Business & Financial Solutions
TAX HELP SERVICE AND PREPARATION
A Simple Guide To Help Your Law Firm Find the Best Accounting Services
Introduction
Every law firm needs a top-notch accounting and bookkeeping system to keep their records tidy and up-to-date. There are dozens of bookkeeping firms out there, so how does your law firm find the best one?
Here are 6 Tips To Help You During Your Search
1) The first thing you need is to identify your law firm’s needs. Every law firm has their own needs. What are yours?
Are you looking for an accounting service for your taxes? Are you looking for a firm to help out with payroll and other expenses? Once you identify your specific needs, you can then find the appropriate CPA firm.
2) The next thing you need to do is to establish some goals. Write them all down. Your goals may be in the tax bracket. Your desired goals should be to get the most money back from your taxes that you can.
You need a CPA firm that can handle this.
Do some research. Write down some firms and send out some correspondence. Tell them you wish to talk. You can find out all you need to know during the interview process.
3) Talk to other firms in your area who have hired someone. Normally, we would suggest talking to family and friends. This is not going to work unless some of them work in the law field like you.
Talk to other lawyers. Ask them about their process. Ask them how they went about hiring a good bookkeeping firm. You may be surprised at how many goals you have in common with some of the other firms in your area.
Keep every option available. It is important to consider the location and distance, but it is not the most important thing. The firm that is 25 miles away from you may be better suited than the one who is only 5 minutes away.
4) There is a site you can use called “firm finder”. It is one of the better search engines for accounting firms for law practices. This site also assists with general accounting searches too.
The important thing to remember is to do your own research. Do not rely solely on what other lawyers are telling you. Some of them may steer you in the wrong direction so they can keep the good one for themselves. This does not happen all the time, but it does happen.
Earning the knowledge for yourself is an important part of growing. You take more responsibility for what you have gathered when you earn it for yourself. You can try the phone book. You can try online, as in the example we listed above.
5) Narrow down your choices to about 4 firms. Write them down and have a plan of attack. You also need to have some questions prepared for your conversation. You never want to go into this blindly.
Some examples of questions are below:
a) What is your pricing structure like?
b) How many years have you been in practice? A good rule of thumb is no less than 5 years, preferably more.
c) What is the communication like? You want to hire someone who handles communication in the same way you do. Are you big on communication and having a two-way street? You need to hire an accounting firm that has the same
“mission statement”.
d) Will you get a free consultation from them? Can they give you references? Ideally, you should have more than 4 references. Those who cannot supply the references are not to be trusted.
6) Get your paperwork together. Have it ready for when one of their associates first arrives. Most accounting firms are going to find it very disrespectful to keep them waiting by not being prepared.
Accounting and bookkeeping firms are just as busy as you are. Treat them the same way you wish to be treated. Your confidence needs to show during the first meeting. The more confident your firm is, the more confident the firm will show in taking the position.
