Switching accountant in Finland: how to change accounting firm in the right order
You can change accounting firm within the terms of your contract; what matters is the order. Give notice, agree the date the new firm takes over, move the records, grant the new firm its Suomi.fi mandates and cancel the old firm's once its last filings for you are done. Throughout, the obligation to keep proper books stays with your company: an accounting firm does the work, but it does not take over that obligation.
Before you give notice
Read your contract. Many Finnish firms use the general terms of the Finnish Association of Accounting Firms (Taloushallintoliitto), most recently TAL2023. Unless something else was agreed, they set a two-month notice period, and the old firm may charge its fee for the notice period even if it does no work in it. Give notice in a way you can prove later, by email or letter rather than in a phone call.
Choose the switch date. The cleanest point is the start of a financial year: the old firm closes the year it worked on and the new one starts from the opening balance. The next best is the start of a VAT period, so each return is filed by one firm only. A switch in the middle of a month leaves two firms responsible for parts of the same month.
Talk to the new firm first. It can tell you what it needs from the old one, so you can ask for everything in one go.
What to get from the old firm
Under TAL2023 the old firm hands your material over without delay once its invoices are paid, and you arrange the collection at your own cost. If the contract ends during a financial year, the terms let the old firm ask for payment in advance before it prepares the closing documents for its part: the financial statements, or balance sheet breakdowns if the year is not finished. Ask for:
- the general ledger and journal up to the switch date, and the chart of accounts
- the last financial statements with their balance sheet breakdowns (tase-erittelyt)
- unpaid sales invoices and unpaid bills at the switch date
- the VAT returns filed for the year
- the fixed asset register, which carries your depreciation forward
- payroll records for the year, if the firm ran your payroll
- an export of the data from the bookkeeping software
The export matters. Under TAL2023 the rights to the database belong to the firm when its own software was used and to you when the software is yours, so ask for the data in a format the new firm can read.
Wherever the material ends up, the retention times are your company's: financial statements and ledgers for 10 years from the end of the financial year, vouchers for 6 years from the end of the year in which the financial year ended. Our article on receipts and record keeping has the details.
Suomi.fi mandates: grant the new, cancel the old
The new firm needs a Suomi.fi mandate before it can act for you in MyTax (OmaVero). For all tax matters that is Managing of tax affairs (Veroasioiden hoito). If the firm runs your payroll it also needs Reporting earnings payment data (Palkkatietojen ilmoittaminen): the tax mandate does not reach the Incomes Register. In a toiminimi, an accountant with the tax mandate sees both the business's and your personal tax information.
Then cancel the old firm's mandates in Suomi.fi. The Tax Administration says it plainly: a company that changes accounting firm must revoke the mandates it gave the previous firm, and if it does not, they stay valid until the end date set when they were given. Time it: if the old firm still files the last VAT return or the financial statements for its period, cancel its mandates once that work is done, and agree with both firms which of them files what. The old firm should revoke its mandates too, but do not rely on it.
In a limited company the managing director or deputy, or another person entitled to sign for the company alone, can grant and cancel mandates; in a toiminimi, the owner. Our step-by-step guide to approving a Suomi.fi mandate request shows where to click and covers the other cases.
What does not change
Your business ID, VAT registration and tax account stay as they are. In a limited company the managing director still answers for the books being lawful and the board for their supervision, whichever firm keeps them.
The switch in order
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Before notice | read the contract, pick the switch date, agree it with the new firm |
| Notice | in writing, with the contract's notice period (two months in TAL2023 unless agreed otherwise) |
| Switch date | the new firm gets its mandates and starts; the old firm finishes the filings for its period |
| After | old mandates cancelled; material and data export received; opening balances checked |
If you are looking for an accounting company in Finland to move to, ask before you give notice: we can check the switch date and the handover list with you.
Sources
- Suomi.fi: how an organisation gives an accounting firm the right to handle tax matters and the Incomes Register (in Finnish)
- Tax Administration: authorisations, including changing accounting firm (in Finnish)
- Suomi.fi: revoking mandates as an organisation (in Finnish)
- Suomi.fi: organising your bookkeeping (in Finnish)
- Accounting Act 1336/1997, chapter 2 section 10 (Finlex, in Finnish)
- Limited Liability Companies Act 624/2006, chapter 6 (Finlex, in Finnish)
- Taloushallintoliitto: general terms TAL2023 (PDF, in Finnish)
Please note: this is general information about Finnish rules, not advice for your own situation, and the rules change. Ask us before you act on it.
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Karma Accounts is an accounting company in Finland for sole traders and small companies. We keep the bookkeeping current and file on time, and you get the amount before the due date.
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