Regulations on opening and recording accounting books and signatures in Vietnam

What are the uses of accounting books in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 122 of Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC, the accounting books for recording, systematizing and storage all of the economic and financial operation incurred according to the economic content and the time order relating to enterprises. Each enterprise has only one accounting book system for an accounting period. Enterprises must implement the provisions of the accounting books of the Law on Accounting, Decree 129/2004 / ND-CP, documents providing guidance on the Law on Accounting and guiding documents amending and supplementing the Law on Accounting.

Enterprises shall develop forms of accounting books of their own but must provide information about economic transactions transparently, completely, easily to check, easily to control and easily to compare. In case of not developing forms of accounting books, enterprises may apply accounting book forms under the guidance in Appendix 4 of Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC if they are in accordance with their management characteristics and trading.

Depending on the operational characteristics and management requirements, enterprises shall develop the form of recording accounting books of their own based on guarantee of information about the transactions that must be recorded fully and promptly, easily to check, control and compare. In case of not developing the form of recording accounting books of their own, enterprises may apply the forms of recording accounting books under the guidance in Appendix 4 of Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC to prepare financial statements if they match their management characteristics and operation.

Regulations on opening and recording accounting books and signatures in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regulations on opening and recording accounting books and signatures in Vietnam

The opening and recording of accounting books and signatures shall comply with the guidance in Article 124 of Circular 200/2014/TT-BTC, specifically as follows:

(1) Open accounting books

The accounting books must be opened at the beginning of the annual accounting period. For newly established enterprises, the accounting books must be opened since its establishment. The legal representative and chief accountant of the enterprise are responsible for signing the accounting books. The accounting books may be bounded or may be in separate sheets. The sheets after use must be bounded for storage. Before the accounting books are used, the following procedures must be completed:

- For bounded accounting books: The first page of the books must be recorded clearly the name of enterprises, name of the book, opening date of the book, accounting year and recording period, full name, signature of the person keeping and recording the book, of the chief accountant and the legal representative, end date of transfer date of the book to others. The accounting books must be numbered pages from the first page to the last page, there must be a stamp between two pages of the books of the accounting unit.

- For books in separate sheets: The beginning of books in separate sheets must be clearly recorded enterprise's name, ordinal numbers of each sheet, book’s name, month of use, full name of the person keeping and recording books. The sheets before use must be signed by director of enterprise or authorized person, stamped and recorded in the use register of the in separate sheets. The books in separate sheets must be arranged in order of accounts and must be ensured the safety, easiness in finding.

(2) Book recording: The recording accounting books must be based on accounting vouchers inspected meeting the provisions on accounting vouchers. All the figures recorded in the accounting books required legal and reasonable vouchers.

(3) Book closing: At the end of period, accountants must close accounting book before preparing the financial statements. In addition, they must close accounting books in the case of inventory or other cases as prescribed by law.

(4) The person recording the books of accounting service units must sign and record clearly the number of practice certificate, name and address of the units providing accounting services. The person recording accounting books is an individual, the number of practice certificate must be recorded clearly.

Mai Thanh Loi

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