How to switch bookkeepers without losing a month

1. Make sure you own the QuickBooks file

This is the step that causes the most trouble. Sometimes a bookkeeper or firm opened the QuickBooks Online subscription under their own account. Before anything else, confirm you are the primary admin and the subscription is billed to you. If it is not, ask them to transfer ownership while you are still on good terms.

2. Collect what you need from the old bookkeeper

• The month and account balances their last reconciliations stopped at.
• Any open questions, uncategorized transactions or items they were waiting on.
• Contractor W-9s and prior-year 1099 records.
• Payroll reports if they handled payroll, and sales tax filings if you collect it.
• Logins they set up on your behalf, such as payment processors or bill pay tools.

3. Remove their access

In QuickBooks Online, open the gear menu and choose Manage users. Outside bookkeepers are usually listed on the Accountants tab. Remove them there, and check the Users tab too. Then review access to your bank portals, payroll provider and anything else they could log in to.

Do this once you have what you need, and tell them it is happening. It is simply good practice.

4. Check the books you were handed

A report saying the books are reconciled is not the same as the books being reconciled. A careful new bookkeeper will check:

• That each account's reconciled balance matches the actual bank or card statement for that date.
• Whether reconciled transactions were edited or deleted after the fact.
• How much is sitting in uncategorized income or expense, or in Undeposited Funds.
• Whether payroll and contractor totals agree with the payroll and 1099 records.

Anything that fails these checks gets fixed first. Otherwise the new bookkeeper is building on top of the old problems.

5. Pick a clean start date

Agree on the first month the new bookkeeper owns, usually the first month that is not fully reconciled. Everything before is checked and, if needed, cleaned up. Everything after is theirs.

If your old bookkeeper disappeared

It happens more than people admit. As long as you have admin access to QuickBooks and can download bank statements, the books can be rebuilt without them. It just takes longer, which is why owning the file matters so much.

Common questions

Can I switch bookkeepers in the middle of the year?

Yes. Pick a clean start month, have the new bookkeeper verify everything before it, and carry on. Mid-year is often better than waiting for books to get further behind.

How do I remove a bookkeeper from QuickBooks Online?

Open the gear menu, choose Manage users, and remove them from the Accountants tab, where outside bookkeepers usually sit, or the Users tab. Only the primary admin can do this for every user type.

What if my old bookkeeper will not hand anything over?

If you are the admin of your QuickBooks Online file and can download statements from your bank, the books can be verified and rebuilt without them.

This guide is general information about bookkeeping, not tax or legal advice. Rules change, so check the details with your CPA before you act on them.