Changing Accountants in Ireland: What to Know Before You Move

By Tom Francis FCA, Head of Accounting at Kinore. Last updated: 19 August 2026. Jurisdiction: Ireland.

Most owners who ask me about changing accountants want to know the mechanics. How long it takes. Whether anything gets lost. Whether the old firm will make it difficult.

Those are the easy questions, and they have reassuring answers. The process is regulated, well worn, and usually finished inside a month without a filing being missed.

Changing accountants is rarely the difficult part. Choosing the right replacement is.

The harder question is what you should be getting from an accountant that you are not getting today. Move without answering that and you will spend three weeks on a handover to arrive at the same relationship at a different address. I have watched businesses switch to save €80 a month and have the identical conversation about slow replies two years later.

The real question: recording versus advising

There are two kinds of accounting relationship, and the gap between them is worth more than any fee saving you will find.

The first records what happened. Your accountant collects your records after the year has closed, prepares accounts, files the returns, and tells you what the bill is. Everything they produce describes a period you can no longer do anything about.

The second helps you understand what is happening and decide what comes next. The numbers are current. Tax is planned before the year closes rather than reported after it.

Both are legitimate – compliance-only accounting suits a dormant company or a very small sole trade. The problem is that most businesses buy the first while assuming they are getting the second, then feel vaguely let down for years without being able to name why.

If the only time you hear from your accountant is when a deadline is approaching, you are buying compliance and calling it advice.

Why businesses change accountants – and why they wait too long

The stated reason is almost never the real one. People tell me they left over a missed VAT deadline. Talk it through and the deadline was the thing that gave them permission to act on a decision made months earlier.

The underlying causes fall into four groups: information arriving too late to use, as the business outgrows what annual accounts can tell it; communication that costs money — not rudeness, but delay, where a week to answer a question is a week of a decision not being made; capability that no longer matches the business, as payroll trebles or a second entity appears or sales start crossing borders; and trust that has quietly eroded through an avoidable Revenue intervention or a pattern of surprises where there should have been warnings.

Owners then stay for three reasons, none of them lazy. Loyalty is the most common and most understandable — someone helped you when you had nothing. But the firm that was right at €200,000 turnover is not automatically right at €3 million, and outgrowing an adviser is not a betrayal of them. Second, people assume switching hurts more than staying, picturing weeks of disruption when the reality is one engagement letter, one short email and a couple of approvals in ROS. Third, and hardest to spot: you cannot miss what you have never had. If no accountant has ever rung you in October about your projected liability, you do not experience its absence as a loss.

Seven signs you have outgrown your accountant

Any one may have an innocent explanation. Three or more together is a pattern.

1. Every conversation is one you started. If no substantive contact last year came from them, you have a processor, not an adviser.
2. You learn your tax bill after you could have influenced it. If the figure is always a reveal, planning is not happening.
3. You cannot answer a commercial question from your own numbers. Which service line makes money. What cash looks like in ninety days.
4. The same errors recur. One mistake is human. The same VAT coding error three quarters running means nobody is reviewing.
5. You are the integration layer. You export from one system so they can re-key it into theirs.
6. Growth questions get generic answers. R&D relief, share options, cross-border VAT, funding readiness.
7. You have started routing around them because asking someone else is faster. That instinct is data.

The technology trap

One caution, because this is where people mis-diagnose most often. Your accountant being on Xero or any other cloud system does not make them proactive.

Cloud software removes the excuse for stale information; it does not create insight. I have reviewed Xero files that were technically live and practically useless – bank feeds unreconciled for four months, a chart of accounts untouched since setup, suspense accounts quietly absorbing anything difficult. The subscription was current. The information was not. The same goes for AI and automation: automating a badly designed process gets you the wrong answer faster. Ask what the tools are used for, not which tools are used.

Why the cheapest fee is rarely the cheapest option

A quoted fee tells you what leaves your bank account. It says nothing about what the relationship costs in total: your time chasing replies, the reliefs nobody flagged, penalties on filings that slipped, and decisions made without good information. That last one is usually the largest and never appears on an invoice.

The compliance failures are at least measurable. A late annual return brings €100 the day after the deadline and €3 for every day after, capped at €1,200 — and Revenue have confirmed these fees are not tax deductible. Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Accountancy Ireland, citing the CRO’s 2024 annual report, noted over 16,000 companies incurred late filing fees that year, averaging €603.

