Accountants in United States

Self-prep usually breaks down at one of four trigger points: (1) you hit ~$50K in revenue and a Schedule C is no longer the cleanest way to file, (2) you hire your first contractor and need to issue 1099s, (3) you sell or work across multiple states and have to think about sales-tax nexus, or (4) you're raising capital or selling the business and need GAAP-quality books and a clean audit trail. If any of those describes you, the time saved usually pays for the engagement inside a year.

A CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is licensed by a state board and can do everything: bookkeeping, tax prep, attest engagements (audit, review), and represent you before the IRS. An Enrolled Agent (EA) is federally licensed by the IRS specifically for tax preparation and IRS representation — they can't sign attest reports but are often more affordable for tax-only work. A bookkeeper handles day-to-day data entry, categorization, and reconciliation — they typically can't sign tax returns or represent you to the IRS. Many small businesses use a bookkeeper monthly + a CPA at tax time.

Five things: (1) Who exactly will do the work — the partner I am talking to, or a junior I have not met? (2) What is your response SLA — same-day, 24-hour, 48-hour? (3) How do you charge — fixed monthly, hourly with cap, or pure hourly? (4) What is included vs out of scope — IRS notices, payroll filings, sales tax, multi-state? (5) How do we handle scope creep — do you bill for it or absorb it? Get the answers in writing before you sign.

Cross-check the firm's claim against the source. For CPAs, every US state board publishes a free license-lookup tool (NASBA's CPAverify is the one-stop). For EAs, the IRS publishes a public directory of preparers with credentials at irs.gov/tax-professionals. Every firm in the HelloBooks directory has been credential-verified before listing — the verification chips on each card link directly to the relevant registry so you can re-check at any time.

Remote is fine for almost every accounting and tax engagement now. State income tax and sales-tax filings are jurisdiction-specific, but the firm preparing them does not need to be physically present — they just need to know your states. Where local still matters: in-person audits (rare), state board hearings, and complex estate work where you might want someone who can sit across the table from a probate attorney. Filter the directory by city if you want local; filter by specialty if you do not care.

If the firm asks for view-only access to your books, bank feeds, and prior-year tax returns in the first week, expect a 'state of the union' summary in 2-4 weeks and the first clean monthly close at the end of month one. If month two is also clean, you have picked well. If the firm goes silent for the first six weeks, that is the warning sign.