Most enterprises have a chief accountant or not?

When registering a business, it is not necessary to declare information about the chief accountant. But when companies operate, it is required to have a chief accountant or not?

1. Chief Accountant – Who are they?

The chief accountant is a career title that refers to the head of a company’s accounting department. This person is responsible for organizing the accounting work in the enterprise (according to Clause 1, Article 53 of the 2015 Accounting Law).

For State agencies, organizations, non-business units using the State budget and enterprises with over 50% of charter capital held by the State, apart from the tasks mentioned above, the chief accountant must also assist the legal representative in supervising the company’s finance.

The arrangement of a chief accountant may be made in the form of an appointment or hire of accounting services provided by specialized enterprises.

2. Must all businesses have a chief accountant?

Enterprises must have a chief accountant. The exception is microenterprises according to the law on support for SMEs. They are allowed to assign a person in charge of accounting without having to have a chief accountant (according to Article 20 of Decree No. 174/2016/ND-CP).

In case the enterprise cannot appoint a chief accountant immediately, it must have a person in charge of accounting or hire service as chief accountant. The maximum time to arrange a person in charge of accounting is 12 months. After this time, it must have a chief accountant.

As such, businesses must have chief accountants, except for micro-businesses. Micro enterprises are allowed to arrange people in charge of accounting instead of chief accountants.

A newly established enterprise is allowed to arrange a person in charge of accounting within 12 months. Then it must have a chief accountant.