In the context of the digital economy in 2026, tax and financial management regulations in Vietnam have undergone significant changes. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in electronic invoice control and new tax management decrees require businesses to have a robust accounting system. However, not all businesses have the resources to maintain a high-level in-house team. That is why hiring a chief accountant is becoming the most optimal strategic solution for SMEs and startups today.
Why is it mandatory for businesses to have a chief accountant?
By 2026, the tax authorities will have completed their Big Data system, allowing them to detect financial irregularities in seconds. Hiring a chief accountant will no longer be an option, but a mandatory requirement for the following reasons:
Strictly comply with legal regulations.
According to the current Accounting Law, all accounting units must appoint a chief accountant. For newly established businesses, the maximum time limit for appointing or hiring a chief accountant is 12 months. If the chief accountant position remains vacant after this period, administrative penalties can amount to tens of millions of VND according to the latest penalty decrees. In particular, this personnel shortage can lead to the suspension of electronic tax filing activities, causing business disruptions.
Adapting to Decree 132/2026/ND-CP and the new Tax Law
Decree 132/2026/ND-CP regarding tax risk management and significant amendments in Value Added Tax Law 2025When a business hires a chief accountant from reputable, professional, and experienced firms like MAN – Master Accountant Network, it will benefit the business in the following ways:
- Green policy update: Take advantage of tax incentives for businesses that meet ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) standards.
- AI-powered invoice risk management: Tax authorities now use algorithms to verify fraudulent invoices in real time. Hiring a professional chief accountant helps you review and eliminate this risk immediately.
- Handling transfer pricing documents: This is especially important for FDI businesses or companies with many branches and related-party transactions.
- Risk management from cash registers: For the retail industry, directly connecting invoices from cash registers to tax authorities requires extremely rigorous accounting procedures.
Optimizing sustainable human resource costs
A simple calculation for managers: The cost of hiring an in-house chief accountant with 10-15 years of experience ranges from VND 20,000,000 to VND 35,000,000 per month (excluding insurance, bonuses, and recruitment costs). Meanwhile, using an external chief accountant service costs only 1/5 or 1/10 of that, depending on the company's size, but the professional quality is always guaranteed by a team of experts instead of relying on a single individual. This allows businesses to free up capital to focus on R&D or market expansion.
Reference: Full-service accounting.
Detailed price list for chief accountant services in 2026.
To help businesses easily plan their budgets, MAN provides a service price list. hire an accountant The pricing is categorized by industry group and invoice size. This is the most competitive pricing in the current accounting services market, utilizing automation technology to optimize costs for clients.
| Business group | Monthly invoice size | Service fee (VNĐ/month) | Key job content |
| Micro-enterprises/Startups | Under 10 invoices | 1.500.000 – 2.500.000 | Signing documents, reviewing quarterly tax reports, advising on accounting diagrams, and setting up initial systems. |
| Trade and service businesses | 10 – 50 invoices | 3.000.000 – 5.500.000 | Reviewing accounting records, optimizing cash flow, representing clients for periodic tax filings, and providing VAT tax advice. |
| Manufacturing and construction businesses | 10-30 invoices | 5.500.000 – 9.000.000 | Calculating product costs is complex, along with inventory management, social insurance, and personal income tax settlement. |
| Large-scale household businesses | Revenue > 3 billion | 2.500.000 – 4.500.000 | Implement accounting procedures in accordance with Circular 88 and Decree 68/2026/ND-CP on digital business. |
| FDI enterprises must comply with IFRS reporting standards. | By project | Contact for agreement | Financial statements prepared according to international standards, transfer pricing documentation, and consolidated reports of parent and subsidiary companies. |
Note: The above price list is for reference only for the 2026 market. The actual cost of hiring a chief accountant will depend on the volume of transactions, the complexity of documents, and the specific management requirements of each business owner.
In-depth analysis of the differences between having an in-house chief accountant and hiring an external chief accountant.
To decide whether or not to hire a chief accountant, let's look at the long-term value comparison table below:
| Criteria | Internal Chief Accountant | Hire a chief accountant |
| Fixed costs | Very high (Salary, Social Insurance, Health Insurance, Bonuses, Benefits…) | Average and stable. Only pay the contract fee, no additional charges. |
| Stability | Easily subject to change due to individual dependence. | Ensuring continuity |
| Professional qualifications | Depends on individual ability | The accounting and tax teams provide support in parallel. |
| Legal liability | Administrative responsibility | 100% commits to compensating 100% through a legally binding contract if any errors occur due to operational issues. |
| Policy update | Slow | Very quickly, a whole team of tax officials came along to provide support. |
This comparison table shows that hiring a chief accountant provides absolute peace of mind in terms of expertise and significantly saves on operating costs for the business.
Scope of work when hiring a Chief Accountant at MAN – Master Accountant Network
Hiring a chief accountant isn't simply a matter of signing off on financial statements. It's a comprehensive quality control process designed to protect the assets of a business owner.
The person named and bearing the highest legal responsibility.
The chief accountant will represent the business and be named on all financial records and tax reports submitted to the authorities. This ensures that all figures and statements from the business are verified by a certified professional issued by the Ministry of Finance. When a business hires a chief accountant from MAN, the chief accountant is primarily responsible before the law for the accuracy of the accounting records.
Weekly internal accounting data quality control
Instead of waiting until the end of the quarter, experts from the chief accountant service will conduct periodic weekly or monthly reviews of accounting entries. MAN uses automated reconciliation software to detect errors in cost allocation, depreciation, or high-risk input invoices early on, before tax authorities conduct audits. Hiring a chief accountant early helps businesses build a clean documentation system from the start.