The bigger exposure is audit exemption, and the rules changed on 16 July 2025. Under Section 22 of the Companies (Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Regulatory Provisions) Act 2024, a small or micro company now loses exemption only if it files late more than once within five years. A single late filing no longer triggers it. The relief does not extend to group companies, where one late return can still put the exemption at risk.

The cheapest accountant stops being cheap the moment you are spending your own evenings chasing them.

What to look for in a new accountant

Write down what good looks like before you speak to anyone, or you will be sold to rather than assessing. I would test five things: responsiveness defined in hours, not “we pride ourselves on service”; named people and continuity, including what happens when they are on leave; scope written down, including exclusions, because ambiguity there is where fee disputes are born; experience evidenced by a specific comparable client rather than a logo wall; and headroom – can they handle you in three years, with a bigger payroll, an audit if a funder requires one, or proper management accounts?

Twelve questions to ask before you sign

1. Who will do my work, who reviews it, and who do I contact directly?
2. What is your target response time, and what happens when that person is out?
3. What is included in the fee, and what generates an additional invoice?
4. How and when will you raise tax planning with me during the year?
5. How current will my numbers be at any given point?
6. What will you send me between year-ends, and on what schedule?
7. Which software will we both work in, and who holds the subscription?
8. Can you describe a business like mine that you work with now?
9. How do you handle the handover, and what do you need from me?
10. What will you do in the first ninety days?
11. How would we work together if I needed funding or wanted to sell?
12. What have you seen in my current setup that concerns you?

That last one matters most. A firm that can name a specific concern has done the work. A firm that says everything looks fine has not looked.

How to change accountants in Ireland

Here is the process with the division of labour made explicit, because the most common misconception is that this will consume your time. Your part is small.

On step 5, keep it factual and brief. State the date the new firm takes over, confirm you are authorising co-operation, and ask for any outstanding balance. There is no need to litigate the relationship in writing.

How professional clearance works

Professional clearance is the process by which your incoming accountant contacts your outgoing accountant to establish whether there is any reason they should not accept the engagement. It is required by the ethical codes Irish accountants work under, and it exists to protect you — not to give your old firm a veto. This is a duty to communicate, not a request for permission. Your old accountant cannot refuse to release you.

The CPA Ireland guidance on changes in professional appointments sets out the sequence: the incoming accountant explains the duty to communicate, asks you to confirm the change and authorise co-operation, then writes to ask whether there is anything relevant to accepting. The existing accountant should reply promptly and either explain what the incoming accountant ought to know or confirm there is nothing.

Two points that get reported wrongly elsewhere. First, there is no fixed statutory response window — fourteen days is a working expectation, not a rule. If no reply comes, the incoming accountant can write by recorded delivery stating an intention to accept absent a response within a reasonable period, and may treat silence as indicating no issues. Silence does not trap you.

Second, where a firm ceases to hold office as statutory auditor, Section 400 of the Companies Act 2014 brings obligations around a statement of circumstances. If your company is audited, flag this early.

What happens to your records

Not everything in your accountant’s files belongs to you. Ownership turns on the engagement and on why a document was created.

Separately from ownership, the ethical codes require an outgoing accountant to provide reasonable transfer information free of charge, and that obligation is not suspended by a fee dispute. The ACCA guidance on legal ownership of books and records covers this, though note it is written primarily against English law.

The lien question, answered properly

You will read that an outgoing accountant can hold your records hostage over unpaid fees. That is an overstatement, and for limited companies close to wrong.

An accountant’s lien is a particular lien: a right to retain specific client property in respect of unpaid fees for work on that property, not a general right to hold everything until every invoice clears. More significantly, for an Irish company Section 283 of the Companies Act 2014 requires accounting records to be kept at the registered office or such other place as the directors think fit, and Section 284 requires them to be available at all reasonable times for inspection without charge by the company’s officers. Records within that definition sit outside what a lien can practically reach – and “accounting records” is read broadly, extending past ledgers to invoices, bank statements and the schedules explaining them. For an unincorporated business a lien has more room, because those protections do not apply.

None of which argues for leaving fees unpaid. Settle what you owe and pursue any dispute afterwards through the professional body’s complaints process — faster and cheaper than a stand-off mid-handover.

One instruction regardless: before you give notice, take your own backup. Export your trial balance, nominal ledger, aged debtors and creditors, VAT returns, payroll reports and three years of accounts and returns. An afternoon’s work removes an entire category of problem. A company must retain accounting records for six years under Section 285 – your obligation, not your accountant’s.

