Best Payroll Software Vietnam 2026: MISA AMIS, Base.vn, 1Office, HRain, FastWork Compared

Running payroll in Vietnam is harder than it looks. Every month you must calculate base salary, overtime, allowances, and the 13th-month bonus, then deduct social insurance (BHXH), health insurance (BHYT), unemployment insurance (BHTN) and personal income tax (TNCN) at exactly the right rates. Get one decimal wrong and you face rejected dossiers, angry employees, or tax-office queries.

By 2026, Vietnamese payroll software has matured to the point where a small business can run a fully compliant payroll in minutes. This guide compares the leading platforms — MISA AMIS, Base.vn, 1Office, HRain (ThaiPay), FastWork, KiotViet and more — with realistic VND pricing and a practical buying checklist.

What Vietnamese Payroll Software Must Do in 2026

Before comparing vendors, understand what "good" payroll software means in Vietnam. Beyond printing payslips, the platform should:

• Auto-calculate BHXH/BHYT/BHTN: 25.5% employer-side and 10.5% employee-side contributions, capped at 20x the regional minimum wage, updated automatically when the government changes rates.
• Compute TNCN correctly: Progressive tax brackets, family deductions (giảm trừ gia cảnh), and overtime/tax-free allowance handling.
• Generate compliance exports: The monthly BHXH dossier (HS02, via VssID/eBHXH), the quarterly TNCN declaration, and the 03/TCT e-invoice salary file.
• Handle Vietnamese specifics: 13th-month pay, leave pay, Tết bonuses, regional minimum wages, and labour-contract templates in Vietnamese.
• Integrate with timekeeping: Pull in attendance, OT and leave data so salary is calculated from reality, not spreadsheets.

Quick Comparison Table

Prices are indicative starting points for 2026 and change frequently — always request a current quote and free trial.

MISA AMIS HRM — The Compliance Heavyweight

MISA is the default answer for most Vietnamese accountants, and for good reason. AMIS HRM handles the full payroll cycle: salary structure, automatic BHXH/BHYT/BHTN with rate updates, TNCN tax tables, and direct export of the monthly eBHXH dossier and tax e-files. If you already use MISA SME or MISA e-invoice, salary journal entries flow into accounting automatically.

The trade-off: it is one of the pricier options, and the feature-rich interface can feel heavy if you only need simple payroll for ten staff.

Base.vn — Best All-Round HR Platform

Base.vn has become the favourite of modern Vietnamese companies because it treats payroll as part of a wider HR system: recruitment, onboarding, timekeeping, leave, performance and salary all live in one clean interface. Payroll rules are visual and easy to configure, and the API suite helps you connect to existing tools.

It suits teams of roughly 20–500 employees. Micro-businesses may find the per-head pricing and feature depth more than they need.

1Office — HR and Accounting in One

1Office bundles HRM with accounting, CRM and e-invoice modules. For a small company that does not want to stitch separate systems together, that single-vendor approach is a real advantage: salary posts to the ledger automatically, and payslips, BHXH dossiers and TNCN declarations come from the same data set. Annual packages are competitively priced and the mobile app is solid.

HRain (ThaiPay) — Strong for Shift Work

HRain, marketed as ThaiPay, is a favourite in manufacturing, logistics and hospitality where overtime and shift allowances dominate payroll. It handles complex OT formulas, multi-shift calendars and bulk CSV imports from fingerprint or face-recognition clocks. Per-employee pricing keeps it affordable at scale, though the interface feels more utilitarian than Base.vn or MISA.

FastWork — The Budget Option

FastWork targets startups that need a simple salary run without enterprise complexity. Setup takes minutes, payslips are generated by email, and the basic BHXH/TNCN engine covers standard monthly scenarios. A free tier and a low annual price make it the least risky first step for a new company, but you will outgrow it once your compensation structure gets complex.

KiotViet & Sapo Payroll — Built for Retail

If you run shops, cafés or e-commerce stores, payroll integrated with your POS saves a lot of copying and pasting. KiotViet Payroll and Sapo HRM pull sales, attendance and commission data directly from their parent platforms, so bonus and commission calculations are based on real store performance. These are add-on modules, so you need the core POS subscription first — but for retailers that is usually already in place.

