; red ink is not allowed.

Regarding the recording of amounts in numbers and words on the voucher: the amount written in words must match the amount written in numbers; the total amount must match the sum of detailed amounts; the first letter must be capitalized, the remaining letters must not be capitalized; the letters must be written continuously, without spaces, recording to the end of the line before moving to the next line, abbreviations, inserting lines, or overwriting pre-printed letters is not allowed; blank spaces must be crossed out to prevent any alterations, additions of numbers, or letters.

Vouchers that have been erased or corrected have no value for payment and bookkeeping. When writing mistakes on pre-printed voucher templates, they must be canceled by crossing out the wrong voucher. The date, month, and year elements of the voucher must be written in numbers.

Any voucher created in sets with multiple copies must be created at once for all copies with the same content using a computer, typewriter, or carbon copy paper.

In special cases where multiple copies need to be created but cannot be written at once, they can be written twice but must ensure consistency in all the content on all copies of the voucher.

For disbursement vouchers, when multiple items are withdrawn by the unit, and cannot be created on one page, the unit may continue writing on the back page or create multiple voucher sets (note that one voucher can only be created on a maximum of two pages). If the voucher is written on two pages, on the back page, the unit must start writing about 1/4th of the page from the top.

KBNN staff are not allowed to accept improperly formatted, illegal, or invalid vouchers created by the transaction unit; they must guide the transaction unit to recreate the proper voucher set; KBNN staff are not allowed to fill in any elements that are the responsibility of the transaction unit to record on the voucher; the transaction unit is not allowed to fill in any elements that are the responsibility of KBNN to record on the voucher. KBNN staff and the transaction unit are not allowed to fill in any elements that do not fall under their responsibility to record on the voucher.

Source: Finance Magazine

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