How to choose an accounting firm in Poland: key selection criteria

If you are considering how to choose an accounting firm in Poland, the provider should be matched to the scale of your business, the processes being outsourced and management’s requirements for financial reporting and control. The assessment should cover not only price, but also team experience, scope of responsibility, backup arrangements, professional liability insurance, data security, month-end closing procedures and financial reporting.

Do not start by comparing monthly fees. First establish which accounting services in Poland the business actually needs to outsource and what financial information management requires to run the company effectively.

A small company processing a few dozen transactions each month will require a different service model from a Polish subsidiary of an international group that reports to foreign headquarters, handles transactions in several currencies and closes its books according to a group timetable.

For larger organisations, the relevant considerations therefore extend beyond day-to-day bookkeeping. Account reconciliations, management reporting, cooperation with auditors and the ability to integrate accounting with the company’s systems can all be important. Before signing an agreement, the parties should also establish how documents, data and access rights will be transferred if the company changes providers in the future.

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How should you choose an accounting office in Poland?

An accounting firm in Poland should be selected on the basis of service scope, team expertise, experience with comparable companies, accounting-process organisation, data security, reporting and contractual terms. Only after comparing these elements can a company properly assess the price.

A good starting point is to approach the selection of an accounting provider in the same way as any other supplier responsible for a business-critical process. Before issuing a request for proposal, the company should answer questions including:

• What is the company’s legal form and scale of operations?
• Does it keep full accounting books?
• How many documents and transactions are processed each month?
• Does it have international transactions or foreign-currency settlements?
• Does the company employ staff?
• How frequently does management require financial reports?
• Is reporting to foreign headquarters required?
• Which financial, sales or warehouse systems need to interact with the accounting system?
• Who will be responsible for invoicing, payments, receivables and payables?
• How will work involving the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF) be organised?

This allows the company to compare actual processes rather than simply comparing the names of accounting packages.

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What should you check when selecting an accounting firm in Poland?

The most important areas are the actual scope of the service, the competence of the people keeping the books, quality control, professional liability insurance, reporting, information security, the ability to work with the company’s systems and clearly defined responsibilities. Each of these points should be confirmed before the agreement is signed.

When choosing an accounting firm, it is useful to evaluate potential providers against several key criteria.

Criterion	What should be checked	Warning sign
Service scope	Which activities are included in the fixed fee and who is responsible for each process	General statements such as “comprehensive accounting” without a precise scope
Expertise	The team’s experience with similar companies, industries and business scale	No information about who will actually keep the company’s books
Team organisation	Lead accountant, backup person, review procedures and escalation path	All knowledge about the client concentrated with one individual
Professional liability insurance	Current policy, scope of cover and insured amount	Provider cannot present evidence of insurance
Reporting	Month-end closing timetable and scope of reports	Reports available only on request with no agreed delivery deadline
IT and security	System access, permissions, backups, data transfers and security procedures	Confidential information transferred without clearly defined safeguards
Communication	Contact persons, response times and escalation procedures	No agreed service rules
Agreement and pricing	Core scope, additional services, indexation, termination and data handover	Low price without clear assumptions, limits or additional charges

1. Does the service scope match the company’s actual accounting processes?

The proposal should specify exactly what the accounting firm will perform and which responsibilities remain with the client. A statement such as “accounting services” does not establish who prepares payments, posts bank statements, reconciles receivables and payables, manages fixed assets or prepares management reports.

For more complex organisations, it is worth reviewing the entire process from receipt of a document through to period-end closing and reporting.

Companies with more extensive requirements may consider comprehensive accounting services in Poland. getsix® provides services including bookkeeping, tax compliance, financial statements, reporting and technology solutions supporting day-to-day finance and accounting processes.

2. Who will actually manage the accounting process?

The most important question is not simply how long the accounting firm has been operating. A company should establish who will actually be responsible for its accounts and how that person’s work will be reviewed.

It is worth asking about:

• the experience of the lead accountant;
• knowledge of the relevant industry;
• experience with companies of a comparable size;
• who provides cover during absences;
• the level at which accounting entries are reviewed;
• how unusual issues can be escalated;
• cooperation between the accounting team and tax advisers or auditors.

For a CFO, reducing key-person risk is particularly important. The process should not stop because one accountant is absent or leaves the provider.

3. Does the provider have a reliable month-end closing process for full accounting?

For a company keeping full accounting books, recording documents is only one part of the process. In practice, account reconciliations, settlement of receivables and payables, fixed assets, provisions and accruals, as well as the preparation of reporting data, are equally important.

