Can I change accountants in the middle of my financial year?
Yes, and we do it. But in most cases we will advise you to wait for the start of the next financial year — it costs less and it is cleaner.
What gets in the way
Taking over a financial year already under way means retrieving the entries already posted, checking them, and connecting your books to a position we did not produce ourselves. That work is real, and it is billed.
It does not depend on your volume but on the state of the file. A financial year kept properly is quick to take over. A rough one has to be put right before it can be carried on.
If you are liable for VAT, the date is not yours to choose
A VAT return covers a whole period. You cannot produce half of one, nor divide it between two accounting firms.
So taking over a file lines up with the end of a period: the end of a quarter under the effective method, the end of a half-year under the net tax rate method, or the end of the period granted to you if you report on another cycle. If you are not liable for VAT, the natural cut-off is the end of the financial year.
That narrows the choice of date, and it is one more reason to wait for the next deadline rather than take over mid-period.
When taking over mid-year is justified
When your current accounting firm has stopped following the file, when deadlines are coming up with nobody holding them, or when the financial year is already behind — waiting then only adds to what will have to be caught up.
In that case we take the file over, with additional fees that we tell you about before we start.
Your financial year is under way and you want to change?
Describe your situation and we will tell you what it involves and what it costs.
Get in touch