BHXH / TNCN Compliance Checklist

Whichever tool you choose, verify it against this checklist before paying:

1. Does it auto-update social insurance rates and regional minimum wages?
2. Can it export the monthly HS02 BHXH dossier for submission?
3. Does it generate the TNCN declaration and 03/TCT e-invoice salary file?
4. Are progressive PIT brackets and family deductions built in?
5. Can it handle 13th-month pay, Tết bonuses and unpaid leave?
6. Does it produce payslips in both Vietnamese and English (if you have expat staff)?
7. Is data hosted securely in Vietnam or with a compliant cloud provider?

How to Choose — Decision Guide

• Fewer than 20 staff, simple salaries: FastWork or 1Office — cheapest and fastest to deploy.
• 20–200 staff, growing fast: Base.vn or MISA AMIS — best balance of features, compliance and support.
• Factories, warehouses, shift workers: HRain (ThaiPay) — unmatched OT and shift handling.
• Retail or e-commerce chains: KiotViet Payroll or Sapo HRM — native POS integration.
• Need accounting anyway: MISA AMIS or 1Office — payroll and books in one system.

Always run a real parallel test: take last month's salary data, process it in the trial version, and compare every number with what your accountant produced. That 30-minute check is worth more than any brochure.

Choosing by Headcount

The decision guide above is about features; this one is about size. What you actually need from payroll software changes at roughly three headcount thresholds, and so does the price you should expect to pay per employee.

Two habits are worth keeping at every size: run the parallel test on last month's real salary data before you commit, and export the monthly records to storage you own so the history survives a subscription change.

Choose by need: which payroll setup fits

The table above lists starting prices; this is the short version once you know your own situation.

• Under ten staff, budget first. FastWork's free plan, or its package from ~1.9M/year, is usually enough for simple payslips and basic BHXH support.
• Shift-based or manufacturing workforce. Overtime and shift rules matter more than price here: HRain (ThaiPay) from ~25,000/employee/month is built for that.
• You already run KiotViet POS or Sapo. Take the native add-on - KiotViet Payroll from ~300,000/month, Sapo HRM from ~200,000/month - so sales, attendance and payroll read the same data instead of being reconciled by hand.
• Compliance is the main risk, or payroll must flow into accounting. MISA AMIS HRM at ~30,000/employee/month is the safest default for BHXH/TNCN filing, especially if you already issue invoices through MISA.
• Enterprise rules that no standard package covers. VnResource HRM, from ~10,000/employee/month, is the option to shortlist when you need configuration or an on-premise deployment rather than a fixed product.

Payroll Software or a Payroll Service? What Vietnamese Employers Actually Choose

There are only two ways to get monthly payroll done in Vietnam: your own team runs software in-house, or you hand the calculation and the filings to an accounting or HR service. Many employers start with the second and end up with a hybrid, so it is worth knowing exactly which parts you are paying for before you sign anything.

When running the software yourself is the better buy

• Headcount is stable and mostly salaried. If almost everyone is on a fixed monthly salary with the same allowances, a tool such as MISA AMIS HRM, Base.vn or 1Office reproduces the calculation every month with very little input.
• You already issue e-invoices or keep the books in software. Payroll data that flows straight into your accounting module removes a whole re-typing step — see the accounting tools roundup and the e-invoice software guide.
• Managers need the data between payroll runs. Attendance, leave balances and salary history are asked for weekly, not once a month.

When a payroll service earns its fee

• Shift work, tips or several locations. When the input data is messy, the bottleneck is collecting and checking it, not calculating it.
• Nobody in the company owns the compliance calendar. The BHXH declaration and the PIT finalisation deadlines do not move; a service that owns the calendar is cheaper than one missed filing.
• Headcount swings a lot. Service fees scale with the employees you actually have, so a seasonal business does not pay for seats it is not using.

The hybrid most Vietnamese SMEs end up with

In practice the split is simple: keep the software for the parts you need every week — attendance, leave, gross-to-net, payslips — and let your accountant or a service handle the submission side, the annual PIT finalisation and any enterprise-specific rule a standard package does not cover. The payroll history stays in an account you control, and you pay a provider for judgement instead of for data entry.

What to check before you sign

• Ask for one real payroll run, not a demo. Send a sample of your actual timesheet and let them produce the payslips and the BHXH figures, then compare every number with what your accountant produced. That shortlist comparison is the fastest way to see which package survives your own data.
• Confirm the exit path in writing. Export format, who keeps the records, and how long after you stop paying you can still retrieve the history.
• Price the whole setup, not the licence. Setup fees, the e-invoice connection, extra modules and the accounting side usually cost more than the per-employee plan quoted on the website.
• Check the compliance pieces you will actually file. The BHXH dossier (HS02), the PIT declaration (03/TCT) and the annual finalisation should come out of the tool, not be retyped by hand.
• Decide who owns the backup. Payslip files, submission confirmations and signed contracts belong somewhere you control and can restore — the same discipline as the backup planning guide.

