Choosing an accountant, CPA, or tax professional for your business shouldn't come down to whoever is closest to your office or who can file your return for the lowest price.
For many business owners, this person will have access to some of the most important information in the company. They may help prepare tax returns, review financial statements, advise on business structure, answer tax questions, and help you understand decisions that can have consequences years into the future.
That's worth vetting carefully.
And while credentials and experience matter, there's another question that's just as important:
Is this the right professional for your particular business?
Here are the questions worth asking before you hire someone.
1. What types of businesses do you normally work with?
"Small businesses" is a very broad answer.
A restaurant, construction company, consulting firm, franchise location, e-commerce business, medical practice, and multi-location service company can have very different accounting and tax needs.
Ask specifically:
What industries do you work with most?
Do you work with businesses around my size?
Do you have clients with a similar business model?
Do you work with businesses in multiple states?
Do you have experience with franchises or multi-location businesses if that's relevant?
Are most of your clients sole proprietors, partnerships, LLCs, S corporations, or C corporations?
You don't necessarily need someone who specializes exclusively in your industry.
But you should understand how familiar they are with businesses that look like yours.
2. What services do you actually provide?
Don't assume "accounting firm" means everything financial happens under one roof.
Ask exactly what's included.
That might include:
Bookkeeping
Monthly financial statements
Business tax preparation
Individual tax preparation
Tax planning
Payroll
Sales tax
Estimated tax calculations
Entity selection
Financial reporting
Cleanup work
IRS or state correspondence
Advisory or consulting
Forecasting
Business planning
Then ask which services are performed internally and which are outsourced or referred elsewhere.
You want to know exactly what you're hiring them to do.
3. Who will actually work on my account?
This question is easy to overlook.
The person conducting your sales call may not be the person doing your work.
Ask:
Who will be my primary point of contact?
Then:
Who will actually prepare or review my books and returns?
And:
If I have a question during the year, who answers it?
There's nothing inherently wrong with a firm using a team structure. In fact, that can be a strength.
You simply want to understand the structure before signing up.
4. How often will we communicate?
Some business owners want an accountant they speak with once a year.
Others expect ongoing guidance.
Neither model is automatically wrong.
The problem occurs when you expect one and your accountant provides the other.
Ask:
Do we meet monthly, quarterly, annually, or only when needed?
Are regular review meetings included?
Can I contact you with questions during the year?
How quickly do you normally respond?
Is email support included?
Are meetings billed separately?
This is also a good time to ask how proactive the relationship will be.
5. Do you provide tax planning, or primarily tax preparation?
This distinction matters.
Tax preparation generally looks backward.
What happened last year? What needs to be reported? What forms need to be filed?
Tax planning looks forward.
What decisions can be made before year-end? Are estimated payments appropriate? Does the business structure still make sense? Are there legitimate deductions or planning opportunities that should be considered before the year closes?
If you're looking for proactive guidance, ask specifically what tax planning means at that firm.
Then ask:
When during the year does that planning happen?
If the first serious tax conversation occurs after the year has already ended, many planning opportunities may already be gone.
6. How do you approach business entity and tax-election decisions?
You may operate as an LLC, partnership, S corporation, C corporation, or another structure.
The legal entity and the way the business is taxed aren't always the same thing.
Rather than asking:
"Should I be an S corp?"
try asking:
"How do you evaluate whether a different tax election or entity structure makes sense for a client?"
A thoughtful answer should involve your actual situation rather than a blanket rule.
Factors might include profitability, owner compensation, number of owners, growth plans, administrative burden, state considerations, and other facts specific to the business.
Be cautious of one-size-fits-all answers.
7. How do you handle tax questions that don't have an obvious answer?
This is an underrated question.
Tax rules can be complicated, and sometimes the correct answer isn't immediately obvious.
You want a professional who is comfortable saying:
"I need to research that."
Ask how the firm handles technical questions.
Do they research primary tax authority? Consult specialists? Document their reasoning? Bring in another professional when an issue falls outside their expertise?
Confidence is useful.
Knowing when additional research or expertise is necessary is useful too.
8. What information do you expect from me?
A good accounting relationship works in both directions.
Ask what they need from you and when they need it.
