Changing accountants mid-year: handover, GST and year-end

You can change accountants at any point in the year. Unlike a change of company secretary, there is nothing to file with ACRA, and no rule that you must wait for year-end.

What matters is a clean cut-off and a complete handover, because your year-end accounts and tax filings will rest on books that two firms have kept.

Pick a clean cut-off

Switch at a month-end, with the old accountant closing the books up to that date. If you are GST-registered, the end of a GST accounting period is better still, so that one firm prepares each return from start to finish.

What to collect

• The general ledger and trial balance up to the cut-off date.
• Bank reconciliations for every account.
• Aged receivables and payables.
• The fixed asset register.
• Payroll records, CPF submissions and the latest IR8A filings.
• GST returns filed this year, with their workings.
• Last year’s financial statements, tax computation, corporate tax return and notices of assessment.
• Any Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) already filed for the current year.

The ledger itself

If your books are in Xero under your old accountant’s subscription, ask them to transfer the subscription to you. The file and its history then stay with the company, whoever keeps the books. If the books are in the old firm’s own software, ask for full exports of the ledger and the supporting schedules, so your new accountant can rebuild the opening position.

GST

GST returns are due one month after the end of each accounting period. Agree in writing who files the return for the period in which you switch. Your new accountant also needs the workings behind the returns already filed this year, because the year-end accounts have to agree with them.

Year-end still covers the whole year

Your new accountant will prepare financial statements for the full year, including the months they didn’t keep. Expect them to review the opening balances and the earlier months before relying on them. The deadlines don’t move because you switched:

• ECI: within three months of your financial year-end, unless your company qualifies for the waiver.
• AGM: within six months of year-end, where one is required.
• Annual return: filed with ACRA within seven months of year-end.
• Corporate tax return (Form C-S or Form C): by 30 November of the following year.

Access and authorisations

In Corppass, authorise the new firm for the IRAS and CPF e-services it needs, and remove the old firm’s access. Do the same for bank feeds, payroll software and any expense or invoicing tools connected to your ledger.

Keep your own copies

A company must keep its accounting records for at least five years. Records that live only in a former provider’s system are hard to produce when IRAS or an auditor asks for them, so make sure the company holds its own copy of everything handed over.

Moving your books to Futurebooks

We take over your existing Xero file or move your books into Xero, reconcile the opening position, and pick up payroll, GST and year-end from there. If your company secretary is with the same provider, we can take that over at the same time, so your accounts, tax filings and ACRA annual return are prepared by one team. See what moves with you when you leave an online provider.

This article is general information, not accounting or tax advice. Based on the Companies Act 1967 and IRAS and ACRA guidance as at November 2026.