With the anticipated increase in financial reporting transparency that islikely to follow the IFRS adoption, accountants are expected to show higher sense of responsibility and accountability over financial information in order to align with the international standards,requirements, and expectations. Researching the challenges in the work requirement of accountants that are relevant to the IFRS adoption is essential for facilitating a smooth transition to IFRS and, more importantly, for upgrading the expectations of young accounting graduates. Our group that finish accounting courses and wish to build their careers as accountants will be faced with new expectations once Vietnam successfully adopts IFRS.The researchers expect that the plans to prepare workforce for the IFRS transition will differ between Big4 and non-Big4 accounting firms. These plans will also differ depending on the client portfolios of each firm. But essentially, we expect the accounting profession in Vietnam– in light of the IFRS adoption – to be substantially affected due to:
- The need for extensive training (to enhance knowledge, skills,experience), - The need for increased integrity and transparency of theirwork,
- The need for increased level of responsibility andaccountability.
2. Summarizingfindings
In the finding and discussion process, we recognize that besides the practical benefits that IFRS brings, many challenges that need to be anticipated and carefully prepared beforemaking the decision to adopt IFRS in Vietnam to minimize risks. Interviewees and researchers‟ ‟ perceptions about challenges of IFRS implementation in Vietnam for the accounting profession are shows as follows: Quality of human resource needs to be supplemented and further trained. International standards (IFRS) should be interpreted and understood correctly, avoiding bias.
Training costs for IFRS need to be prepared in advance because of the high cost. IFRS is not yet popular in Vietnam, so it is very new and manyother items compared to VAS. Accountants, auditors need to understand its complexity and improve its expertise. Bringing IFRS into Vietnam to apply will bring challenges not only for accountants, auditors but alsostudents.
3. Contributions to knowledge and to thesociety
-Contribute to improve the understanding of accountants in accountingwork -Introduction and inspiration for more specific and in-depth studies ofIFRS
-Overview of the impact and importance of applying IFRS helps to provide the Ministryof Finance with information on the benefits and limitations of the application of IFRS for the purposes of orientation to improve and overcome limitations. in the most optimalway.
-Help businesses understand and prepare for innovation when Vietnam applies IFRS in the future.
4. Researchlimitations
In general, this research is quite successful when it comes to clearing objectives. In addition, during the research process there are many limitations that need to be overcome so that the research becomes more valuables and persuasive. The objective of the study was to interview
10 subjects in the accounting profession. However, the focus of the research team is primarily on big4 and non-big accountancy firms, which, during the
period of research and consultation, accountants are busy during the busy season so the rush time and the long wait is unavoidable. Therefore, the research team only interviewed directly and through Email 4 objects. Data collection through live interviews is no longer alien to the researcher. In this case, we acknowledge that interviewing five subjects is not enough to collect data and opinions accurately and objectively. This may make the research less convincing. However, our group has already compared and compared the results of previous studies to produce results and reaffirmed the value of the research to create more convincing for the reader.
5. Future researchrecommendations
This study also presents some benefits and disadvantages of replacing VAS with IFRS, but does not focus on describing and deepening the level of harmony between the two. The research team wanted and made a few suggestion topics related to this topic:
-Determine the level of harmony between Vietnamese Accounting Standards (VAS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS / IFRS) relating to 10 major accountingstandards affecting financialstatements;
-Trends of integration with IAS / IFRS and the need for harmonization studies betweenVAS and IAS /IFRS;
-The level of satisfaction of firms in general and of staff in the industry directly usingIFRS ingeneral;
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