Small Business CPA Austin AlternativePlain answers before you hire.

The questions below are the ones that show up before a scope is signed. They are not a script. If yours is different, put it on the form in your own words. A vague note gets a vague reply, and you deserve better than that.

Write the month that still will not tie, and name who last reconciled the bank, so the reply can start on that month instead of on a brochure.

Yes, and the open months are the start. We do not pile a new month on top of a year that has not been tied to the bank. The first stretch of work is cleanup until the open list is short enough to trust. If that cleanup is larger than you want, we say so and we do not begin.

Tell us the rough age of the last real close. Last month is a different job from last spring. Both can be done. They are not the same price in time, and we will not pretend they are.

No. We set payroll up. That means registrations, a provider you choose, and a map of the filings. You, or the provider you run, send the pay. After that we check that the books match what the provider says happened. Payday itself stays with the provider.

Tell us on the form if payday has no provider yet. Setup is ordinary work. Running the Friday pay is not our work, and mixing the two is how deposits get missed.

Only a year whose months already agree with the bank gets a return from us. You do not hand the year to a second office that has never seen the bank. If a month is open at filing time, the return waits on that month. You will hear that before you hear a guess.

You still sign what is yours to sign. We prepare. We explain the lines that move the year. We do not file a return built on a month we have not closed.

You hear that boundary before any file is opened. When a lender wants a cover that says audit, review, or compilation, the signature has to be a firm's, and that firm is not us. We will help you get the books ready for that firm. We will not blur the monthly work into a signed report.

Most owners who arrive here do not need that signature this year. What they came for is a month they can follow and a return that repeats that month. If you do need the signature, we would rather send you there in week one.

A long road race has been run in Austin every year since 1992. Every Texan who has watched a long race knows the question is not the starting line. It is whether there is water at the mile you are actually in.

Hiring feels like a starting line. The useful questions are the water stops. Are the months open. Who runs payday. Who prepares the return. What happens if a lender wants a signature. Answer those and the fee conversation is about a real job. Skip them and the fee is about a mood.

A note on the form gets a human reply from this practice. We do not promise a minute. We do promise the reply is about the company you described, not a newsletter. A conversation can start from the book page calendar instead of the form, and it is still this practice on the other end.

Leave bank logins and full account numbers off the form. Describe the month in ordinary words. Logins come only after a scope is signed.

Your part is the odd items and the decisions. Our part is the matching, the statements, and the note. A company with a clean bank and one payroll provider takes less of your attention than a company with three cards and a drawer of receipts. The first look is what tells us how much of your time the odd items will take.

You should plan on a real conversation in the first month and a shorter one after that. If every month needs a long rescue, the close is not sticking and we will say that too.

Yes. One set of books is the whole relationship we want. A company with one set of books is a full close. We do not grade you against a bigger file. Read the page about being refused as too small if that sentence is the one you came for. Bring the month that is really on the books, open or not.