Directly explain and settle taxes.
This is the most crucial value when a business hires a chief accountant. We represent the business in direct dealings with tax inspectors. With strong professional skills and experience working with tax officials, MAN's chief accountants will protect the business's legal rights to the fullest extent, help explain sensitive expenses, and minimize unnecessary tax arrears. An experienced chief accountant will know how to prepare complete documentation and detailed explanatory reports with specific data to ensure the inspection proceeds as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Financial management and structuring consulting
The chief accountant will not only report on past figures but also transform them into future management reports. When hiring a chief accountant, the CEO will receive analyses on:
- Cash flow health index.
- Break-even analysis by product line.
- We advise on optimal loan capital structures to reduce financing costs.
- Forecast potential tax risks over the next 6-12 months.
Which businesses should hire a chief accountant?
Hiring an external chief accountant is suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises or startups with a workload that is not overly complex. Besides the two types of businesses mentioned above, hiring an external chief accountant is also an optimal choice for:
- Businesses need to expand their operations and market size.
- Newly established businesses often lack qualified accounting personnel.
- Economic organizations that operate seasonally only need to monitor and manage their finances during specific months or quarters, such as the tourism and retail industries.
- If a company has an in-house chief accountant who is on maternity leave, sick leave, or has transferred to another position, hiring an external chief accountant is a necessary solution to maintain operational continuity.
Therefore, hiring a chief accountant is the most cost-effective solution for businesses.
Criteria for selecting a reputable chief accountant hiring agency.
To achieve high rankings on search engines and truly deliver results for a business, a chief accountant hiring service provider must demonstrate competence through four factors:
- Practical experience: The firm must have experience handling tax settlements in various fields. This diversity gives them a comprehensive view of tax scenarios. When looking to hire a chief accountant, prioritize firms with more than 10 years of experience.
- In-depth expertise: Personnel directly responsible must possess a Chief Accountant Certificate and international qualifications such as CPA, ACCA, or auditor certifications. This is a mandatory knowledge base for handling complex tax issues.
- Authority: Reputable chief accountant outsourcing firms are often highly rated by the Ministry of Finance and rank among the top.
- Trust: Transparency in the contract is paramount. All terms regarding client data confidentiality and compensation for professional errors must be clearly stated in writing when you sign a contract to hire a chief accountant.
A real-world case study: MAN – Master Accountant Network receives and handles such cases.
In 2025, an electronics component manufacturing company in the VSIP Industrial Park (Binh Duong) faced a crisis when a tax inspection team discovered serious discrepancies between the actual raw material consumption figures and the declared figures. Due to the inexperience of the previous accounting staff, the company faced the risk of being subject to back taxes and late payment penalties totaling up to half a billion VND.
The company contacted MAN regarding the hiring of a chief accountant to assist with the following:
- Review the entire process: Rebuild the technical specifications to suit the factory's actual production.
- Proof of accounting irregularities: The chief accountant, along with the tax team, proved that the errors were due to outdated statistical methods and not tax evasion or revenue concealment.
- Convincing explanation: With solid supporting documentation, the chief accountant helped the business avoid paying the minimum administrative fine, saving the business owner over 500 million VND.
This is the clearest evidence that hiring a competent and experienced chief accountant is a profitable investment rather than a mere expense.
Conclude
Hiring a chief accountant not only helps businesses solve immediate legal problems but is also a strategic step towards professionalizing their financial management system. In the digital economy era of 2026, transparency and accuracy in accounting are key to businesses accessing capital and achieving sustainable growth. Don't let small errors in accounting records affect your business operations.
Contact MAN – Master Accountant Network to receive Quotation for comprehensive accounting services And a free consultation!
Contact information MAN – Master Accountant Network
- Address: No. 19A, Street 43, Tan Thuan Ward, Ho Chi Minh City
- Mobile/Zalo: 0903 963 163 – 0903 428 622
- E-mail: man@man.net.vn
Content production by: Mr. Le Hoang Tuyen – Founder & CEO MAN – Master Accountant Network, Vietnamese CPA Auditor with over 30 years of experience in Accounting, Auditing and Financial Consulting.
Frequently Asked Questions about Hiring a Chief Accountant
Although regulations allow micro-enterprises to have only an accounting manager, hiring a chief accountant for hourly or quarterly consulting is still extremely necessary to ensure accurate bookkeeping from day one, avoiding tax risks later on.
Depending on the agreement, to ensure timely report submission, you will typically delegate the signing authority to the service provider. However, all signing and submission actions are logged and immediately notified to the business owner.
Service fees are typically fixed monthly based on business size. However, if the business experiences sudden spikes in invoices or requires unexpected tax audits, fees may be adjusted as per an addendum to the chief accountant's contract.
Information is kept strictly confidential. In its chief accountant employment contract, MAN always includes a clause guaranteeing indefinite confidentiality.
You can monitor through an online software system, verify submitted tax reports with tax authority confirmation, and periodically request the chief accountant to explain any financial fluctuations during the period. Do micro-enterprises need to hire a chief accountant?
Is it necessary to provide a digital signature (token) when hiring a chief accountant?
Is the cost of hiring a chief accountant fixed?
Does MAN provide confidential business information when hiring a chief accountant?
How can we ensure the effectiveness of hiring an external chief accountant?
