How to sell your accountancy practice

Selling the practice you've spent a career building is one of the biggest decisions you'll make, and you will probably make it only once. The sale involves working out what your firm is worth, deciding when to sell, choosing a buyer, going through each stage of the deal, getting the tax right, and protecting the clients and staff you care about. Each of the seven stages has a detailed guide of its own.

1. Understand what your practice is worth

Value starts from your gross recurring fees and a quality multiple, then everything else moves the number. Get the fundamentals in how much is my practice worth?, see what pulls value down in what reduces value, and get an instant indicative figure from our valuation calculator.

2. Lift the value before you sell

Much of what determines your price is within your control if you start early. The seven changes with the most impact — led by reducing owner-dependency and re-pricing under-charged clients — are in how to increase the value of your practice. Track your progress with the right KPIs.

3. Get the timing right

The best time to sell is usually a year or two before you feel you have to. Read the personal and market signals in when is the right time to sell? and our take on the current market in is 2026 the year to sell?

4. Choose how to sell — and who to

To decide between a broker and a direct buyer, weigh fees, speed, confidentiality and control in broker vs direct, and understand the risks of aggressive consolidation in PE roll-ups vs selling direct. If continuity for your team matters, compare routes in MBO vs external sale and plan the wider picture in succession planning.

5. The process, step by step

A typical direct sale runs: confidential call → indicative valuation → due diligence → heads of terms → completion and handover. Know what a buyer reviews in due diligence, what to pin down in heads of terms, and how deferred payments work in earn-outs and deferred consideration. Our own process is set out under sell your practice.

6. Get the tax right

Structure and timing decide how much of the price you keep. The decisions that matter — asset vs share sale, Business Asset Disposal Relief, how earn-outs are taxed — are in tax when you sell your accountancy practice. Take your own advice before you agree terms.

7. Protect your clients, staff and legacy

If the future of your clients and team matters to you, choose who you sell to as carefully as the price. The right buyer respects what you built, protects the team and keeps clients stable. Selling direct to an operator-led buyer lets you meet and judge the person who will run the firm.