62: Finding the Right CPA for YOU

In this eye-opening episode, I share my 30 years of experience in public accounting to guide you through the often-overlooked pitfalls of changing CPAs, especially in a tightening industry. I discuss the alarming decline in new accountants entering the field and the rising wave of retiring firms, which means more clients are left high and dry just before tax season hits. Whether your current CPA has closed shop, ghosted you, or you're simply seeking a better fit, I uncover what to look for in a new accountant to ensure your financial health isn't left to chance.

This episode is perfect for business owners, entrepreneurs, and individuals feeling the squeeze of a shrinking industry and seeking clarity in chaos. If you've ever wondered how to pick the right accountant in today's shifting landscape, this episode is your essential guide to making smarter, more confident financial decisions.

Don’t suffer in silence — your ideal CPA may be just a conversation away.

Transcript

The firms that are not embracing technology aren't going to be around much longer. So if you are still working in things like QuickBooks desktop, that's not an enterprise edition that's going away in the next few years. If your accountant hasn't talked to you about it, then they're not doing you any favors because I've been talking about it for years and we think, you know, we might get another year and a half, two years out of it at the most. but know that if you are working with a firm that doesn't use technology and you're trying to move to a firm that does use technology, if you embrace that technology, it will be a smoother transition and it will be a smoother relationship.

Hi, and welcome to another episode of Accounting with Confidence. I'm Beth Whitworth, your host and I'm back. So I feel like I haven't recorded in that hot second, and I realized that I was putting it off today because I didn't do my hair, I didn't do my makeup. I'm wearing kind of a distracting kind of fuzzy thing because it is so stinkin' cold and I'm not a winter person.

So I thought, you know what? Nobody really cares, right? You don't really care. This is me. I don't use filters. I don't use filters for what I look like. I don't use filters on my mouth usually so I decided I'd just start recording and what has come up recently and I feel like I needed to kind of jump on and talk about this is people having the opportunity to change accountants and accounts are typically you're very loyal to your accountant, to your CPA, and a lot of times, you know, you just don't really think about making that change.

You've been doing the same thing all the time. Every year you're happy, you know the price is right, you know, whatever those things are, you don't even think about it. However, the number of accountant accountants in the industry is shrinking. And what I mean by that is there are not as many people coming into the industry. We don't have as many people graduating with accounting degrees or if they are graduating with accounting degrees, they are choosing not to go into public accounting because of the stereotype and the historical situation where, you know, you have to give up four months of your life, where you're working a lot of overtime and all the all the things that I try to not do. But the other thing is that there are a lot of firms that are in the generation that are hitting retirement age. They are realizing that the they don't want to keep up with the technology, They don't want to keep up with the rising costs of having people on their team. Maybe they've been stricken by an illness.

And what I have seen over and over and over again in the last several months are people reaching out saying, my accountant's not going to do tax returns next year, my accountant won't call me back or hasn't called me back. Or when I finally gotten a hold of them, they say they can't work with me anymore. They've they've changed their client base and and they didn't make I didn't make the cut.

And so I don't have an accountant. And this made me think about and what I would hope that people are doing as they're seeking out a new professional in this industry. And what I think that when you're looking for an accountant, what you should be looking for as an accountant, what I would love that my clients would understand and want to know about working with the CPA and just kind of give some feedback there because I think there's going to be just more and more people that are in this position of having to find new help in this area.

So I thought maybe I could provide some guidance. I have just started my 30th tax season in a row. 30th. 2026 is a magic number for us. My 30th tax season, 30 years in our home, 30 years married this year. So this is kind of a big year for us. But 30 years in a row now, I would have never thought that I would still be working in tax season for this long because there's not there's a lot of people that stay in public accounting.

If they got into the field where they experienced that, you know, historically male dominated, long hours, high expectations, you're expected to, you know, really sacrifice for four months, not see your family, maybe get some time off after that and keep track of your time, you know, very tedious things so a lot of people that came into that field, they may have gotten their experience and then they went to industry or they they went somewhere else that they could use their accounting skills and didn't stay in public accounting.

Well, here I am. I have been working in the public accounting, feel like my very first public accounting job was in 1995, and I did my first tax season in 1996. So have some experience on working with people, on helping people transition to a new CPA or accountant. So I just thought, okay, now is the time, let's talk about it.

So for those of you who are out there going, my accountant closed their doors. My accountant told me in December they're not going to do tax season this year. My accountant won't answer my I answer the phone, won't answer the calls, won't return my email. Those people that are out there that are actively looking for a new accountant, I just wanted to give some pointers to you.

