15 Questions to Ask a Small Business Accountant Before You Hire Them

Why the Questions You Ask Matter More Than the Price You Are Quoted

Anyone in the United Kingdom can legally call themselves an accountant. There is no protected title and no legal requirement to hold a qualification, hold insurance, or be supervised for anti-money laundering. That is not a quirk of the system, it is the system. Which means due diligence falls entirely on you, the buyer.

The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest outcome. An unqualified accountant who misses a capital allowance claim, files a late VAT return, or sets up a director’s remuneration inefficiently can cost you many multiples of what you saved on the fee. The questions below take about twenty minutes to ask across a single call. They are the cheapest insurance policy a small business owner can buy.

Qualifications and Regulation

1. Are You a Qualified, Regulated Accountant, and With Which Body?

You are looking for membership of one of the recognised UK professional bodies: ICAEW (chartered accountants), ACCA (chartered certified accountants), AAT (accounting technicians), CIMA (management accountants), or CIOT (chartered tax advisers, if tax is the primary need).

A good answer is specific: the body, the membership level, and a membership number you can verify on the body’s public register in under a minute. Be wary of phrases like “qualified by experience” without a supervisory body, or unfamiliar acronyms that do not appear on the FRC’s list of recognised bodies.

2. Are You Registered for Anti-Money Laundering Supervision?

This is a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have. Every UK accountancy firm must be supervised for AML, either through their professional body (ICAEW, ACCA and others supervise their own members) or directly by HMRC. An accountant operating without supervision is operating illegally, and you do not want your records anywhere near them.

Ask for the supervising body and, if it is HMRC, the AML registration number. HMRC publishes a public register you can check.

3. Do You Carry Professional Indemnity Insurance?

PII protects you if your accountant makes a mistake on a tax return, the accounts, or a piece of advice that ends up costing you money. Members of the main professional bodies are required to carry it, but ask about the level of cover. For a small business, cover of at least £100,000 is typical; growing businesses should expect more.

Experience With Businesses Like Yours

4. How Many Clients Do You Have in My Industry or Structure?

A sole trader landlord, a VAT-registered limited company contractor, and a café owner with five staff have almost nothing in common from a tax perspective. You want an accountant who already knows the reliefs, pitfalls, and HMRC quirks of your specific situation.

Listen for specifics: CIS for construction, IR35 for contractors, the abolition of the furnished holiday lettings regime for landlords from April 2025, the flat rate scheme for VAT, sector-specific capital allowances. An accountant fluent in your world will answer in seconds.

5. Can You Share Client Examples or Testimonials From Similar Businesses?

Names need not be disclosed, but anonymised case studies, verified Google reviews, or independent platform reviews should be readily available. If the answer is vague or defensive, treat that as a data point.

6. What Common Mistakes Do You See Businesses Like Mine Make?

This question is impossible to fake. A genuinely experienced accountant will answer in seconds with two or three specific, relevant examples, director’s loan account overdrafts, missed pre-trading expenditure, incorrect VAT treatment on mixed supplies, late notification of chargeability. A weaker accountant will give a generic answer about “keeping good records.”

Services, Scope, and Fees

7. What Exactly Is Included in Your Fee, and What Is Not?

This is where most disputes between accountants and clients begin. Ask for the inclusions and exclusions in writing. For a typical small limited company on a fixed monthly fee in 2026, you should expect annual accounts, the corporation tax return, the confirmation statement, director’s self assessment, and a reasonable amount of email or phone support to be included.

Commonly excluded items include payroll for new joiners, ad-hoc tax advice, R&D claims, company secretarial changes, HMRC enquiry support, and references for mortgage applications. None of those are unreasonable to charge for separately, but you want to know before, not after.

8. How Do You Charge for Additional Work?

Hourly rate, fixed quote, or capped fee. The answer matters less than whether you will be warned in writing before extra work is billed. “We will let you know if something falls outside the package and quote you before we start” is the answer you want.

9. Will I Have a Dedicated Accountant or a Rotating Team?

Continuity matters. Tax planning is a multi-year conversation, and an accountant who knows your business saves you from re-explaining your situation every January. Larger firms sometimes rotate junior staff through small business accounts; smaller practices typically offer a named lead contact.

10. How Do You Handle HMRC Enquiries or Investigations?

HMRC compliance checks are increasingly common, and even a routine enquiry can run to thousands of pounds in professional fees to defend. Ask whether enquiry fee protection is included, available as an add-on, or excluded entirely. A good accountant will explain the options without scaremongering.

Technology, Software, and Making Tax Digital

11. Which Accounting Software Do You Recommend and Support?

QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and FreeAgent are the four most common platforms for small UK businesses. The right choice depends on your transaction volume, whether you need stock or project tracking, and whether you raise sales invoices.

The answer you do not want is one that suits the accountant’s convenience rather than your business. A good accountant will ask about your workflow first, then recommend, and will be a certified partner of whichever platform they suggest, which usually means a discount on the licence.

12. How Will You Help Me Prepare for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?

MTD for Income Tax begins phased mandation from April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above the published thresholds. If you fall into scope, you will need MTD-compatible software, quarterly updates, and a digital end-of-period process, none of which your old spreadsheet will handle.

Any small business accountant taking on a sole trader or landlord client in 2026 should have a clear, specific migration plan ready. If the answer is vague, that tells you everything about how current their practice is.

Communication, Reporting, and the Working Relationship

13. How Often Will We Speak, and Through Which Channels?

Get response times in writing. A reasonable standard for a small business client is a same-day acknowledgement and a substantive reply within two working days, with a scheduled year-end planning meeting and at least one mid-year review. Quarterly check-ins are better.

Ask which channels are supported, email, phone, video call, a client portal, and whether out-of-hours contact is realistic in a deadline week.

14. What Proactive Tax Planning Will You Do for Me?

This is the question that separates a compliance accountant from an advisory one. A compliance accountant files what you give them. An advisory accountant tells you, before the year-end, that a pension contribution, a timing change on capital expenditure, or a different dividend-salary mix could save you a specific sum.

Ask for examples of planning they have done for clients similar to you in the last twelve months. Specific answers mean a specific service. Generic answers mean generic value.

15. What Happens If I Decide to Leave?

The professional clearance process is standard: the new accountant writes to the outgoing one, who provides handover information and copies of records. There should be no exit fee, no hostage-taking of your data, and no friction. A confident, qualified accountant will explain the process openly because they expect to keep you on merit, not by force. Reluctance to discuss this is a red flag.