Hello everyone!
There are only a couple real reasons that an accountant receives a new client:
- They opened their business and need a bookkeeper
- They realized the benefit of someone else doing the books
- Their bookkeeper is retiring soon
- They do not have any books
- They found out they currently have a bad bookkeeper
The one I want to focus on is the last one, when they are changing from one company to another. It is bound to happen to us all, I am certain we have not been the best fit for all our clients, but I am interested to know what other accountants do when they are taking over a company file from another local bookkeeper?
As a growing firm in a smaller beach community, we have good relationships with a lot of our fellow accountants and bookkeepers and we want to keep it that way, so what is the best way to request the clients old existing data without offending?
Has anyone created a checklist of information to request such as company file and prior tax return data, and usernames and passwords for payroll and sales tax filing?
How do you establish who is responsible for what and up to when? For example, if the client is transitioning at the beginning of the year, who will handle the W-2's and the 1099's etc. Should they close the rest of the year out?
QuickBooks Online makes these questions more interesting because we cannot start working in the file, until they have been notified unless we access the company file like a client which eliminates some of our powerful tools.
Any guidance on the best practices when offboarding a client from another local company would be greatly appreciated!
Matthew Fulton
