Interview Questions To Ask Bookkeepers for Your Business

I have always enjoyed mathematics and have found it easy to learn complex formulas and work with numbers, so being a bookkeeper is a great career for me to do something I love and am genuinely good at. But again, a new ledger is created by the bookkeeper with the name of Sundry Expenses to post expenses. As the business, solely, runs on the revenue generated from the sales; asking your book-keeper about the sales increment, can furnish you with some ideas. Yours book-keep always be up for making business-oriented efficiencies, for example, bill payments; memorized transactions; print checks, etc.

First, the bookkeeping candidate should say they would review the business bank accounts and make sure they’ve been properly reconciled. Bank accounts are the biggest weakness in a small business’s internal controls, and you want a bookkeeper who understands that. Where the first two bookkeeper interview questions focus on identifying the candidate’s passion, the third focuses more on technical expertise.

Question 3: ‘What is the first thing you would do on your first day on the job?’

Recall a time you worked with your team to complete a complex project under a deadline. This will also show that you care about their happiness and satisfaction and that you intend to deliver top-notch service. Learning what challenge is the most troubling for them can help you brainstorm actionable ways to work towards a solution through your role as an accountant.

From my debits and credits experience, that question rarely comes up in my conversations with potential clients. They may ask me where I learned to use QuickBooks, and I’ll tell them I took the online certification to become a ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online. Occasionally, I will send the questionnaire to potential clients ahead of time, and they’ve filled it out for me before we meet. Otherwise I’ll send it and let them know to think about these questions and come prepared with answers for our meeting.

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

Every bookkeeper needs experience and expertise using software and systems. I understand that has been in the industry for ___ years, and in that time has worked with ___ clients globally. The following questions and answers are exactly what you’ll need to feel ready to put your best foot forward and stand out among the competition. You’ll also want to find a bookkeeper who you trust and enjoy working with, so ask some soft skills questions, like about their communication style, too. You must remain updated with your monthly financial records if you want to judge the company’s performance on your scale.

• If you follow the system I’m sharing about today, it will help you communicate effectively with your potential client so you can see if you’d be a good fit to do their bookkeeping for them.
• These bookkeeping questions will test accounting knowledge as well as applied knowledge that has been learned on the job at other bookkeeping positions.
• If they set future expectations for themselves, then hold them accountable.
• If you find out some additional tasks your bookkeeper wants to take on, you will know what direction to push them.

To close more client deals, ask about wage or benefits problems in your lead nurturing and onboarding questionnaire. Examples might include union negotiations, labor disputes, etc., the potential for a minimum wage increase. Appealing to a wide range of clients is essential to establishing yourself in the industry. That’s great news because you will be able to demonstrate your expertise in accounting and financial advising. This information may be different than what you see when you visit a financial institution, service provider or specific product’s site.

What does a bookeeper do?

Working with a bookkeeper who never tackled a range of accounting and bookkeeping issues is less rewarding. Consider engaging an outsourced bookkeeper who has worked on multiple projects and has at least 10+ years of experience. During the interview, ask the shortlisted bookkeeping firms if they embrace the use of modern bookkeeping technologies.

• I’m extremely passionate about online education and what it can do for those to better their lives.
• Bank accounts are the biggest weakness in a small business’s internal controls, and you want a bookkeeper who understands that.
• This last question gauges the candidate’s fit with your existing company culture.
• Reach qualified candidates and get to the interview stage faster with a free job posting on Monster.
• Answer in a way where you are very specific about the number of hours you wish to work per week, as well as any specific days/times that you need or desire off.

It also shows your potential client that you care about them and won’t see them as a series of numbers. You can see starting salaries and the trends shaping the finance and accounting sector’s hiring market in the latest Robert Half Salary Guide. Localize your insights by selecting the city nearest you to automatically adjust salaries for regional cost of living, talent availability and other factors. You might be asked that question in the interview, so you should be prepared with an answer. Keep in mind that employers are finding they must increase salaries to attract and retain skilled professionals. They need strong communication skills, and they have to be comfortable with your team’s technology .

What does full-service bookkeeping include?

Your bookkeeper should always be looking for ways to improve the efficiency of your bookkeeping system. Simple efficiencies can be made in QuickBooks like using memorized transactions, printing checks from QuickBooks, downloading QuickBooks transactions, or utilizing a bill payment service like Bill.com. Your bookkeeper should be keeping up with the accounting industry as well as the technological advances that are going on. New technologies to make bookkeeping easier and more efficient are always emerging, so it is important to keep up. There should be absolutely no hesitation from your bookkeeper on answering this question. Your bookkeeper most likely knows the finances of your business better than you do.

Some of the things I ask potential clients about is their business size, payroll, financial systems, communication style, and current bookkeeping systems. With our insights, we are certain you will be able to hire the right team of bookkeepers for your business! Send them to and have them answered by our accounting and payroll experts. While putting questions to selected bookkeeping candidates during the interview, find out when you can expect your monthly reports. Also, ask about the expected response time of the bookkeeping outsourcing provider for your bookkeeping request, corrections, questions, and queries.

With that in mind, we have created this new accounting client questionnaire with 21 key questions to ask new accounting and bookkeeping clients. When you’re interviewing job candidates for bookkeeping or accounting clerk openings, you want to test for basic skills. Questions like this one will reveal whether potential hires understand accounting fundamentals. Here are 21 accounting interview questions you should consider asking your top candidates to cover their skills, experience and suitability for entry-level positions on up. Bringing aboard the wrong job applicant is a costly mistake that wastes time, money and resources. That’s why it’s so important to have a list of good accounting interview questions to ask and make sure all of them count when you’re trying to fill accounting jobs in your organization.

Ask About Their Long-Term Plans for Your Business

Asking your prospective clients about their inventory will remind you to speak of the topic again later with them. Bookkeeping checklists for new clients ensure they understand their payroll needs. A lack of personal interests can indicate that your candidate has a tendency toward being a workaholic. Or, it’s possible that the candidate is just telling you what they think you want to hear. If you get the impression that the candidate truly has no outside interests, though, you might be interviewing someone who will work themselves to the point of burnout and resentment. This last question gauges the candidate’s fit with your existing company culture.

Sometimes clients will want to know how many hours their books will take you, and that is often hard to determine. I will ask to take a look at their accounts and books first, and then I can give them an estimate if that’s important to them. If you’re cleaning up a mess in QuickBooks or catching up on previous years, that will also take a large chunk of time rather than starting with the present and moving forward. If your potential client has employees, you’ll want to also ask what type of payroll service they use. This will give you an idea of how big their business is, but also, depending on how many employees they have and the type of payroll they use, your working time may increase. Albert Einstein once said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.”.

And the financial health must be comparable to a time period with a time period – on monthly, quarterly or annual period. You can easily fetch daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly information from the book-keeping. You should always consult your book-keeper before making any business decision/s; ask your book-keeper about the different ways to make a single business decision.

Include these three essential questions to increase both the number of new clients and onboarding success. If the response is related to taxes and accounting, then you have work to do explaining how your company can provide tangible results for their business. The most common misconception about accountants, according to a survey of professionals from Accountemps, is that they handle only taxes and focus on numbers. Potential clients face regulatory challenges at the city, county, or state level. Industry resources and contacts can provide valuable assistance for your firm’s current quandaries.