One start looking right now. If you need help for this tax season, you're already kind of late, so be aware that there are going to be firms that you might talk to that say, no, you know, we're at capacity. We can't take on any more this year. If you want an extension, you could come on board, will take that extension for you.

But we can't do any work ahead of time. There are firms that are like that. If you can't wait and you have a very basic return, then that might be something that you're looking more at. One of the big box tax preparing places for this year just to get it done. Not my always my go to, but just keep that in mind that all accountants you talk to, you're not going to have the capacity to take you on at this point in tax season, but if you are looking and you have people willing to take calls with you who are accepting clients, interview them.

So our process for getting a new client on board is we have a discovery call with every single one of them, no matter what the referral sources, as long as they don't indicate that they're in an industry that we don't serve or they are in a state or country, that we cannot adequately support them, we will take that discovery call and we will find out, you know, those things, what what are you looking for?

But in that situation, I would ask that the person who is trying to find the accountant interview the accountant as well, you want to know things like what is the communication style of this firm? Is it a one person firm? Is there a team of people? What are the timing of things? You know, how quickly would you expect your return to be completed?

What are the expectations of having communication with someone do If you emailed them, do you expect an immediate response? Well, that if you do and you're you ask that question, they say how quickly do you respond to an email? And the accountant says, well, you know, usually 24 to 48 hours and that's not acceptable to you, then that's not going to be a good fit no matter how much you like the person, no matter how much you like the price, whatever that is.

If your communication styles are not going to mesh, it's long term not going to be a good fit. So you also want to know and you know, what is the availability? What are they? Is it someone who's working just nights and weekends? You know, that's someone who's kind of doing it as a side job. You need to know that.

Or is it a firm that this is what they do? They're open during business hours. In my case, I don't take client appointments or calls on Thursdays, Fridays. Everything is squeezed into Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for client facing work because that allows me to have days to work on my podcast, to do management and catch up and all kinds of things in my firm, and so as a client, you would want to know that

The other thing that you want to know when you're interviewing a new firm is pricing what's included. What can you expect there? And right now, the industry is changing. They're going to a lot of times you're going to a monthly subscription or membership fee, but there are still a lot of firms out there that haven't done that and they could give you a range because they're still billing you for time. They're billing you by the hour, by the minute. And so make sure that, you know, you know, don't be afraid to ask about pricing. Don't make that some big surprise. Ask about it in the call when you're interviewing.

But for the one big thing for me, because this is where accounting is moving to, there's a lot of firms that believe in this and this is something that is is extremely important to me is as a consumer, as the client, are you looking for a transaction, Get the tax return down. Pay for the tax return. That's all you care about? Or are you looking for a relationship? And we are a relationship based firm. So if all you want is that tax return done and you don't want to see or talk to us the rest of the year, that's not a good fit with us anymore. We yes, we used to do that, but we don't do it anymore.

What we want is someone who wants to be proactive about their tax situation. They want to have a resource of in us, of, you know, when something happens, something changes. Anything from you have a kid to you lose one of your parents and you have an inheritance. We want to be that resource. We want you to call us.

We want to talk through those tax scenarios with you and how it can impact you, how it could save you money, what it's going to cost you, what you could do to mitigate some of that. We want that to happen during the year when it's happening, not in April, when we just find out about it. And you're sad or you're mad, you are really surprised that you owe tax when we could have done something if we knew about it.

And so we have moved into a very relationship based firm, even with clients that we may just be working on an individual tax return. We want to work with people who are looking long term, who are wanting to do things the right way, whether it's from consulting with us to help reduce your debt. How can we help help you do that with cash flow or if it's, you know, wanting to leave a legacy for your family?

Okay. So what what does that look like? Maybe it's even connecting you with other resources that we might have in our stable of people that we know that could help you, whether it's a lawyer, a financial advisor, maybe it's another client. You need electrical work done. We got you. We can we have clients that we would recommend. And so we want that type of relationship with our clients.

And I would think that a lot of people want that. However, there is still a base of people that just say, I don't need that. I just need my tax return done. So make sure you are getting a good fit with that firm that you're talking to. If you're talking to me and I say I want to talk to you four times a year or two times a year or whatever, and you're like, I don't want to do that, then we're not a good fit and you need to find someone who is a good fit.

So don't be afraid to. Even if somebody recommends somebody to you highly, it might not be a good fit for you. It's a good fit for them. It might not be a good fit for you. And that's okay. That's okay. Now, the other group of people that are seeking to make a change with their CPA are ones who are currently dissatisfied for some reason.

