Handover information to a new agent: how would you do this?

Sometimes the parting of the ways is amicable and smooth – and sometimes it is bumpy and can leave a nasty taste in the mouth!

In a recent blog post we considered the internal changes to software and systems necessary when a member of staff leaves the firm. 

So – a staff member leaves – unqualified, unregulated, and the next thing you know is they have set up on their own. The likelihood is that they will have purchased the same software they were using when in your employ -after all, why have to learn something new from scratch? This will be confirmed when requests start to come in for handover information.

With online accounting, it is quite easy for a client to request a transfer of the subscription from the accountant currently paying it, and once accepted, users can be added and deleted at will, so it is quite easy to hit the ground running, at least for the day to day work. 

However, where perhaps a standalone and desktop-based payroll has been used, it is not quite so easy. The request for handover information may therefore come in as a request for a data backup file. 

When a request for payroll information in the form of a data backup comes direct from the client and not from the ex-staff member in a “professional” manner, what would you do?

The responsibility for the data falls squarely into the realms of GDPR, and which party is the Data Controller (it will be the Employer), and which party is the Data Processor (those responsible for running the payroll). 

What would you supply?

It might be just the payroll has been taken over in the first instance, and there is still an ongoing relationship with the client regarding the accounts production. Do you “rock the boat” and play hardball or just roll over and accede to the request, adopting the line of least resistance and supply the backup file? 

What if it was only payroll services that were being supplied to the client, with no other engagements? Would this change your way of thinking? 

An alternative to supplying a data backup would be to supply the information in “printed” format – a huge pile of paper (although probably in PDF format and not physical paper sent in the post) containing staff details, all the pay reports for the current year etc. so that the recipient has to spend time keying it all in again! This can potentially be a significant amount of work when setting up part way through a tax year.

The client may not be too impressed if he is told that if a backup had been supplied, hours of work could have been saved? 

The request to supply information has however been complied with…..?

This method in itself is not unusual if the accounting practice takes on a new payroll client, and the software being used in-house is not compatible with the prior agent’s software. 

Another alternative would be to request as much information as possible in a csv format, in the hope that it, or at least some of it, could be manipulated and imported to save rekeying. 

The supply of information in “paper format” has the possibility of coming back to bite though–especially if the new relationship did not work and the payroll came back in-house again! No doubt it would also come back in “paper” form. 

The same principle applies to personal tax returns and “final accounts” where the data can be exported from a software product and then imported again into the same software. It is often possible when looking at accounts or tax returns to be able to identify the underlying software used – would you request a “backup” to save time if taking on a client from another practice?

This does often also rely on the software packages in both practices being on the same version number though, otherwise problems can arise!

There are various schedules and workings which sometimes do not form part of the accounts – e.g. fixed asset registers. Excel tends to be used extensively for these – so to receive an Excel version rather than a printed schedule would be extremely helpful to the recipient- you would like to receive it in this way – so do you supply it in this way to a new agent if the client is “lost”? 

What are your thoughts? 

About the author

Kevin Salter, Managing Director, BBS Computing Ltd