Global Accounting Teams with Vietnam Talent

Finance leaders are under pressure to strengthen controls, close faster, improve data quality, and support business decisions without continuously expanding local headcount. A global accounting team offers another path by combining finance leadership close to the business with accounting professionals working across locations. For U.S. companies, Vietnam can become part of that model when talent, governance, technology, and process ownership are designed as one integrated finance organization.

Part 1: Leadership and the Opportunity

1. What are the biggest accounting talent challenges companies face today?

The challenge is no longer simply finding enough accountants. Companies need people who combine strong accounting fundamentals with technology, communication skills, and business understanding.

In markets such as the U.S., companies are dealing with an aging accounting workforce, competition for experienced professionals, and difficulty retaining people in highly transactional roles. Ambitious accountants do not want to stay in positions where they only process transactions. At the same time, expectations for finance teams continue to rise: close faster, provide better data, strengthen controls, and support business decisions, often without significantly increasing headcount.

This is pushing companies to rethink how accounting teams are structured. Instead of asking, “Where can we find more accountants locally?” I think the better question is, “How should we build the right accounting organization globally?”

2. What opportunities do global finance teams create for accounting professionals in Vietnam?

I believe the opportunity is significant.

Vietnam has a large pool of well-educated accounting and finance professionals, but historically many have had limited exposure to international companies and global finance operations. That is changing.

Today, an accountant sitting in Vietnam can work directly with a U.S., European, Australian, or Singaporean finance organization. They can gain hands-on experience with U.S. GAAP and IFRS, international ERP systems, month-end closing, financial reporting, internal controls, data analytics, automation, and increasingly AI.

The bigger opportunity is career progression. Someone may start with AP, AR, or reconciliations, but over time they can become a senior accountant, team leader, finance analyst, controller, or process owner.

For me, this is an important part of outsourcing. We are not simply moving work from one country to another. We are creating access to global careers for Vietnamese professionals without requiring them to leave Vietnam.

3. How does a U.S.–Vietnam accounting team model work, and what role does each side play?

I see it as one finance organization operating across two locations, rather than a U.S. team and an offshore team.

The U.S. side should typically retain responsibility for finance leadership, accounting policy, business partnering, judgment-intensive decisions, stakeholder relationships, and overall governance. They are closer to the business and provide the context behind the numbers.

The Vietnam team can own substantial parts of the accounting operation: AP, AR, general ledger, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, fixed assets, intercompany accounting, reporting preparation, month-end activities, and data analysis.

As the team matures, more responsibility should move to Vietnam. Experienced accountants can become process owners who manage complete workflows rather than individual tasks.

That is really how Innovature started in 2015—connecting a U.S. company’s operational needs with capable talent in Vietnam. The model works best when companies stop treating Vietnam as a “back office” and start treating the people there as an integrated part of the finance organization.

Part 2: How the Operating Model Works

1. How can companies maintain U.S. GAAP, quality, and internal controls across a Vietnam-based accounting team?

Location should not determine the accounting standard or the level of control. The same governance should apply whether an accountant is sitting in the U.S. or Vietnam.

The foundation is a well-designed finance governance mode: documented accounting policies, clear SOPs, approval matrices, segregation of duties, appropriate system access, defined review procedures, and measurable service levels..

For U.S. GAAP specifically, companies should combine formal training with practical application. Accountants need to understand not only how to perform a task, but why a transaction is treated a particular way. That means developing knowledge in areas such as revenue recognition, lease accounting, accruals, estimates, and other areas where U.S. GAAP may differ from local accounting practices.

There should also be appropriate levels of review. Junior accountants prepare, experienced accountants review, and controllers or finance leaders approve areas requiring greater judgment.

Ultimately, quality comes from the process, governance, and people surrounding the work—not from geography.

2. How should responsibilities and collaboration be structured across U.S. and Vietnam accounting teams?

I recommend dividing responsibilities based on judgment, ownership, and business proximity, rather than simply identifying repetitive work and sending it offshore.

U.S. leaders should focus on areas requiring business judgment, executive interaction, policy decisions, strategic finance, and relationships with auditors, banks, investors, and other stakeholders.

Vietnam teams can gradually take end-to-end ownership of well-defined accounting processes that are suitable for outsourcing.

The important word is ownership. If every output produced in Vietnam has to be rebuilt by someone in the U.S., the model is not working properly.

For communication, companies need a predictable operating rhythm: defined overlap hours, clear escalation channels, regular team meetings, documented handoffs and knowledge transfer, and shared systems.. Accountants also need the confidence to raise questions early rather than waiting until something becomes a problem.

The time-zone difference can actually become an advantage. Work handed over at the end of the U.S. day can continue in Vietnam, effectively extending the working day. But this only works when responsibilities and handoffs are clearly designed.

