Vietnamese for Accountants: Month-End Vocabulary, Polite Requests and Reports

It is Monday, 9:10 a.m., and you manage finance at a foreign-owned packaging company in Đồng Nai. An email has just arrived from your chief accountant: 「Anh David, em gửi anh bảng đối chiếu công nợ tháng 4. Có hai khoản chưa khớp, em sẽ giải thích sau khi anh xem file ạ.」 You can read tháng 4 as April and file as file. The rest is a puzzle: who is anh, what does em mean here, and what exactly is not matching?

Many of your Vietnamese colleagues write and speak in a mix: short messages in Zalo, polite emails to you, and a vocabulary that borrows English abbreviations like AR and AP next to terms from the Vietnamese accounting regime. Pronouns, particles and a handful of accounting words carry the real meaning, and a small mistake in any of them changes how a request sounds.

This article is for foreign finance managers, auditors and accountants working in Vietnam, and for anyone of Vietnamese heritage who wants to follow a Vietnamese finance team. You get vocabulary in the order of a month-end, five points of grammar for requests and reports, three real situations with translations, and a practice plan. The word set at the end is playable right away.

• How an accounting day sounds in Vietnam
• Vocabulary in the order of a month-end
• Five points of grammar you will use every day
• Three real situations, with translations
• How to practise while you are working
• Quick answers
• Where to start

How an accounting day sounds in Vietnam

A Vietnamese company usually has a kế toán trưởng, the chief accountant, who signs the financial statements and answers to the director. Under that person sit accountants who each handle an area, such as receivables, payables, payroll or tax. If you are the foreign finance manager, you may also be the person your team turns to for decisions, and the way they address you shows how they see the relationship.

Accounts follow a numbered chart. Under Circular 200, the accounting regime that many private companies follow, 111 is cash, 112 is the bank, 131 is receivables, 331 is payables, 511 is revenue and 632 is cost of goods sold. When a colleague says một một hai or tài khoản 112, they mean the bank account. Learning those few numbers helps you read ledger lines before you know the words.

E-invoices, hóa đơn điện tử, are now the standard. A wrong buyer name or tax code on an invoice is fixed with a replacement or an adjustment invoice, and that is a conversation you will probably have in your first month. The table shows who you speak to and in what style.

The last row looks daunting, and it is shorter than it seems. Written Vietnamese for officials uses a few fixed phrases such as kính gửi (to the attention of) and trân trọng (respectfully), and you can copy them from any letter your team already sent.

Vocabulary in the order of a month-end

The tables follow a month: documents and payment, books and reconciliation, closing and balances, reports, tax, and audit. Every Vietnamese word appears with its tones, because a missing tone mark changes the word. All 43 words of the game set are here, plus about fifteen extras such as hóa đơn điện tử and kế toán trưởng. The Meaning column uses the same English as the game.

Documents and payment

Hóa đơn and chứng từ are easy to mix up. Hóa đơn is the invoice that a supplier issues, and chứng từ is the wider category of supporting documents, which includes invoices, receipts, contracts and bank slips. A common line you will hear is không có chứng từ thì không hạch toán, no document, no booking.

Books and reconciliation

Bên nợ and bên có are literally the side that owes and the side that has. Debit and credit read the same way in both languages once you remember that Vietnamese uses side words. Đối chiếu is the word you will use for both bank reconciliation and supplier reconciliation, and a short follow-up such as đối chiếu với ai, with whom, tells you which one.

Closing and balances

Trích trước is a good word to learn early because it explains many questions at month-end. It means the cost belongs to this month even though the invoice has not arrived. When your chief accountant says em đã trích trước rồi, she has already booked the cost and expects you to approve or question the estimate.

Reports for the CFO

Bảng cân đối is short for bảng cân đối kế toán, the balance sheet, and báo cáo lãi lỗ is the everyday name for báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh, the income statement. You will see both the short and the long forms. If you are the person preparing the report for the parent company, the line to keep in mind is chênh lệch so với ngân sách, the variance against budget, since that is the first thing a CFO asks about.

Tax

Thuế GTGT and thuế TNDN are written as abbreviations in many documents, and spoken as the letters or as the full phrases. GTGT stands for giá trị gia tăng, value added, and TNDN for thu nhập doanh nghiệp, enterprise income. The full forms look long, but each is a series of ordinary words, so you can say them slowly the first few times.

