When To Change Your CPA Firm

If your company has enough money to add credit card processing abilities or has one or more merchant accounts, it is time for the company to have a CPA on board. However, how can you tell if it is time to dump your current CPA in favor of another individual or firm?...  

 

If your company has enough money to add credit card processing abilities or has one or more merchant accounts, it is time for the company to have a CPA on board. However, how can you tell if it is time to dump your current CPA in favor of another individual or firm?

How Much Does Your CPA Charge?

While you never want to go cheap when it comes to your financial adviser, your financial adviser should provide value equal to the money being spent on that professional. If your CPA charges $100 an hour for work that he or she passes off to a junior associate, you could easily find someone with less experience on your own and pay that person yourself. Make sure that you are paying your CPA what he or she is worth to do the work on their own.

Is Your CPA Competent?

If your CPA can’t help you project how much money you will make by adding credit card processing capabilities, or tell you how much you could save by eliminating one or more merchant accounts, you should find someone who can. You need someone who is going to be able to help you plan to make as much money as possible while also helping you to organize your books and prepare your taxes. When you work with an incompetent CPA, the company is just throwing money down the toilet.

Can Your CPA Handle All of Your Needs

The difference between what a small firm can do versus what a larger firm can do are staggering. As your company grows beyond the stage where it is just yourself, your partners and a couple of employees in a garage making product and shipping it via UPS, you need a CPA that can keep up. If you discover that your CPA can’t offer everything that you need to keep your books in order as they get more complicated, it may be time to move on.

Changing or choosing your CPA is not a decision that you should make lightly. You should have an idea of who you are going to switch to made well in advance of cutting ties with your current CPA. This makes the transition smoother and gives your new financial adviser the ability to help you as soon as possible.

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