Before choosing a provider, the company should therefore establish:

• when the month-end close is completed;
• which accounts are regularly reconciled;
• when management receives financial statements and reports;
• whether reporting by cost centre or other dimensions is available;
• who is responsible for the annual financial statements;
• how the accounting firm cooperates with the statutory auditor.

Where a company keeps full accounting books, the service should extend beyond the posting of documents. getsix® provides full accounting and bookkeeping services in Poland, including general and subsidiary ledger accounting, account reconciliations, reporting and preparation of financial statements.

4. Can the accounting firm meet international group reporting requirements?

For a foreign investor, compliance with Polish regulations is a fundamental requirement, but it is often not sufficient.

A Polish subsidiary may also require:

• reporting in English or German;
• mapping of the Polish chart of accounts to the group chart of accounts;
• preparation of data according to headquarters deadlines;
• reconciliation of intercompany transactions;
• communication with the group auditor;
• management reports using dimensions other than those required for Polish statutory reporting.

In this situation, language skills alone are not enough. What matters is practical experience in working between a Polish subsidiary and an overseas finance function.

When selecting a provider, companies should also consider how management and foreign headquarters will access financial information. getsix® offers the Customer BI and Reporting Portal, a Power BI-based solution enabling data analysis, access to reports and integration of information from multiple sources. This can support management reporting and performance comparisons in more complex organisational structures.

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Must an accounting firm in Poland carry professional liability insurance?

As a general rule, an entrepreneur providing outsourced bookkeeping services in Poland is required to have professional liability insurance. The Polish Accounting Act provides an exception for statutory auditors and tax advisers where their professional insurance already covers losses arising from such activities.

The requirement follows from Article 76h of the Polish Accounting Act. The Act also specifies the conditions for providing outsourced bookkeeping services. The current minimum mandatory insurance cover for an entrepreneur conducting such activities is the equivalent of EUR 10,000 per insured event, pursuant to the applicable Regulation of the Minister of Finance of 6 November 2014.

For a larger company, however, meeting the statutory minimum should not end the assessment. The actual insured amount and the scope of the insurer’s liability should be reviewed against the scale of the processes being entrusted to the provider.

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Is a Polish Ministry of Finance accounting certificate still mandatory?

No. Since 10 August 2014, it has no longer been possible to apply for an accounting certificate issued by the Polish Minister of Finance, and holding such a certificate is no longer a requirement for providing outsourced bookkeeping services in Poland.

The Polish Ministry of Finance states that, following deregulation, these activities may be performed by individuals who have full legal capacity and have not been convicted of the categories of offences specified by law. An entrepreneur subject to Article 76h of the Polish Accounting Act must also maintain the required professional liability insurance.

An old Ministry of Finance accounting certificate may still serve as evidence of an individual’s professional qualifications, but it should not now be treated as a primary criterion when selecting an accounting firm. Current team expertise, experience with comparable businesses and the way the accounting process is organised and controlled are more important.

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How can you verify an accounting office in Poland?

Checking registration details and professional liability insurance is not enough. You should also determine whether the provider can close the month on time, work with the client’s systems and produce the reporting required by management.

Before signing an agreement, the company should request at least:

1. full details of the legal entity that will be party to the agreement;
2. confirmation of current professional liability insurance;
3. a description of the team responsible for the client;
4. information about backup arrangements;
5. a description of how accountants’ work is reviewed and approved;
6. an example of the monthly reporting scope;
7. the month-end closing timetable;
8. information about the systems used and methods of data exchange;
9. rules for protecting and retaining documentation;
10. the cooperation model during a tax inspection or audit;
11. references involving companies with a comparable profile;
12. a description of the termination and data-handover process.

The most valuable reference is not necessarily from “any client”. If a manufacturing business operates several warehouses and reports to German headquarters, the provider’s experience with a comparable environment will be more relevant than the number of sole traders it serves.

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Does outsourcing accounting remove management’s responsibility under Polish law?

No. Entrusting bookkeeping to an external provider does not remove the responsibility of the head of the entity for performing accounting obligations, including oversight of the outsourced process.

Article 4(5) of the Polish Accounting Act provides for responsibility of the head of the entity even where specific duties have been entrusted to another person or an external business. At the same time, Article 11 allows accounting books to be maintained by an external provider that meets the statutory requirements.

This has very practical implications for company management.

Accounting outsourcing should therefore ensure not only that the required activities are performed, but also that management has the ability to exercise effective oversight. Management should receive information enabling it to determine whether the books are being maintained on time, whether material accounts have been reconciled and whether required obligations have been completed. The agreement may regulate the provider’s contractual liability for errors or failure to perform services, but it does not automatically transfer the statutory duties of the head of the entity.

