There seems to be a common misconception that changing accountants is complicated, risky and time consuming. As a firm that has dealt with many hundreds of such transfers in the past 8 years we can assure you that this is most definitely not the case. We have an experienced team dedicated to handling the switchover and they will ensure no deadlines are missed and that the transition between advisers is smooth and hassle free for you.
Once we have agreed the work we will be performing and a price then we will ask you to approve our quote, letter of engagement and T&C’s (it’s all done on-line with electronic signatures and literally takes 5 minutes including reading time). We will also need proof of ID.
We will identify the best date to begin the transition and this will often be driven by payroll deadlines (if we are taking over this function) but will sometimes be dictated by VAT submissions or year ends. Some business owners like to contact the outgoing accountants themselves to tell them they’re leaving, others prefer to leave it to us. Either way is fine but if it’s the latter we’ll ask you to sign a letter authorising them to release the information we request to us.
Our information request is very comprehensive and ensures any relevant historical knowledge or information is not lost. Qualified / regulated accountants (like ourselves) have 30 days to provide the information. Thanks to our excellent working relationship with our competitors they will usually forward it to us much sooner, particularly if it is time critical. Unqualified / unregulated accountants can be more of a challenge but we always ensure there is a plan B should it take longer than 30 days for them to provide the information.
We will keep you up to date with how we’re progressing but you really don’t need to get involved – leave it to the experts. It really is as easy as ABC:
Best of all – thanks to our outstanding customer service levels, ability to look after clients / businesses of all sizes and our ongoing work to ensure our business is future proof – we’re certain you’ll never need to go through this process again!
For more information please feel free to get in touch by calling 01482 427360 or email help@360accountants.co.uk.
