What happens to your clients when you close?

You built your practice one client at a time, around your own life, and you did right by them for years. If you're thinking about stepping back — retirement, a return to a W-2 job, a season of life that needs your hours back — the question that keeps most practice owners up at night isn't the money. It's the people. Who takes the call in February when the bank feed breaks? Who knows that one client pays late every January and that another needs an invoice before the 5th?

Cairn Accounting takes over small bookkeeping and tax practices the way you would want yours handled. We're a Utah bookkeeping and tax firm serving about 130 small businesses, with an office in Puyallup, Washington. We do this gently, on your schedule, and you lead the handoff.

How it works

  1. A quiet conversation. Fifteen minutes by phone. No pitch, no pressure, and nothing is shared beyond the two of us. Most owners start this conversation a year or more before they actually step back — earlier is easier.

  2. A look at your practice. You share an anonymized client list — services, monthly fees, software. No names until you're comfortable.

  3. A plain offer in writing. A short term sheet in ordinary English: a cash transition fee, and monthly payments to you for three years based on what your clients actually pay. You share in it when client fees come up to our standard over the first year, and in new tax-return work we prepare for them.

  4. A 90-day handoff you lead. You and our account rep — one named person who will own your clients' books — call every client together. Nobody hears about this from an email. No price changes on day one.

What your clients get

The same care you gave them, with more depth behind it: a named accountant in charge of their books, a team behind that person so vacations and tax season don't create gaps, monthly reporting they can actually read, and tax preparation under the same roof. Clients stay on QuickBooks Online, and we handle the cleanup and conversion work ourselves.

What you get

A defined finish line instead of an open-ended obligation. The transition is 90 days, scheduled around your week. Half the transition fee is paid at signing and half at day 90. After that, you're done — except for the monthly payment arriving for three years, tied to what your clients actually pay, if clients stay and accept repricing. Each month you get a plain statement showing exactly how it was calculated. No cap, no minimum, no surprises.

This conversation costs nothing

Most of the owners we talk with aren't ready to decide anything — they want to understand their options a year or two ahead. That's the right time to talk. Tell us a little about your practice and Andrew will reply personally within two business days.

Schedule twenty minutes with Andrew

Or email Andrew directly: andrew@cairnaccounting.com

Closing a bookkeeping practice: the orderly wind-down checklist

90+ days out — decide the shape of the ending

  • Pick a last day for monthly work and a last filing season, and write them down. Every other date hangs off these two.
  • Decide what happens to each client: successor firm, handoff to another bookkeeper, or self-serve. Rank your clients; the complicated ones need the most lead time.
  • If a successor will take the whole practice, start those conversations now. A good handoff takes 90 days; finding the right hands can take longer.
  • Reread your engagement letters for notice requirements and data-return obligations.

60 days out — paperwork and protection

  • Ask your liability carrier about extended reporting (“tail”) coverage for errors discovered after you close.
  • Inventory every system: accounting software admin access, payroll, tax software, document portals, bank feed logins, saved client documents.
  • Plan the records handover: what each client gets back, in what format, and what you retain (and for how long) under your state's retention rules and your written data-security plan.
  • List recurring charges to cancel: software seats, subscriptions, registrations, insurance.

30 days out — tell your clients, properly

  • Call first. Every client hears it from your voice (or in a joint call with the person taking over), never from a letter alone.
  • Follow each call with a short letter: the date, what happens to their records, who to call next, and a warm goodbye.
  • Transfer software admin rights client by client, and document each transfer.
  • Give payroll clients extra lead time — payroll cannot have a gap week.

The final month — close the loop

  • Finish and deliver the last month's work. Leave every file the way you'd want to receive it.
  • Return or hand over records; keep your retention copies organized and encrypted.
  • Final invoices, collected before access winds down.

After — wind down the entity

  • Deactivate or retire professional registrations you no longer need (EFIN/PTIN as applicable, state firm registrations, business and city licenses).
  • Close sales-tax and payroll accounts for your own entity; file final returns.
  • Keep your business bank account open 6–12 months for trailing items.
  • Set up email forwarding and keep the domain a year — clients will still write to it.

This checklist is general information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice for your situation.