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How should you assess data security at an accounting firm in Poland?

Companies should assess not only the accounting software used by the provider, but the entire framework for data access, permission management, document storage, backups and incident response. An accounting firm has access to some of the most sensitive information within a business.

The Polish Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) emphasises that a controller entrusting data to an external party should verify whether that party provides appropriate technical and organisational safeguards. Where an accounting firm processes personal data on behalf of the client as a processor, the relationship should be governed in accordance with Article 28 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The controller should also verify that appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect the data.

During the selection process, companies should therefore ask:

• who has access to the company’s accounting data;
• how access rights are granted and withdrawn;
• whether individual users have access only to the information they need;
• how backups are created;
• what happens to the data when the engagement ends;
• whether subcontractors are involved;
• how security incidents are reported;
• how the company can export its own data.

A security certification can provide additional assurance, but it should not replace clear answers to these specific questions.

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How should KSeF access be organised with an accounting firm in Poland?

Under the current model of Poland’s National e-Invoicing System (KSeF), a taxpayer can grant an accounting firm permissions to issue or view invoices. Where the permission includes the right to delegate access further, the accounting firm can then assign the appropriate permissions to its employees.

Before the engagement begins, the company should therefore establish:

• who retrieves invoices from KSeF;
• who is authorised to issue them;
• who grants and revokes permissions;
• which employees of the accounting office will have access;
• what happens to those permissions when the agreement ends.

Companies should also check whether the provider offers a tool for organising invoice flows between the business and the accounting team. getsix® offers the Customer Invoice Portal, which integrates document handling with KSeF and enables, among other functions, invoice transfer and review, approval-process management and document-status monitoring.

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What questions should you ask before choosing an accounting firm in Poland?

The best questions concern specific operational situations rather than general claims about service quality. The answers should allow the company to understand how the relationship will work in practice before the agreement is signed.

In practice, potential providers should be asked:

1. Who will manage our accounts, and who will cover for that person during an absence?
2. How is the accountant’s work reviewed before the month-end close?
3. By which day of the month can we receive our financial results?
4. Which accounts are reconciled every month?
5. Which reports are included in the standard fee?
6. What is specifically excluded from the monthly fee?
7. Who is responsible for preparing the annual financial statements?
8. How do you cooperate with auditors and tax advisers?
9. How do we transfer documents, and who can access them?
10. How do you manage KSeF and the granting of permissions?
11. How quickly do you respond to standard and urgent requests?
12. In what format will we receive all our data when the engagement ends?

The final question is often overlooked, despite being particularly important. A provider should be assessed not only on how it starts an engagement, but also on whether the client can terminate it safely and transfer its accounting to another system or provider.

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How much do accounting services in Poland cost?

There is no single meaningful price for business accounting services in Poland. The cost depends primarily on the scope of the processes, the number and type of transactions, the degree of automation, the required frequency of reporting and the complexity of the business.

When comparing proposals, companies should consider the total cost of the relationship rather than only the base monthly fee.

Factors affecting the price may include:

• the number of documents and bank accounts;
• full accounting rather than simpler forms of record-keeping;
• international transactions and foreign-currency settlements;
• the number of entities or branches;
• additional management reporting;
• a non-standard month-end closing timetable;
• integrations with the client’s systems;
• accounts receivable and accounts payable services;
• preparation of financial statements;
• audit support;
• additional consultations and projects outside the standard service.

The monthly fee alone therefore does not represent the actual cost of the accounting process. A lower-cost proposal may be entirely sufficient for a business with simple processes and a small volume of transactions. In a more complex organisation, however, the company should also consider the time its own team spends coordinating the provider, additional services billed outside the standard fee, reporting requirements and the resolution of problems involving multiple systems or suppliers.

For this reason, proposals should be compared on the basis of the total cost of the finance and accounting process rather than the monthly fee alone. A wider service scope, reliable backup arrangements, reporting and support when working with auditors may increase the base price but reduce coordination costs and the need for additional providers.

The most useful approach is to prepare a single list of requirements and identify which items each accounting firm includes in its standard fee, which are billed separately and which remain the client’s responsibility.

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What are the most common mistakes when choosing an accounting firm in Poland?

The biggest mistake is selecting a provider on the basis of one criterion alone. In practice, difficulties most often arise where the boundaries of responsibility have not been agreed before the contract is signed.