What happens with Revenue and ROS

This is the part that changed most recently, and where out-of-date guidance does real damage.

Until 2025 an agent link was created by you signing a paper form your accountant uploaded. That is gone for anyone with online access. Revenue launched agent and advisor e-linking at the end of March 2025, and responsibility now sits with you: your accountant initiates, and you approve or reject in ROS or myAccount.

In practice, per Revenue’s Tax and Duty Manual Part 37-00-04c:

• Links are per tax head, not per business. Corporation tax, VAT, PAYE-Employer and income tax need separate approvals. A missed one is exactly how a VAT return ends up unfiled.
• Requests expire after 30 days. After that your accountant must resubmit.
• Approval takes up to two working days to activate, so do not leave it until the week of a deadline. Requests sent after 10pm on a Friday will not appear until Monday.
• Businesses without ROS or myAccount still use the older signed Agent Link Notification.

Now the part almost nobody mentions. Linking your new accountant does not unlink your old one. Multiple agents can hold links to different tax heads simultaneously. To remove the previous firm’s access you do it yourself in ROS under Manage Tax Registrations using “Remove Agent Link” — once you are satisfied the new firm has everything it needs. While you are there, check the bank details on your Revenue record are correct, because misdirected refunds are a known fraud vector.

What happens with the CRO

A distinction that catches people out, including some accountants: the CRO has no agent authorisation equivalent to Revenue’s. There is nothing to transfer, because there was never an appointment. Your accountant files as a presenter on CORE. The obligation to deliver the annual return sits with the company and its officers, and changing accountants does not move it or reset your Annual Return Date.

So know your deadline yourself: the annual return must be delivered within 56 days of the ARD, or your financial year-end plus nine months and 56 days, whichever is earlier.

And watch the presenter email address. CRO correspondence goes to the presenter. If a submission is sent back for correction, Section 898 of the Companies Act 2014 gives you 14 days to deliver a compliant document. Miss it and the original filing is deemed never delivered — late fees, and a hit to your audit exemption position. Picture that notice landing in your former accountant’s inbox three weeks after you left. Rare, expensive, and entirely preventable by confirming who receives CRO correspondence for any filing in flight.

If your outgoing firm also provides your registered office or acts as your company secretary, add a B2 and a B10 to the list.

Bookkeeping and software

Your data does not move and nothing is lost. What changes is who pays and who holds control. In Xero the concept to understand is the subscriber — the party responsible for billing. Many Irish firms hold it for their clients; if yours does, it transfers using Xero’s request transfer function and your invoices, contacts and history stay exactly where they are.

Ask who holds the subscription today, and agree the transfer route in writing before giving notice. My view is that you should hold it going forward wherever practical — it is your financial data, and your access should not depend on a commercial relationship continuing. If you are on desktop software, treat this as a conversion project rather than an access change, and get a firm answer on what comes across and what gets rebuilt.

Timing: how long it takes and when to move

Most transitions complete within two to four weeks of the engagement letter being signed. Clearance and transfer information take one to two weeks; Revenue links add a few days once you approve them. It goes faster when fees are settled, records are clean and current, and the start date is clear of deadlines. It slows when invoices are disputed, link requests sit unactioned in a ROS inbox nobody checks, or desktop software needs converting.

The best time to move is shortly after a year-end has been signed off and filed – the new firm starts on a clean base with agreed opening balances. Second best is three to four months before year-end, which leaves a window to do tax planning while it can still change the answer.

The times to avoid are narrow: the fortnight before a major filing deadline, and the middle of a Revenue intervention unless the current relationship is damaging your position. Beyond that, do not let the calendar decide. If your arrangement is creating risk, waiting for a tidy milestone costs more than moving at an inconvenient moment – and sole traders in particular wait for 1 January when there is nothing magical about it.

What can go wrong, and how to prevent it

That last row deserves emphasis. A new accountant with fresh eyes will sometimes find something: an under-declared liability, a director’s loan nobody addressed, a relief claimed incorrectly. Uncomfortable, and also the most valuable thing the switch will do for you. Correcting an error voluntarily puts you in a very different position from having it found during an intervention.

Changing accountants is also an opportunity

A handover is the only moment when somebody competent examines your entire finance function end to end with no stake in defending how it currently works. Your existing firm cannot do this – not through any failing, but because they built it, and nobody audits their own assumptions well. That objectivity has a short shelf life; within a year the new firm will have its own habits.

