People stay with the wrong accountant for the same reason they stay with the wrong bank. Not loyalty, exactly. More a vague sense that leaving would be awkward, that files would go missing, that the old firm would be offended and the new one would judge the state of the books. So another year of slow replies and surprise invoices rolls by.
The truth is that accountants move clients between each other constantly, and the profession long ago built a standard routine for it. You do not have to manage the handover. You have to send one email.
Professional clearance is the whole mechanism
When you appoint a new accountant, they write to the old one asking for professional clearance: confirmation that there is no reason they should not take you on, plus copies of your records, recent accounts and tax computations. The outgoing firm is expected by its professional body to respond promptly and hand everything over. You tell your old accountant you are moving, thank them, and settle any outstanding fees. That last part matters, because unpaid bills are the one thing that legitimately slows a handover down.
Nobody has a dramatic conversation. Most of the time the old firm replies to the clearance letter within days and you never hear about it again.
Timing the move around your year-end
The cleanest moment to switch is just after a year's work is finished: accounts filed, tax return submitted, everything closed off. The new firm then starts a fresh year from the beginning rather than picking up someone else's half-finished workings. Moving mid-year is possible, and sometimes necessary if the relationship has genuinely failed, but expect the new firm to charge for reviewing what has been done so far.
The worst moment is the month a deadline falls due. A new accountant asked to file company accounts in three weeks from a standing start will either decline or price accordingly.
What to collect before you go
Almost everything transfers through clearance, but make sure you personally hold copies of your last filed accounts, your recent tax returns, and the login details for any bookkeeping software, because the subscription may be in the old firm's name. Ask who owns the software account before you announce the move. Migrating a bookkeeping file is routine; discovering you never had access to it is a bad week.
Finding the firm worth moving to
A switch is only worth the admin if the next firm is better, so treat choosing as the real work. Among the 3,441 accounting firms listed on this site you can compare practices near you by the services they cover, or set out what your business needs and collect quotes from firms that want the work.
One concrete test for the shortlist: ask each firm how they handle professional clearance and how long onboarding usually takes. The ones with a crisp answer have done it hundreds of times, and that is who you want.