Audit

Watch the pair kế toán and kiểm toán. They differ by one letter and mean different things: kế toán is accounting, or the accountant, and kiểm toán is audit. A person who works as kiểm toán viên is an auditor, usually at an audit firm, while a kế toán works inside a company. Mixing them up in front of a client is a mistake you can easily avoid by saying the first letter clearly.

Five points of grammar you will use every day

1. Choosing "you" and "I": anh, chị, em, tôi

Vietnamese has no single word for you. Use anh for a man a little older than you, chị for a woman a little older, em for someone younger, and cô or chú for someone around your parents' age. For yourself, tôi is the neutral choice for a foreigner, and em is what a younger colleague says to an older one. Add the person's first name for warmth, as in chị Lan.

• Chào chị Lan, chị khỏe không ạ?
• Anh David ơi, em gửi anh báo cáo tháng.
• Chị Lan, tôi cần xem sổ cái của tài khoản 112.

The most common mistake from English speakers is to use bạn for everyone, since the dictionary says bạn means you. It is natural between peers and young people, and it sounds distant or rude with someone clearly older or senior. Another mistake is to drop pronouns entirely. Drop them in chat only after you know the person.

2. Polite requests: giúp, nhờ, vui lòng, nhé and ạ

A request normally has a pronoun, a verb, giúp (help), and ends with được không (is that possible) or a softener. In speech, add ạ for respect or nhé for a friendly nudge. In writing, vui lòng (please) is the standard form for emails to suppliers, customers and officials, and nhờ (to ask a favour) is warm and works in both speech and chat.

• Chị gửi giúp tôi hóa đơn này được không ạ?
• Nhờ chị đối chiếu lại số dư giúp tôi nhé.
• Vui lòng gửi chứng từ trước ngày 25.

The typical mistake is a bare command, such as Gửi hóa đơn, which sounds like an order to a colleague and rude to a supplier. Add the pronoun, giúp and a closing softener. The second mistake is to translate please as xin in every sentence. Xin is formal and best for a real favour, and it sounds heavy for a routine request.

3. Time words: đã, đang, sẽ and the answers rồi, chưa

Vietnamese verbs do not change form. Time is shown by small words: đã for finished, đang for in progress, sẽ for future. A question about completion uses đã ... chưa, and the answer is either rồi (yes, already) or chưa (not yet). You can also say xong rồi, finished already.

• Chị đã đối chiếu công nợ chưa?
• Dạ, em đối chiếu xong rồi anh.
• Dạ chưa, em đang làm và sẽ gửi anh chiều nay.

An English speaker tends to answer Yes or No, but Vietnamese answers repeat the verb or use rồi and chưa. The typical mistake is to answer Đã or Có to a question with chưa. Say Rồi, or Chưa. Another habit is to add đã to every past event, though it is often optional when a time word like hôm qua already shows the past.

4. Counting things and word order

Numbers are followed by a classifier in many cases: bản for copies, tờ for sheets, khoản for items and amounts, and file for files. Adjectives and describing words come after the noun, so hóa đơn điện tử is literally invoice electronic. A possessor comes after the thing too: báo cáo của công ty is the report of the company.

• Hai bản hợp đồng đã được ký.
• Có một khoản chi lớn trong tháng 4.
• Chị gửi cho tôi ba file Excel nhé.

The typical mistake is to put the adjective first, as in lớn khoản chi, or to say hóa đơn điện tử in the English order. Think of the noun as the anchor and add the rest behind it. A smaller mistake is leaving out the classifier for items, saying hai hợp đồng. People will understand, though the sentence sounds less natural.

5. Money, numbers and comparisons

Vietnamese counts in nghìn (thousand, ngàn in the south), triệu (million) and tỷ (billion). Spoken amounts use these words, and written amounts use a dot for thousands and a comma for decimals, as in 3.200.000.000 and 3,2 tỷ. For comparisons, use so với (compared with), tăng or giảm for up or down, and vượt for exceed.

• Doanh thu tăng 8% so với tháng trước.
• Chi phí vượt ngân sách 40 triệu đồng.
• Số dư phải trả người bán là 3,2 tỷ đồng.

