Your First 90 Days After Registering a Company in Vietnam
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General information only, current at the time of writing. Rules for foreigners and small businesses in Vietnam change - please confirm your own situation before acting on it.
Direct answer
Registration creates the company. The first ninety days make it able to operate and establish the habits that determine whether year one is cheap or expensive. The order matters: banking and invoicing first, because nothing functions without them, then the recurring obligations, which begin regardless of whether any revenue has arrived.
The most common early error is treating registration as the finish line and pausing for a month. The obligations attach to the company's existence, not to its first sale.
Days 1 to 30: becoming able to operate
Three items, in this order, because each enables the next.
Banking comes first. A corporate account converts the company from a legal fact into something that can receive money. It generally requires the original registration documents and, in practice, an attendance in person by the legal representative.
Tax registration and the arrangements that permit proper invoicing follow. Without these a company can win work and be unable to bill for it in a form the customer can process - a position that is genuinely painful in month one, when the first invoice is also the first cash.
A digital signature arrangement completes the set, since it is how the company signs and submits filings. None of this is difficult. All of it carries a lead time, and the three run in sequence rather than in parallel, which is why thirty days is a realistic estimate rather than a cautious one.
Days 31 to 60: the recurring machinery
The second month builds the process that runs every month for as long as the company exists.
Appointing a bookkeeping arrangement, in-house or outsourced, and agreeing precisely what will be sent and when, prevents most first-year difficulties. The alternative is a scramble at each deadline, with documents reconstructed from memory.
Establishing how documents reach that person matters as much as appointing them. A shared folder, a monthly routine, a habit of photographing receipts on the day they arise. These are unglamorous arrangements and they are the difference between a clean first year and an expensive reconstruction.
| Established in month two | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Bookkeeping arrangement | The obligation recurs monthly, not annually |
| Document flow to the accountant | Missing paperwork is the usual cause of late filing |
| A filing calendar | Deadlines do not announce themselves |
| Who signs what | Prevents the founder becoming a bottleneck |
Days 61 to 90: what surfaces late
Three items reliably appear at this point.
The registered address must be genuine and reachable. Correspondence arrives there, and a company that cannot be contacted at its own registered address creates difficulties disproportionate to the cause, including with its bank.
The registered activities should be compared against what the company is actually selling. Where the first months of trading have drifted from the registration, this is the inexpensive moment to correct it.
And the founder's own immigration and tax position is separate from the company's and does not resolve because the company is in order. These are two files with two sets of obligations, and a founder whose company is compliant while their personal position is not has solved half the problem.
"The companies that have a difficult first year are rarely the ones that found the rules complicated. They are the ones that did nothing for two months and then attempted to catch up." - LotusGuard Vietnam Advisory
Companies not yet trading
Obligations apply regardless of revenue. This is the most common misunderstanding among new owners and the most expensive.
A company without revenue is not a company without duties. Filings are generally still required, records still need maintaining, and a quiet quarter still produces paperwork.
The damage accumulates rather than arriving at once. A few missed filings during a dormant period create a record that must be explained later, typically at a moment when the founder would prefer to be discussing something else - a bank application, an investor's due diligence, or a licence renewal.
Confirming what applies during a pre-trading period takes one conversation and removes the assumption that produces the problem.
The first employee
Hiring creates a second set of obligations, and arranging them before the person starts is considerably easier than afterwards.
Employment brings registration duties, contribution obligations and record-keeping that are separate from the company's tax filings. Founders who have become comfortable with the company's monthly rhythm are frequently surprised to find an additional rhythm attached to their first hire.
The practical approach is to work backwards from the intended start date. Arranging the position during the employee's first week is common and produces a poor first impression as well as a compliance gap. Arranging it in the two weeks before produces neither.
The habit that decides the year
Sending documents every month, on time, including months in which nothing happened.
Almost every expensive first-year problem traces to a period in which documents were not collected, filings slipped, and the gap subsequently had to be reconstructed from bank statements. The reconstruction costs several times what the original work would have, and it consumes the founder's attention rather than the accountant's.
Owners who find compliance inexpensive are not better informed than those who find it costly. They established a monthly habit within the first ninety days and did not allow it to lapse. That is the entire difference, and it is available to any company regardless of size or sector.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first thing to do after registering a company in Vietnam? Get your operational basics in place - banking, tax registration and the ability to issue proper invoices. Until those exist the company cannot really trade, and each of them has a lead time that people consistently underestimate.
How soon do filing obligations start? Effectively immediately. The obligation to keep records and file on a regular cycle begins with the company's existence, not with its first sale. Quiet months still require filings, and missing them early creates a record that is awkward to correct.
Do I need an accountant from day one? In practice, yes - whether in-house or outsourced. The recurring obligations begin at once, and the cost of catching up later is reliably higher than the cost of keeping up from the start.
What if I am not trading yet? You still have obligations. A dormant company is not an exempt company, and the most common early mistake is assuming that no revenue means nothing to file. Confirm what applies to you rather than waiting to find out.
What gets overlooked most often? Insurance and payroll registration when the first employee is hired. Founders focus on tax and invoicing, then take on staff and discover a second set of obligations that should have been arranged before anyone started work.
Conclusion
Banking, tax registration and invoicing come first because nothing else functions without them, and they run in sequence rather than together. Obligations attach to the company's existence rather than to its first sale, so a quiet quarter still produces filings. And the monthly document habit established within the first ninety days determines whether compliance is a small recurring cost or a periodic reconstruction exercise.
For a ninety-day plan matched to a particular company, talk to LotusGuard. This is the stage at which a small amount of structure saves the most.
