Switching Process

When you switch accountants, you need your last two to three years of financial statements and tax returns, your BAS lodgement history, the balances that carry forward (such as depreciation schedules, loan accounts and tax losses), and entity documents like trust deeds and company registers. Your new accountant usually requests all of this for you through a professional clearance letter, so you rarely have to chase it yourself.

The best time to change accountants is just after a lodgement is finished, such as straight after a quarterly BAS or once last year’s tax return is lodged, because the handover starts from a clean point. If you want proactive tax planning before 30 June, switching by around March gives your new accountant time to learn your numbers first. A well-run switch can still happen at any time of year.

Switching accountants is more straightforward than most owners expect, and your new accountant handles most of it. You sign an engagement with the new firm, they request your records and history from the old one through a standard professional handover, and your obligations continue without a gap. The main thing you control is timing the move for a quieter point in your cycle rather than mid lodgement.