Switching Accountants in Serbia: A Safe Handover Guide

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You’ve been running your Serbian company for a while now, and on paper the accounting is “handled.” But lately every month brings a little more friction. Emails take days to get a reply. Half the answers come back in Serbian, so you’re translating your own accounts. Something surprises you at filing time — again. And the invoice you just received doesn’t obviously map to anything you can name.

You’ve decided it’s time to move. Good instinct. But if you’re honest, the switch itself is what’s been holding you back. What if your current accountant sits on your records? What if a filing slips through the gap while you’re mid-move? And what if the new firm turns out to be no better than the one you’re leaving?

Those are the right questions, and they have clear answers. Switching accountants in Serbia is a routine, manageable process — as long as you run it as a proper handover rather than an abrupt break. This guide walks you through it the way we’d walk a new client through it: what to secure from the firm you’re leaving, what to set up with the firm you’re joining, and how to time the whole thing so nothing gets dropped.

Table of contents:

First, know this: your records belong to you

Start from the fact that defuses most of the fear. Under Serbia’s Law on Accounting (Zakon o računovodstvu), the company is responsible for keeping its books. Your accountant maintains those books on your behalf — but the records themselves are your company’s property, not theirs.

That means you are entitled to get everything back, complete, when you leave. A cooperative firm hands it over as a matter of course. Even a less cooperative one is not entitled to keep your data hostage; the most common friction is simply unpaid invoices, which is why settling your account cleanly (more on that below) removes the usual sticking point before it appears.

Hold on to that framing as you read the rest: you’re not asking a favour at handover. You’re collecting what already belongs to you.

The right time to switch

The short answer to “when should I switch?” is: sooner than you think, and more flexibly than you fear.

Serbia’s business year runs on the calendar year by default, so the cleanest possible break is at year-end, when one period closes and the next begins. If you can time it that way, the new firm starts with a fresh year and a clean opening position.

But you do not have to wait. A mid-year switch is entirely normal. The incoming accountant simply picks up from accurate opening balances as at the cut-off date, and carries on. The only real rule is this: don’t let the switch straddle an imminent filing deadline without a clearly agreed owner for that filing. Serbian companies carry recurring obligations — periodic VAT filings, the annual financial statements filed with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), the annual tax return — and each of those has a deadline that the tax system enforces regardless of the fact that you happened to be changing providers that month. (For the wider picture of what those obligations are, our complete guide to taxes in Serbia for foreign businesses is a useful companion.)

So: switch when it suits you. Just make sure someone clearly owns any filing that falls due during the transition.

What to ask your outgoing accountant for

This is the heart of a safe handover, and it’s where a Serbia-specific checklist matters — because the generic “changing accountants” advice you’ll find online is written for other countries’ systems and skips the pieces that actually apply here.

Ask your current firm, in writing, to provide:

The complete accounting records — the general ledger (glavna knjiga), the trial balance (bruto bilans), and the chart of accounts (kontni plan) your books are built on.
All source documentation — invoices, contracts, bank statements, and any import and customs documents — for the periods they’ve handled.
Filed returns and financial statements to date, so the new firm can see exactly what has been submitted and when.
A reconciled closing position and a list of open items — outstanding receivables and payables, and anything unresolved that the new accountant will inherit.
The status of any filing currently in progress, with explicit confirmation of who completes it — them or the new firm.
Access, in the company’s name, to the systems your accounting runs on — including the electronic invoicing system SEF (Sistem elektronskih faktura) and any accounting software.

And one practical step that prevents most disputes: settle any outstanding invoices with the outgoing firm. It’s both the professional thing to do and the simplest way to ensure the handover isn’t held up.

What to set up with your new accountant

With your records secured, the incoming side is straightforward:

Authorise the new firm to act for you before the tax authority. In Serbia your accountant files and communicates with the authorities on the company’s behalf, so the new firm needs to be properly authorised to do so. This is done using your company’s qualified electronic signature (qES) or through your legal representative — your new accountant will tell you exactly what they need from you.
Hand over opening balances cleanly as at the cut-off date, so the new books continue seamlessly from where the old ones stopped.
Confirm continuity of SEF and ongoing reporting, so your invoicing and periodic filings don’t miss a beat.
Agree, explicitly, who files the first period after the switch. This one sentence in your handover plan removes the single biggest risk of the whole exercise.

