You can change your accounting office at any point in the year – the law does not tie a change to the end of the tax or financial year. In practice, business owners hold back for fear that something will get lost in the transition: a document, a deadline or access to the tax office. This article walks you through the change step by step: from terminating the contract, through handing over documents and authorisations, to the duties of your current office.
The simplest way is to change accounting office from the first day of a month. The old office then settles all months up to the end of its contract, and the new one starts with a full month, without splitting documents between two firms
When is the best time to change accounting office
A mid-year change is possible but requires one cut-off date. Up to that date the old office keeps the books; after it, the new one does. The date is usually chosen so that:
- the old office settles full months (tax advances, ZUS (Social Insurance Institution), JPK_V7 (VAT return with records, SAF-T file)) up to the last month of its contract,
- the new office receives all year-to-date data, because PIT (personal income tax) and CIT (corporate income tax) advances are calculated on cumulative income,
- the change does not fall just before the annual settlement deadline – if you switch in January or February, agree clearly who will prepare the return or financial statements for the previous year.
If the change falls mid-year, the new office "takes over" books in progress. That is normal, but it requires complete data for the months before the change.
Step 1: terminating the contract with your current office
Start by reading the contract with your old office. Check the notice period and form, which months the office will still settle, and the rules and deadline for returning documents. The notice period follows from the contract. Accounting office contracts are usually contracts for services, to which the rules on contracts of mandate apply (Article 750 of the Civil Code). The right to terminate a contract for important reasons cannot be waived in advance (Article 746 § 3 of the Civil Code) – this matters when the change is caused, for example, by serious errors in settlements.
Send the termination in the form required by the contract and keep proof of delivery. In the letter it is worth stating straight away the date up to which the office settles your business and asking it to prepare documents for handover.
Step 2: the contract with your new accounting office
Sign the contract with the new office so that it applies from the first day after the cut-off date. At VKSIĘGOWOŚĆ you place the order through a form (three steps: business register, information on documents, employees and taxation, details of the signatory), and you sign the contract with a Trusted Profile (Profil Zaufany), a qualified electronic signature or in person at one of our offices – in Wola or in Śródmieście. The contract is for an indefinite period, with one month's notice effective at the end of a month.
Give the new office straight away information on your form of taxation, VAT status, employees and any unusual events in the current year (e.g. purchase of a fixed asset, a grant received). This makes it easier to take over books in progress.
Step 3: handing over documents and accounting data
The old office should hand over everything it received from the client and prepared on the client's behalf. This follows from Article 740 of the Civil Code: after performing the mandate or after earlier termination of the contract, the mandatary must give an account and hand over everything obtained while performing the mandate for the principal. The handover is best confirmed with a protocol listing the documents.
| What to give the new office | JDG (KPiR or ryczałt) | Company (accounting books) |
|---|---|---|
| Tax records or books | KPiR or revenue records from the start of the year | journal, general ledger, trial balance |
| Assets | register of fixed assets and intangible assets | register of fixed assets, depreciation plan |
| VAT | VAT records and filed JPK_V7 files | VAT records and filed JPK_V7 files |
| ZUS and payroll | ZUS returns, payroll lists, employees' PIT-2 | ZUS returns, payroll lists, employees' PIT-2 |
| Annual documents | stocktaking as at 1 January, return for the previous year | accounting policy, chart of accounts, statements for the previous year |
In the table, JDG means a sole proprietorship, KPiR the tax revenue and expense ledger and ryczałt the flat-rate tax on recorded revenue. Original accounting records go back to the business (or – if you agree – straight to the new office). Employees' personnel files are kept and stored by the employer (Article 94 points 9a and 9b of the Labour Code (Kodeks pracy)), so if they were held by the old office, they must also come back.
Step 4: authorisations, KSeF and filings with the authorities
After changing office you need to sort out access. The old office should not keep its permissions, and the new one has to receive them:
- Authorisation to sign tax returns (UPL-1) – a return may be signed by the taxpayer's representative (Article 80a § 1 of the Tax Ordinance Act (Ordynacja podatkowa)). The authorisation and its revocation (form OPL-1) are filed with the head of the tax office (urząd skarbowy) (Article 80a § 2a).
- Authorisation at ZUS (PEL) – for the new office, with the old office's authorisation revoked.
- Permissions in KSeF (National e-Invoicing System) – permissions are granted and withdrawn in the system (§ 3 section 1 point 1 and § 4 of the regulation, Journal of Laws (Dz.U.) 2025 item 1815). Withdraw the old office's permissions and grant them to the new one. If a company without a qualified electronic seal named an employee of the old office in its ZAW-FA notification, it can only name another person after withdrawing the previous person's permissions (§ 5 section 3).
- Details of who keeps the records – the identification notification includes the details of the entity keeping the accounting records and where they are stored (Article 5 of the Act on the Rules of Registration and Identification of Taxpayers and Payers). A change must be reported within 7 days (Article 9 section 1): a JDG through an application to amend its CEIDG (Central Register and Information on Economic Activity) entry, a company on form NIP-8. A company whose books are kept outside its registered office also notifies the tax office of where the books are kept within 15 days of handing them over (Article 11a of the Accounting Act).
We write more about KSeF permissions in the article on ZAW-FA and KSeF with an accounting office.
The old accounting office's duties
Your current office is responsible for settlements for the period covered by the contract and for handing over documents. It may not keep them as security for unpaid invoices – administrative courts reject such a "lien", and the tax authority may impose a procedural fine on the office for failing to produce documents (Article 262 § 3 point 3 of the Tax Ordinance Act; in 2026 up to PLN 3,800, from 1 January 2027 up to PLN 3,900). A fee dispute is resolved separately. Details and how to recover documents are described in the article on what an office risks by withholding documents.
An accounting office must have compulsory civil liability insurance (Article 76h of the Accounting Act). If, after the change, it turns out that the old office made a mistake, you direct your claims to it – the new office can help prepare a correction.
Example: an sp. z o.o. (limited liability company) decides to change its accounting office in July. It terminates the contract with effect from 31 August and signs a contract with the new office from 1 September. The old office settles August (contributions by 15 September, JPK_V7 by 25 September) and by mid-September hands over the books for January–August, the records and a protocol. Meanwhile the company grants the new office permissions in KSeF and files NIP-8 with the new details of the entity keeping its records.
Switching your accounting to VKSIĘGOWOŚĆ
We provide accounting for businesses, sole proprietorships and companies – simplified accounting for businesses registered in CEIDG and full accounting for companies registered in KRS (National Court Register). When you switch to us, the accounting fee covers preparing the UPL-1 authorisation, the PEL authorisation for ZUS, the ZUS ZPA registration, NIP-8 and the ZAW-FA notification. Correcting a return for a period before our contract is an additional service – from PLN 100 net. You can send documents through the portal, by e-mail, by post, by courier or in person in Wola or Śródmieście. Place your order through the form, and ask about the takeover details via the contact page.