Is choosing an accounting firm solely on price a mistake?

The cheapest proposal may be entirely appropriate for a small company with straightforward accounting processes. As an organisation grows, however, month-end closing deadlines, reporting, backup arrangements, system integrations and the ability to process more complex transactions become increasingly important.

An apparently cheaper model can generate additional costs if certain activities have to be outsourced separately or the company’s own team spends substantial time coordinating accounting, reporting and related processes. Price should therefore always be considered together with the service scope and the amount of work remaining on the client side.

Why should the month-end closing timetable be agreed in advance?

Financial information received several weeks after the end of the reporting period may have limited operational value for management. The reporting deadline should therefore form part of the agreed service model.

Why does an accounting office in Poland need a backup person?

A company should not lose access to essential accounting knowledge because one person is on leave. Before signing an agreement, the client should know who takes over the process when the lead accountant is unavailable.

Why should accounting and tax advisory services be distinguished?

If the company also requires specialist tax advisory services in Poland, it should establish whether this service is actually included and who will be responsible for providing it. Businesses should not assume that every tax matter is automatically covered by a standard accounting fee.

Why should the exit process be agreed before signing the contract?

To maintain accounting continuity, the company should establish in advance how accounting data, outstanding receivables and payables, general-ledger history and the required documentation can be transferred to a future provider.

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When should a company consider changing its accounting firm in Poland?

A change may be appropriate when the existing provider no longer matches the scale of the business, regularly misses agreed deadlines, cannot provide the required reporting or recurring problems arise with data quality and communication.

Business growth itself may also be a trigger. An accounting firm suitable for a small company may not be prepared to support an organisation that begins to:

• report to foreign headquarters;
• become subject to a statutory audit;
• process a large number of transactions;
• develop a more complex cost structure;
• use several operational systems;
• require a faster month-end close.

Changing providers therefore does not necessarily mean that the previous accounting firm was poor. The company may simply have outgrown the existing accounting model.

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How can a company safely change accounting firms in Poland?

Changing accounting firms should be treated as a structured transfer of responsibilities and data between two providers. The key objectives are maintaining accounting continuity and ensuring that the new team receives all information required to keep the books correctly.

Before the new engagement begins, the takeover date and the scope of documentation to be transferred by the existing provider should be agreed. For companies keeping full accounting books, particularly important items include:

• the chart of accounts and accounting policies;
• trial balances and opening balances;
• outstanding receivables and payables;
• the fixed asset register;
• the most recent tax returns and settlements;
• necessary powers of attorney, system access details and information about unsettled transactions.

The new provider should verify the transferred data before completing its first period-end close. For this reason, when choosing an accounting firm it is worth checking whether the provider has a clearly defined procedure for taking over accounting records and cooperating with the previous firm.

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How should a foreign investor choose an accounting office in Poland?

A foreign-owned business should assess an accounting provider from two perspectives simultaneously: compliance with Polish requirements and the ability to work effectively within an international organisation.

In practice, a company should check whether the accounting office:

• can communicate in the language used by headquarters;
• understands the group’s month-end closing timetable;
• can prepare additional management reporting;
• can cooperate with an overseas finance department;
• has experience with cross-border transactions;
• can work with the group auditor;
• has technology enabling secure exchange of documents and reports.

When assessing costs, foreign investors should also consider the workload imposed on local management and overseas headquarters. A provider capable of taking responsibility for a wider range of connected processes and supplying a consistent reporting model may reduce the number of contact points and the time required to coordinate operations in Poland.

For companies requiring a more advanced finance and accounting environment, getsix® also offers a dedicated solution based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and integrated with e-services supporting document workflows and reporting. Services can be provided in Polish, English and German, facilitating cooperation with foreign group headquarters.

For a foreign investor, the key question is whether this model is compatible with the group’s systems, reporting requirements and planned scale of operations in Poland.

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What four tests should a good accounting firm in Poland pass?

The answer to how to choose an accounting firm in Poland can ultimately be reduced to four areas.

1. Compliance: Does the provider meet the formal requirements and understand the obligations applicable to the company?
2. Delivery: Can it maintain the accounts, close reporting periods and deliver reports according to the required timetable?
3. Control: Will management receive sufficient information to supervise the process and securely manage access to data?
4. Continuity: Will the process remain stable if a team member is absent, the business grows or the company changes providers in the future?

Only a provider that meets all four conditions should proceed to the final price comparison.

If you are looking for support with your company’s accounting in Poland, getsix® provides accounting services in Poland adapted to the scale of the business, its organisational structure, systems and reporting requirements.

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