Changing your bookkeeper: 6 steps, the handover list and the 7-year rule

Kassify · 6 November 2026

You change bookkeepers in six steps: pick a switch date, give written notice, get the books handed over up to that date, compare the balance list, move access to the banks and Skatturinn, and keep the old records for 7 years. The best switch date is 1 January, or the first day of a new VAT period, so that each period is wholly one bookkeeper's responsibility.

Here are the steps in the right order, the list of what the old bookkeeper must hand over, the dates through the New Year and the mistakes that cost the most.

When is the right time

Companies change bookkeepers when the books are a month behind, the VAT return goes in on the last day or questions go unanswered. The reason decides whether you switch. The date decides how much work comes with it.

VAT periods are two months: January and February, March and April, May and June, July and August, September and October, November and December. The due date is one month and five days after the period ends, so January and February fall due on 5 April. Switch on the first day of a period. The old bookkeeper finishes their period and the new one starts clean.

The New Year is the best time. The financial year closes, a new VAT period and a new payroll month start on the same day, and the annual accounts are built on one reconciled position.

The notice

The notice period is in your contract with the bookkeeper. Read it first, then send the notice by email so the date is on record. The notice states four things:

• The switch date, for example 1 January 2027.
• Which VAT periods and payroll months the old bookkeeper finishes. The last period before the switch date is the one that gets forgotten.
• The handover list below and the day the records are due.
• Who takes over: the new bookkeeper's name and email, so the two can talk directly.

You do not have to give a reason. Pay the final invoice once the records are in and the balance list agrees.

What the old bookkeeper must hand over

The books belong to the company, not the bookkeeper. This is the list:

Ask for the records in files a new system can read, not only as PDF. If the accounting system subscription is in the bookkeeper's name, get an export before it ends.

Access to banks, systems and Skatturinn

Once the records are in, the old bookkeeper's access is closed and the new one's is opened. In the company's online bank and in the accounting system, the authorised signatory (prókúruhafi) removes the old user and adds the new one.

At Skatturinn, the Icelandic tax authority, access runs on web keys (veflyklar). According to Skatturinn's site, each company can hold up to four:

New keys are sent to the online bank or to the registered address. At a Skatturinn office, a company's keys are handed only to the authorised signatory, the managing director or the chair of the board.

Electronic powers of attorney on Ísland.is do not cover filing a tax return. That authorisation is applied for at Skatturinn. A bookkeeper who files companies' returns lists them on their filing list at skatturinn.is/skil, with each company's kennitala and email. The new bookkeeper adds the company to their list.

The 7-year rule

Under Article 20 of the Bookkeeping Act no. 145/1994, books, accounting records and supporting documents must be kept securely for seven years from the end of the financial year they belong to. Regulation no. 505/2013 covers electronic bookkeeping: it is kept for seven years and must stay readable until the end of that period.

A document from the 2020 financial year is therefore kept until the end of 2027. The duty sits with the company, not the bookkeeper, and it makes no difference who did the booking. Records in a system the old bookkeeper cancels are records the company still has to be able to show.

Dates for a New Year switch

This is how the year looks with a switch date of 1 January 2027 and monthly payroll:

Withholding tax falls due on the 1st of the month after the pay month, and its final date is the 15th of that month.

Example: the VAT return nobody filed

The most common gap is the last VAT period before the switch date. The old bookkeeper thinks the job ended on 31 December and the new one thinks November and December are not theirs. Say 1.400.000 kr. is payable for the period. The surcharge is 1% of the unpaid amount for each started day after the due date, up to 10%:

One line in the notice, on who files on 5 February, prevents it.

The mistakes that cost the most

1. 1
   Switching in the middle of a VAT period

   Two bookkeepers work on one return and neither is responsible for the whole.

2. 2
   Giving notice before the records arrive

   If the accounting system is in the bookkeeper's name, the transaction history closes with the subscription.

3. 3
   Moving only the opening balances

   The new system starts on the right numbers, but the annual accounts need the whole year's entries, and a query from Skatturinn about an earlier year cannot be answered from opening balances.

4. 4
   Not comparing the balance list

   A difference found in January is one correction. A difference found in August, at the annual accounts, is a search through eight months of entries.

5. 5
   The old bookkeeper keeps access

   Online bank, accounting system and the main web key. Close that access the day the handover is confirmed.

6. 6
   Pension returns forgotten

   The pay goes out but the return to the pension fund does not, and the employee is the first to see it, on the fund's statement.

Kassify handles the switch

Everything above is work you run yourself when you change bookkeepers. With Kassify it is included. Kassify is an accounting firm that uses AI, a whole finance department for one fixed price, 20% below a traditional accounting firm.

• You give your bookkeeper's name. Kassify talks to them and handles everything after that.
• Transactions, sales invoices, payslips and opening balances move over, and every account is reconciled before Kassify takes over.
• The switch takes less than 7 days and is included in the fixed price.
• 0 manual entries. Every transaction is read, categorised and matched without a single entry from you.
• A bookkeeper replies within 24 hours. Certified bookkeepers and chartered accountants stand behind the work, including Gunnar Freyr Guðmundsson, owner of Endár ehf.

What bookkeeping with Kassify includes, how Kassify compares with the best accounting firms and what bookkeeping costs a year are covered in their own articles. If you are changing systems too: switching from dk.

Questions

A new bookkeeper. The history comes with you.

Leave your email and Kassify goes through where you stand. You get the price in writing before you decide, and Kassify takes over your books from 1 January if you switch before the New Year.