Switching bookkeepers: how it works, step by step

Many founders stay too long with a bookkeeper that no longer fits their company. Not because they're happy, but because switching seems like a hassle: paperwork, handover, and the fear that something falls through the cracks. In practice it's easier than it looks, especially when the new firm handles the migration for you. Here's the step-by-step plan.

A few signals we often see with startups:

• Your figures are structurally behind, so you're steering on outdated information.
• Questions sit unanswered for days or weeks, or every question feels like an invoice.
• Your bookkeeper doesn't know the startup world: terms like runway, MRR or an investor update are new to them.
• You've outgrown your current package and the service isn't growing with you.

If you recognise more than one, the question isn't whether to switch, but when.

First look at the agreement with your current bookkeeper: what notice period applies, and until when does your contract run? That differs per firm. Also make sure outstanding invoices are paid; that prevents discussion during the handover.

In principle you can switch at any time. Practically, the start of a new VAT period or a new financial year is the calmest: the previous period is then neatly closed. But don't wait half a year for 'the perfect moment' if you're already steering on outdated figures; a good new firm can also step in mid-period.

Your administration is and remains yours, not your bookkeeper's. At the switch you transfer: your bookkeeping data, your annual accounts and filings from previous years, and access to your bookkeeping software. If you work in a modern bookkeeping platform, this is often a matter of transferring the admin role rather than moving boxes of paper.

Your new bookkeeper needs authorisations to file returns with the Belastingdienst on your behalf and to set up bank feeds. The old authorisations get revoked. A good new firm walks you through this; it's mostly a matter of giving a few approvals.

The best way to make sure nothing falls through the cracks: have the new firm build and check the administration while the old one is still running, and only switch definitively once everything is in place. That way there's no gap in your administration and no deadline stress.

At Matching Numbers this is exactly how it works: we run the migration in parallel and only switch over once your books are fully running on our system. We take over your current administration, connect your bank accounts and tools, import your historical data and set up your dashboards. We complete a full switch within five working days, and onboarding and migration are simply part of your monthly fee. All you have to do is cancel your old contract.

Your administration is yours, so you are entitled to the data underneath it. Ask for this set and a new party can pick up without gaps:

• The chart of accounts and the trial balance as at the handover date.
• Outstanding receivables and payables, with invoice numbers.
• The VAT returns filed for the current year, with the underlying calculation.
• Payroll journal entries and the latest payroll tax return, if you have staff.
• The fixed-asset register with the depreciation terms used.
• The year-end close or annual accounts for the previous financial year, plus this year opening balance.
• Bank transactions and the receipts and invoices already processed.

If you meet resistance here, that is a signal in itself. A firm that will not hand over your own figures is holding on to something that is not theirs.

Request this before you cancel, not after. An office that knows you are leaving has rarely become faster.

• An export of your general ledger and your trial balance as at the handover date.
• The outstanding receivables and payables, with a date and amount per item.
• The VAT returns filed this year and last, with the payment records.
• The payroll journal entries and payroll tax returns, if you have staff.
• The most recent adopted annual accounts or year-end close.
• Ownership of your bookkeeping software, if the account is in the office's name.

That last point is where it stalls most often. If your administration sits in an environment the office owns, a switch means you take an export with you and not your history. With us the account is in your name, for exactly that reason.

A switch has one date that really counts: the one on which responsibility for the returns moves. Put in writing up front who files the return for the period in progress, because this is the gap a penalty falls into: both parties assume the other one has it.

So schedule the handover just after a filing deadline rather than just before one. For a VAT quarter that means letting the old office finish the quarter and starting with us on the next one. It costs you no extra day and it takes the only real risk out of switching.

This is what a full switch looks like. The dates move with when we get access and authorisations; the order stays the same.

• Day 1: a half-hour kick-off. We collect what exists and set your administration up in the platform.
• Day 2: connect bank accounts and tools and import your historical data.
• Day 3: configure booking rules, set up the opening balance and outstanding items, and reconcile against the trial balance.
• Day 4: build the dashboards and file the tax authority authorisations.
• Day 5: checks and handover. From that moment everything runs with us and your old firm can stop.

That works, and it needs one clean cut. We take the trial balance at the agreed handover date as the opening balance and reconcile it against your bank balance and outstanding items. Once that ties, the rest of the year is built with us and the year-end close connects neatly to what your previous bookkeeper did.

One thing to know: for the period before the handover your old firm stays responsible for the returns it filed. We pick up from the date we agree together, so no period is filed twice or not at all.

• A VAT period filed by both firms, or by neither.
• An authorisation filed too late, so the first return with us cannot be submitted.
• An opening balance that does not tie, leaving the whole year on wrong starting figures.
• A software account in the old firm name, so you cannot take your own history with you.

All four are avoidable with a parallel migration and a fixed handover date. That is why we work this way, and why we ask for that one set of data up front.

With us, nothing. Onboarding and the migration of your existing administration are part of your monthly fee, so there are no setup costs and no separate hours for the setup. What your old firm charges for closing off the current period is in your own contract.

• Don't stay stuck with a bookkeeper that no longer fits; switching is less work than it looks.
• Check your notice period and pay outstanding invoices.
• A new VAT period is a calm moment, but switching is possible at any time.
• Your administration is yours: data, history and software access come with you.
• Let the new firm run in parallel, so nothing falls through the cracks.