3. How should finance leaders measure the performance of a Vietnam-based accounting team?

Cost savings matter, but they should not be the primary measure of whether the model is successful. Cost per transaction tells you very little if the numbers are not accurate or delivered on time.

I would measure performance across four areas:

Timeliness

• Month-end close cycle time
• Transaction turnaround time
• Percentage completed within SLA

Quality

• Error and rework rates
• Post-close adjustments
• Reconciliation completion and aging
• AP or AR exception rates

Efficiency

• Cost per invoice or transaction
• Transactions per FTE
• Automation rate
• Number of manual touchpoints

Business outcomes

• DSO and collection effectiveness
• Audit findings
• Internal stakeholder satisfaction
• Process improvement over time

I would also measure something that is harder to put into a traditional KPI: how much ownership the offshore team is taking over time.

If a Vietnam team starts by performing transactions but, two years later, is managing processes, identifying improvements, analyzing exceptions, and communicating directly with business stakeholders, that is a much stronger indicator of success than labor savings alone.

Part 3: Long-Term Talent and Business Decisions

1. What advice would you give leaders creating global career opportunities for Vietnamese accountants?

When I returned to Vietnam, one of the things I saw was that Vietnamese professionals were capable, ambitious, and willing to learn. What they did not always have was access to the same international opportunities and exposure as professionals in larger global markets.

Innovature itself started with a real client need. A U.S. company I had worked with asked me to help establish an offshore team in Vietnam. That opportunity showed me that Vietnamese professionals could work successfully as part of international organizations if we gave them the right environment, training, and exposure.

So my first piece of advice would be: don’t simply create lower-cost jobs in Vietnam. Create careers.

Give people exposure to international clients, systems, standards, and management practices. Invest in English and communication skills. Allow them to interact directly with clients. Give them responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.

My second advice would be: your value is the bridge, not the labor.

There are many companies that can hire accountants in Vietnam. The real value is understanding both sides—not only the language, but expectations around communication, deadlines, accountability, ownership, and what “done” actually means.

And finally, hold the Vietnam team to the same standard you would expect from the client’s own team. Competing primarily on price may create an opportunity in the short term, but quality and capability are what make the model sustainable.

If we do this well, the next generation of Vietnamese accountants should not think of themselves as “offshore accountants.” They should see themselves as global finance professionals who happen to be based in Vietnam.

2. How will AI reshape accounting outsourcing, and what skills will Vietnamese accountants need next?

I think the traditional outsourcing model based primarily on moving repetitive manual work to a lower-cost location will become less relevant.

AI and automation will increasingly handle activities such as invoice data extraction, transaction matching, reconciliations, classification, collection prioritization, and parts of financial reporting.

That does not mean accounting outsourcing disappears. It means the work changes.

I believe the traditional finance-team pyramid—with many junior people processing transactions and a smaller number of senior people reviewing them—will gradually become flatter. AI and automation will handle more of the volume, while accountants focus on exceptions, judgment, controls, analysis, and communication.

The future model is people + technology + process ownership.

For Vietnamese accountants, technical accounting knowledge will remain important, but it will no longer be enough. They will increasingly need four capabilities:

1. Technical depth — particularly in areas requiring judgment, such as revenue recognition, leases, accruals, estimates, intercompany accounting, and consolidation.
2. Technology and data fluency — understanding ERP systems, automation and AI tools, and being comfortable working with financial data.
3. Analytical thinking and communication — being able to understand a variance, form a view, and explain it clearly to a finance leader.
4. A strong control mindset — understanding why a process exists, recognizing when an automated output may be wrong, and knowing when human judgment is required.

Most importantly, Vietnamese accountants need to move from being task executors to problem solvers and process owners.

An accountant whose role is primarily data entry will see much of that work automated. But an accountant who can use technology, identify when something is wrong, understand the accounting behind it, and explain what the numbers mean to a CFO will become more valuable.

I believe this creates an even bigger opportunity for Vietnam. Vietnam does not have to compete only on labor cost. It can compete on the quality of its finance professionals, its technology capability, and its ability to manage sophisticated global finance processes.

That is where I see the next stage of accounting outsourcing going.

The Next Stage of Global Accounting Teams

The next stage of accounting outsourcing will be defined less by where work is performed and more by how effectively people, technology, and process ownership work together.

For U.S. finance leaders, that means retaining policy, judgment, strategic finance, and stakeholder relationships close to the business while giving Vietnam-based professionals meaningful ownership of well-defined accounting processes.

At Innovature BPO, we believe finance and accounting outsourcing should develop in that direction: building global finance capability, not simply moving tasks between locations.
If your organization is exploring how Vietnam-based accounting talent could fit into its finance operating model, contact Innovature BPO to discuss your processes, talent requirements, and governance priorities.