The hard part of this decision is that you are being asked to judge work you cannot yet evaluate. Everyone you speak to will sound competent, everyone will say accuracy matters to them, and from the outside there is little to separate a firm with an operating process from a firm with good intentions. That is an uncomfortable position to buy from, and it is where most founders start.
A way through it is to stop asking whether someone is good and start asking what they will commit to. A provider who will name a delivery date and a response time is describing a process they have built. A provider who answers those questions with reassurance is describing a hope. That difference tends to show up in a first conversation, and it is one of the few things you can reliably learn in one.
It is worth saying that this is not mainly about catching a bad actor. In our experience most people in this field are competent and well intentioned, and what goes wrong is more mundane: a firm takes on more than it can service, your month gets closed late, and by the time that looks like a pattern you are six months in and re-hiring is expensive.
Below are the questions we would ask if we were on your side of the table, the answers that should give you pause, and what a good first ninety days actually looks like. AliCat Solutions is one of the firms you might be interviewing, so read this knowing that, and use it on us too.
Estimated reading time: 11 min read
Overview
You cannot assess technical quality in a first conversation. You can assess whether commitments exist. What to establish:
- A named date each month by which your financial statements arrive, not a range
- A named response time for questions, in writing rather than in tone
- Exactly what is in scope and what is billed separately, before you sign anything
- Who actually does the work, and who reviews it
- What happens if you leave: whose file is it, and how does it come with you
What this guide covers
- The questions worth asking
- Answers that should give you pause
- Getting the scope in writing
- What a good first ninety days looks like
The questions worth asking
These are ordered roughly by how much they reveal per minute of conversation.
| Ask this | What you are really testing | A good answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| By what date each month will I have financial statements? | Whether a process exists or work happens when there is time | A specific day of the month, offered without hedging, and written into the engagement |
| How quickly will you answer a question? | Whether responsiveness is a commitment or a mood | A stated period, in the engagement letter, with what counts as a question |
| Who will actually do my work, and who reviews it? | Whether you are buying the person in front of you | A clear named answer, including how review works and what the reviewer’s credentials are |
| What is not included in this price? | Whether the quote is comparable to the others you have | A specific list: payroll, sales tax filings, 1099s, cleanup of prior periods, year-end support |
| Do you prepare tax returns? | What conflicts exist, and where the boundary sits | Either a clean yes with the scope stated, or a clean no with an explanation of how they work with your CPA |
| What do you need from me each month, and by when? | Whether they have thought about your side of the process | A short, specific list of documents and a date, not “just send everything” |
| If I leave in a year, what do I take with me? | Whether your records are hostage to their software | Your file is yours, exported in a usable form, with a named handover process |
| What happened the last time a client’s books were badly behind? | Experience with reality rather than the ideal case | A concrete story with a sequence, not a reassurance |
None of these require you to understand accounting. All of them are answerable by a firm that has built a process, and awkward for one that has not.
Answers that should give you pause
Some of these look like enthusiasm on the day and become problems later.
Worth slowing down for
- No date, only a rhythm. “Monthly” is not a commitment. “By the 15th” is.
- Scope described in adjectives. If you cannot get a written list of what is included, the invoice will settle it later and you will lose that argument.
- Reluctance about who does the work. Vagueness here usually means the person selling is not the person delivering, which is fine when it is disclosed.
- An immediate quote without seeing anything. Pricing depends on transaction volume, number of accounts, and complexity. A number offered before any of that is known is a number that will change.
- Willingness to advise outside their lane. A bookkeeper offering opinions on your tax positions or your entity structure is telling you something about their boundaries.
- No interest in your prior records. If nobody asks what state your books are in, nobody has planned for the answer.
The last one is the one we see most often, and the most expensive. A provider who quotes for ongoing monthly work without establishing whether the prior periods are clean has quoted for a job that does not exist yet, and the cleanup arrives as a surprise invoice. Our guide to what a cleanup involves and what drives its cost covers what that work involves.
Getting the scope in writing
The single most useful thing you can do before signing is to make somebody write down what happens each month, in both directions.
Disputes in this relationship are more often about scope than about quality: whether sales tax filing was included, whether 1099 preparation was assumed, whether cleaning up the previous year was part of the price or a separate engagement. Those are cheap to settle in advance and expensive to settle in arrears.
- What is delivered, and by when, each month
- What you send, and by when, for that to be possible
- Which filings are included: payroll, sales tax, 1099s, franchise tax
- How prior-period cleanup is treated and priced, if it is needed
- How questions are handled, and what response time applies
- How the engagement ends and what you take with you
It is also worth being honest with yourself about the second item. A provider committing to a date is committing on the assumption that your side arrives on time. The most common cause of a late close is not the bookkeeper.
For what our own version of that looks like, our getting started page sets out the process, and our piece on what a bookkeeper needs from you each month covers the monthly handover in detail.