Now I said at the beginning of this, people are ridiculously loyal to their accountants and as an accountant and a CPA, I, I value that and I appreciate that. However, there is a time when if you're not happy with your accountant and you need to make a change, you need to make change, you need to you need to start looking.

And it for me, you know, if you're currently working with someone and you cannot get a hold of them, not even a response to an email that says, Hey, you know, I can't look at this right now, but I can get back to you, you know, in a day or two if you're getting ghosted, you know, complete radio silence from your accountant, then there's something going on in that firm that could be impacting the quality of work that they're giving to you.

And I say that I don't say that it's something against you and it CPAs are people too. And a lot of things can go on and depending on the size of the firm, depending on the age of the accountant, depending on a lot of things, things can be going on in their life that's keeping them from giving good service.

And if that's a something that that is impacting you, being able to make good business decisions or having good tax planning, maybe it's time to have a conversation with them and also see what else is out there. But through all of that, I encourage you to kind of break the silence. If there's an issue, you need to reach out to your accountant and let them know what you're having an issue with.

Don't just sit in silence and be like, you know, I never told them, but you know, they always call me Liz instead of Beth. And I hate that. And that makes me angry. Okay, well, I know that's kind of a trivial thing, but it's one of those things where if it is bothering you, you there's no harm in saying, hey, you know, we need to talk. We need to correct this. You know, here's something I'm seeing that I'm not happy with, not comfortable with whatever that is. So don't sit in silence, remember that especially in the accounting world, there are a lot of deadlines. So response times can definitely vary during some deadline periods. So assume that there's a deadline around the 15th of every single month and that the end of the year is very busy.

So those those things, if you keep that in mind, however, if you're kind of expressing a concern, have a question. Trying to reach out to your accountant, I would encourage you to make sure if you have a deadline for an answer, you know, you are having a meeting with your financial planner at the end of the week and you wanted a question answered.

Make sure you're leaving that information in the message, whether it's an email or a voicemail or whatever that is. Make sure the accountant knows that you need a response by such and such a time because you have something else pending. Now, a lot of times I will get voicemail messages or emails that say this is urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent now, but no description of what urgent means.

And in accounting, you know, I say and my team will back me up on this that I say all the time, nobody dies in accounting. So there is not an emergency in accounting that we can actually really define. And sometimes those emergencies are generated by someone not responding to initial emails months ago, weeks ago. You know, so what you might feel is an emergency is might just be, you know, poor planning more.

So if I get a message like that that it's urgent, if it doesn't include a I need this bye because then by I need it by this date because of this situation, it's really hard to prioritize those things because we have as CPAs and it's in the title Certified Public Accountant public. We have multiple clients. We're not just working for one person.

So we have to be able to prioritize work. A lot of times that is prioritized by what got here before something else. So make sure when you're looking for an accountant or you're working with one currently that you are communicating clearly what you need from them and when and sometimes why. Because we don't know necessarily what's going on in the lives of every single client.

A lot of times they think maybe your you need something because you're buying a home, maybe you need something because there's a time coming up where, you know, an estate is happening and you have a time, a deadline there for filing a return or things like that. So you have to be very specific. And like I said before, CPAs have lives, too.

We have challenges outside of just working in our business and I know that is sometimes hard to discern because a lot of times you have an accountant who will respond to your text immediately or in the middle of the night or during the dinner hour or, you know, any any time. And so when those boundaries aren't in place, which our firm is pretty good about, but some aren't, you get used to that.

So if you have to change firms and you are expecting that type of communication and that type of timing, where if I text you, I expect a response. You need to make sure that that is a firm that does that. Our firm, I can say, doesn't. In fact, we just recently have gone to an auto attendant with our phone system with you can dial the extension of any member of the team to get to them.

But there's not somebody answering and transferring your call. And what we have gone to in the past and have been working with even with someone live answering the phone has been the ability to schedule a time to talk to us. And I have always said that that is so that I'm prepared for the call. You are prepared for the call and you're I'm not dropping another client's work to work on something for you because I picked up the phone.

That's a disservice to the client I was working on. It's a disservice to the person who called because my mind is not on the specific issue that needs to be handled right then. So we went to a schedule, a call schedule a meeting. And for us, since we don't bill for time, we don't bill by the hour, those types of calls are included in the subscription, you know, so if somebody hops on my calendar, they're going to land on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

They're able to schedule a time on a monday, Tuesday or Wednesday when I'm available and have me to them to themselves. I am not being interrupted by another phone call. I'm not being distracted by email. I am working with them on their question and that has worked really well for us being a 100% remote firm. So and that just makes it to me. It makes it be a much more meaningful time. I'm spending much more valuable and more getting the things done and understood. So that being said, if you're looking, you've got to keep in mind that we're all people and there's I don't necessarily do the whole I'll take your call whenever, I'll take your text, whenever I'll take I don't do that anymore.

