You’ve made the decision to switching accountants but are filled with a number of worries about the whole process.
Have a read of this article, allow us to (virtually) hold your hand and work through some of your worries. Believe me, after 20 plus years, we’ve seen it, done it and navigated hundreds of new clients through this process. So grab a coffee, tea or gin (no judging here) and let’s go.
I’m worried this is going to be a time consuming process
This can be a massive worry and causes a lot of clients to delay the switching of accountants. However, this is all driven by the systems we have created internally and we will guide you through each step of the onboarding process to ensure this causes you the minimum of time and stress.
I’m worried about the process of switching accountants
We have created an onboarding graphic which explains the processes we use.
We have created videos as well to help you understand how these work specifically to relevant tasks in our processes such as uploading documents securely to us or signing accounts electronically.
This help is constantly evolving so if for example you are confused by anything, we will record a personal video for you which you can watch as many times as you need to help you.
I’m worried about how I will contact you if switching accountants
You can call us or email us and we will aim to get back to you in 1 working day if not sooner. Many clients have told us that this is so refreshing to experience after feeling let down by their previous accountants.
This is what one of our clients has said:
“DNA Accountants are a first rate company. They have looked after us for many years with one to one support, always on the end of a phone or email with rapid response times. Highly recommended.” Mark Curtis, Asylum Models and Effects Limited
Will you charge me whenever I pick up the phone to ask what I think is a silly question?
Not at all. When we provide you with our initial quote for your monthly fee, this is fully inclusive of all phone calls and emails. We also include a meeting once a year and Zoom calls throughout.
In fact we made a decision many years ago to stop using time sheets as we felt that they were a burden to staff and did not help our billing process – why should clients pay for us taking longer to do something.
The only exception would be if we were to carry out a specific tax planning exercise for example inheritance or capital gains tax planning. We would let you know in advance if this were to be an extra charge before doing any “extra” work outside the scope of our services pre agreed.
I’m worried this will be a real disruption to my business and accounts process
Once again, this is a very valid worry for many clients. We do insist that all new clients use Xero cloud based accounts software. This may not be the system you are currently using.
However, we recommend this for a reason. We believe this is the best system out there for the clients we have, we are experts at Xero and we have done numerous transitions from other softwares to Xero, each time resulting in real benefits for those clients.
I’m worried that some of my Companies House and HMRC deadlines will be overlooked
We have invested a lot of time and money over the years in making sure our processes are super slick and work. As soon as we get the go ahead from you (and have obtained clearance from your old accountants), we will set you up on our Practice Management software which links directly to Companies House and HMRC to ensure that all deadlines pop up automatically and we never miss a deadline.
Finally, we asked one of our new clients to write some words about how they found the switching over process:
“I had slight reservations about moving accountants and had been putting it off. I was concerned that moving accountants would involve lots of time, paperwork, and administration. I had been looking for a new accountant for a while but was finding it hard to find the right fit. I knew that DNA Accountants ‘felt right’ when I had the first call. They are warm, personable, and expert at what they do. The transition was very smooth and painless, and I already feel that my accounts are in better shape thanks to the friendly expertise of DNA Accountants”.
Dr Emma Derbyshire, Nutritional Insight Limited.
If you would like to discuss our process to switch accountants, please fill in the form on our start page and let us help you work through any worries you might have.
