Bac Ninh: Innovating cooperative management practices.

BAC NINH - For new-style cooperatives, accounting is a crucial tool that helps the Board of Directors understand the financial situation, make investment decisions, and provide more accurate direction. Therefore, the Bac Ninh Provincial Cooperative Union's support for management, accounting, and auditing activities for several cooperatives helps many units improve their processes and enhance efficiency to better distribute profits to members and employees.

Digitizing production logs

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung, Vice President of the Provincial Cooperative Union, the Project to Support the Improvement of Management Capacity and the Effectiveness of Accounting and Auditing Activities in Cooperatives in the Province for the period 2022-2025 and with a vision to 2030 was issued with the aim of enhancing the management capacity of cooperatives to be equivalent to the business model, and ensuring that accounting and auditing staff regularly update their knowledge of accounting regulations and adapt to the digital transformation process.

The Hong Xuan Agricultural Production and Service Cooperative (Chu Ward) is receiving support to attract young workers.

In that spirit, the Provincial Cooperative Union has implemented a series of contents and tasks of the Project to support cooperatives. From 2023 to the present, 40 cooperatives have accessed part or all of the Project's support programs. To enhance the knowledge and awareness of its staff, the Provincial Cooperative Union has organized 7 training courses introducing solutions for applying information technology and digital transformation in management; guiding skills in developing production and business plans; negotiating market expansion, and signing economic contracts… It has also issued 600 sets of handbooks guiding accounting work and building internal control report templates; and introduced regulations on independent auditing and state auditing of cooperatives.

The Cooperative Union collaborated in developing the software (App) and granting accounts to cooperatives, granting access rights to members. Through digitization and database creation, cooperative management and operation can be carried out anytime, anywhere on smart devices. As a unit with a large production area and a wide variety of products, since adopting this software, the Management Board of Yen Dung Clean Vegetable Cooperative (Canh Thuy Ward) can monitor production at facilities inside and outside the province, along with hundreds of workers, with just a few clicks. Ms. Tran Thi Thu Trang, Deputy Director of the Cooperative, shared: "The production log software introduced by the Provincial Cooperative Union helps us easily look up production history instead of manually recording it as before. Based on that platform, we created QR codes so consumers can easily access information about which batch a product belongs to, the date, and the care process, etc. Thanks to this, the Cooperative has promoted high-end product lines such as baby cucumbers, cantaloupes, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, etc., and expanded the growing area to 50 hectares, linking with production households in Xin Man commune ( Tuyen Quang ). By effectively controlling quality and enhancing the brand of clean vegetables from Yen Dung, we have brought our products to distributors with strict standards such as Winmart, Coop mart, GO chains… achieving a production volume of nearly 300 tons/month, revenue of 40 billion VND/year, creating jobs for 60 local workers, enriching our members, and bringing benefits to the community."

Transparency in financial management

Following the transformation under the 2012 Cooperative Law, most cooperatives had very few professional accounting, treasury, and warehousing staff. On average, each cooperative only had 1.5 employees in these roles, aged between 35 and 40. Accounting and auditing work was not adequately invested in, leading to many cooperatives failing to comply with regulations. After reviewing the urgent needs of the units, the Provincial Cooperative Union supported 30 cooperatives with funding to purchase accounting software licenses and digital signature equipment for 3 years (291.4 million VND); supported the hiring of consultants for regular accounting tasks; attracted young, qualified workers to work in the cooperatives; and piloted support for independent auditing... As a result, 100% of the cooperatives participating in the project complied with regulations on the establishment of mandatory funds when distributing income. Prepare complete accounting reports and tax reports in accordance with current laws and regulations…

Mr. Nguyen Van Loc, Director of Phu Thinh Agricultural Cooperative (Tan Tien Ward), said: "Aware of the cooperative's responsibility to comply with legal regulations on accounting and taxation, we faced many difficulties due to the manual and fragmented system of documents and records, and the low level of IT application skills among accounting staff. Financial analysis was limited to recording and reporting. Thanks to financial support and advice from the Provincial Cooperative Union, the cooperative has issued a set of internal regulations on revenue and expenditure, asset management, and periodic inventory… helping to increase transparency in all activities. At the same time, we have applied Misa accounting software, which helps to prepare financial reports accurately and reduces the time by up to 40% compared to before, making it easier to track debts of members and customers. Now, we are quite confident in carrying out procedures and obligations related to finance."

Mr. Pham Van Dung, Director of Hong Xuan Agricultural Production and Service Cooperative (Chu Ward), said: "Since 2022, when the tax authorities promoted the use of electronic invoices, we were very worried because most members of the Management Board lacked expertise in this new method of using invoices. We received support in recruiting two young employees, including accounting professionals, for a period of three years. Thanks to them, the difficulties in accounting work have been overcome."

Building on the achievements, in the coming period, the Provincial Cooperative Union will continue to advise and submit to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee a plan to support the improvement of management capacity and the efficiency of accounting and auditing activities in cooperatives in the province for the period 2027-2030. It will coordinate with other units and organizations to update new regulations and procedures for staff directly involved in accounting work, and install additional cooperative accounting software for units using it. It will also guide units in implementing the use of electronic invoices according to the roadmap for applying technology in invoice and tax management.

Article and photos: Huyen Thuong

Source: https://baobacninhtv.vn/bac-ninh-doi-moi-cong-tac-quan-tri-hop-tac-xa-postid432899.bbg