Switching Accountants

[StevieBee]

I'm going to be switching Accountants once the next VAT return goes in. Neither is aware of this fact yet.

The new Accountants have included, within their offer, to liaise with my current Accountant on the transfer of everything. This will include migrating from Quick Books to Xero.

I would like to think that such is the professionalism of the sector, this will all be seamless but never having done this before, would be grateful for any pointers to watch for.

Thanks.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

What are your reasons for moving?

I would imagine you'll have to migrate yourself from QB to Xero.

[Eric Mc]

Switching accountants is something all accounting poractices have to deal with from time to time and there are standard protocols that should be adhered to.

1 New accountant writes to old accountant asking if there are any professional or any other reasons why they cannot accept the appointment.

2. The new accountant also asks for all relevant financial data necessary for the handover i.e.

a copy of the last set of accounts
a copy of the closing trial balance
schedules and summaries related to the last set of accounts prepared
copy of the last tax return completed
details of any tax computations, Capital Allowances and other allowances claims made related to the last submisions made to HMRC

The old accountant should provide this information as soon as possible and WITHOUT RAISING ANY ADDITIONAL CHARGES.

If you owe any fees to the old accountant or there is a fee in dispute, the old accountant must still provide the requested information to the new accountant but they are allowed hold on to any original records that they may have belonging to the client. This is known as a "lien"

If the new accountant is also taking over the personal tax affairs of the client, they will ask for similar information related to the personal tax returns. .

[StevieBee]

Thanks Eric. Much appreciated.

Jordie Barretts sock said:

What are your reasons for moving?

Culmination of things. Unannounced invoices for additional work required, late filing, the latest of which resulted in a notice to strike-off on my Companies House listing and others.

I accept that ultimately I'm responsible for these things but equally, I don't think it unreasonable to expect that I shouldn't have to worry too much and assume that things are being done as they should.

The outgoing Accountant is a one-man-band which is fine but I feel that I've sort of out-grown their capacity. She doesn't charge much (£90 a month including the QB subscription) which is part of the problem I think. I went out to several other practices and all were coming back with monthly fees around double what I'm paying at the moment but the package of services and crucially; commitments they are making outweigh those I'm receiving at the moment.

[Eric Mc]

I wouldn't be surprised if the "Striking Off" procedure commenced because of a failure to submit the annual "Confirmation Statement". One of the issues with this is that Companies House has stopped sending out the usual reminder letter in advance of the due filing date. It is now up to the directors (officially) or their accountant to monitor the upcoming filing deadline for this document.

If the date is initially missed, Companies House will send out a reminder letter and if it is acted on promptly, there is no further action taken by Companies House. There is now monetary penalty for filing a late Confirmation Statement.

I expect Companies House send out as many overdue notices for these things as they used to send the old fashioned reminders - so I expect they have hardly saved anything in postal costs - which was why they stopped sending the reminders in the first place.

[jeremyc]

Eric Mc said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the "Striking Off" procedure commenced because of a failure to submit the annual "Confirmation Statement". One of the issues with this is that Companies House has stopped sending out the usual reminder letter in advance of the due filing date. It is now up to the directors (officially) or their accountant to monitor the upcoming filing deadline for this document.

If the date is initially missed, Companies House will send out a reminder letter and if it is acted on promptly, there is no further action taken by Companies House. There is now monetary penalty for filing a late Confirmation Statement.

I expect Companies House send out as many overdue notices for these things as they used to send the old fashioned reminders - so I expect they have hardly saved anything in postal costs - which was why they stopped sending the reminders in the first place.

If they dragged themselves into the 21st century and demanded an email address for at least one of the Directors or Secretary of each company then they could simply send email reminders and overdue notices, saving postal costs ...

[Eric Mc]

Government departments don't like e-mails because of their relative lack of security and there are very strict legal protocols surrounding paper documents which they feel much more comfortable with.

