Chief Accountant: Concept, Functions, Duties, and Authority

Vũ Khôi

Author at Wotech Electronics Blog

The chief accountant is the person responsible for managing the accounting department and providing the financial information of a company or business unit. This is one of the highly specialized positions that plays a very large role in a company's operations. To better understand the concept, functions, and duties of a chief accountant in a company, as well as the requirements needed to become one, explore the article below.

What Is a Chief Accountant?

The chief accountant is the head of the corporate accounting function, business unit, and so on — the person in charge of the company's finances and accounting, directing and guiding finance-related matters. The chief accountant's duty is to support leadership in clearly understanding the company's financial situation and to set short-term and long-term development directions for the business.

In companies, enterprises, and business organizations, the chief accountant is under direct administrative leadership and works under the supervision of the chief financial officer.

What Does a Chief Accountant Do?

Below are the duties of a chief accountant in a company:

Directly Managing the Accounting Department's Operations

This is one of the senior management roles, directly making recommendations to leadership on increasing profits and cutting costs. When the economy is on a downturn, the chief accountant's role comes into full play, because they are the ones who take the right and timely financial measures to help the company get through difficult periods.

The chief accountant is responsible for managing all accounting staff in the company. They must ensure that all subordinates fully participate in training programs and complete their tasks. The chief accountant also guides and trains new employees on the processes and working rules related to accounting activities in the company.

This position is also responsible for ensuring work progress and performance, providing timely reports to management, and offering input that helps leadership handle finance-related issues effectively and promptly.

In managing accounting operations, the chief accountant will research and apply new technologies and techniques to increase efficiency and save time and costs.

In addition, the chief accountant also handles transactions with banks.

Supervising Settlement

The chief accountant supervises the settlement of income and expenses within the company, and organizes inventory counts of assets and cash flows at the end of the fiscal year. However, company leadership may request settlement at any time, so the chief accountant always needs to be prepared.

The chief accountant also presents the results to leadership and sometimes to relevant parties if any.

Ensuring Legality in the Accounting Books

This duty requires accuracy, timeliness, and legality in documents, books, payment papers, financial statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and payables to banks, customers, and suppliers. The chief accountant is the person accountable to the audit authority for the company's books and records.

Preparing Financial Statements

The chief accountant participates in preparing financial statements on the prescribed schedule and presents the reports to company leadership.

>> See more: Guide to Preparing Financial Statements Under Circular 200

Participating in Analysis and Forecasting

Through this activity, the chief accountant will produce forecasts related to financial resources, advise leadership on plans for raising capital for the company to maintain the budget; and support managers in handling financial or legal issues, risks, errors, and violations.

The chief accountant is the person who understands the company's financial and accounting activities best. Therefore, their analyses and forecasts play an extremely important role in management and strategic planning for the business.

Other Duties

Beyond accounting- and finance-related duties, the chief accountant may perform additional tasks as required by superiors. The chief accountant's duties also depend heavily on the company they work for.

The Authority and Responsibilities of the Chief Accountant

A question we often receive is: "The chief accountant plays such an important and significant role in a company, so what authority do people in this position have?" To answer this question, read on below to see clearly the authority and responsibilities of chief accountants in agencies, companies, and business units.

Authority

The chief accountant is a position with independent authority over accounting and finance matters. Chief accountants at agencies and companies that use state capital also have the right to comment to unit leadership (which may be the director or head of legal) on changing, transferring, or recruiting personnel, or proposing rewards or discipline; and to require accounting staff to provide complete and timely financial and accounting documents. When commenting on matters related to another chief accountant's accounting expertise, a chief accountant has the right to keep their own opinion.

Responsibilities

The chief accountant is responsible for carrying out accounting-related work and organizing and managing the accounting department in accordance with the law. In addition, the chief accountant also prepares reports on the company's financial activities.

The chief accountant's duty is to ensure the accounting books are accurate and complete, and to ensure the company's accounting, tax, and financial activities are consistent with and up to date with the law.

What Qualifications Does a Chief Accountant Need?

Before becoming a chief accountant, candidates need a deep foundation of accounting knowledge and many years of experience in lower or equivalent positions. The chief accountant is a key person responsible for accounting, tax, and finance activities, including legal matters of the company. Therefore, appointing a chief accountant with full competence and integrity is extremely important. However, many candidates still wonder: "Do you need a certificate to be a chief accountant?" To answer this question, let's look at some provisions of Vietnamese law on appointing chief accountants at agencies, companies, and business units.

Chief accountants — those in charge of accounting — must meet the standards specified in points a, c, and d of Clause 1, Article 54 of the Accounting Law, and must not fall under the cases prohibited from doing accounting as specified in Article 19 of this Decree. The Ministry of Finance regulates the organization, training, and issuance of chief accountant certificates.

Among these, points a, c, and d of Clause 1, Article 54 of the Accounting Law can be summarized as follows:

Article 51 of the Accounting Law sets out the standards, powers, and responsibilities of those doing accounting:

1. Standards:

a) Possessing moral qualities, honesty, and a sense of legal compliance;

b) Meeting the required professional expertise and competence in accounting.

1. Accounting staff have independence in professional accounting matters.

2. Accounting staff are responsible for complying with accounting laws, completing assigned tasks, and are accountable for their own professional work. When accounting staff change, the outgoing accountant must hand over the work and accounting documents to the new accountant. The outgoing accountant remains responsible for the accounting work during the period they served.

c) Holding a chief accountant training certificate;

d) Having at least 2 years of practical accounting experience for those with accounting expertise at university level or higher, and at least 3 years of practical accounting work for those with accounting expertise at intermediate or college level.

The unit's legal representative makes the decision in accordance with the Accounting Law, and

Regarding the appointment of chief accountants: Clause 2, Article 53 of the Accounting Law stipulates: "The person serving as chief accountant must hold a certificate from a chief accountant training course." Therefore, an accounting employee who does not yet have the chief accountant training certificate required by regulation cannot be appointed as chief accountant.

Conclusion

Those are the concept, functions, duties, and authority of a chief accountant in a company. We hope that with what we have shared, readers can answer their own questions. If you still have any questions, leave a comment below this article for a quick consultation!

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