1. Categories of accounting documents subject to archival
Accounting documents required to be archived include:
- Accounting vouchers.
- Detailed accounting books and general accounting ledgers.
- Financial statements; state budget finalization reports; consolidated budget finalization reports.
- Other documents related to accounting, including: contracts; management accounting reports; dossiers and finalization reports of completed projects, including nationally significant projects; reports on asset inventory and valuation; documents related to inspection, examination, supervision, and audit; records of destruction of accounting documents; decisions on capital supplementation from profits and allocation of funds from profits; documents relating to dissolution, bankruptcy, division, separation, consolidation, merger, termination of operations, transformation of ownership form, change of enterprise type, or conversion of units; documents related to receipt and use of funds, capital, and funds; documents related to tax, fee, charge obligations and other obligations to the State; and other relevant documents.
2. Retention periods for accounting documents
Minimum retention period of 5 years:
Accounting documents used for internal management and administration purposes of the accounting unit, which are not used as a basis for tax declaration and calculation and are not directly used for bookkeeping entries, such as economic contracts, quotations, purchase orders, etc.
Minimum retention period of 10 years:
- Accounting documents used as a basis for tax declaration and calculation, bookkeeping, and preparation of financial statements, such as invoices, detailed accounting books, general accounting ledgers, annual financial statements, finalization reports, records of destruction of archived accounting documents, etc.
- Documents related to liquidation or disposal of fixed assets; reports on asset inventory and valuation results.
- Accounting documents of project owners, including annual accounting period documents and finalization reports of completed projects classified as Group B and C.
- Documents related to establishment, division, separation, consolidation, merger, transformation of ownership form, change of enterprise type, dissolution, bankruptcy, termination of operations, or completion of projects.
- Documents held at the entity, such as audit files of the State Audit Office, inspection, examination, and supervision files of competent state authorities, or files of independent audit organizations.
Permanent retention:
- Accounting documents of historical significance or of important economic, security, or national defense value.
- “Permanent retention” shall mean a retention period exceeding 10 years, until such documents are naturally destroyed.
3. Preservation and storage of accounting documents
First, archived accounting documents must be original documents with legal validity in accordance with the law and must be archived within 12 months from the end of the annual accounting period or completion of accounting work.
Second, accounting documents must be fully and safely preserved during their use.
- The accounting unit must establish internal regulations on management, use, and preservation of accounting documents, clearly defining responsibilities and authority for each department and each accountant.
- Micro-enterprises, as defined by laws on support for small and medium-sized enterprises, are not required to establish such regulations but remain responsible for ensuring full and safe preservation of accounting documents.
- The accounting unit must ensure adequate facilities and means for managing and preserving accounting documents.
Third, prior to archival, accounting documents must be printed on paper and must contain all legally required elements (such as forms, codes, signatures, and seals), except where the unit opts for electronic storage.
- The legal representative of the accounting unit shall decide whether documents are stored in paper form or electronic media, ensuring safety, completeness, confidentiality, and availability upon request by competent state authorities.
Accounting documents stored electronically:
- Electronic storage must ensure data safety, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout the retention period.
- Upon request by competent authorities for inspection, examination, supervision, or audit, the accounting unit must print such documents, have them signed by the legal representative or chief accountant (or person in charge of accounting), affix the seal (if any), and provide them within the required timeframe.
Fourth, archived accounting documents must be complete, systematically organized, classified, and arranged into separate files in chronological order and by annual accounting periods to ensure efficient retrieval and use.
4. Locations for storage of accounting documents
- Accounting documents of an entity shall be stored at its own archive facilities.
- Accounting documents of foreign-invested enterprises, branches, and representative offices of foreign enterprises operating in Vietnam must be stored within Vietnam during their operation period in accordance with their investment registration certificates, enterprise registration certificates, or operation licenses. Upon termination of operations in Vietnam, the legal representative shall decide the storage location.
- Accounting documents of entities that are dissolved, bankrupt, or terminated, or of completed projects, including documents still within the retention period and those related to dissolution or termination, shall be stored at locations determined by the legal representative or competent authority.
- Accounting documents of entities undergoing transformation of ownership or change of enterprise type shall be stored at the new accounting unit or at a location designated by the competent authority.
- For entities divided or separated into multiple new entities:
- If documents can be allocated, they shall be stored at the respective new entities.
- If not, they shall be stored at the original entity or at a location designated by the competent authority.
- Documents related to division shall be stored at the new entities; documents related to separation shall be stored at both the separated entity and the new entity.
- Documents still within the retention period and those related to consolidation or merger shall be stored at the receiving or consolidated entity.
- Where an entity does not maintain its own archive department or storage facility, it may outsource archival services to a qualified archival organization under a storage contract in accordance with the law.
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