A new client signs, and the standard next move is professional clearance: write to the outgoing firm, ask whether there's any reason I shouldn't act, request the handover, done. Most practitioners treat that letter as a courtesy and the pack it produces as something to file. I read it the way audit trained me to read a predecessor's working papers, assuming nothing ties until I've checked it myself.
TL;DR: The handover from a client's old accountant is the most informative document I'll ever get about that client, and I read it before I confirm the engagement. Opening balances that don't tie, missing tax workings, no fixed-asset register: each one is a pricing-and-risk signal. What's absent from the pack usually tells me more than what's in it.
To me, a handover is a free diagnostic on two things at once: the client, and the quality of the work that came before. The gaps in it are the most honest part of the file, and I read it that way from the first page.
Isn't professional clearance just a formality?
No, and the name is wrong to begin with. "Professional clearance" is a misnomer: the outgoing accountant has no authority to grant or withhold permission to act, and the decision to accept the client is mine (ICAEW Code of Ethics, professional appointments, 2026). What the enquiry actually produces is disclosure: any issue that might change whether I take the client on, plus whatever records the old firm is willing to pass over.
This isn't a rare event. Nine in ten UK businesses said they'd considered switching accountant in the past year (Ravical survey of 500 UK businesses, 2026), and around 4.93 million companies sit on the effective register (Companies House, 2026). Treat one of these handovers as a formality and you've skipped the only moment you get to see behind the client's own version of themselves.
What do I check first in the handover?
The opening balances. Do the closing figures on the last filed accounts genuinely tie to the opening trial balance in the bookkeeping, or has something been quietly restated since? This comes straight from audit, where opening balances get their own standard (ISA (UK) 510) precisely because they're where errors hide and roll forward unnoticed.
A "tidy" client can be carrying a difference nobody ever owned. I once took on a file where the accounts looked immaculate and the opening balances were out by a five-figure sum, carried forward untouched for two years. Nobody had lied. Nobody had checked either.
What never shows on the face of the accounts?
The things that are mine to get right from year one and don't appear in the numbers a client actually looks at. Capital allowances pools carried forward. Trading losses. The VAT scheme in use. The basis-period position.
And the one that bites hardest: any section 455 charge on an overdrawn director's loan account. That's taxed at 33.75% for loans advanced before 6 April 2026 and 35.75% after, payable nine months and a day after the year-end (HMRC Company Taxation Manual, 2026). Miss it in the handover and you've inherited a liability the client doesn't know they're carrying. The accounts won't shout about it. The DLA schedule, if there even is one, will.
What does a thin handover actually tell me?
That the file was thinner than the accounts suggested. A handover with no tax computation, no fixed-asset register, no workings behind a provision is information in its own right. Before it's a problem, it's a pricing signal: this client will cost more to serve properly than the old fee implied, and I'd rather learn that before I quote than after. It's the same discipline behind why I cap my client list. I only say yes when I can do the work properly, and the handover is where I find out what "properly" will take.
One more clearance runs alongside all this, and it isn't optional. I can't establish the relationship until I've done client due diligence under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, which has to happen before the relationship begins (ICAEW anti-money laundering guidance, 2026). So "say yes" is never a handshake.
Frequently Asked Questions
What information should a new accountant request when I switch?
Last filed accounts and tax computations, the bookkeeping file or trial balance, the fixed-asset and capital-allowances registers, the director's loan account position, VAT records and the scheme in use, payroll data, and any losses carried forward. A good incoming accountant reads all of it before confirming, then re-runs the same checks I'd run on any live file.
What is professional clearance, and can my old accountant block the move?
No, they can't block it. The term is a misnomer. Your previous accountant has no power to grant or refuse permission for someone else to act, and the decision to take you on sits with the new firm. What they can do is respond to a professional enquiry and hand over the records you're entitled to. They can hold some records back for unpaid fees, but they can't stop you leaving.
How do I know if my previous accountant left my books in good order?
Ask the new accountant to confirm the opening balances tie, the tax pools and any DLA position carry forward cleanly, and nothing sits unexplained in a suspense account. Clean books hand over quickly and completely. A handover that dribbles out in pieces, or arrives missing the workings, is telling you something about the year that came before.
If you're moving accountant and want a straight read on what you're actually carrying over, get in touch. I'm happy to look at the handover with you before anything's signed and tell you what I see in it.