How to Find a CPA Who Understands Your Business

We’re not a CPA firm, but we work alongside our clients’ CPAs every week, so we see the full range. Some CPAs call the owner in October to talk through the year before it’s over. Others show up once a year in March with a return and a number, and the owner finds out what they owe at the same time they find out why.

Both might file a correct return. The difference is whether anyone helped you plan before the year was over, and for a service business with trucks, equipment, payroll, and uneven cash, that planning is where a lot of the value is. Here’s how I’d find a CPA who’s the first kind, and how to tell if the one you have already is.

First, Know What You Need From a CPA

A CPA is licensed by the state, and they’re the one who can prepare and sign your business and personal returns, represent you with the IRS if something comes up, and give you tax advice. What they usually don’t do is record your day-to-day transactions (that’s your bookkeeper) or help decide what to charge and when to hire (that’s where a CFO comes in). If the titles are fuzzy, Bookkeeper vs. Accountant vs. CPA vs. CFO: Who Does What? lays them out side by side.

The main question to settle is whether you want someone who mostly prepares returns, or someone who also plans with you during the year. Once a business has employees, equipment, and a few hundred thousand dollars of profit, most owners are better served by a CPA who does both.

Where to Look

• Other owners in your trade. Ask who they use and whether they hear from that CPA outside of tax season.
• Trade associations and peer groups. These often have CPAs who already work with a lot of businesses like yours.
• Your bookkeeper and your banker. Both see which CPAs are easy to work with and which ones aren’t.

Before you meet anyone, look them up with your state’s board of accountancy to confirm the license is active.

Questions to Ask

• “What kinds of businesses make up most of your clients?” You want someone who already works with service businesses, contractors, or trades. They’ll know the questions to ask about trucks, equipment, subcontractors, and payroll without you having to teach them.
• “Do you do tax planning during the year, or mainly prepare returns?” If planning is part of it, ask what that looks like and when it happens.
• “When would we meet before December 31?” Most of the useful decisions happen before the year ends, so a CPA who only meets with you after it’s over has fewer options to offer.
• “Who will do my return, and who do I call with a question?” At bigger firms, the person you meet may not be the one doing the work.
• “How quickly do you usually get back to clients?” Ask what’s normal during tax season and outside of it.
• “What do you need from my bookkeeper, and by when?” A good CPA has a clear list and a date, which saves everyone a scramble in March.
• “How do you bill, and what’s included?” Ask whether planning meetings, IRS notices, extensions, and questions during the year are part of the fee or billed separately.
• “Will you walk me through my return once it’s done?” You should understand why you owe what you owe, even if you don’t need every detail.
• “Are you comfortable working with my bookkeeper and CFO?” The good ones like it, since it means cleaner books and fewer surprises for them too.

Red Flags

• You only hear from them between February and April.
• There’s a surprise tax bill every year, and nobody warned you it was coming.
• Your return goes on extension every year, and nobody can tell you why.
• They suggest a big purchase to lower your taxes without talking about what it does to your cash. Buying a $70k truck in December to save on taxes still costs $70k, and if the business didn’t need the truck, that’s a lot of money to spend for a smaller tax bill.
• Calls and emails go days or weeks without an answer.
• They’d rather not coordinate with your bookkeeper or CFO.

How to Tell If You Have a Good One

A good CPA relationship feels pretty boring, which is the goal. The tax bill is close to what you were told to expect. You meet at least once before the year ends. They know your numbers before the meeting starts. They explain things in a way you could repeat to your spouse or business partner. And when your bookkeeper sends over the year-end books, the questions that come back are small ones.

If most of that sounds like your current CPA, keep them. If very little of it does, it’s worth having a conversation with them about what you need before you go shopping, since sometimes the fix is as simple as asking for a planning meeting.

How the CPA Fits With Everyone Else

For most service businesses we work with, the setup that runs smoothest looks like this: the bookkeeper closes the books every month, the CFO uses those numbers to forecast and help make decisions, and the CPA uses the same clean books to plan and file the taxes. When all three are looking at the same numbers, the owner isn’t stuck being the go-between, and nobody’s surprised in April.

Where to Start

If you want one thing to do this week, email your CPA and ask for a planning meeting before the end of the year. October and early November are the best time, since there’s still room to make decisions before December 31. How they respond to that email will tell you a lot.

If you’d like help getting your books ready for that meeting, or you’re not sure what to ask, a free Cash Clarity Call is an easy place to start. We’re always glad to work alongside the CPA you already have.