CPA’s: How to Find the Right One

“Payroll tax returns and their attendant issues are the bane of many business owners both big and small.  Tax law at federal, state and local levels often leaves an entrepreneur feeling both dazed and confused.  There is no greater area of need for tax simplification than in the area of payroll tax issues.  Payroll tax returns and payments are due to the varying regulatory agencies at differing times, unique and special forms and often what appears to be conflicting reporting styles and forms.  Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the confusion to which you will help find clarification below.
— John Dillard CPA

With thousands of CPA’s to choose from, it’s difficult for business owners to find the one who is best suited for their needs.  Having been a CPA for almost three decades, you soon discover that CPA’s like doctors and lawyers are not all alike and that each one has their own particular set of nuances, training, experience and specialties.  Just as finding the right doctor when you are having chest pains, it is equally as critical to your business success to find a CPA to fill in the financial gaps that many business owners lack.

Our world has become one of intense specialization as you have had to hone and perfect your craft and you will want to find a business CPA whose dedication and ambition matches that of your own.  To that end, recapped below you will find several issues to contemplate as you make one of the most important decisions that will impact your business success and your family’s financial future:

  • Find a CPA who has at least 30 years of varied experience.  CPA’s, like doctors, have extensive training requirements that are important and a prerequisite to even obtaining one’s CPA license.  Just as you would not necessarily prefer to be an oncologist’s first patient, so will you want to find a well skilled and trained CPA.  One of the first places to look would be to ask to see a potential accountant’s resume.
  • Someone has to graduate at the head of their class.  Accordingly when you are going to soon have a major surgery would you prefer to have a physician from a top school whose honors are most likely the best indicator of future success or would you prefer to find someone who failed to excel and graduated at the tail end of their class?
  • Elect to work with a CPA whose goal is more than just tax returns.  As a business owner, you will want to find someone who has a heavy emphasis on tax planning, a wise and judicious planning style, retirement planning, as well as a broad based understanding of all types of medical, liability, property and other specialty lines of insurance.  Often a well-placed word of advice is all a good listener and seeker needs to hear.
  • Find a CPA who cares more about the world than his business.  Although attentiveness to your needs and responsiveness to you are critical to your success, our work lives are not how we are all going to be remembered.  Is your CPA regularly involved in giving back to the community, do they have an active local or overseas ministry that they actually participate in and support?  Do they help the elderly or oppressed in the community, are they involved in the local PTA are they centrally involved in striving to make this world a better place for us all?

As you make a decision for your business’s CPA, you make one not only for yourself but those who are depending on you as well.  These people include not only your family but also the family of your employees as your business and your own financial success depend on it.