Good bookkeeping continuity is the foundation everything else rests on — it’s worth reading how we treat that as the operational layer of your accounting when you’re evaluating a new firm.

Choosing a firm you won’t need to switch again

The point of switching isn’t just to leave — it’s to not be here again in two years. So evaluate the incoming firm against the things that actually make a foreign-owned company leave in the first place:

A named account manager, with a named backup. The most common reason companies switch is communication — slow replies, no continuity, a different person every time. Insist on knowing exactly who runs your account and who covers when they’re away.
Genuinely English-first communication. Not “we can manage in English if we have to,” but fluent, reliable English on everything that touches your money and your compliance. If you’re translating your own accounts today, this is non-negotiable.
Certainty and clean execution. What you’re really buying is the confidence that things are done correctly and on time, with no surprises at filing time. That matters far more than shaving a little off the fee — and with a firm that knows foreign-owned entities well, the cost is usually predictable and can often be agreed as a fixed fee once they understand your business.
Real experience with foreign-owned companies — subsidiaries, importers, traders, remote directors — rather than a firm whose entire client base is local companies with local habits.

That list is essentially a good RFP. If you’re already running one, you’ve done the hard part; you just need to hold candidates to it.

A safe switch, step by step

Putting it together, a clean handover looks like this:

Decide, and write down why. Your reasons for leaving become your checklist for choosing.
Shortlist and compare candidate firms against the criteria above.
Sign an engagement with your chosen firm.
Authorise them to act for you before the tax authority.
Collect the full handover from your outgoing firm — records, documents, access, open items.
Reconcile opening balances so the new books continue cleanly.
Confirm who owns the first filing after the switch.

Seven steps, no drama. The work is mostly in doing each one deliberately rather than assuming it’ll sort itself out.

Why foreign-owned companies move their accounting to HLB TM

When a foreign-owned company decides to switch, what they’re looking for is a firm that already understands their world — and a partner who can make the move itself painless.

That’s the ground HLB TM is built on. We work with the foreign-owned side of the Serbian market, we’re part of the HLB Global network, and our clients reflect exactly that — from PowerChina and Toshiba to FlixBus and Paysend. We advise foreign-owned companies through the switch regularly, so the handover checklist above isn’t theory for us; it’s the process we guide clients through, and the practical steps on the Serbian side can be handled for you at each stage.

You get a named account manager with a named backup, genuinely English-first communication, and the thing you were actually missing at your last firm: the quiet confidence that your accounting is being done properly, on time, with no surprises. If you want to see how we structure that ongoing, our accounting services in Serbia page lays it out — and if you’re running your company from abroad, it pairs naturally with our guide to running a Serbian company as a non-resident director.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to wait until the end of the year to switch accountants?
No. Year-end is the cleanest break, but a mid-year switch is entirely normal. The new firm continues from accurate opening balances at the cut-off date — the only thing to nail down is who completes any filing that falls due during the transition.

Can my current accountant refuse to hand over my records?
Your accounting records are your company’s property, not the accountant’s, so you’re entitled to receive them in full when you leave. The usual sticking point is simply unpaid invoices, so settle your account and request everything in writing. A professional firm will cooperate.

Will switching disrupt my tax filings?
Not if the handover assigns ownership clearly. Confirm who completes any in-progress filing and who files the first period after the switch, and there’s no gap for anything to fall through.

What do I need to give a new accountant so they can act for me?
Authorisation to act on the company’s behalf before the tax authority — arranged using your company’s qualified electronic signature (qES) or through your legal representative — plus your company data and clean opening balances. Your new firm will walk you through exactly what they need.

How long does switching take?
It depends mostly on how complete and reconciled your existing records are, and on the timing relative to your filing calendar. A well-organised handover is quick; the delays that do happen almost always trace back to incomplete records on the outgoing side, which is why the checklist above matters.

We need everything in English — is that realistic?
Yes, with a firm that is genuinely English-first rather than English-on-request. Insist on named people and written continuity, and language stops being a source of risk.

Talk to us

If you’re unhappy with your current accountant and thinking about moving, we can guide you through a clean, safe handover — and make sure the switch itself is the easy part.