Payroll Record-Keeping: What to Export Every Month

The comparison table above helps you pick the tool, but the tool only holds the live data inside its subscription account. Wage records are among the documents an employer is expected to keep for years: BHXH contribution history, TNCN finalisation papers, and payslips an employee can still ask about long after they have left. The monthly routine that keeps that history safe has four parts, and every payroll platform in this guide can produce all four.

• Monthly payslips, including the 13th-month bonus run. Export the signed payslips for every employee each cycle, not just the months someone disputes. The 13th-month bonus handling differs between tools, so keep that run filed with the same month it was paid.
• Submission confirmations. The monthly BHXH dossier (HS02) and the PIT declaration (03/TCT) each return a confirmation when filed. Save those confirmations next to the exports, because the filing is what an inspector asks for, not the calculation.
• The parallel-test file from your Excel migration. When you moved payroll from Excel to the new tool, you ran last month's real salary data through both and compared every line. Keep that comparison file: it is the proof your opening balances were correct.
• A copy in storage you own. Monthly exports, submission confirmations and signed payslips should also live outside the subscription, synced alongside the payroll tool rather than replacing it. Pair this habit with the wider expense tracking setup and the document management routine so payroll, receipts and filings share one archive.

Common Mistakes Vietnamese Employers Make With Payroll Software

• Keeping payroll in Excel one month too long. Social insurance rates, regional minimum wages and PIT brackets move, and a spreadsheet never warns you. Every tool in the comparison table above updates these automatically — that alone is worth the subscription.
• Buying before the parallel test. Process last month's real salary data in the trial and compare every line with your accountant's file. If a single number differs, the tool is not ready for your payroll.
• Choosing on the per-employee price alone. Per-head pricing hides what you actually pay: add-ons, implementation and the modules you will need next year. Compare the annual figure, not the headline rate.
• Assuming every suite files Vietnamese paperwork. Ask specifically about the monthly HS02 BHXH dossier, the TNCN declaration and the salary e-invoice file before signing — a tool that only produces payslips leaves the filing to you.
• Ignoring shift and overtime rules. Factories, warehouses and retail teams live on overtime and shift allowances; a system that cannot model them will be corrected by hand every month.
• Leaving the records only inside the subscription. Monthly exports, submission confirmations and signed payslips should also live in storage you own, so the history stays readable if a subscription lapses.

For the attendance half of the same problem, see our guide to time tracking software and the wider HR software roundup.

Payroll Audit Before Year-End: What to Recheck While Records Are Still Fixable

Most payroll mistakes surface at year-end finalisation, when the TNCN papers are already due and every correction costs extra filings. A short audit earlier in the year catches the same errors while the monthly dossiers can still be amended normally. The checklist below uses nothing beyond the data the payroll tool already holds plus the exports described in the record-keeping section above.

Start with the employee master data: join dates, leave dates, salary components and insurance rates for each person still on the roster. Then reconcile the monthly BHXH dossier (HS02) against the PIT declaration (03/TCT) for the same period — the two filings must tell the same story about headcount and taxable income, and any gap between them is the error to fix first. Finish by confirming the 13th-month bonus run, where it exists, was posted to the same salary components as the regular months rather than as a one-off outside the system.

Two companion tools make the audit itself lighter. Signed payslips and bonus confirmations are easier to archive when signing happens inside a dedicated tool — see our e-signature software guide — and contractor payments that sit outside payroll stay reconcilable when invoicing is standardised, as covered in our free invoicing software comparison. Neither replaces the payroll software; both keep the evidence around it readable when an inspector asks for the history behind a single line.

Payroll Handover When Staff Leave Mid-Month: What to Recheck Before Final Pay

Final pay for someone who leaves mid-month is where small payroll errors hide, because one run mixes regular salary days with unused leave and one-off adjustments. Start with the leave date on the roster and confirm it matches the last working day in the timekeeping record — a single day of drift changes both the salary portion and the insurance position for that month. Then settle the unused annual leave balance using the same salary components as the regular months, so the final payslip reads as one consistent story rather than a regular run plus a stranger stapled to it.

