Changing accountants: when, how and which documents to request

You’ve been thinking about it for a while. Your accountant is slow to reply, the bill goes up a little every year, or you honestly have no idea how your sole proprietorship is doing until they get back to you in the spring. Still, you keep putting it off, because switching feels like something that will bother you for months.

It’s not that bad, as long as you know what to expect and in which order to tackle it. Below, you’ll read which options you have, how to prepare your switch, what your engagement letter says, which documents you can request and what to do with your tax mandates.

First things first: you’re not obliged to do anything

As a sole proprietor, you’re not legally required to have an accountant. You do have to keep correct accounts and file your returns on time, but who does that work is entirely up to you.

That doesn’t mean your accountant is unnecessary. For many self-employed people, the middle ground works best, with accounting software in which your accountant simply keeps an eye on things.

What takes its place?

Leaving your accountant doesn’t automatically mean looking for another firm. You have three options, and in two of them you do the work in accounting software.

Yourself, with accounting software

For many sole proprietorships this is perfectly doable, especially if your business is straightforward. You create your invoices, scan your receipts, file your VAT return and prepare your tax return, all on the same platform. You keep costs low and you see every day where you stand, instead of once a year.

With accounting software, and your accountant keeps an eye on things

This is where most people end up. You handle the day-to-day admin, while your accountant keeps access, checks everything and gives advice where it matters. You work on the same platform, so nobody is waiting for an email with an attachment anymore.

You then only pay for the work where your accountant really makes a difference, and you keep your own overview of what comes in and what still needs to be done.

Another firm

You hand everything over again. That’s the least effort, but you keep the same two drawbacks as before: you pay full price and you only know where you stand when someone else gets back to you.

Whichever option you choose, it doesn’t change what you need to request. The list is the same in all three cases.

When is the best time to switch?

You don’t have to wait until 1 January. You can switch any time of the year, because you simply agree on a handover date and everything before that date stays with your previous accountant.

What does make the difference is preparation. Request your documents before you give notice, check which mandates are active and decide in advance how you want to continue, because then the switch itself takes days instead of months.

Keep the busy periods in mind too. As a quarterly filer, your VAT deadlines fall around 25 January, April, July and October, and in spring and summer every firm is in the middle of personal income tax season. So ideally, plan your handover date just after one of those deadlines, so the current quarter is neatly closed. Always check the exact dates in the VAT calendar of the FPS Finance.

First, check what your engagement letter says

There should be a written engagement letter between you and your accountant. For certified professionals it’s mandatory, and it sets out the mutual obligations, the agreed fees and the applicable deadlines.

Two things matter for your switch: the notice period and whether there’s a termination fee. Three months is a common notice period, but it differs from firm to firm, so check it before you fix a handover date.

Always give notice in writing, with a clear end date, and request your documents in that same email. That way everything goes through one channel and there’s no discussion later about what you asked for and when.

Your documents are yours, even if an invoice is still unpaid

This is what people doubt most often, and the answer is clear: your accountant may not hold back your documents because a fee is still outstanding.

The ITAA, the professional body for accountants and tax advisers, calls this the prohibition on retention. A professional must make all of their client’s books and records available without delay, regardless of whether fees have been paid, and anyone who doesn’t commits a disciplinary offence.

Do keep in mind the difference between your documents and their work. Your invoices, bank statements, journals and accounts belong to you, while the internal working papers they used to reach that result don’t always. In practice, though, those are often handed over anyway when a file moves between firms, out of professional courtesy.

If an invoice is still outstanding, simply pay it. That discussion is separate from your right to your own documents, and you gain nothing by linking the two.

Request these documents

The more complete your file, the less you’ll have to reconstruct afterwards, whether you continue on your own or with another firm. This is the list to put in your notice email:

• Your personal income tax returns from recent years, with the annex on your profits or earnings
• Your VAT returns for this year and last year, and the annual client listing if you’re VAT-registered
• Your journals: the purchase journal, the sales journal, the financial journal and the inventory book
• The depreciation table of your investments, with the purchase date, purchase value, depreciation period and amount already depreciated for each investment
• The overview of outstanding customer and supplier invoices on the handover date
• Your latest stock inventory, if you work with stock
• Je aankoop- en verkoopfacturen zelf, digitaal of op papier
• Your tax assessments and your correspondence with the tax authorities

Request everything digitally too, in a format you can open without your previous firm’s software. A PDF or an Excel file always works, while an export from a package you don’t have is useless.

Don’t forget your tax mandates

Your accountant probably has a mandate to file returns on your behalf. That runs through the FPS Finance’s Mandates application, for Tax-on-web, Intervat and MyMinfin among others.

There can only be one active mandate holder per mandate type at a time, so the old mandate has to be ended before you can appoint a new one. Include that in your agreements about the end date, or nobody will be able to file your return just when a deadline is coming up.

If you’re doing your VAT return yourself from now on, you don’t need a mandate holder at all. You simply log in to Intervat with your eID or itsme.

How to get started in Dexxter

Once you have your documents, the rest is mostly filling things in. In Switching to Dexxter: how to proceed? we go through your expenses, your income and your depreciation step by step.

What exactly you need to transfer depends on your VAT status. Choose the article that fits your situation:

• VAT-registered and switching to Dexxter
• VAT-exempt (small business) and switching to Dexxter
• Not VAT-registered (art. 44) and switching to Dexxter
• Partially VAT-registered (art. 44 and art. 56) and switching to Dexxter

An annual subscription costs 220 euros excl. VAT if you’re not VAT-registered or VAT-exempt, and 290 euros excl. VAT if you are VAT-registered. If you’d rather pay monthly, that’s 23 euros or 30 euros excl. VAT.

In conclusion

Changing accountants isn’t a break-up, it’s just a file that moves, and you don’t have to wait until January. Check your notice period, give notice in writing with a date, request your documents and your depreciation table, and sort out your mandates before the next deadline comes around.

Not sure yet whether you want to do everything yourself or would rather take the middle ground? You don’t have to decide today. Try Dexxter free for 30 days, no credit card needed, and see how far you get on your own. 27.000+ self-employed people went before you.