Responsibilities to ex-clients when cloud-based

Do we have to keep records from cloud-based subscription software for ex-clients?

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Hello folks,

We use cloud-based monthly subscription software for most of our ongoing clients (QBO, Xero etc).  When they become an ex-client either through retirement, closing the business or go on to another accountant, what are our responsibilities for maintaining their cloud-based accounts?  Given that we do wholesale billing, we pay for their monthly subscription.  When they leave, should we just shut it down and let them deal with the aftermath?  We generally download an audit trail, nominal ledger and of course we have copies of VAT returns etc that we can forward to a new accountant but we can't go on paying for the subscription and I believe the data is only saved for a certain amount of time....

Just wondering what your thoughts are as we have only once been asked about access to old info from a new accountant!!

Many thanks

Replies (8)

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By Tim Vane
19th Jun 2018 13:49

Is this not covered in your letters of engagement?

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Replying to Tim Vane:
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By wd2016
19th Jun 2018 13:51

Unfortunately not, but it will be getting added now!

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By Matrix
19th Jun 2018 14:19

You still have access to the data even if you no longer pay a monthly fee. Whether you then transfer ownership to your client is between you and your client.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By wd2016
19th Jun 2018 14:21

I believe Quickbooks Online gives you a couple of months of access and then they close the company file - you can get it reopened but you have to pay all the subscription costs that were due up to the time it is reopened....or something like that.

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ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
19th Jun 2018 18:25

I give the client 5 working days to give me the email address of the new ‘subscriber’, then 5 days to accept me transferring the subscription to them, before I cancel it.

If it’s a client that’s really pi55ed me off, I start the 28 day process of cancelling the subscription, before the above conversation. Telling them they’re already in the process of losing everything tends to get a quicker response than ‘if you don’t ... I’ll have to remember to login and cancel’.

However you do it, you need to stop paying for their subscription ASAP. Also helps to speed things along if you’re the only one with ‘manage user’ rights and they’re coming up to a vat submission...

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By Manchester_man
19th Jun 2018 21:15

I can only speak for Xero, but I know they hold onto the data when an account / subscription has ended for the statutory 6 years. I am sure they will provide access of some description if, say, the Revenue wanted to see the accounting records at a later date, otherwise why would they retain the data for 6 years.

So, what I do is end the subscription when they leave, having downloaded the nominal ledger and various other reports. Then, it's between the software house and the ex client if data is required later down the line.

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By Maslins
20th Jun 2018 15:32

We use FreeAgent and it's not much of an issue. We can make an account "inactive", which basically puts the account in a free but read only mode. We like to keep them for a while, as it's not that rare a client comes back 6 months later requesting a bit of extra info. Yeah we could maybe export a dozen things earlier on...but sod's law the thing they'd want we wouldn't have.

Not really the issue you're making, but we did recently have a ponder over long inactive accounts. Ie they're still on our dashboard, but client left us (and often company closed) several years ago. Partly GDPR inspired it didn't seem we had a valid reason to retain access. So we removed a load that hadn't been used for at least a couple of years. This was a bit weird for clients, suddenly getting an email from FreeAgent re an account they haven't used in ages about how they have a 14 day grace period.

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By wd2016
20th Jun 2018 15:53

Thank you all for your replies, very helpful to know your thoughts.

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