Now that you’ve decided to hire an accountant, it’s important to hire the right one for your business. This is the person who will handle your financials, so making the right decision is crucial. Before you sign anything, take a look at these five tips to hiring the right accountant for you.
Location: Before you start your search, you need to consider if it’s necessary to have an accountant in the same city as your business. With cloud-based programs, we’re able to interact and do business in real time with people across the country without leaving our desks. This works great for some and gives you a lot more options to consider when choosing a person to handle your finances. If it’s more important to you to have someone you can speak with face to face, then you should stick to your general vicinity.
Qualification: As you read before, sometimes a bookkeeper as all you need, but if you’re expecting business growth, then it’s better to hire the right accountant in the beginning rather than down the road. CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants, must pass the Uniform CPA exam and continue education in order to maintain their certification. If you end up getting audited, you want a Certified Public Accountant on your side.
Expertise: You want someone who has had experience working with your industry and is knowledgeable about the needs of your business. Interview them and consider multiple accountants. Ask them if they’ve worked within your industry and how their work has impacted similar companies. Meet our team to learn about our areas of expertise.
Workload: If you own a company with employees, your needs will drastically vary from the needs of a sole-proprietor. The accountant you hire needs to be able to handle the work load. The last thing you want is payroll to be late because they haven’t gotten to it yet. Ask them for a client list and compare the sizes between yourself and their current clients. If they’ve worked with larger companies than yours then there is a good chance that they will be able to handle your needs.
Money saver: You want a financial advisor who will work to save you money. They may have insight into your business finances that you’ve never considered. Ask them what they would recommend, or what you can do to get a lower tax rate. Maybe they have an easy way for you to track your mileage. Make sure to ask this of each accountant you interview.
Hiring an accountant gives you the chance to focus on your business and not on bookkeeping. It’s important to take your time and pick the right one. After narrowing your options, do a background check, and pick the one that meets the criteria, and is an accountant you trust.
18 thoughts on “5 Tips to Help you Hire the Right Accountant”
I would never want to go through taxes without an accountant. I definitely agree that finding someone who is an expert at what they do is a good thing. I wouldn’t want to hire an accountant who just barely graduated from college.
Finding the right accountant is really important. I am not good with finances at all, so I know I would just mess up my taxes. I agree that finding someone who is experienced, but not overloaded, is vital!
My son is interested in becoming a CPA so I’ve been wanting to learn more about what their expectations are. I’m glad I came across this article because I had no idea that you have to pass an exam and get an education to be certified for the job. This is great information for him to know before going into the field. It seems like a great job with a large workload!
I agree, if you need to choose an accountant for your business then you want one that will save you money. After all, one of the big reasons business owner hire accountants is to help them make sure there money is in the right places. If the accountant can look at where your putting your money and come up with a better solution that saves you some money then they are definitely worth it.
Hi there, thanks for the great tips by the way. However, I do
have a question that I think you could answer for me.
I was wondering should a small business use a
bookkeeper all year around? If you could give me some insight I would greatly appreciate it!
It was good that I came across this article because I learned that in order to find the right accountant for the job, I have to make sure to interview a few of them and ask them about whether or not they have experienced working with my industry. To be honest, it was not me who needs the help of an accountant, it was my brother, but I am still researching because I want to help him out. Considering that his future business is related to the food industry, I am guessing he needs to find an accountant who has an experience working in the food industry. I will be sure to share this with him. Thank you.
I appreciate that you talked about how you’ll need to hire a professional who will be able to handle the workload you need to give them. If my dad were a business owner looking to hire a general bookkeeping company I think he would find great value in knowing that. I’ll be sure to talk to him about your tip in case he is ever in need.
You really do have to do a lot of research when you are planning to hire a professional accountant for your business. I particularly like that the article brings up the importance of hiring someone with the right qualifications. After all, accounting is a very important part of your business’ needs, so you’ll want to make sure that you have someone who’s been properly trained to do it.
I agree that you need to look at qualifications. It’s good to know that if you are a business, then you need to make sure you hire the right accountant that will be good for you even as your business grows. It’s a good idea to pick the right accountant from the beginning, like you said.
I love the idea that you can save money with an accountant. This is a great motivator to make sure that you are getting just the right financial help. My sister would love knowing this as she looks into certified public accountant services.
I appreciate what you said about working with an accountant that has had experience working with your industry. I think accountants are vital in maintaining financial consciousness in any trade. If I ever find myself in need of accounting services, I’ll be sure to do my research to determine which public accountant in my area is best.
My husband and I have been struggling financially recently, and we’re considering hiring an accountant to help us manage this better. Your article had some great tips for choosing someone like this, and I liked how you said to interview a few different options, and ask them what they would recommend, or what you can do to get a lower tax rate. We want someone who will work to save us money, and we’ll keep this in mind when choosing the accountant best for us.
I rely on the accountant at work almost daily, so I can see why choosing the right one would be important to any company. I like your point about choosing someone with a lot of experience and certifications. Having someone experienced would no doubt help make things smoother when it comes to taxes and payroll.
I like that you said that you must choose an accountant that can provide you recommendations on how you can save money by lowering your tax rate. I will share this with my parents because they wanted to own a small business in the future. They said that they wanted their business to help them build their wealth to ensure a good retirement life for them. Thanks!
Thanks for pointing out that an accountant that can handle the required workload can ensure you that there won’t be delays in your company’s payroll. This is something that I will make sure to remember because I’d like to own a business in the future. I wanted to make sure that my employees will have a good experience in my company because they are getting their compensations right on time.
I like that you suggested choosing an accountant that within your vicinity if you think that it’s necessary for you to speak with them face to face. This is a great tip for me because I need some assistance in understanding what’s happening with my money since I’d like to own a business in the future. My goal is to have peace of mind that I’m able to save enough money to start a business in the future. Since I’m more of a visual person who prefers meeting the people that I hire, I’ll consider all your tips.
What caught my attention was when you said that you have to consider if you will need an accountant that’s based in the same place as your business. I will make sure to remember this because I heard that my supervisor at work is planning to hire a forensic accountant. He said that he wanted to make sure that the forensic accountant that he will choose can meet him easily when he has concerns. Thanks for sharing this.
I completely agree with your points. I hired an accountant remotely last month through Upwork and after working with him for the entire month, the final statements that I received were all badly done. I don’t understand why these freelance accountants still use Excel when there good software like Quickbooks and Xero are already available. Anyhow, I fired my accountant and bought a Sage subscription as it fits my needs. I also enrolled in a sage 50 training course so that I could understand the software myself first before I hire another accountant.