Procedure for Circulating Accounting Documents according to Circular 133

Accounting documents are those papers and information carriers that reflect arisen and completed economic and financial transactions, serving as the basis for recording in accounting books. Accounting documents must contain the following main contents:

- Name and number of the accounting document;- Date, month, year of creating the accounting document;- Name, address of the agency, organization, unit, or individual creating the accounting document;- Name, address of the agency, organization, unit, or individual receiving the accounting document;- Content of the arisen economic and financial transaction;- Quantity, unit price, and amount of the economic and financial transaction recorded in numbers; the total amount of the accounting document used for collection and payment recorded in numbers and words;- Signatures, full names of the creator, approver, and those involved in the accounting document.

Businesses are entitled to proactively create and design accounting document templates suitable to their operational characteristics and management requirements, but must meet the requirements of the Law on Accounting and ensure clarity, transparency, promptness, easy inspection, control, and reconciliation.

Businesses can apply the system of accounting document templates as guided in Appendix 3 issued together with Circular 133 to record accounting documents suitable to their production and business activities and management requirements in case they do not create and design their own templates.

All accounting documents created by the enterprise or received from outside must be concentrated at the enterprise's accounting department. The accounting department reviews these documents and only after checking and verifying the legality of the documents will they be used to record in the accounting books. The specific sequence for document circulation is as follows:

- Creating, receiving, processing accounting documents;- Accounting staff, chief accountant reviews, and signs accounting documents or submits them for approval by the authorized person;- Classifying, arranging accounting documents, accounting for, and recording in the accounting books;- Storing and preserving accounting documents.

The checking of accounting documents includes:

- Checking the clarity, truthfulness, and completeness of the criteria and elements recorded on the accounting documents;- Checking the legality of the arisen economic and financial transactions recorded on the accounting documents, reconciling the accounting documents with other related materials;- Checking the accuracy of the data and information on the accounting documents.

If during the checking process of accounting documents, any violations of policies, government management regulations on economic and financial management are found, it is necessary to:

- Refuse to carry out activities such as fund withdrawal, payment, disbursement, etc.;- Inform the enterprise's managerial executive to handle promptly according to the law.

The person responsible for checking or recording must return, request additional procedures, and adjustments before considering them as the basis for recording if the accounting documents created are not in accordance with procedures, unclear content, and figures.

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