And that has been a result of things that have happened in my life, you know, So I've had to prioritize my health. I've had to prioritize my family. I've had to make some changes so that I can keep doing this as long as I want to without burning out.

So I know this is a lot. I did want to go through one more area and this is kind of a a wish list for me as well as a kind of a template of what I think makes a good client CPA relationship. And it does depend on what type of firm you're with. So if you are with a firm that it's just a sole proprietor, you know, that's you only have the communication with that one person and maybe that's what you want. You want to just talk to the CPA, you just want to, you know, everything you, you know, that that person is handling all the things and knows all the things about you.

And that is a a model that still exists extensively in the industry. One person doing all the work and one person who's doing all the communication, one person doing all the things I have never wanted to be in that type of a firm. I have always known that I am better with others and I am better with a team to support me because I am not.

I'm not the best at everything. I love helping my clients, but am I always the best person to be managing payroll or bill pay? Now I'm not. So what I want everybody to know is as you're, you know, deciding, do I want to work with a firm that has a team of people? I encourage you to trust the team so know that the person that maybe you talk to and who has said, here's what we can do for you.

They're not necessarily if it's not a sole proprietor, the person who's going to be doing the work. And you need to trust that the members of the team were vetted by that person. They may have been trained by that person that they the the members of the team. If they don't know something will go ask that person and get back to you.

And this is how members of the team can gain the kind of knowledge that people like me after 30 years have. If you don't work with the member of the team and you only ever want to talk to the owner, the the most highest level all the time, and it's one you're not going to get probably as good of response time because of the all the irons in the fire at this level up here compared to where we have.

For me, I take a team member and they are tasked to serve my clients, that's what we do as a firm. We serve our clients and they have the tools and the time to do that. And if they need a resource, you know, they need to ask me a question they can. Now that doesn't mean I don't take questions from clients. It just means I need people my clients, to trust my team. And we do a very thorough vetting of of team members before they come on board. We have a thorough and rigorous training that has to happen. And so, you know, we our firm is not somebody's place that we have kind of a revolving door of people. But there are firms that are like that.

And so you need to make sure if you're, you know, working with a CPA, are you if you're expecting to work with a CPA, you better make that clear because that for me, if somebody said that, am I going to be working with you? While it depends on the services it is coaching, Yes. If it's payroll, no. If it's doing your tax return, probably not. I'm maybe a high level review, but that's it, so make that clear.

The other thing that makes or breaks a relationship with a CPA is your use of their systems and technology. Now, it is extremely important for keeping things running smoothly to actually use those systems as soon as you need a kind of a workaround to the system, you've become a client that will not be handled as smoothly, will not maybe be handled as quickly, so know that technology is here to stay.

The firms that are not embracing technology aren't going to be around much longer. So if you are still working in things like QuickBooks desktop, you know, that's not an enterprise edition that's going away in the next few years. If your accountant hasn't talked to you about it, then they're not doing you any favors because I've been talking about it for years and we think, you know, we might get another year and a half, two years out of it at the most.

So but know that if you are working with a firm that doesn't use technology and you're trying to move to a firm that does use technology, if you embrace that technology, it will be a smoother transition and it will be a smoother relationship, and the other thing with kind of working with a CPA is that as much as you want us to respond to you, you know, on a timely manner in that 24, 48, whatever timeframe, we need responses from our clients and a lot of times we spend a lot of time following up with clients, email after email, even if we are automating it. If we aren't getting a response, we feel very much like we've been ghosted or that there's not a value to that relationship. As far as you want thing. We agreed on some sort of proposal or quote or contract that says We're going to do this for you and when we are, you know, kind of sending things out with the client request, we need information to to do the job.

We can't just always get the information for you if we get stuck not hearing from you. And that delays the response of getting the things done. It it spirals. It doesn't give you good information, doesn't give us good information. It becomes something that we're feeling like we're constantly in catch up mode. We're not being able to address issues timely and we just don't know, you know, even if we can't get an answer right this second, if we can get a response that says, Hey, you know, I'm I'm out of town, I don't have this information, but I can get it to you next week, whatever.

Just a response, knowing that that we even you even got the email is great. Now, sometimes we just go and go and go and we can go for months and not get anything. And then suddenly it's like, Hey, we are out of extensions, We need to file this return. And suddenly it's, it's they're able to come up with all the information now.

