Changing accountant in Paris

It happens in two steps. You terminate your current engagement letter, with the notice it provides for: that is a clause of your contract, no statute imposes a delay. We do the rest, and the handover is taken on at no charge: (1) the letter to the outgoing firm required by article 163 of the professional code of conduct, (2) collection of the file (entries file for the last three years, trial balance, general ledger, fixed assets, reconciliations, filed returns), (3) a completeness check before the next filing deadline, (4) handover of access (tax portal, accounting software, bank feed) and (5) taking over the bookkeeping. From EUR 258 excl. VAT per month, firm quote after a first discussion (price list).

Many firms charge an entry fee to take a file over. We do not. For any file supplied as a standardised FEC and where you come in under an engagement letter, the handover is taken on: import of the file, consistency audit of the trial balance, and a first year-end review included.

What that covers, and what it does not, has to be said plainly. A handover organises a transfer: we collect, we check, we resume. A catch-up rebuilds financial years that were never kept, or kept badly. The second is an engagement in its own right: it is quoted once the documents have been reviewed, it appears in a separate quote, and you are told about it before we start. Never discovered on an invoice.

Termination is yours: it is your contract, nobody can end it on your behalf. Everything that follows is our work.

This is the text that governs a change of firm, and it is rarely quoted to the people it concerns. Here it is, as currently in force (code of conduct for accountancy professionals, articles 141 to 169 of decree no. 2012-432 of 30 March 2012):

"Persons referred to in article 141 called upon by a client to replace a fellow practitioner may not accept the engagement until they have informed the latter. […] Where the fees owed to their predecessor arise from an agreement compliant with professional rules, they must endeavour to obtain evidence of payment of those fees before starting their engagement. Failing this, they must refer the matter to the president of the regional council of the Ordre […]. The predecessor shall facilitate, with the client's agreement, the handover of the file."

Three consequences, all in your favour:

• The step falls on the incoming firm, not on you. It is for us to inform your current accountant, before we may even accept the engagement. You do not have to organise that exchange, nor endure it.
• The text does not say "the client must have paid everything". It says the incoming firm must endeavour to obtain evidence of payment, and that failing this it refers the matter to the president of the regional council. Many business owners give up on switching because of a misreading of that sentence.
• The predecessor "shall facilitate the handover of the file". That is a professional duty of cooperation. It is worth recalling, in writing, when a transfer drags.

You will read everywhere that the notice period is "three months". Look for the text that says so: there is none. Article 151 of the same decree requires the professional to enter into a written contract "defining their engagement and setting out the rights and obligations of each party", and states that the term of the mandate "may also be stated in it". No minimum duration, no notice period. The one article governing the interruption of an ongoing engagement, article 156, binds the accountant: it is the accountant who must go "through to its normal term" and may only stop "for just and reasonable grounds".

What binds you, then, is your engagement letter. Take it out and note four things: the duration, the notice period and its required form, the anniversary date or termination window, and what it provides for the return of the file. If it provides for nothing, ordinary contract law applies and the period is open to discussion. The detailed calculation, with the dates to set according to your year-end, is in our article on the timeline and notice period.

Nothing requires you to wait for the year-end. What matters is the notice period in your engagement letter and where your deadlines fall. A badly timed handover leaves a VAT return or an annual filing between two firms, each assuming the other is on it.

Here is the back-schedule for a switch on 1 January, with a 31 December year-end. Shift it by the notice period actually written into your contract.

So the first thing we do on a handover is set that calendar: what the next deadline is, who carries it, and what has to be collected before then. Everything else, including friction with the outgoing firm, comes after.

Here is the list we send to the outgoing firm. Asking for "the file" produces nothing; asking for these items, by name, produces a transfer.

This is where the most misconceptions circulate, in both directions. The dividing line is nonetheless clear.

Your own records belong to you: invoices, bank statements, contracts, anything you handed over. They are returned to you; an outstanding fee balance does not retain them.

A right of retention does exist, founded on article 2286 of the French Civil Code, and article 168 of decree no. 2012-432 does not prohibit it: it frames it. A professional considering it must inform the president of the regional council of the Ordre of "any contractual dispute leading them to consider retaining the work performed for non-payment of fees". Retention may therefore only cover what the firm produced itself and that remains unpaid, never your own documents.

And if the amount is disputed, article 163 itself provides the way out: the incoming firm suggests to you in writing that you use "the conciliation or arbitration procedure of the Ordre provided for in articles 159 and 160". In other words, a fee dispute slows a handover down; it does not lock you in with your current firm. The two matters are separate, and the second does not condition the first. We set out the remedies step by step in our article on a former accountant withholding documents, and the full procedure is in the guide to changing accountant.

A file that changes firms is sometimes also a file that is behind. The two are not the same job: a handover organises a transfer, whereas accounting catch-up rebuilds financial years that were never kept. We tell you which one applies once we have seen the file, and the quote follows that finding.

If your books are already kept in Pennylane, the transfer happens without re-importing data: see our Pennylane accountant page.

The handover itself is not billed: no entry fee, no transfer package. What you pay for is the engagement that follows. Bookkeeping starts at the EUR 258 excl. VAT monthly base of our price list, and the firm quote follows a first discussion about volume, deadlines and the real state of the file once collected.

Two caveats, stated up front rather than discovered later. Where financial years are in arrears, the catch-up is a separate engagement, quoted once the documents have been reviewed. And where a file arrives without a usable FEC, putting it back in order takes extra work: we tell you before we start, with its price.

A chartered accountancy and statutory audit firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables de Paris Île-de-France, based at 58 rue de Monceau in the 8th arrondissement. A handover follows a written procedure here, always the same one: letter to the outgoing firm, itemised list of documents, completeness check, deadline calendar rebuilt.

What we do not promise#

A guaranteed migration deadline. It depends on a third party, the outgoing firm, and on how fast it hands over: nobody can honestly commit to that on its behalf. We commit on what is ours, the letter sent on the day you sign, the written follow-up if nothing arrives, and the list of what is missing before your first deadline. And we tell you where the file stands rather than leaving you to guess.

If your situation is already urgent, a deadline falling due or a formal demand received, that is a different subject and it is handled differently: see emergency accountant.