That might include:
Bank statements
Credit-card statements
Payroll reports
Sales reports
Loan documents
Asset purchases
Mileage information
Contractor payments
Receipts
Inventory information
Prior tax returns
Entity documents
Also ask how that information should be delivered.
Portal? Accounting software? Email? Shared drive? Another system?
Clear expectations reduce problems later.
9. What accounting software and technology do you work with?
If you already use accounting, payroll, point-of-sale, CRM, or expense-management systems, ask whether the firm works with them.
You might ask:
Which accounting platforms do you support?
Do you require clients to use a specific platform?
Can you work with my existing system?
How do you receive documents?
Is there a secure client portal?
How do you protect sensitive financial information?
Can I export my information if I leave?
Technology shouldn't be the only reason you select an accountant.
But poor technology can make an otherwise simple relationship unnecessarily difficult.
10. Who owns my data, and what happens if I leave?
This is one of the questions business owners may not think about until the relationship ends.
Ask:
If I change firms, what information will I receive?
Understand how you would obtain:
Financial statements
Tax returns
General ledger information
Supporting schedules
Payroll records
Depreciation schedules
Documents you provided
Other records relevant to your business
You don't want to discover during a transition that important information is difficult to retrieve.
11. How do you review my books for errors?
If the firm handles bookkeeping or reviews your financial statements, ask about its quality-control process.
Who reviews the work?
How are unusual transactions identified?
How are unreconciled accounts handled?
How do they deal with transactions they don't understand?
How are corrections communicated to you?
The goal isn't to find a firm that promises mistakes will never happen.
The better question is whether it has a reliable process for identifying and correcting them.
12. How do you help me understand my financial statements?
This question is especially important to us at UnpackFi.
Your accountant may prepare an accurate profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.
But do you understand them?
Ask:
"When we review my financials, will you help me understand what changed and why?"
Then go further:
"What numbers do you think someone running my type of business should be watching every month?"
A good professional should be able to communicate financial information in a way you can understand.
You shouldn't need an accounting degree to participate in a conversation about your own business.
13. What would you want me to monitor between our meetings?
This is a great way to understand how the accountant thinks about your business.
Depending on the company, the answer could involve:
Revenue
Gross margin
Payroll
Cash
Accounts receivable
Debt
Inventory
Operating expenses
Profitability
Estimated taxes
Other industry-specific metrics
You're not necessarily looking for one particular answer.
You're trying to determine whether the professional thinks beyond filing forms and understands the operating side of a business.
14. How do you handle notices from the IRS or state tax authorities?
Eventually, you may receive a letter.
That doesn't automatically mean something is wrong. But when it happens, you'll want to know who handles it.
Ask:
Should I send notices directly to you?
Is responding to notices included in my fee?
What types of notices do you handle?
Is representation included or billed separately?
What happens if the notice relates to a return your firm prepared?
Know the process before you need it.
15. How do you handle mistakes?
This can be an uncomfortable question, which is exactly why it's useful.
Ask:
"If an error is discovered in work your firm prepared, what happens?"
You want to understand:
How the error gets investigated
Who communicates with you
Whether a correction or amended filing may be necessary
How additional work is billed
What happens if penalties or interest are involved
You're not trying to catch the accountant in a hypothetical mistake.
You're learning how the firm handles accountability.
16. What deadlines should I expect throughout the year?
Tax season isn't the only deadline a business may face.
Depending on your situation, there may be:
Income tax returns
Estimated tax payments
Payroll filings
Sales tax filings
Information returns
State filings
Business registrations
Other compliance deadlines
Ask which ones the firm is responsible for and which ones remain your responsibility.
Never assume someone else is monitoring a deadline unless you've explicitly agreed that they are.
17. How do you charge?
Ask for more than the price.
Understand the pricing structure.
Is it:
Fixed monthly pricing?
Annual pricing?
Hourly billing?
Per-return pricing?
A combination?
Then ask what creates an additional charge.
Are emails included?
Are meetings included?
Are amended returns extra?
Are tax notices extra?
Is cleanup work separate?
Is tax planning included?
A $3,000 engagement that includes everything you need could be less expensive than a $1,500 engagement followed by $2,500 of additional bills.
