21 Questions to Ask Accounting & Bookkeeping Clients + Onboarding Checklist & Template

To ease your candidate’s nerves, start off the interview with these general bookkeeper interview questions to get them talking about themselves. These are questions a bookkeeper might want to ask a potential new client. Lead nurturing, and onboarding presents an opportunity to set yourself apart from other accountants or bookkeepers the prospective client may be considering from firms they have worked in the past. Inspired by this need to listen to our prospective clients, we have created an upcoming accounting client questionnaire that will include 21 key questions. Most employment candidates won’t tell you during the interview process if they want or need time off to pursue their personal interests.

If they have no idea what system they should be using because they’ve used an excel spreadsheet up until now, you’ll want to inquire more about their business size. My name is Lewis Keegan and I am the writer and editor of SkillScouter.com. I’m extremely passionate about online education and what it can do for those to better their lives. This shows the hiring manager that you are dedicated to expanding your skills and will be a valuable employee willing to grow. This question is about humbling yourself to show that you are still learning.

Are you having any regulatory challenges?

Having someone who you can trust to keep a good record of your accounts and transactions allows you to focus more of your time on growing your business. With so much hinging on having a good bookkeeper, it’s vital to know how to identify the right candidates during the interview process. You can ask these insightful bookkeeper interview questions to find the right fit.

Typically, a business owner can create a separate login for their bank account so you’re not using their personal password. You don’t want them to be surprised about your fees, and you want to ensure they will be a good fit for you. It is a waste of time and energy continuing the pursuit of the client if he or she can’t afford it or isn’t willing to pay what you’re charging. It’s definitely better to know that upfront for both you and your potential client.

Finding the Best Bookkeeper Is Easy with These Tips

Maybe you now need someone onsite to handle customer billing or accounts payable. Or maybe you need weekly, or even daily, financial reports in order to make sound financial decisions for your growing business. Know of any other accounting or bookkeeping client questions that can help firms show their value to prospective clients? Use these 21 questions as an accounting bookkeeping checklist template to start productive conversations and get more clients.

• Yours book-keep always be up for making business-oriented efficiencies, for example, bill payments; memorized transactions; print checks, etc.
• An accounting prospect question like this can launch your potential client into a story that they think fondly of, which helps build rapport during the client onboarding process.
• The interview process is critical to making the right hiring decision for your business — and the right bookkeeper interview questions will ensure the success of this process.
• It might be a moment of awkwardness for your book-keeper, but the sales-oriented ideas must always be welcomed.
• At the same time, you want to support them in their personal pursuits to keep them happy and engaged on the job.

Don’t let your book-keeping feature go off or wasted by under-estimating its power to take various business decisions. Read our series of questions to ask a bookkeeper before making a decision to bring him on-board with you and your business. We will guide you in providing you every best question to ask a bookkeeper.

Enter accounting entries for your business including sales entry, purchase entry, bank receipts, and bank payment entry in automated software. You can rest assured that we will work closely with you to create actionable business plans and accurate financial reporting. We offer our toolkit of financial intelligence that will be your greatest asset for business growth. Working with a remote bookkeeping service will still provide you with all the value you could get from an in-office bookkeeper but at a fraction of the cost. We save you money the moment you hire us by cutting out the expensive cost of hiring an in-house CFO. This question might make your bookkeeper nervous, but a good bookkeeper will be able to intelligently answer this.

Can you explain the benefits of both cash basis and accrual reporting?

A strong set of effective employee retention strategies is essential to a positive workplace. This might vary depending on if cash flow from operating activities working with a client who is local versus one who is out of state. I try not to take anyone’s receipts, and I don’t want to be working with a ton of paper, so if they required more paperwork, I would charge extra for my time.

The orientation period has a significant impact on how a new hire views their new job, their place within the company and their integration into the company’s culture. Bonus points if they take this a step further and say they would compare the balance sheet to the last completed tax return or external auditor’s report. This demonstrates their understanding of how all the pieces of your financial puzzle are supposed to fit together, which means you’ll get a truly immaculate work product from them. An accounting prospect question like this can launch your potential client into a story that they think fondly of, which helps build rapport during the client onboarding process. When it comes to financial services, ‘financial advisor’ receives a whopping 1 million annual searches.

Dig Into Their Challenges

These 21 questions will help you have productive conversations and get more clients. When meeting with prospects, ask questions to learn more about their challenges. One way to get clients talking about themselves is to ask open-ended questions. The scoring formulas take into account multiple data points for each financial product and service. By addressing all of these concerns during the interview process, you’ll make the hiring and orientation period smooth for both you and your new hire.

So based on that, this question should be on your new client questionnaire. Bookkeeping firms need to be aware of how their clients handle their taxes since they can impact every aspect of bookkeeping. These last few additions to your new accounting client questionnaire are questions a bookkeeper should ask a client, too. They present an opportunity to set yourself apart from other accounting or bookkeeping firms the client may be considering, as well as from other firms they may have previously worked with. Read through these bookkeeper interview questions, make notes, and practice these responses, and you’ll be on your way to landing the role you want!

What is their current bookkeeping software?

One problem with both lead nurturing, and onboarding is that there’s too much talking. One way to gather information is by asking the right questions from your perspective. Use their questions to identify ways you can boost their business revenue. You’ll have to master their system, whether it’s for accounting or payroll.

Maybe they created helpful visual data presentations to help them understand their portfolio value or financial reports. If their response is related to crunching numbers and doing taxes, then you have work to do explaining the pivotal role you can play in the growth and success of their business. Your prospective client might be surprised by what resources, services, and tools you have available to help them with a wide variety of business issues. According to Robert Half’s Finance & Accounting survey, there is nothing accountants love more about their jobs than solving problems.

Think about how it has done, the company’s elevator pitch, the problem it solves, and things along those lines. A good prospect will want to know about the company they are looking to work with. You need to find out if they really care, because you will want people who genuinely care. They should also ask about the top things which are important to you, specifically when it comes to bookkeeping, and what success means to you in their role as a part of the team. If your bookkeeping candidate answers this question by explaining that they always find the difference, no matter how small, they’re probably a keeper. This is another “technical expertise” bookkeeper interview question, and it can also be one of the trickiest for your candidates to answer.

Bookkeepers are responsible for managing and maintaining the financial records of a business or organization. This typically includes tasks such as analyzing financial reports, recording transactions, reconciling accounts, and preparing tax documents. Understanding your potential client’s motivations and expectations behind change within their accountants is a key factor in securing the deal. When it comes to client onboarding, the best place to start is by asking questions. To close the deal and demonstrate their value, accountants should ask questions like these to launch their prospective clients into a story they think fondly of.