Introduction
Many foreign-invested companies newly established in Vietnam start by outsourcing accounting to an accounting firm. Bookkeeping, closing, and tax filings are handled externally, and no accountant is placed in-house. In the start-up phase, this is a reasonable choice.
As the business gets moving and transaction volume grows, however, the question arises: is outsourcing still enough? With outsourcing, exchanging documents takes time, the numbers are not visible in real time, and accounting know-how does not accumulate inside the company. As these inconveniences pile up, many companies take the step of hiring their own accountant — what is known as bringing accounting in-house.
The question is how to choose this “first hire.” The first thing to clarify is the purpose of bringing accounting in-house. It means making it possible to run, inside the company, the work that had been entrusted to the accounting firm. In other words, the first hire needs the ability to understand the outsourced work themselves and to take the lead on it internally. Hiring someone who merely helps with day-to-day bookkeeping leaves the judgment on closing and filings dependent on the outsourced provider, and the effect of bringing accounting in-house stays limited. This article organizes who to hire as your first accountant when bringing accounting in-house in Vietnam, and the points to keep in mind when hiring.
1. Why the First Hire Needs to Be at Chief-Accountant Level
The first accountant you hire is not merely someone to do the work. They are the person who will become the pillar of your in-house accounting — effectively taking on the role of Chief Accountant (hereafter “CA”). The reasons are both institutional and purpose-driven.
Institutional: the CA appointment requirement under accounting law
In Vietnamese accounting practice, the CA plays an important role in a company’s accounting structure. Companies meeting certain conditions are required to appoint a CA, and there are situations where the CA’s involvement and signature are required on financial statements and accounting-related documents. While work is outsourced to an accounting firm, an external staff member or CA often fills this role; bringing accounting in-house means taking this function into the company.
In other words, if you are moving toward fully in-house accounting, you need someone internally who can sign and take responsibility as CA — that is, a person holding the CA qualification (the Chief Accountant training certificate), or one who can obtain it in the near future. The positioning of the CA qualification is organized in our separate article, “Accounting Qualifications in Vietnam.”
Purpose-driven: replacing outsourced work in-house
The purpose of bringing accounting in-house is to make it possible to run the outsourced work internally. Even placing only bookkeeping in-house makes exchanging documents and checking numbers easier. However, if judgment on closing, filings, and tax responses continues to rest with the accounting firm, the ability to look at the numbers and make decisions in-house, and to catch risks early, does not develop sufficiently.
That is precisely why the first hire needs the ability to run the work that had been outsourced to the accounting firm — from day-to-day bookkeeping to monthly and annual close, tax filings, and responses to tax inspections and audits — on their own, in whole or in large part, depending on the size of the company. This effectively means a ready-to-perform professional at CA level.
2. The Profile of Your First Accountant
So what kind of person is suited to being the “first hire”? The details vary by company size and industry, but there are common elements.
Holds the CA qualification, or is on track to obtain it soon
As noted, the first in-house hire is, in some situations, required to hold a qualification that allows them to sign and take responsibility as CA. Ideally, they already hold the Chief Accountant training certificate.
That said, it is also realistic to hire a strong candidate who has ample practical experience but has not yet obtained the CA training certificate, and have them obtain it after joining. In that case, you need to organize in advance by when they will obtain it, and how the signing and responsibility structure will work until then.
Can run the outsourced work on their own
What you most want to see in the first hire is that they are a ready-to-perform professional who can run the work the accounting firm had handled. Specifically, the ability to carry out the following without waiting for external instruction:
- Day-to-day bookkeeping and voucher processing, monthly and annual close
- Preparing and filing VAT, CIT, and PIT tax returns
- Responding to tax inspections and dealing with auditors
- Bank dealings and cash management
- Payroll and social insurance procedures
- Operating accounting software (MISA, FAST, and others)
- Reporting to management and headquarters
Rather than someone who has handled only a specific area in a large company where work is finely divided, a candidate who has run accounting and tax broadly on their own at a small or mid-sized company or at an accounting firm is often better suited as the first hire.
Has the initiative to build the setup themselves
The first hire joins with no predecessor or colleague in accounting inside the company. Rather than learning while being taught by someone, they need to build the flow of work themselves, establish dealings with the tax authorities, banks, and (if retained) the accounting firm, and organize coordination with other internal functions. You want to look for the initiative to move and build the setup on their own, rather than waiting for instructions.
Fits the company’s language environment
The language level needed for communication with management and headquarters is also worth checking. Whether English is needed, or the headquarters language such as Japanese, Korean, or Chinese, depends on the company’s situation. That said, if language ability is prioritized to the point that accounting and tax practical skills fall short, bringing accounting in-house does not hold together. On a foundation of practical skill, confirm that they have the communication ability required.
Candidates to consider carefully as the first hire
On the other hand, there are candidates to view carefully as the first hire. For example, someone who has only handled accounts receivable, only accounts payable, or only invoice checking at a large company may be strong in individual tasks but lack the experience of assembling a company’s entire accounting on their own.
Also, even with high language ability, if they have no experience closing monthly accounts or tax filings themselves, there is cause for concern as the central figure for bringing accounting in-house. When looking at the first hire, it is important to confirm not just their title and language ability but how far they actually owned accounting and tax.
3. How Much One Person Handles Depends on Company Size
How much the first hire should handle on their own depends on the size of the company and the complexity of the work.
