Who Coordinates Settlement When Buying an Accounting Practice?
Updated: 1 day ago
A shared settlement plan connects your responsibilities and the vendor’s with your solicitor’s work on legal completion and your acquisition finance adviser’s coordination of the agreed finance work.
Settlement when buying an accounting practice can feel like the final stretch of a long journey.
Yet the date in the diary is only useful if the people supplying documents, checking them and arranging payments are working towards the same current plan.
For an Australian buyer, the practical task is to establish who owns each remaining item, what counts as accepted and who will tell you the purchase has legally completed. Clear responsibilities make the last conversations more useful than a reassuring chorus of ‘nearly there’.
Settlement when buying an accounting practice: the short answer
Keep one shared current settlement date, with any proposed change clearly identified.
Have your solicitor manage legal completion and explain the required documents and payments.
Ask your acquisition finance adviser for the current lender position and outstanding finance requirements within the agreed services.
Allocate vendor and third-party deliverables to named people, with evidence of receipt and acceptance.
Confirm your contribution, payment instructions and decisions still needed from you.
Agree in writing who will confirm settlement to you, and through which channel.
Who brings the settlement plan together?
Your solicitor should lead the legal completion process within the agreed engagement, liaising with the vendor’s legal representative and identifying what is needed to complete your particular purchase. business.gov.au’s sale guidance explains that the sale contract sets out payment methods, handover details and conditions, and recommends legal assistance. Those documented terms provide the foundation for the settlement plan.
Ask who will maintain the overall list and circulate updates. That person might be your solicitor, with your acquisition finance adviser supplying finance updates and other advisers reporting on their own tasks.
The parties should expressly agree who will coordinate the work, because having several helpful professionals involved does not automatically create a single coordinator.
The work also depends on what you are actually acquiring.
A fee-book acquisition, an asset purchase and a share purchase can involve different completion documents and third-party arrangements. Ask your solicitor to translate your transaction structure into the specific items that must be ready.
How does your acquisition finance adviser fit into legal completion?
Your acquisition finance adviser’s role is to coordinate the finance services agreed with you: obtaining the current funding position, following up outstanding lender requirements and communicating relevant funding information to your solicitor with appropriate authority.
Your engagement should make the scope clear, including who liaises with the lender’s settlement team and who supplies each document.
The distinction matters even if you have already received an approval. As the guide to financing an accounting practice purchase explains, funding is a process rather than a single conversation. An approval does not by itself confirm that all requirements for releasing funds have been met or accepted.
Ask for a dated update describing what the lender currently requires, what has been supplied, what remains under review and what has been accepted.
A signed document sent yesterday may still be awaiting review today. Although your acquisition finance adviser can follow up and communicate that position, only the relevant lender or authorised team can confirm its acceptance and funding arrangements.
If the purchase documents, buying entity or settlement amount change, tell both your solicitor and your acquisition finance adviser promptly. They need the same current version to assess the implications within their respective roles.
An updated legal document should not be assumed to have reached, or been accepted by, the lender.
What belongs on the shared timetable?
Use the current contractual date as the starting point, then ask each responsible party what preparation is required before it. A suggested new date should be labelled as proposed until your solicitor confirms its contractual status. Finance readiness and third-party availability need to be checked against that same date.
For each outstanding item, record the owner, intended recipient, required date and current status. Useful status descriptions include requested, received, under review and accepted by the named reviewer.
‘Done’ is too vague when one person means they emailed a document and another means it has passed the required check.
Vendor items may include executed documents, supporting schedules and information needed for agreed adjustments. The vendor information you requested earlier should now connect with actual completion deliverables. Where debtors or unfinished work affect the payment, identify who prepares the current figures and who checks them against the agreed treatment.
Third parties can have their own processes. ASIC’s business-name transfer guidance describes steps for both the current and new holder, including a transfer number. Where relevant, ask who will obtain it, who will complete the buyer’s registration and how those tasks fit the solicitor’s completion plan.
Likewise, any required landlord consent or lease documentation needs a named contact and a clear status. The guide to taking over a commercial lease explains why premises arrangements deserve their own attention.
A landlord’s informal encouragement should not be recorded as receipt of the required executed document.
What must the buyer prepare personally?
Ask your solicitor for the current payment calculation and ask your acquisition finance adviser to clarify the expected lender-funded amount. Reconcile those figures with your contribution and separately budgeted costs. Confirm where your money must be available, who issues verified payment instructions and what evidence of availability is required.
The agreed purchase price may differ from the final amount needed at completion.
You also need to remain available for signing, identity checks and decisions. Tell the team about travel or competing commitments before the final days.
If the figures change or a document needs a decision, ask the relevant adviser to explain the issue before authorising the next step.
For an accounting practice, check the acquiring entity’s ability to provide the intended services. Tax Practitioners Board registration guidance sets out requirements for companies and partnerships, including professional indemnity insurance and sufficient registered individuals. You should confirm the applicable registration position with your adviser, because buying a practice does not establish that the buyer’s entity is ready to operate.
Payment verification deserves care. The Australian Signals Directorate describes business email compromise as criminals abusing trusted business communications, including payment requests and account-detail changes.
Agree a separate verification process using established contact details before transferring your contribution. The data and cybersecurity questions raised during due diligence remain relevant when substantial payments are being arranged.
An illustrative coordination example
Suppose a buyer, solicitor and acquisition finance adviser are preparing for an agreed Friday settlement. The solicitor is awaiting an executed lease document, while a lender-required document has been submitted but has not been accepted. The buyer has arranged their contribution. This is an illustration, not a suggested timetable or a statement of lender policy.
The shared update identifies two outstanding items and their owners. Your acquisition finance adviser follows up the finance review, while the solicitor follows up the lease document and advises on legal completion.
If Friday becomes uncertain, the buyer receives that information promptly and seeks legal advice about the contractual position. No one assumes that the other item will resolve itself.
Frequently asked questions
Does finance approval mean settlement funds are ready?
No. Ask for confirmation of the current funding position, including whether the lender has accepted the requirements for releasing funds and what arrangements remain outstanding.
Can your acquisition finance adviser confirm that the purchase has legally settled?
Agree who provides that confirmation, normally your solicitor as part of managing legal completion. A finance update or notification of a funds transfer should not be treated as that confirmation.
What if everyone is using a different settlement date?
Ask your solicitor to confirm the current contractual date and identify any proposed change. Have the coordinator circulate it so finance, vendor and third-party tasks use the same timetable.
Is emailing a required document enough?
It confirms submission, not acceptance. Record who must review it and obtain an update on whether it satisfies that party’s requirement or needs correction.
Who tells me settlement is complete?
Before settlement, agree in writing who will notify you and how. Ask for clear written confirmation of legal completion and any immediate instructions relevant to taking possession or control.
Leave the final meeting with clear ownership
Before the agreed date, bring the current legal, funding and vendor updates together. You should know who owns every remaining item, which decisions need you and who will confirm completion. That shared understanding gives the settlement plan substance, while leaving the broader operational handover to its own agreed arrangements.
Considering Buying an Accounting Practice?
Discuss the current acquisition funding requirements and how they connect with your solicitor’s settlement timetable.
General information only. This article does not constitute financial, credit, legal, tax, accounting, compliance or valuation advice. Finance is subject to lender approval, eligibility criteria, terms, fees and conditions. Consider obtaining independent professional advice for your circumstances before acting.
