Loyalty to your existing accountant

I understand that you might feel you owe your existing accountant loyalty if they have provided you a reliable service over the years which you have been reasonably happy with. However be aware that Accountants regularly change the ownership structure of their business, with the promotion/retirement of senior staff and they are also regularly assessing as to whether your client profile fits the type of clients they wish to service going forward.

It is not unlikely to find that you and your other clients with similar accounting needs may be sold to another accounting practice. Do not you have an onus on yourself then to review the accounting services that you are receiving and test what is out there in the market place on a regular basis. At the very least if your Accountant knows that you are going through this process they may provide incentives for you to stay with them.

You might also feel that it will be too much of an inconvenience to change Accountants in term of the complete and accurate transfer of information from prior years so as not to disadvantage your accounting needs going forward.

Accountants have a duty of care to their profession and their fellow practitioners. If their clients decided to move to another Accounting Practice they are expected to make the transition as painless as possible by providing the requested information from the new Accountant in a timely and professional manner, afterall that is what they expect when they gain clients from other Accounting Practices.

You can make any such transition easier by keeping all documents provided to by your existing Accountant and requesting copies of work done, in an electronic format preferably.