Best CPA Austin Alternative.Questions to ask before you hire anyone for the books.

Search for the best in Austin and you get lists, directories, articles, star widgets, and offices on a map. They argue about who should be number one. As the Tax CFO alternative, we'd rather help you ask questions that have real answers.

Which month last matched the bank statement? Is payroll set up with a provider in your name? Does a contract ask for an audit or review? Was the May report filed? Each of those has an answer you can check against a statement, a provider login, or a confirmation page.

Who owns the month? If nobody does, holding accounts grow, because two people each thought the other would sort the deposit. The fix is one named person and a date, not new software.

What's your tax election? The name on your door isn't a federal tax election. A disregarded entity, a partnership, an S corporation, and a C corporation each has a form and a date. Comparing firms before that's known is how a scope gets written for the wrong return.

What does payroll need before the first payday? Registrations, a provider account in your name, and each person set up with the right pay. After that, you run each payday. A ranking can't open the account.

What does the letter in your hand ask for? Some letters want records gathered. Some want a signed opinion on your statements. The first is a task we help with. The second comes from a licensed firm. Reading what the letter asks saves a month of confusion.

Here is a made-up example, with no name, no trade, and no amounts. An owner in October has a dozen browser tabs of rankings open and a September that doesn't match the bank yet. The tabs feel like progress while the month stands still.

The owner can close the tabs and say four sentences. This is the latest month that matches the bank. Everything after it is still open. Payroll is, or isn't, set up with a provider. The May report was filed, or it wasn't.

Those four sentences fit on a video call, and they tell any firm more than a stack of rankings. If the pattern fits your books, the next conversation is about your months.

A ranking can show a star count. It can't tell you whether the city and transit pieces of a sale were kept apart, or whether the May report was filed. Those are questions about your books.

Amy's Ice Creams started in Austin in 1984, and a Friday night line at the counter is a familiar sight. Those late sales often land in Saturday's card batch, and we record them on the day the money arrives. Small details like that decide whether a month closes.

October fills up with Austin City Limits and the race weekend, and the books fall behind while the city is busy. Busy weeks still need their own lines in the books. Closing the tabs is the start. Closing the month is the work.

A price comes in writing after we've seen a month of your books. Until then, the most useful thing is the question you already have.

Send it, and we'll answer that one. The form at the bottom of this page is for that note, and one question is enough.