Ask us these same questions on a call, and hold us to the answers. Schedule a discovery call
What a good first ninety days looks like
Judge the arrangement on the first quarter rather than on the first conversation, and know in advance what you are judging.
Month one is usually the roughest and should be, because it includes onboarding, access, and finding out what state things are actually in. What matters is whether problems are surfaced or absorbed silently. A provider who tells you in week two that the prior year does not reconcile is doing the job. One who says nothing and quietly works around it is storing the problem for you.
Month two should look like the process they described. Statements arrive on the named date. Questions come to you in batches rather than one at a time. The list of what they need from you stops changing.
By month three you should be able to answer a question about your own business from the statements without calling anyone, and you should have stopped thinking about bookkeeping between month ends. That is the actual deliverable, and it is worth naming as the standard when you start.
If none of that is happening by the end of a quarter, our experience is that it rarely fixes itself, and leaving early usually costs less than the year you would otherwise spend hoping.
Questions founders ask us at this stage
Q: What is the single most useful question to ask?
A: By what date each month will I have my financial statements. It sounds administrative and it is the most revealing question available to a non-specialist, because a specific date can only be offered by a firm that has built a process capable of hitting it. Our own answer is the 15th, in writing, alongside a response commitment of one business day. Whether or not you hire us, hold whoever you do hire to something equally specific.
Q: How do I compare quotes that are structured differently?
A: Get each provider to list what is excluded rather than what is included, because exclusions are where quotes actually differ. Payroll, sales tax filings, 1099 preparation, franchise tax, and cleanup of prior periods are the usual variables. Once you have those lists side by side, the quotes become comparable. Bookkeeping pricing generally depends on transaction volume, number of accounts, and complexity, so a provider who has not asked about those has not really quoted.
Q: Should I choose someone local or does it matter?
A: It matters less than it used to for the work itself, which is why plenty of firms serve clients nationwide. It matters more for accountability and for anything that involves sitting down together, which is why some owners still prefer someone in the same metro. The more useful question is whether they know your jurisdiction: a Texas business benefits from a provider who deals with Texas franchise tax and Texas sales tax routinely, wherever they physically sit.
Q: What if my books are a mess and I am embarrassed to show anyone?
A: Say so at the first conversation, and treat a calm response as a good sign. An established bookkeeping firm has almost certainly seen worse than yours, and a provider who reacts to it as a normal engineering problem rather than as a moral failing is the one you want. Practically it also matters for the quote: the cost of ongoing monthly work and the cost of fixing prior periods are separate questions, and a firm that establishes both up front is not going to surprise you later.
Q: When is the right time for a startup to do this at all?
A: Later than most advice suggests and earlier than most founders do it. If a spreadsheet still answers your questions and your transaction volume is low, it is reasonable to wait. The signals that it is time are practical rather than about revenue: you cannot answer what last month’s profit was without checking the bank, you are behind on filings, you are hiring, or you are about to raise or borrow and need records somebody else will rely on. Businesses in their first three years may apply for our Foundations Program, and what fits is confirmed on a discovery call.
If you want to test this on us
AliCat Solutions works with startups and service businesses across Cedar Park, Round Rock, Leander, Georgetown, and nationwide, under CPA supervision. Our commitments are the ones we would tell you to demand: accuracy that is checked, your monthly financials by the 15th, and answers within one business day, all in writing. We do not prepare tax returns, so your CPA relationship stays where it is.
Citations
- Understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications (Internal Revenue Service). Why it is worth asking a provider directly about credentials: enrolled agents, certified public accountants, and attorneys have unlimited representation rights before the IRS, and a preparer holding only a PTIN generally does not. https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/understanding-tax-return-preparer-credentials-and-qualifications
- Frequently asked questions: Do I need a PTIN? (Internal Revenue Service). The requirement that anyone compensated for preparing or assisting in preparing all or substantially all of a federal return holds their own PTIN, which is a concrete thing to verify if a provider offers to handle returns. https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/frequently-asked-questions-do-i-need-a-ptin
- Recordkeeping (Internal Revenue Service). The federal guidance on the business records a small business is expected to keep, which is the material any bookkeeping engagement is producing and maintaining on your behalf. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/recordkeeping
More on choosing help
- When should a startup hire a bookkeeper?
- Bookkeeper, accountant, or CPA: which one do I need?
- How do I find a good bookkeeper in Austin?
- How much should a small business spend on bookkeeping?
- How to get started with AliCat
Ask us the same questions
Our promise is specific and in writing: CPA-checked accuracy, your monthly financials by the 15th, and answers within one business day.
Schedule a discovery call, no obligation.
About the author: Alicia Hoffman, CPA is the founder of AliCat Solutions. A CPA since 1996 with two decades in corporate finance, mostly at Dell, and a BBA from Texas A&M, she built AliCat to bring corporate-grade bookkeeping discipline to small service businesses across Central Texas, backed by a written 3-Point Guarantee.