Close the loop on the compliance side before locking the run. Confirm whether the monthly BHXH dossier still covers that employee or must be reduced for the leaving month, and check that the PIT declaration for the same period reflects the final taxable income including the leave payout. Keep the bank transfer list beside the signed final payslip so the money trail matches the papers. Two companion guides help on the edges: our bookkeeping software comparison shows how the final entries land in the accounts, and our cloud storage guide covers keeping the signed archive readable years later.

Payroll Access Control: Who Can See Salary Data and Who Can Change It

Payroll software gets the arithmetic right, but the arithmetic is only half of payroll safety. The other half is access: who can open the salary table, who can edit a bank account number, and who approves the run before money moves. In a small team the owner often holds every permission at once, which works until the month the owner is travelling and someone else must run payroll with an all-powerful shared login. Set up three separate roles from the start: one person prepares the run, a different person reviews it, and only the reviewer can lock it. Most tools reviewed above support role-based permissions, so this costs nothing extra beyond an afternoon of setup.

Two habits close the remaining gaps. First, protect the logins themselves: payroll admin accounts deserve unique credentials kept in a proper vault rather than a shared spreadsheet, as covered in our password manager guide. Second, treat the monthly export as evidence, not clutter: keep each locked run with its payslips and contribution dossiers in a versioned archive, following the same routine in our small business backup strategy. Either habit alone halves the damage when something goes wrong; together they turn payroll from a monthly gamble into a repeatable routine.

Payroll Payslip Disputes: What to Show When an Employee Questions One Line

Almost every payroll dispute starts with one line on one payslip: an overtime hour that looks short, a leave day counted differently, or an insurance figure that does not match the month before. Settle it with the same three papers every time: the signed timekeeping record for that month, the leave balance as it stood on the last working day of the period, and the locked payroll run showing the salary components used. When all three agree, most disputes end in one sitting; when they disagree, the gap between them names the error to fix.

Keep the tone factual and keep the archive beside you. Open the monthly BHXH dossier and the PIT declaration for the same period so the employee sees the filed figures match the payslip, then note the correction in the next run rather than editing the locked one. Two companion guides cover the tools around this routine: our VPS hosting comparison explains where self-hosted payroll archives stay readable for years, and our backup software guide shows how to keep every locked run restorable when a dispute surfaces months later.

Payroll Trial Run: What to Test on Last Month’s Real Data Before Paying

Run the trial on last month’s real data, not the demo dataset the vendor ships with the account. Import the same headcount, the same shift pattern and the same allowances you already paid, then compare the trial output line by line against the locked run you filed. When the BHXH figures, the TNCN figures and the net pay all match, the setup is trustworthy; when they differ, the gap tells you which rule was configured wrong before any real salary depends on it.

Test the three moments that cause most support tickets later: a mid-month joiner, a leave day that spans two pay periods, and an overtime hour entered after the draft run was already generated. Then check the two companion routines around payroll itself: our free CRM comparison shows where employee records stay consistent when headcount changes, and our cloud versus dedicated hosting guide explains where self-hosted payroll archives stay readable for years.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

Vietnamese payroll is not optional complexity — it is the law, and the fines and employee frustration from getting it wrong are expensive. In 2026, there is no excuse to keep calculating BHXH and TNCN in Excel. MISA AMIS and Base.vn lead for compliance and scale, 1Office and HRain offer excellent value, and FastWork, KiotViet and Sapo cover the budget and retail niches. Pick the tool that fits your headcount and industry, run a trial on last month's real data, and let the software do the arithmetic while you focus on your business.

One thing the comparison above cannot price is what happens to payroll records after the current period closes. Wage records are among the documents an employer is expected to keep for years — BHXH contribution history, TNCN finalisation papers and the payslips an employee can still ask about long after they have left. The payroll tool keeps the live data inside its subscription account, while the monthly exports, submission confirmations and signed payslips usually end up as files in one laptop's Downloads folder. A copy kept in storage you own, synced alongside the payroll tool rather than replacing it, is what keeps that history readable when a subscription lapses or a drive dies. pCloud is one option to compare: it sells lifetime storage alongside subscription plans and keeps several previous versions of each file, so an overwritten export can still be rolled back. Two things to check before paying: whether the plan is genuinely a one-time purchase or renews at a higher price, and whether the capacity still fits several years of payroll records and attachments.

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