It's super frustrating, especially in this day and age of technology and being able to get information to be able to communicate from your phone by text, by email, by scanning a document with your phone and sending it over, that we are not prioritized at all sometimes. And that can be frustrating. And I bet that comes through, you know, that can probably come through to your to clients.

So if you're a client looking for a CPA and you one of your concerns right now is that you know, your your CPA is always nagging you for things. Everybody wants a response. You want a response from me and I want a response from you. So that's that's something that has to work both ways. And I as I said before, you know, don't don't suffer in silence.

I want people to address concerns about service sooner rather than later, because, you know, we're 100% remote team. So that means we're not seeing each other in the office. Somebody is not walking past my door going, hey, you know, I think so-and-so is upset about this or that. We don't have that type of communication like you would in a brick and mortar office anymore.

And that means if you have a concern, you need to bring it to the attention of whoever you work with soon. That also is because we can't fix what we don't know about. So I like I said, our firm lives to serve our clients. If someone's upset with us, I want to know sooner rather than later. I want to be able to fix it. I think, is it just a communication problem? Is did we do something wrong? Did we? Is there something that would make your life easier and you haven't told us any of those things We want to know. So I encourage you to think about all of these things as you're considering changing or considering finding someone to work with you.

Now, I said earlier that right now is not the best time to be making that change because there's so much happening this time of year in an accounting firm. However, that doesn't mean that people aren't willing to talk to you. So I will tell you that one of the reasons I went out on my own almost 20 years ago was because I was working in a form that a firm that had the format of any new clients.

We can't talk to you until May, and I could just see people who needed help and couldn't get it. So I said that I would always, when I went out and started my own firm, that I would always leave capacity to take on people who are what I would consider suffering where they are and need help. So so I'm not going to take on just anybody, but I leave that door open and I would love it if everybody knew after either tax season that they want to make a change and they make their their they start to vet accountants and things in the summer because that is notoriously a slower time for accountants.

But that doesn't happen if you can't get it done in the summer before January 1st is usually good, but if it's during the season, don't assume you have to stay where you are. If you're highly dissatisfied and reach out to if you've been referred somewhere, reach out, see what you know. They may say, No, not right now. Maybe they say we can.

We can help you by taking extension and work on your stuff in the summer. There's a lot of options there. And I don't want to discourage people from making a change in suffering through a tax season with relationship that you're not happy with because in the end, you're the one paying for it. So I want our clients to feel that there is value coming from us and if somebody is completely unhappy, you know, even with the shortage that's coming in the industry, there are still places that they could go to be able to have a better relationship somewhere else.

So I hate losing clients, but we also have times when we outgrow a client or they outgrow us and we have to help them with that transition. And I'm okay with that. It's the life cycle inside of a public accounting firm. But at this time of year, you know, if you are unhappy, don't think you're stuck. You know, reach out if you can and you may find out that, okay, you didn't find somebody in your area or with the day and age.

Now it doesn't have to be in your area. Things can be done completely electronically. They can you don't have to have someone in your hometown to do your taxes. You just don't have to. So you can kind of look outside your area and maybe find something that's a better fit for you, so those are some options.

I just it's been on my heart because I have talked to so many people who are just struggling with their current situation, be it their accountant retired, they can't find their accountant.

They're getting, you know, five, six weeks before someone is reaching back out to them once when they've emailed or called. All of those things just tell me that that's what's happening in the industry right now, there's some shrinkage happening in the number of providers and the tax laws aren't getting easier. So that means there's a growth amongst the population that needs to have a tax return prepared and there are, like you said, there are a lot of, you know, big box options there.

If it's just a transaction that you want, they're probably fine. If you're looking for someone who's going to help you long term, you're probably looking at getting with a a CPA firm that can support you year after year, help you, you know, as you're kids grow up and go to college, as you buy and sell homes, as you do, you know, things that have an impact on your taxes.

So, okay, that's me off my soapbox for today. I want you to be able to get the most out of your accountant and your CPA so that everybody seems happy with them because while we have some capacity, we can't take on everything because I you know, we have goals, but we don't I don't want to be the biggest firm in town we have.

We have some some guidelines there, and so I want people to be able to find good fits and yeah, and just start don't feel like you're you're stuck. So, okay everybody, that's all I have for now. If you have any comments, thoughts, suggestions, feel free to text me wherever you're listening. There's a little link that says Send Beth the text.

I'd love to hear from you. And yeah, we'll come back with more next week. All right, everybody, have a good week. Bye bye.