---
id: KB-LE-022
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/your-adviser-has-the-papers-and-you-dont
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: fiscal
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-LE-021, KB-TZ-003, KB-LE-015]
citadoPor: [KB-LE-023]
---

# Your adviser has the papers and you don't

_Delegating the admin does not delegate the duty: if you are asked, you are the one asked — and the answer sits in another office._

**Responde a:** my accountant holds all my documentation · asked for papers my adviser holds · what documentation should i keep myself · delegating bookkeeping and liability

It is the commonest arrangement in a small company: **the firm handles everything**. It works perfectly for years, until the day someone asks about a document on a Friday afternoon and the answer is «our accountant has that» — a sentence that sounds like an excuse even when it is true.

## What changes and what does not when you delegate

| What to look at | Handled by the adviser | Still yours |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The admin and the deadlines | Yes | — |
| The technical knowledge | Yes | — |
| **The obligation** | **No** | **Yes, always** |
| Being able to produce it on request | Sometimes | **Yes, and that is what fails** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **You can delegate who does it; you cannot delegate who answers.** It is the line almost nobody sees clearly until they cross it. Your adviser represents you and works well, but the request arrives in your name, the deadline runs for you, and if the adviser is on holiday the deadline runs anyway. Keeping a copy of what goes out in your name is not distrust: it is that you are the addressee of the question.

## The minimum worth holding in your own house

1. **A copy of what is filed in your name** — Each filing, when it is made, not when you ask for it.
2. **The contracts and documents underpinning the business** — Those are yours at source, not a product of the bookkeeping.
3. **An index of what sits at the firm** — So you can say where it is even without holding it.
4. **And knowing who to call there, not just the switchboard** — A deadline runs in August too.

> [!WARNING]
> The moment this stops being theoretical: **when you change adviser or the adviser closes**. That is when you discover years of documentation existed in one place only, that the handover depends on the goodwill of someone you may be parting from badly, and that rebuilding what is missing costs more than keeping it would have. It is the same problem as changing systems, and it is prevented the same way: by keeping a copy while things are going well.

> [!NOTE]
> What documentation a company must retain directly, for how long, and what liability survives delegation depends on the subject and the applicable rules. **Your adviser settles that — ask them, it is a ten-minute conversation**; here we explain why a copy is worth having even when the answer is that they already keep it.

**If my adviser holds it, is that enough?**

To operate yes; to answer on the spot, keep a copy.

**Do I have to keep the same as them?**

Not all of it: what underpins your business and what is filed in your name.

**What if I change adviser?**

That is when it shows. Hence the copy while things are going well.

## Ejemplos

**A request arrives on a Friday and the firm is closed until Monday.**

- Keeps a copy of what is filed in their name, as it is filed

→ The response starts on Friday rather than Monday.

**You change adviser and years of documentation exist only in their office.**

- Keeps a copy while the relationship is going well

→ The handover stops depending on anyone's goodwill.

**A client asks for an old contract and nobody knows whether the company or the firm holds it.**

- Maintains an index of what is where

→ You can say where it is even without holding it.

**A deadline runs in August and only the firm's switchboard number is known.**

- Records who to call there, with a name and direct contact

→ The deadline is met even in holiday season.

**The company assumes the firm also keeps its commercial contracts.**

- Separates what is theirs at source from what the bookkeeping produces

→ The documents underpinning the business are where they should be.

**The firm closes on retirement with a month's notice.**

- Requests and keeps periodic copies instead of waiting for the handover

→ The closure is a change of supplier rather than a loss of memory.