Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Questionnaire V.4.0 – 02/11/2018
Company Name: ______________________________________________________
Years in Business: ________
Industry & Principal Product/Service: ________________________________________
Principal (Director, CEO, CFO) decision making contact: ___________________________
Internal Accountant/Bookkeeper/Comptroller contact: ____________________________
Current Status
- Platform: QuickBooks Online ________ QBDT__________ Year: ____
- Last completed financial statements date: _______________
- Books Closed? Y / N Date:___________
- Assets and Liabilities matches last filed tax return (Schedule L): Y/ N
Tax Year:________ - Capital Accounts and Retained Earnings match Schedule K, M-1, M-2: Y/ N
- Who is responsible for reporting financial statements (internal CFO, Comptroller, etc.): _______________
- Have you worked with other accountants, external bookkeepers, accounting/financial advisors in the past? Y/ N Who?: _______________________________________
- If so, what kind of work have they done?
- What did you like from those previous professional services?
- What did you dislike?
- Do you manage or track inventory?
- Do you have employees and/or subcontractors? And how many or each?
Other Notes:
How often do you need to review financial reports (and feel a high level of confidence that the numbers are as accurate as possible; including: bank and credit card accounts reconciled, customer and vendor balances accurate, and/or inventory valuation is accurate)?
□ Daily □ Semi-weekly □ Weekly □ Biweekly □ Monthly □ Quarterly □ Annually
Notes:
How often do you expect to have a conversation with your external bookkeeper / accountant?
How fast do you expect a call back or e-mail response?
Do you expect your external bookkeeper / accountant to be available to engage with conversations with 3rd parties such as: Tax Preparers, Investors, Bankers/Lenders, Vendors, Customer, and/or Government entities? And/or prepare special reports or provide written explanations or affirmations of your financial reports?
How much training, education, and/or one-on-one walkthrough are you expecting your external bookkeeper / accountant to provide?
Do you collect Sales Tax?
If so, Which States?
If not, What type of activities are you engage in in which you are not sure whether or not you should be collecting sales?
Do you track or want to track income and expenses by a specific segment/location/division of your business?
Do you track or want to track all direct expenses related to a customer:job?
Do you have a Budget? And how often do you Monitor Actual vs. Budget Reports?
Do you pay sales commissions? (based on volume, profit, and/or other)
Do you pay any other performance bonuses based on financial results?
How do you want to track your books?
□ Cash-Basis Only □ Accrual-Basis Only □ Both □ Other/Hybrid:
How many people (and “who”) in your organization will be logging into the QuickBooks to do “any” accounting work such as:
- Creating Estimates and/or Sales Orders:
- Creating Invoices:
- Creating Purchase Orders:
- Receiving Inventory:
- Making Inventory Adjustments:
- Creating Bills (Accounts Payable):
- Paying Bills with checks and printing the checks (previously entered):
- Paying Bills with checks (previously entered):
- Preparing or approving timesheets:
- Preparing Paychecks:
- Paying payroll liabilities:
- Filling state and federal payroll forms:
- Paying sales tax liabilities and/or preparing sales tax forms:
- Marking previously entered bills as paid using manual checks or electronic payments:
- Writing and/or Printing Checks:
- Entering bank transactions and Reconciling Bank Account(s):
- Entering credit card transactions and Reconciling Credit Card Account(s):
- Creating or Querying Custom Reports:
- Consulting Standard Financial Reports:
Notes:
What are some things that we can do (or forget to do) that would be deal breakers for our relationship?
What is the cost of ALL the technologies you are currently using internally? And do you feel you are getting the most return for that investment?
How important is it to you that we guarantee our results (and give a 100% money back guarantee)?
How much budget have you allocated to “business growth”? such as:
- Increasing no. of customers or market share
- Increasing revenue per customer (increasing prices or cross-selling more products/services)
- Increasing the number of employees or increasing the effectiveness of current employees without hiring new ones and/or promote certain key employees to take a leadership role
- Improving the quality of the products or services / improve the brand recognition through quality
- Have access to credit from banks or mayor suppliers
- Create a self-sustaining business run by its employees (not the owners)
- Increase the value of the business for selling it or bring investors
And, are any these areas in which you would like to involve us in?
Notes:
Do you want a specific list of extremely narrowly defend sets of services of us to provide or are you looking for broad/dynamic scope of work?
If price weren’t an issue, how would you describe our ideal role in your organization?
After we send you a proposal with our price and scope of work, and you approve it… Ideally, when would you like for us to start working?
