Every business owner has waited longer than they would like for an answer from their accountant. Sometimes there is a good reason — the question needs research, the firm is in a busy period, or a genuinely complex tax issue takes several days to investigate properly. One slow reply, in isolation, is not evidence of a broken relationship.

The picture changes when slow replies become the default. When you are regularly chasing for answers, when questions go unacknowledged rather than just unresolved, or when an accountant slow to reply starts affecting your ability to plan, file on time, or make decisions with confidence — that is a different kind of problem. It is worth knowing how to tell the two apart, and what steps to take in either case.

There is no statutory rule saying an accountant must answer a client email within a set number of hours or days. That makes the service expectations agreed with your firm especially important.

A straightforward bookkeeping query and an urgent HMRC letter do not carry the same weight, and a well-run accounting relationship should reflect that. Response priorities should be shaped by the possible consequences of delay. An outstanding question about how an expense has been categorised may not need immediate attention. An approaching payroll deadline, a VAT issue, or a tax payment question is a different matter.

You should also distinguish between acknowledging a question and resolving it. A complex tax matter may take several days to investigate. What you should reasonably expect in the meantime is a message confirming that the question has been received and setting out what happens next. Silence is the problem — not the fact that a full answer takes time.

Our own approach at OD Accountants reflects that distinction. On our small business accountants London service, we set out fixed monthly pricing and questions answered the day they are asked. The objective is to give clients clarity quickly, even where the underlying work requires further review.

One delayed response is very different from persistent poor communication. The question to ask is not whether any delay has ever occurred, but what happens over several weeks or months and whether the same problems keep repeating.

Repeated chasing is one of the clearest signs that a communication process is not working. Ask yourself:

• Are several follow-up emails needed before you receive an answer?
• Are promised response dates regularly missed?
• Do you receive acknowledgement but no actual resolution?
• Does nobody appear to take ownership of the question?
• Are the same communication problems occurring each month?

Any firm can experience an occasional delay. A repeated pattern is different because it consumes your management time as well as leaving questions unresolved.

Last-minute communication is another warning sign, even when the eventual filing is technically on time. If queries about your accounts arrive days before a deadline rather than weeks before it, the same work becomes far more disruptive than it needed to be. Accounting work should move steadily, not rely on deadline-driven chasing.

You should also know who is actually responsible for your account. That does not mean one person completes every piece of work — payroll, VAT, year-end accounts and tax may involve different people — but you should know who owns the relationship and who to contact when something becomes urgent. If every enquiry disappears into a generic inbox, communication problems become harder to fix.

Has communication changed as your business has grown?

Sometimes the issue is not that your accountant has become worse. Your business may have outgrown the level of support originally agreed. A small company with few transactions may only have needed occasional help; add VAT, employees, payroll and more frequent management information, and your need for timely advice increases significantly.

Slow communication becomes more serious when it starts affecting compliance or leaves you unable to make decisions with confidence.

For most private limited companies, annual accounts need to be filed with Companies House within nine months of the financial year end. Corporation Tax is normally due nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period (larger companies may pay by instalments). The Company Tax Return normally has a twelve-month filing deadline. The government's guidance on accounts and tax returns for private limited companies sets these out clearly.

A late response from your accountant does not automatically mean a deadline will be missed. The practical danger is losing the time needed to resolve missing information or errors before that deadline arrives.

Beyond compliance, the bigger issue for many businesses is that decisions are being made without enough financial information. Consider a £30,000 equipment purchase where you are still waiting for a clear picture of your Corporation Tax bill. Without that information, you may make the purchase and later discover that far more cash needed to remain available — or you may delay a sensible investment unnecessarily because you cannot establish what cash is actually free.

Unanswered questions can hold up decisions about employing staff, paying dividends, increasing director remuneration, taking new premises, applying for finance, or making a substantial investment. When the numbers needed to support those decisions arrive several weeks later, you may already have had to choose.

Our year-end accounts service is built around preparing and submitting accounts to the relevant authorities — but clients still need to provide complete information and respond to queries so the work can be finished accurately. Timeliness works both ways, and a good accounting relationship makes that clear from the start.

You should not move firms simply because one email took longer than expected. Before making that decision, establish what has gone wrong, what work remains open, and whether your current firm can put things right.

A direct conversation can sometimes uncover an issue that is relatively easy to fix. Perhaps your normal contact has changed, emails have been going to the wrong person, or the service your business now needs is outside the original agreement. Explain the concern clearly and ask for a practical solution: who will be your main contact, what response time should normally apply, and how should urgent matters be escalated?

If you decide that a change is necessary, there are several things to do before you leave. Ask your current accountant to confirm in writing which accounts and returns have been filed, which filings are still outstanding, the next important deadlines, estimated tax liabilities where available, any information still required from your business, work started but not completed, and any unresolved correspondence with HMRC. This gives your incoming accountant a clear starting point.

Check your engagement letter before assuming a particular piece of work is included or that the relationship can be ended in a particular way. It should set out what services were agreed, how fees work, your respective responsibilities, and any provisions relating to ending the engagement.

What happens during a change of accountant?

The process normally involves communication between your incoming and outgoing accountants so that relevant information can be transferred. ICAEW guidance on a change of professional appointment sets out that, where a professional enquiry is received, an outgoing ICAEW member should obtain the client's permission to communicate, consider confidentiality and disclosure issues, and respond promptly. In practical terms, this allows your incoming firm to obtain relevant background and reduces the risk of important matters being lost during the transition.

Timing matters too. If your accounts are due in ten days, immediately transferring responsibility could cause more disruption than allowing your existing accountant to finish that specific filing first. There is no single right answer; the priority is establishing which firm is best placed to complete the urgent work and making the wider change from there.

You should assess communication before appointing a new firm rather than assuming it will improve later. Ask specific questions rather than simply asking whether the firm offers good communication.

• Who will be your main contact?
• How are urgent questions handled?
• What normally happens if your contact is away?
• How quickly are routine enquiries acknowledged?
• Are meetings included in the fee?
• Which communication channels are available?
• What happens when a question needs specialist research?

Specific answers make it easier to compare firms fairly. Phrases like "responsive service" can mean almost anything. "Questions are acknowledged on the same day" or "urgent payroll matters go directly to a named contact" gives you something more meaningful to hold a firm to.

Before the switch, gather your key documents: latest statutory accounts, recent Corporation Tax returns, VAT and payroll records where relevant, accounting software details, Companies House information, HMRC correspondence, tax references, a list of outstanding questions, and upcoming filing and payment dates. Your new accountant may obtain some of this through the formal handover, but having a clear overview yourself makes the transition easier.

Responsiveness alone should not be the deciding factor. You are looking for the combination: reliable communication, accurate work, relevant technical knowledge, clear fees, suitable qualifications, and financial information delivered early enough to use. A fast but incorrect answer is not good service. A technically excellent answer that arrives after the decision has already been made is not much better.

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