What Should Be Ready for Day One After Buying an Accounting Practice?
Updated: Oct 24
GUEST AUTHOR | Blackhall & Co
Today’s guest post is by Blackhall & Co. Blackhall & Co helps buyers find businesses worth owning. Opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fairlane Finance.
Day one readiness means the people taking over can pay staff, access authorised records, answer clients and identify urgent work as soon as the purchase completes.
Day one after buying an accounting practice is where transaction planning meets ordinary working life.
A client phones, payroll approaches and someone needs a document that lived in the vendor’s inbox. The first morning feels calmer when these everyday demands have already been considered.
For an Australian buyer, the aim is essential operating readiness. Prepare changes before completion, identify which require legal completion first and test each with the person responsible. The longer programme of vendor handover, client relationships and integration deserves its own plan.
Day one after buying an accounting practice: the short answer
Confirm banking, payment approvals and cash available for immediate expenses.
Prepare payroll and critical supplier arrangements for the correct operating entity.
Test authorised software access, administrator control and secure client records.
Check premises, phones, email and the people answering enquiries.
Give urgent work and approaching deadlines a named owner and backup.
Agree the completion trigger, vendor availability and response to a failed change.
What changes only when completion is confirmed?
Start with the solicitor’s confirmation of when control passes and what you are entitled to change.
Prepare a short schedule showing the change, its owner, any third-party dependency, the test and the completion trigger. A planned account transfer is different from an account that the buyer can actually use.
The schedule depends on whether you are buying a practice or a fee book. Existing arrangements may continue in some transactions, while others require new accounts, licences or permissions. Have your advisers and providers confirm the position for the actual entity rather than treating the vendor’s arrangements as automatically transferable.
Use meaningful status labels: prepared, awaiting consent, tested or awaiting completion confirmation. For anything outstanding, document who can resolve it and what happens in the meantime.
The buyer and responsible team members should record the result of each test, including any limits, because a successful login does not prove that someone can approve payments or lodge work.
Can the practice receive money and pay its immediate bills?
Confirm the operating account, authorised users and payment approval process. Check how clients will pay new invoices, how recurring collections are handled and who can release payroll or urgent supplier payments.
Where account details change, agree the notification and independent verification process before messages go out.
Separate money owed to the vendor from receipts belonging to the buyer. The agreed treatment of debtors and unfinished work should translate into practical invoice and reconciliation instructions.
Staff need to know where to direct an old invoice payment and whom to ask if a receipt arrives in the wrong account.
Budget for the first payroll, rent, software renewals and other immediate expenses, allowing for the timing of receipts. Purchase funding and operating cash serve different purposes.
Ask finance and legal advisers to clarify any relevant conditions, then check that the money required for ordinary operations will actually be available.
Are payroll and essential suppliers ready?
Confirm the employer, first pay date, employee details, agreed payroll balances and responsibility for reporting and superannuation. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s change-of-owner guidance explains that a transfer of business can affect employee entitlements. You should obtain advice about the applicable employment position, because loading staff into payroll software does not settle those obligations.
The staff structure you assessed during due diligence now needs clear responsibilities. Identify who prepares payroll, who checks it and who approves payment.
Walk through the process with authorised users before the first pay run, using an appropriate test that avoids accidentally paying staff twice.
List suppliers whose interruption would stop work: software, internet, phone services, IT support and essential outsourced assistance. Confirm account ownership, billing details, next renewal and support contacts.
For each necessary transfer or new agreement, obtain provider confirmation and agree who follows up a delay.
Can authorised people use systems and records securely?
Turn your technology due diligence into practical checks. Test named user access to practice management, document storage, accounting software and email. Confirm administrator permissions, licence coverage and account recovery contacts.
A vendor’s personal login or authentication device should not become the buyer’s everyday access method.
Check that authorised staff can find complete, current records and that access is limited appropriately. Where the Privacy Act applies, OAIC guidance on APP 11 requires reasonable steps to protect personal information, including technical and organisational measures. You should ask your adviser to confirm the lawful transfer and use of records, because possession of a client folder does not establish permission.
The Australian Signals Directorate’s small business guide recommends measures including multi-factor authentication and backups. Have the responsible IT provider verify these arrangements, including recovery access.
Agree how vendor access will be restricted or removed while preserving any authorised support needed after completion.
Separately confirm authority to perform urgent tax work. The ATO’s agent nomination guidance explains nomination requirements for entities with an ABN, excluding sole traders, when engaging a new registered agent or changing relevant authorisations. The incoming team should check the applicable process for each affected client, because acquiring the practice does not by itself establish that online authority is ready.
Who answers the phone and owns the urgent work?
Check keys, alarm access, internet and the agreed right to occupy premises. Test a phone call and an email from outside the practice, including forwarding and shared inbox access.
Agree a simple response to enquiries about ownership and confirm who handles questions staff cannot answer.
Prepare one current list of approaching lodgment dates, client payroll runs, promised deliverables and unresolved urgent matters. Include the client, next action, deadline, responsible person and reviewer where required.
Cross-check the list against the actual workflow and records rather than relying solely on the vendor’s recollection.
Agree when the vendor is reachable, through which channel and for what decisions. Your broader vendor handover arrangements can develop introductions and knowledge transfer over time.
Day one needs a narrower answer: who helps if an urgent file cannot be found, and who takes responsibility if that help is unavailable?
An illustrative first-morning test
Suppose a buyer expects completion on Friday, with staff returning on Monday and payroll due Tuesday. This is an illustration, not a recommended transaction timetable. An authorised rehearsal reveals that payroll preparation works, but the buyer’s payment approver cannot release the file.
The named owner follows up the permission issue, records the outstanding dependency and agrees an authorised contingency with the relevant provider. After the solicitor confirms completion, the buyer activates the planned changes and verifies the result.
The lesson is practical: test the task someone must perform, not just whether an account exists.
Frequently asked questions
Should I change every system on the first day?
Prioritise changes needed for lawful, secure operation. Larger migrations can follow a separate plan where existing arrangements can appropriately continue. Confirm permissions and dependencies before deciding what can wait.
Can staff keep using the vendor’s passwords?
Arrange named, authorised access and appropriate administrator control. Ask the provider about migration and recovery rather than relying on shared personal credentials or the vendor’s authentication device.
Who should approve the readiness checklist?
The buyer should review it with each responsible owner. Legal advisers confirm completion matters, while providers and operational staff verify their respective tasks. Record unresolved items and the agreed response.
Does acquiring client records give me ATO access?
Do not assume so. Check registration, client authority and applicable linking requirements separately. Identify urgent work needing action before the required access is available.
Is day one readiness the whole vendor handover?
No. It establishes essential operating capability. Detailed knowledge transfer, relationship development and client retention belong in the subsequent handover programme, with their own responsibilities and review points.
Make readiness something you can demonstrate
Before completion, ask each owner to show that their essential task is prepared and tested, or clearly explain the remaining dependency.
After completion is confirmed, verify the changes that could only happen then. That gives the first working day a workable foundation and leaves the broader transition room to develop.
Sources and further reading
Contributor disclaimer: This article is contributed by Blackhall & Co and published on the Fairlane Finance website. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed are those of the contributor alone, not statements of Fairlane Finance’s position. Publication does not constitute Fairlane Finance’s endorsement of the contributor’s views, services or any proposed acquisition.
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