Compare scope, not just price.
18. What isn't included?
This might be the single best follow-up to the pricing conversation.
Ask directly:
"What might I reasonably assume is included that actually isn't?"
That's a surprisingly effective question.
It forces both sides to clarify expectations before there's a disagreement.
19. What happens as my business grows?
Your accounting needs at $250,000 of revenue may look very different at $2 million, $10 million, or across multiple locations.
Ask whether the firm can support:
Additional employees
Additional locations
Multiple entities
Multi-state operations
More complicated payroll
More sophisticated reporting
Financing
Acquisitions
Ownership changes
Eventually selling the business
You don't necessarily need a firm capable of handling a billion-dollar company.
You do want to know whether you're likely to outgrow them in twelve months.
20. When would you tell me that I need someone other than you?
This is one of our favorite questions.
No professional is an expert in everything.
There may eventually be situations requiring:
An attorney
A valuation specialist
A financial planner
A payroll specialist
A sales-tax specialist
An industry specialist
Another CPA with specialized tax expertise
A strong advisor should recognize the boundaries of their expertise.
You're not looking for someone who claims to know everything.
You're looking for someone who knows when another expert belongs at the table.
Questions are only half of the vetting process
Pay attention to how the professional answers.
Do they ask questions about your business before recommending something?
Can they explain complicated ideas in language you understand?
Do they clearly distinguish what they know from what they need to research?
Do they seem interested in how your business actually operates?
Are expectations around communication and pricing clear?
Do they explain why they recommend something?
Those qualities can tell you as much as the answers themselves.
Red flags worth investigating
A red flag doesn't always mean you should immediately walk away, but it should trigger another question.
Consider digging deeper if:
Every business receives the same recommendation.
The professional guarantees a particular tax result before understanding your situation.
Pricing or scope is difficult to explain.
Nobody can tell you who will actually handle your account.
Communication expectations are vague.
Tax planning is advertised but never clearly defined.
You're discouraged from asking questions.
You can't easily access your own records.
Complicated questions always receive immediate, absolute answers without any apparent research.
You're told to do something that makes you uncomfortable but can't get a clear explanation of why.
You should understand the reasoning behind important decisions involving your business.
Don't choose solely based on the letters after someone's name
Credentials matter, but make sure you understand what they mean.
A CPA is a state-licensed accounting professional who has met specific education, examination, and experience requirements.
An Enrolled Agent is federally authorized by the IRS and specializes in federal taxation.
Other tax preparers may have different credentials, qualifications, and representation rights.
The right professional depends partly on what you actually need.
If you primarily need sophisticated tax planning, your selection criteria may be different from a business owner looking for monthly bookkeeping.
If you need audited financial statements, your requirements will be different again.
Start with the problem you're trying to solve.
Then find the professional qualified to solve it.
You should still understand your own numbers
Hiring a great accountant doesn't eliminate your responsibility to understand your business.
Your accountant may prepare the reports.
Your CPA may prepare the return.
Your bookkeeper may categorize the transactions.
But you are still the person making the business decisions.
You should understand questions such as:
Are we profitable?
Is profitability improving?
Where is our cash going?
What are our largest expenses?
Can we afford another employee?
Can we afford another vehicle?
How much revenue do we need to break even?
What happens if sales fall 10%?
What happens if we raise prices 5%?
Professional advisors can help you make better decisions.
They shouldn't require you to surrender understanding of your own company.
That's one of the reasons UnpackFi exists: to help business owners understand the financial information they already have in plain English, so conversations with accountants, advisors, lenders, and other professionals can be more productive.
Before you sign
Before hiring a new accountant, CPA, or tax professional, make sure you can answer five basic questions:
What exactly are they responsible for?
What am I responsible for?
Who will actually work on my account?
How and when will we communicate?
What will I pay, and what costs extra?
If those answers are clear—and you're comfortable with their experience, communication style, technology, and approach—you'll have a much better foundation for the relationship.
The goal isn't simply to find someone who can file your taxes.
It's to find the right professional for your business.
Want to better understand your business numbers before your next conversation with an accountant or CPA? Explore the UnpackFi demo and see how your financial information can be organized and explained in plain English.