Signs you should change your accountant

1. A deadline was missed and you found out from someone else

A notice, an interest charge, or a portal you happened to open. One missed deadline can be a bad month. A missed deadline that you discovered rather than being told about is a different problem, and it is about honesty rather than capacity.

2. You cannot get a straight answer about what has been filed

You ask whether a return went in and receive reassurance instead of an acknowledgement. Acknowledgements exist. Producing one takes seconds.

3. Nobody will confirm the fee in writing

Invoices arrive with amounts you did not expect and a verbal explanation. A professional who will not write down what something costs before doing it has told you how the next disagreement will go.

4. You have never received advice, only filings

Three years of correct returns and not one conversation about your structure, your deductions, or a decision you were about to make. Fine if that is what you are paying for. A problem if you believed you were buying judgement.

5. You cannot see your own books

Records live in their software or their spreadsheets, and you get an export when you ask nicely. This is the sign that turns into the biggest problem later, because it is the one that makes leaving hard.

6. The work has drifted to someone with no experience

Your queries are answered by a different junior each time, none of whom knows your business, and the senior name on the engagement has not been in a conversation for a year.

7. Something was suggested that you were uncomfortable with

An informal arrangement with somebody in a department. A number adjusted to fit. A certificate for work that would not be performed. This is not a sign to monitor. It is a reason to leave, immediately, because the exposure is yours.

• A fee increase that was explained in advance. Rates move, and a practice that explains an increase before invoicing it is behaving correctly.
• Slower replies for two weeks around a major filing date. That is the profession, not the person.
• Being told something you did not want to hear about a deduction or a position. An accountant who only agrees with you is not protecting you.
• Being asked for documents repeatedly, if you have not sent them.

This order matters. Secure your position first, then have the conversation. Not because anyone is expected to behave badly, but because access and records are much easier to collect from an ongoing relationship than from an ended one.

• Download everything you can reach yourself: filed returns and acknowledgements from the portals, challans, and any statements available to you.
• Confirm that your GST, income tax and MCA registrations are held against an email address and phone number your business controls. If they are not, fix that first. It is the single most common way a business loses access to its own filings.
• Take a full export of your books, in a format another accountant can actually import, not a printout.
• List what you are still waiting on: work in progress, documents you handed over, anything unbilled.
• Line up the replacement before you end the current arrangement, especially if a deadline is close.

Do it in writing, politely and without a list of grievances. The aim is a clean file, not a verdict.

• A dated message confirming the engagement is ending and from when.
• A request for the specific items you need: books, working papers, filed returns and acknowledgements, correspondence with any department, and any documents of yours still held.
• Settlement of anything genuinely outstanding. A disputed fee is a much worse position to argue from while they still hold your records.
• Removal of their access from every portal, once the new accountant is in place.
• A short handover call or thread between the outgoing and incoming accountant, if both are willing. It saves the new one a great deal of guessing.

On the professional side there is a convention worth knowing about: an incoming Chartered Accountant is expected to communicate with the outgoing one before taking up certain work. If your new CA asks to do this, that is correct practice rather than a delay tactic.

The best time is immediately after a filing cycle closes and well before the next one opens. The worst time is the week before a deadline, when your choice narrows to whoever happens to be free.

The exception is sign seven. If you have been asked to do something you are not comfortable with, timing is not the consideration.

Whatever you do next, do the part you skipped last time: write the scope down, agree the exclusions, and settle on day one that your records and access are yours. How to hire a Chartered Accountant has the full sequence.

On Accmeet you can browse accountants and read profiles, verified credentials, completed work and client ratings before contacting anyone. Ratings can only be left by a counterparty who actually completed a job, so what you are reading came from real engagements.

Tell whoever you speak to that you are switching, and say plainly what went wrong. A good accountant will want to know what state the records are in before quoting, and the ones who ask about it carefully are usually the ones to hire.