Switching accountants: what actually happens, step by step

Most founders put up with an accountant they have outgrown for years longer than they should. Not because they are happy, but because switching feels like it will be messy, mid-year, and awkward. It is none of those things. Here is exactly what happens, in order, and what you have to do yourself (very little).

How to know it is time

You do not need a disaster to justify moving. Any of these is enough:

• You only hear from your accountant when a lodgement is due or an invoice is sent.
• Your tax bill is a surprise every year, and nobody talked to you about it before 30 June.
• Questions get answered in weeks, or are billed by the six-minute unit so you stop asking.
• The business has grown (a second entity, staff, a second site, a sale on the horizon) and the advice has not grown with it.
• You have never been told whether your structure still suits you.

What switching actually involves

Four steps. We do three of them.

1. You say yes. After the discovery call we send a proposal with the scope and the fee for the year. You sign it electronically.
2. We write to your old accountant. This is called an ethical clearance letter. It is a standard courtesy between firms: we tell them we are taking over and ask whether there is any professional reason we should not. You do not need to have the conversation yourself, though a short email from you telling them you are moving is good manners and speeds things up.
3. We collect the file. Prior year financial statements, tax returns, depreciation schedules, trust deeds, company registers, loan agreements and the Xero (or MYOB, or QuickBooks) subscription. The old firm is obliged to hand over your records; they can withhold their own working papers, which we rarely need.
4. We take over the ATO and ASIC links. We add your entities to our tax agent and ASIC agent lists. From that point ATO correspondence comes to us, and the old firm’s access ends.

Elapsed time is usually two to three weeks, most of it waiting on the old firm. Your work does not stop in the meantime.

Mid-year is fine

There is no bad time to switch. If the old firm has lodged last year’s return, we pick up from 1 July with a clean start. If they have not, we either let them finish it (simplest) or take it over (if you have lost confidence). BAS in progress is a non-event: we lodge the next one.

The only timing worth thinking about is tax planning. If it is April or May, move now so the 30 June planning is done by the new firm, not missed by both.

What you owe the old accountant

Any invoices for work already done. You do not owe them for work they have not started, and you do not need their permission to leave. If you are on an annual agreement, check the notice period; most are 30 days, some have none. We can read it for you.

If they are holding your Xero subscription, ask them to transfer the subscription to you or to us. They cannot hold your data hostage, but a polite request gets it done faster than a dispute.

What changes in the first 90 days with us

• Week one: onboarding call with your designated team. We map every entity, every lodgement date and every open issue.
• Weeks two to four: file collected, ATO and ASIC linked, Xero reviewed. If the bookkeeping is behind, we tell you what it will take to catch up and quote it before we start.
• Month two: structure and tax review. Where the tax is leaking, what the group should look like, what to fix before 30 June.
• Month three: you are on the normal cadence: monthly or quarterly numbers, planning before year end, and a team that knows the business.

Questions to ask any firm before you move

• Who will actually do my work, and will I meet them?
• What does the fee include, and what is billed separately?
• When in the year do you plan tax, and what does that look like?
• How many clients like mine do you have?
• What happens if I want to leave you?

Our answers are on the pricing page and the team page. The rest you get on the call.