Handover

What it means

A handover moves the bookkeeping and payroll from one provider to another. It is not copying files: balances, open items, registers and responsibility for later periods all change hands.

The cut-off date decides everything. Ideally it is the first day of an accounting period, or at least a closed month with agreed balances - switching mid-period always costs more.

Responsibility for the books always stays with the reporting entity itself, not with its accountant. A handover therefore does not change who answers to the tax office; it changes who does the work and what that provider is contractually liable for towards the client. That is why the scope is written into the contract and the protocol rather than agreed by word of mouth.

How it works in practice

What is handed over: the journal and general ledger, the last annual accounts and return, the sub-ledger of receivables and payables, the asset register and depreciation schedules, payroll records and personnel files, VAT records and documents.

In parallel, powers of attorney and system access are settled: old ones revoked, new ones registered, so that service of documents does not go nowhere. It usually runs alongside onboarding on one side and offboarding on the other.

When we take over mid-year we start with an entry check: the trial balance against bank statements, VAT balances against the taxpayer’s account, and the cash balance against the cash book. Only then do we carry on posting. The client knows what it has inherited, and the new period does not start on unverified figures.

What to watch out for

The biggest risk is unagreed opening balances - accept them quietly and someone else’s error becomes yours. So differences are recorded in the handover protocol and who fixes them is settled before the first filing under the new arrangement.

The second common problem is data locked in the previous provider’s software. If the export is not agreed in time, all that remains are PDF reports without sub-ledger detail, and history has to be traced by hand. The handover should include a machine-readable export and an agreement on where and for how long the document archive is kept.