The accountant is right.

The only transfer information that they are obliged to give is a signed copy of the previous years accounts and the trial balance upon which that was based.

For other accountants of the same body they are generally a little more flexible as its a matter of you rub my back I'll rub yours.

You could try sending the accountant a professional ettiquette letter telling them that you are taking over the payroll as correspondence from a fellow professional is sometimes better accepted than correspondence with an ex client who may have left under accromonious terms.

If the client left purely to lower fee's and you are one of those undercutting local accountants to gain clients then I would however not be too hopeful of that approach. (although you are still entitled to the full accounts and trial balance. If not supplied then such can be taken up with the accountants professional body).

After that its going to be gathering whatever the client has plus working with HMRC for the rest.

As a linked note I am seeing a lot more reluctance of accountants to play ball with bookkeepers.

Being on the opposit side of the desk I can see why accountants are getting angry in that every week I get clients telling me how they are being cold called by bookkeepers offering to lower their fee's without actually knowing what fee's they are actually paying.

I've not lost any clients to this approach but can see why accountants are getting angry about those of certain bodies employing unprofessional tactics that accountants do not.

I am sure that this is not your approach Rachel and that you adopt the ethical approach that clients come to you, but I'm just giving a bit of background as to why some (I would actually say many) accountants are becoming more difficult to work with where they are dealing with businesses under professional bodies that are not signed up to the IFAC code of ethics for accounting professionals.

In your case Rachel you are only taking Payroll and as an accountant personally I would be happy to give that away... Maybe that should be your approach in offering the accountant an outsourced service for their payroll clients as personally I think that under RTI payroll is a complete pain in the backside and like Marks and I believe Kris I too outsource mine.

This accountant obviously doesn't so maybe an opportunity there to convince them that maybe they should consider it?

kind regards,

Shaun.

Thanks for you reply Amanda, that's useful to know

I have no idea about the legal position with regard to ownership of the payroll, but I would have thought that common sense would say that the payroll is the client's? After all it is their PAYE scheme, their PAYE reference with HMRC. Surely the accountant is acting merely as the client's agent by running the payroll and submitting returns. If the RTI return didn't get submitted one month, who would get the fine, the client or the accountant? ....the client of course. What if the client decided to start running the payroll themselves, would the accountant refuse to hand over any information then?

I bet there's not much you can't find out through the client Rachel. Particularly if he has kept the usual summary's and even better if the payslips are available in say, PDF format.  

Often there's a set up charge when commencing a payroll job so the accountant could rightly argue that he originally did the type of leg-work you may have to do now.

In the past the pre-printed P11 stationery might have been regarded as integral to a manually kept payroll.   This accountant seems quite sure the computer P11's are his calculations considering the RTI question Pauline raised.

Whatever the legalities, he is being awkward so I suggest narrowing it down to information that is unavailable other than through him.

Best wishes,

Tim