Switching Bookkeepers: A Handoff Checklist & First 30 Days

A Clear Handoff Makes the Change Easier

You can switch bookkeepers during the year. The key is agreeing where the old provider's work ends, where the new provider's work starts, and which balances and records support that handoff.

Start with the last fully reconciled month. “Transactions entered through September” is different from “September accounts reconciled, reports reviewed, and open questions listed.” Ask for the specific status of each account and reporting period.

Before You End the Existing Engagement

Review the existing agreement's notice, delivery, access, and final billing arrangements. Agree who will finish any open month, payroll task, or filing. Request the exports and supporting records your business needs before changing or canceling software subscriptions.

Choose a written cutoff date and keep a list of unresolved items. This helps prevent both providers from entering the same transactions or each assuming the other will complete a filing.

The IRS recordkeeping guidance explains why records must support the income and expenses on your returns. Changing providers does not remove that responsibility. Keep historical records according to the applicable retention requirements; do not delete them just because you have a new system.

Your Bookkeeper Handoff Checklist

Accounting records

• General ledger and trial balance through the agreed cutoff.
• Profit and loss statements and balance sheets for the current and relevant prior periods.
• Chart of accounts, accounting basis, and entity details.
• Bank and card reconciliation reports, including outstanding checks and deposits.
• Customer invoices, receivables aging, vendor bills, and payables aging.
• Journal entries, supporting schedules, and known unresolved differences.

Source documents and specialist records

• Bank, credit-card, loan, and payment-processor statements.
• Payroll summaries, liability balances, filings, and payment confirmations where relevant.
• Filed income and sales-tax returns needed for the work, plus outstanding notices.
• Fixed-asset and depreciation schedules, inventory records, and job-cost reports where applicable.
• MCA agreements, funding and payoff records, deal ledgers, participation schedules, and participant statements for an MCA business.

Exports are useful, but reports alone may not preserve every attachment or transaction detail. Confirm what can be migrated, what needs a separate archive, and which source records remain available.

Access and responsibilities

• Confirm your business controls the appropriate owner or administrator account.
• Invite the new team through each platform's user permissions rather than sharing one person's password.
• Grant the access needed for the agreed work and use multi-factor authentication where supported.
• List bank feeds, integrations, scheduled reports, and filing connections that need a handoff.
• Remove obsolete access after responsibilities and record transfer are complete.

Send sensitive records through the agreed secure document channel. Avoid placing account passwords or taxpayer identification numbers in a general inquiry message.

A Practical First-30-Days Plan

This is an example sequence. The actual schedule depends on your records, access, business complexity, and any cleanup required.

Week 1: Agree the scope and collect the records

Confirm the entities, accounts, reporting needs, cutoff date, and immediate deadlines. For an I&S engagement, establish the written service agreement and NDA, then arrange the agreed portal and system access. Identify missing records early.

Week 2: Establish reliable opening balances

Compare the trial balance and supporting schedules with statements and prior reports. Review bank reconciliations, receivables, payables, payroll liabilities, and funding balances. Record unanswered questions before assuming the old balances are correct.

Week 3: Resolve the agreed cleanup

Separate recurring monthly work from historical corrections. Agree the scope and price of any extra cleanup before it starts. If a difference cannot be resolved yet, keep it visible with an owner and next action instead of silently forcing the accounts to balance.

Week 4: Set the recurring close routine

Agree which documents you provide, when questions are answered, and how reports will be delivered. Review the first available reporting period together and document any work still outstanding. A complex backlog may continue beyond the first month.

Free Migration and Historical Cleanup

I&S monthly bookkeeping plans include free LedgerHub software and migration. We confirm the source system and records to be moved before starting. Migration transfers agreed data; cleanup corrects errors or catches up missing periods. Those are separate scopes.

Our standard hourly bookkeeping rate is $65/hour for separately agreed work. Custom and hourly projects do not include free software and migration. See the current pricing and scope and the cleanup guide.

What to Have Ready for a Quote

You do not need every document in hand to start a conversation. Have your entity count, approximate monthly transactions, bank and card account count, last reconciled month, and any immediate deadlines ready.

Build your quote for an estimate, then use the books review to confirm the handoff and fixed monthly scope. You can visit the pricing page and return to your quote in the same tab; your draft answers remain available so you can continue where you left off.