At a small company with simple transactions, it is ideal for the first hire to complete everything from bookkeeping to closing and tax filing on their own. In this case, that one person effectively serves as CA and handles accounting as a whole.
At a company of a certain size, where imports and exports, transfer pricing, and complex tax issues are involved, it is realistic for the first hire to handle the core of accounting and tax while coordinating with external tax specialists or an accounting firm on particularly specialized issues (transfer pricing documentation, global minimum tax, IFRS matters, complex tax inspection responses, and so on). Even here, the first hire is in the position of “leading it themselves and drawing on external expertise only where needed,” not “handing it all off to the outsourced provider.”
What matters here is that, whether or not outsourcing is retained, the first hire holds the lead on accounting. Using external specialists is not itself a problem. The problem is when only day-to-day work is processed in-house while judgment and risk assessment remain dependent on the outsourced provider. In that state, the management-side benefits of bringing accounting in-house stay limited.
Also, if there is anxiety about demanding full independence right away, there is an approach of moving gradually toward fully independent day-to-day operation while using the accounting firm’s review in parallel. The first hire leads the preparation of the closing and tax filings, and has the accounting firm review (check) the content. This way, the company accumulates know-how internally while catching errors and risks early through an external set of eyes. As internal capability grows, you narrow the scope of review requested, and ultimately move to a structure where day-to-day work runs fully in-house. When the company is newly established, or at a stage where the hired person’s practical ability has not yet been fully assessed, this staged transition is a realistic way to contain the risk of bringing accounting in-house.
4. Practical Hiring Points
Here are some practical points to note when hiring the first accountant.
First, confirm whether they hold the CA qualification and their plans to obtain it. Check whether they hold the Chief Accountant training certificate, and if not, whether they have the intention and prospect of obtaining it.
Second, confirm concretely their experience of actually running the outsourced work themselves. Ask specifically in the interview: “Have you closed monthly and annual accounts yourself?” “Have you prepared and filed tax returns yourself?” “Have you handled a tax inspection as the lead?” “Have you dealt with auditors on your own?” Candidates with experience working at an accounting firm often have experience running accounting and tax for multiple companies from the outsourcing side, and can be strong candidates for the first in-house hire.
Third, assess whether they have the initiative to build the setup on their own. The first hire will work for a while in an environment with no accounting colleagues inside the company, building the setup themselves. Some people are excellent as a member of a team but are unaccustomed to assembling the work on their own.
Fourth, consider the balance between retention prospects and compensation. If you are hiring a ready-to-perform professional at CA level, you need compensation to match. If the pay is too low for the role you are asking for, either applications will not come in, or even if you hire someone, they will leave early, and the effort to bring accounting in-house goes back to square one.
For the broader question of whether to bring accounting in-house or continue outsourcing, see our separate article, “In-House vs Outsourced Accounting at FDI Companies in Vietnam.”
Closing Thoughts
The “first hire,” the first step in bringing accounting in-house in Vietnam, is the pillar of the in-house accounting you are about to build. What you should look for is a person who holds the CA qualification (or is on track to obtain it soon) and who can run, on their own, the work outsourced to the accounting firm — in whole or in large part, depending on the size of the company. In a state where they handle only day-to-day work while judgment rests with the outsourced provider, the management, judgment, and risk-assessment benefits of bringing accounting in-house stay limited.
Hiring the first accountant is not merely adding headcount; it is a turning point from dependence on outsourcing to running accounting in-house. Doing this carefully shapes the growth of your accounting organization thereafter. This article is the first in a series that follows the growth stages of an accounting organization. In future installments, we plan to take up themes such as “when to hire your second accountant and their profile” and “when to add a layer beneath the CA.” We hope this article helps as you consider bringing accounting in-house in Vietnam.
FAQ
Q1. Does the first accountant we hire need the Chief Accountant qualification?
If you are bringing accounting fully in-house, in principle yes. In Vietnam, companies meeting certain conditions are required to appoint a CA, and there are situations where the CA’s involvement and signature are required on financial statements and accounting-related documents. For that reason, the first hire needs to be someone who holds the Chief Accountant training certificate, or someone with ample practical experience who can obtain it soon. If you hire someone with ample experience who does not yet hold the qualification and have them obtain it after joining, you need to organize in advance the deadline for obtaining it and the signing and responsibility structure until then.
Q2. Once we hire the first accountant, can we cancel the contract with the accounting firm?
It depends on the company’s size and how far that one person can handle. At a small, simple company, once the first hire can run accounting and tax on their own, reducing or canceling outsourcing can be a valid decision. At a company with transfer pricing or complex tax issues, it is realistic to keep coordinating with an accounting firm or tax specialist on the highly specialized parts while running the core in-house. Also, while there is anxiety about bringing accounting in-house, one approach is to keep having the accounting firm review the closing and filings prepared in-house, and narrow the scope gradually as internal capability grows. In every case, what matters is that the first hire holds the lead on accounting, and external parties are used only where needed.
Q3. Won’t hiring a CA-level person make the salary high?
A commensurate level is necessary. A CA-level person who can run the work outsourced to an accounting firm on their own has higher market value than a simple processing staff member. However, the purpose of bringing accounting in-house is not merely to lower outsourcing fees. There is value in building a structure where the numbers are grasped quickly in-house, management can make decisions more easily, and tax and accounting risks are noticed early. What matters is balancing the role you are asking for (replacing outsourced work in-house) with compensation. If the pay is too low for the role, you cannot hire the person you need, and bringing accounting in-house itself does not progress.