Large amounts are easy to misread because the unit words differ even though both languages group digits in threes. A useful check: a tỷ has nine zeros, a triệu has six. Rưỡi means half, so hai tỷ rưỡi is 2.5 billion. In chat you will also see tr for triệu and k for nghìn, as in 50k or 5tr, and they are read as written.

Three real situations, with translations

A wrong tax code on an e-invoice

David, the finance manager, is talking to Lan, the chief accountant. Lan calls David anh, and David calls her chị Lan. Read both parts aloud.

Notice mình in công ty mình, meaning our company. Vietnamese has an inclusive we and often says bên họ (their side) and bên mình (our side). Also notice how Lan answers dạ and ends with ạ, while David uses nhé, a pattern you will hear in many offices.

Settling a business-trip advance

David asks Hùng, a sales manager, about the advance he took for a trip to Hà Nội. David is the more senior of the two and uses Hùng's first name, while Hùng calls himself em and David anh. Read both parts aloud.

Notice that a senior person can address a junior by first name without a pronoun, and the junior still uses anh and em. Also notice không có hóa đơn thì kế toán không hạch toán được, the standard line that every office repeats. Thì here links a condition to its result.

Reading and answering a payment approval email

Lan sends David a payment batch for approval. Read it first, then reply. The email uses the polite written style you will see from most accountants.

A reply from David could be Chị Lan, tôi đã duyệt đợt thanh toán ngày 15/5. Chị lập ủy nhiệm chi giúp tôi nhé. Cảm ơn chị. It keeps the same pattern: what was done, one request with giúp and nhé, thanks. Dates are written day first, so 15/5 is the fifteenth of May.

How to practise while you are working

Play the accounting set in Falling Stars or Pop It in the gaps of your day. Say each word aloud when you see it, since tones stick better when you voice them. Then go back to the tables and read the example sentences out loud.

For listening, pick an episode in the Vietnamese podcasts, listen one sentence at a time and write what you hear, then check the transcript. What you miss is usually a small word such as dạ, nhé or rồi. For a longer path, see the courses, and use the vocabulary test to see where your vocabulary stands.

Outside WELE there are a few useful sources. Circular 200 of the Ministry of Finance sets out the accounting regime and the account names, and thuvienphapluat.vn hosts the text. VietnamesePod101 offers lessons for everyday listening. If you work in a large firm, your own team's past emails are the best source, because they show the polite forms people actually use. To measure yourself, the Vietnamese proficiency test on WELE shows where you stand.

One practical habit is to keep a file of real phrases from your team, such as Em đã trích trước rồi ạ, and look them up in the evening. For neighbouring jobs, see Vietnamese for office workers and Vietnamese for logistics, or browse Vietnamese by profession and the accounting page.

Quick answers

Do accountants in Vietnam speak English?

Many do in foreign-owned companies and audit firms, and fewer in small local firms. Even so, the documents your team handles, such as invoices, tax returns and notices, are in Vietnamese. Learning the core terms helps you check what you sign.

What is the difference between kế toán and kiểm toán?

Kế toán is accounting, or an accountant, and kiểm toán is audit. They differ by one letter, so say them slowly. A kiểm toán viên is an auditor and a kế toán viên is an accountant.

How do I say an amount like 2.5 billion dong?

Say hai tỷ rưỡi đồng, or hai tỷ năm trăm triệu đồng for the long form. Rưỡi means half. Written, it appears as 2.500.000.000 đồng or 2,5 tỷ đồng, with a dot for thousands and a comma for decimals.

Does it matter if I learn northern or southern Vietnamese?

The vocabulary is the same. Pronunciation and a few words differ: nghìn in the north is ngàn in the south, and vâng in the north is dạ in the south, though dạ is understood everywhere. Learn the form you hear most at your office.

Should I write to my team in Vietnamese or English?

Ask your team. Some Vietnamese colleagues prefer reading English for technical content and Vietnamese for casual chat. A short Vietnamese greeting and a Vietnamese closing, with the technical middle in English, is a polite compromise that many people appreciate.

Where to start

Play one round of the accounting set in Falling Stars, then read the next invoice or tax notice on your desk and underline every word you now recognise.