---
id: KB-LE-023
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/changing-firms-and-taking-the-archive
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: contractual
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-LE-022, KB-TZ-009, KB-LE-020]
citadoPor: [KB-LE-013]
---

# Changing firms and taking the archive

_The change is decided in an afternoon and the handover takes months. Whatever you do not request before announcing it costs double after._

**Responde a:** changing accountants how to get my documentation · handover of records between firms · my old firm wont hand over my papers · what to request before switching adviser

The decision to switch is usually taken quickly and for reasons that are not documentary: price, service, one error too many. The handover, by contrast, is slow, quiet work that starts badly if done in the wrong order — **and the wrong order is announcing first and requesting afterwards**.

## The order that works

1. **Request a copy of what they hold of yours, before saying anything** — It is a normal request from an active client, and is treated as such.
2. **Check what is missing against your index** — If you have no index, that is the first job.
3. **And only then announce the change** — With the copy already in your house, the handover stops being leverage.
4. **Put the formal handover in writing** — What is delivered, in what format and when.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Requesting your documentation while still a client is not a manoeuvre: it is elementary prudence, and the whole sector knows it.** After the notice, the same request competes with the diary of someone who has just lost a client. It is not bad faith —it is priority— but the result is the same: weeks of delay precisely when the new adviser needs everything to start.

## What to ask for, and it is not «everything»

| What | Why it matters |
| --- | --- |
| What was filed in your name, by year | It is what will be demanded of you |
| The original documents you provided | They are yours and sometimes there is no copy |
| The calculations or criteria they applied | Without them the new adviser starts from zero |
| **And in what format you get it** | **A box of paper is not a handover** |

> [!WARNING]
> What is most often lost in a switch is not documents: **it is the reasoning**. Why something was done a particular way, what was agreed at the time with an authority, what is peculiar about your case. That lives in the head of whoever handled you and is in no folder. A one-hour meeting between outgoing and incoming adviser is worth more than half the archive — and it must be requested while the relationship is still cordial.

> [!NOTE]
> What a professional must hand over on ending an engagement, within what period and what may be withheld depends on professional rules and on what was agreed. **If the handover becomes difficult, your new adviser or professional body settles that**; here we explain the order that avoids reaching that point.

**Can they withhold my documentation?**

It depends on professional rules and what was agreed. Ask before it becomes a problem.

**What format should I ask for?**

One that can be used. A box of paper with no index is half a handover.

**Is a handover meeting worth it?**

It is the most easily lost and cheapest thing to preserve. Ask for it.

## Ejemplos

**The change is announced and only then is the documentation requested.**

- Requests a copy of everything while still an active client

→ Delivery arrives in days instead of competing with the diary of someone who lost a client.

**A box of paper with no index arrives and the new adviser cannot begin.**

- Agrees the handover format before it is executed

→ The new adviser can work from day one.

**The reasoning behind why something was done a certain way is lost.**

- Requests a handover meeting between outgoing and incoming adviser

→ What lived in one head moves into the company.

**Original documents the company provided years ago are missing.**

- Compares what is received against their own index of what was handed over

→ What is missing is spotted while it can still be claimed.

**The handover is agreed verbally and nobody knows what remained outstanding.**

- Puts in writing what is delivered, in what format and when

→ The handover can be closed and treated as complete.

**A request arrives about a year from the previous arrangement.**

- Keeps what was filed in their name by year, not only the recent

→ The answer does not depend on a firm they no longer work with.