[22s]

StevieBee said:

I'm going to be switching Accountants once the next VAT return goes in. Neither is aware of this fact yet.

The new Accountants have included, within their offer, to liaise with my current Accountant on the transfer of everything. This will include migrating from Quick Books to Xero.

I would like to think that such is the professionalism of the sector, this will all be seamless but never having done this before, would be grateful for any pointers to watch for.

Thanks.

Currently doing the same.

Some of the software we will be using with our new accountant (ecomm related) cannot be activated until the QuickBooks migration to Xero is complete. That migration cannot be started until QuickBooks is fully up-to-date which it's not, because our existing accoutants are slow and rubbish. They also for reasons known only to them deactivated the QBO subscription before the end of our final month, meaning we couldn't even complete the book keeping.

So basically - make sure your current accountant keeps QBO active until your Xero migration is complete.

I would also recommend not switching VAT responsibilities until the migration is complete. We switched straight away and this is causing us some issues now as our next VAT bill is due in April. Since the new accountants haven't got everything set up yet, but are now our appointed VAT agen, not sure where that leaves us but we'll work it

In spite of their incompetence, our existing accountant has actually been pretty helpful/amenable to the migration (probably glad to see the back of me). Our new accountant provided us with an email template we could use to request 'professional clearance' from our existing accountant.

[StevieBee]

Eric Mc said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the "Striking Off" procedure commenced because of a failure to submit the annual "Confirmation Statement". One of the issues with this is that Companies House has stopped sending out the usual reminder letter in advance of the due filing date. It is now up to the directors (officially) or their accountant to monitor the upcoming filing deadline for this document.

If the date is initially missed, Companies House will send out a reminder letter and if it is acted on promptly, there is no further action taken by Companies House. There is now monetary penalty for filing a late Confirmation Statement.

Yep. That's exactly what happened.

As you say, it's ultimately down to me to check but equally, if I'm paying someone to do this, I should have to do so that often.

The issue I have is that almost all of my clients are public sector including some major international institutions who actively check my compliance when we bid for work. Having such notices issued and public is a red-flag that has the potential to loose us a tender where the scoring is marginal - as they often are.

22s said:

StevieBee said:

I'm going to be switching Accountants once the next VAT return goes in. Neither is aware of this fact yet.

The new Accountants have included, within their offer, to liaise with my current Accountant on the transfer of everything. This will include migrating from Quick Books to Xero.

I would like to think that such is the professionalism of the sector, this will all be seamless but never having done this before, would be grateful for any pointers to watch for.

Thanks.

Currently doing the same.

Some of the software we will be using with our new accountant (ecomm related) cannot be activated until the QuickBooks migration to Xero is complete. That migration cannot be started until QuickBooks is fully up-to-date which it's not, because our existing accoutants are slow and rubbish. They also for reasons known only to them deactivated the QBO subscription before the end of our final month, meaning we couldn't even complete the book keeping.

So basically - make sure your current accountant keeps QBO active until your Xero migration is complete.

I would also recommend not switching VAT responsibilities until the migration is complete. We switched straight away and this is causing us some issues now as our next VAT bill is due in April. Since the new accountants haven't got everything set up yet, but are now our appointed VAT agen, not sure where that leaves us but we'll work it

In spite of their incompetence, our existing accountant has actually been pretty helpful/amenable to the migration (probably glad to see the back of me). Our new accountant provided us with an email template we could use to request 'professional clearance' from our existing accountant.

Cheers for that. Good advice and good luck with the switch.

[Saleen836]

Timely thread and good info from Eric as i am also changing accountant shortly

[s2kjock]

Do you actually want to change from QB to Xero? Just because you are moving from one accountant to another you shouldn't have to.

If your new adviser can't deal with both systems I would be concerned - they are very similar in practice. The firm I work for operates both, although they seem to favour Xero.

[StevieBee]

s2kjock said:

Do you actually want to change from QB to Xero?

I'd like to, yes. And the new accountant does indeed support both, and others.