The handover is not the cost of switching. It is the most valuable diagnostic your business will get all year – and it only works once.

So use it:

• Reconcile properly, once. Every balance sheet account agreed, suspense cleared, old debtors and creditors chased or written off. Most businesses carry balances that stopped being real years ago.
• Rebuild the chart of accounts around your decisions. If it does not show performance by service line, location or channel, it is not doing its job.
• Fix the setup, not just the software. Bank feeds live, VAT rates and nominal codes correct at source, bookkeeping rules configured so transactions are coded right the first time.
• Automate the obvious. Receipt capture, bank rules, integrations that remove re-keying.
• Introduce reporting you will use. Management accounts plus a rolling cash view. Timely and useful beats perfect and late.
• Do a proper tax review. Structure, remuneration, pensions, reliefs, and the timing of anything discretionary. This is the conversation that pays for the switch.
• Set the communication rhythm deliberately, and design for where you are going rather than where you are.

Do that and you have not changed suppliers. You have rebuilt a finance function — which, for a growing business, is infrastructure rather than admin.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change accountants at any time in Ireland?

Yes, subject to any notice period in your engagement letter – commonly 30 days. No permission is needed from your existing firm, and the ethical codes require them to co-operate with a reasonable handover request.

How long does it take to change accountants?

Two to four weeks from signing the new engagement letter in most cases. Clearance and transfer information take one to two weeks, Revenue links a few days once approved. Software conversions or incomplete prior year records extend it.

What is professional clearance?

The process by which an incoming accountant writes to the outgoing accountant to ask whether there is any reason not to accept the engagement. It is a duty to communicate required by the professional codes — not a request for approval, and not something the old firm can refuse to grant.

Does my old accountant have to co-operate?

They must respond promptly to a clearance enquiry, disclose anything the incoming accountant ought to know, and provide reasonable transfer information – including where fees are outstanding. If no reply comes, the incoming accountant can proceed after stating an intention to accept within a reasonable period.

Can I change accountants if I owe them money?

Yes. Unpaid fees do not prevent you leaving and do not remove the obligation to provide reasonable transfer information. An outgoing accountant may in some circumstances exercise a lien over client property in respect of fees for work on that property, but for a limited company this has limited practical reach, because the Companies Act 2014 requires accounting records to be available for inspection by the company’s officers. Settle the balance anyway and pursue any dispute separately.

Will changing accountants affect my Revenue filings?

It should not, provided agent links are in place before anything falls due. The risk is timing: requests need your approval, expire after 30 days, and take up to two working days to activate. Approve them promptly and check every tax head is covered.

Does the CRO need to be notified when I change accountants?

No. The CRO has no agent authorisation to transfer – your accountant acts as presenter. The obligation to file the annual return stays with the company and its officers throughout. Do confirm which email address receives CRO correspondence for any filing in progress, as send-back notices carry a 14-day correction window.

Is it different for a sole trader and a limited company?

The principles are the same; the mechanics differ. A sole trader deals with income tax and possibly VAT and PAYE-Employer, with no CRO obligations. A limited company adds corporation tax, annual returns, financial statements, audit exemption and possibly registered office and secretarial arrangements. The statutory protections around accounting records apply to companies and not to sole traders, which affects the practical reach of any lien.

A closing thought

Judge this decision by what the relationship produces, not by what the move costs. The switching process is administrative: a few weeks, perhaps two hours of your attention, and it is over. What follows lasts years.

So the question is not whether you can change accountants. You can, and now you know how. It is what you want from the relationship on the other side, and whether the firm you are talking to can describe in specific terms what will be different in twelve months.

If they cannot answer that, keep looking. If your current firm can, you may not need to move at all. Either outcome is a good use of the question.

About the author. Tom Francis FCA is Head of Accounting at Kinore, a digital-first chartered accountancy and advisory firm working with founders and SMEs across Ireland. He leads Kinore’s accountancy services, covering annual accounts, corporation tax, management reporting and business advisory.

The information in this article is for general guidance only and does not constitute professional accounting, tax, legal or financial advice. It should not be relied upon in place of advice tailored to your circumstances. Legislation, professional standards, Revenue procedures and CRO requirements in Ireland change over time, and specific obligations vary by entity type and circumstance. Where a matter is material to your business, take advice on your own facts.