Introduction
Most foreign-invested companies in Vietnam outsource their bookkeeping and filing to an accounting firm. That decision is reasonable, and which to choose between in-house and outsourcing is covered in a separate article, “Vietnam FIE Accounting: In-house vs Outsourcing (Accounting Firm & BPO).”
But even a company that outsources cannot realistically place no one inside. Someone has to gather the invoices and receipts, hand documents to the firm and track deadlines, prepare payments, and pass questions back and forth. Without a person doing this day to day, a company quietly drifts toward leaving everything to the firm.
In many foreign-invested companies, the person who fills this role is an admin — general affairs staff — not a full accountant. You may not need a dedicated accountant (in-house), but you do want one pair of hands inside to keep the outsourcing running. This article organizes that role: what such an admin does, who to hire, and what to watch for, from a manager’s point of view.
1. Placing an admin is not the same as bringing accounting in-house
The first thing to be clear about is that the admin described here is different from bringing accounting in-house.
A first in-house accountant is a capable, CA-level hire who can run the work the firm used to do (see the separate article, “Your First In-House Accountant in Vietnam: Who to Hire“). The admin here is different: outsourcing continues, and the admin acts as the company’s hands, supporting the daily work. The bookkeeping and the tax judgments stay with the firm; the admin does not take them over.
If you blur this line when hiring, you tend to swing one of two ways — expecting the admin to do a CA’s job and being disappointed, or placing no admin at all and slipping into over-reliance. “One person to keep the outsourcing running” and “one person to bring accounting in-house” call for entirely different profiles and pay levels.
2. Why you still need an admin inside even when you outsource
An accounting firm processes what the company hands it. Put the other way around: if the documents don’t reach them, nothing gets processed — and the firm does not necessarily see the full content or background of what it receives.
When no one owns the company’s side of this, documents are submitted late, deadlines slip, payments stall, and the firm’s questions hang unanswered. The minimum functions to keep in-house — a single contact, a monthly check, deadline management, a record of judgments, and control of the data — only work when someone is there to run them. The admin is that someone.
Even a company too small for a dedicated accountant can sharply reduce the risk of over-reliance simply by naming one admin to own this.
3. What the admin handles, and the line with the accounting firm
The admin’s work roughly covers the following:
- Collecting and organizing supporting documents. Gathering invoices, receipts, and contracts, and getting them into a form the firm can use each month.
- Being the contact with the firm. Owning the handover of documents, tracking deadlines, and routing the firm’s questions into the company.
- Preparing payments. Producing transfer data and payment lists — but approval is done by management, and the admin is never in a position to execute payments alone.
- Checking that monthly outputs arrive. Confirming the trial balance and filings come in on time, and flagging any large anomaly to management.
The following, by contrast, stays with the firm. It is important not to let the admin absorb it:
- The bookkeeping and filing work itself
- Tax and accounting judgments (the admin does not decide; they relay the firm’s advice to management)
- Leading the year-end close and audit
The principle is simple. The admin gathers, hands over, checks, and connects; the firm processes and judges. When these mix, an unqualified admin ends up effectively carrying the bookkeeping and the judgments — a breeding ground for errors and key-person risk.
4. Who to hire, and the common mistakes
What the admin needs is not advanced accounting knowledge. It is organization, care, the discipline to meet deadlines, and the communication to connect people inside and outside.
- Someone who can keep documents in order, manage deadlines on their own, and connect the firm and management cleanly. Basic bookkeeping is reassuring but a CA qualification is not a requirement.
- Being able to work directly with management in a shared language improves the accuracy of exchanges with the firm. It is not mandatory, but removing an interpreter removes a source of misunderstanding.
- Experience in accounting-support, general affairs, or an assistant role is enough. Someone who has worked inside an accounting firm ramps up faster, because they understand how the firm’s side operates.
The common hiring mistakes are these three:
- Expecting a CA’s work from an admin. Loading bookkeeping and tax judgments onto an unqualified admin burns them out and hides mistakes. Decide the ceiling of the role in advance.
- Leaving approval to the admin too. Approval of payments and important documents belongs to management. Concentrating both preparation and approval in one person defeats internal control.
- Concentrating everything in one person without sharing. So the company doesn’t stop the moment the admin is absent or leaves, share deadlines, work in progress, and the history with the firm with management and a backup.
5. Define the division of roles
A sure way to avoid over-reliance is to decide, among the admin, the firm, and management, who owns what. The table below is a starting point for organizing that split.
| Admin (in-house) | Accounting firm | Management | |
| Documents and records | Collect, organize, submit | Receive and process | Confirm they make sense |
| Bookkeeping and filing | Provide documents, manage deadlines | Main handler of the work | Final responsibility |
| Payments | Prepare data and lists | (Not involved) | Approval |
| Monthly numbers | Check receipt, flag anomalies | Preparation and explanation | Review, judgment |
| Tax and accounting judgments | Relay between firm and management | Advice and proposals | Approval, recording the rationale |
| Data and accounts | Day-to-day storage and order | Day-to-day operation | Securing ownership and access rights |
The key is the line: the admin may handle preparation and checking, but approval and judgment stay with management, and the processing stays with the firm. When these three roles stay vague, even with an admin you drift back toward leaving everything to the firm.
6. Where this setup hits its limit, and the move to in-house
Placing an admin to keep outsourcing running is realistic and efficient for a start-up or a small company. But as transaction volume grows and judgment calls become a daily occurrence, this shape too reaches a limit.
Queries to the firm pile up and decisions slow down; the admin starts effectively carrying the bookkeeping and judgments; you want to read the monthly numbers inside, and faster. When these signs appear, it is time to move from supporting the outsourcing to bringing accounting in-house. At that point, see also “Your First In-House Accountant in Vietnam: Who to Hire,” and for the decision to add headcount, “When Does a One-Person Accounting Setup Hit Its Limit in Vietnam?”
Conclusion
Even if you continue to outsource to an accounting firm, placing one admin inside is a realistic first step toward avoiding over-reliance. The admin does not need to be an accounting specialist; someone who can gather, hand over, check, and connect — thinly but continuously — is enough.
What matters is making the roles of the admin, the firm, and management clear, and keeping approval and judgment inside the company. Whether or not this one person exists changes how easily your company can move when a tax inspection or a change of firm arrives.
FAQ
Q1. Is an admin without an accounting qualification really enough?
Yes, as long as you continue to outsource. What you ask of the admin is not the bookkeeping or tax judgments themselves, but organizing the documents, handing them to the firm, managing deadlines, and routing questions. Basic bookkeeping is reassuring, but a CA qualification is not a requirement. The bookkeeping and judgments stay with the firm.
Q2. Won’t the admin’s work overlap with the accounting firm’s?
Not if you split the roles. The admin gathers, hands over, checks, and connects; the firm processes and judges. When they mix, an unqualified admin ends up carrying the bookkeeping and judgments, leading to errors and key-person risk. It helps to put in writing, at contracting and when staff change, how far the admin’s work extends.
Q3. When should we switch to bringing accounting in-house (hiring a CA)?
When queries to the firm slow decisions down, the admin starts effectively carrying the bookkeeping and judgments, and you want to read the monthly numbers inside and sooner — when these become routine, it is time to consider moving from supporting the outsourcing to in-house. Start by reviewing what a first in-house accountant looks like.
