Bookkeeper won't supply financial data!?
I volunteer for a non-profit agency. We decided to change bookkeepers because this one is very uncooperative and slow. She will not give us our data, so we are held hostage. What is our recourse? Is there an ethical code that bookkeepers should follow?
Answers:
I trust that you hired this person as an independent contractor to do you bookkeeping. Assuming you have paid her something for her efforts on your behalf, and she accepted payment, she is legally obliged to act as your bookkeeper, doing everything that a bookkeeper would ordinarily do, INCLUDING returning info that you need. I would suggest that you sue her for the return of your data, in that she is in violation of her contract with you. Just because you turned over data to her so she could perform her job, does not mean that you have given up your right of possession of such data. I would also make this situation known to your local Chamber of Commerce. Hope this helps. Good luck!
If she is a CPA she should follow the AICPA rules. Is she keeping your receipts/invoices bills, that sort of thing? Or is she keeping the balance sheets/income statements that she prepared? Or both? You can charge her with theft if she refuses to give you back your data, but she doesn't have to give the completed information unless you have paid for it. If you want have a lawyer write her a letter, that will usually take care of things.
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