What should I look for in a bookkeeper?
A written security plan, a named return signer you can look up, and a written scope of work. Excite Tax puts price last: two quotes are only comparable once those three match. The questions to ask are below.
How do I choose a bookkeeper for my small business?
Excite Tax's answer for Utah owners: ask for the written security plan IRS Publication 4557 describes, find the return signer's record in Utah DOPL's lookup, and get an engagement letter.
Short answers
How do I check who signs my return?
Search the signer's name in Utah DOPL's lookup and in the IRS preparer directory. The steps are below.
What goes in a bookkeeping engagement letter?
Scope, deadlines on both sides, fees, access, who owns the file, who signs the return, and written consent before your return information is shared. The checklist is below.
How do I choose a virtual bookkeeper?
Judge the security answers: a separate login for each person, with multi-factor authentication; encrypted file exchange; and the books kept in your name. More below.
How do I check a bookkeeper's reviews?
Read them on a platform the provider does not control, newest first, complaints and replies included. How to read them.
How to choose a bookkeeper, in order
- Decide the job first: monthly books, a catch-up of past months, payroll entries, sales-tax data, or all of them. Quotes only compare for the same job; what a bookkeeper costs explains what moves the price.
- Ask for the written information security plan. Under the FTC Safeguards Rule, tax return preparers must have one, and a provider who cannot describe theirs in plain words should not hold your bank logins.
- Find out who signs the return your books feed, and look that person up in Utah DOPL's lookup and the IRS preparer directory.
- Read the engagement letter before anyone gets access: scope, fees, who owns the file, and the written consent a preparer needs before sharing return information.
- Check reviews on a platform the provider does not control, and read the complaints as closely as the praise.
- Book a first meeting with the documents listed below, so the first hour is spent on your business, not on missing statements.
Excite Tax's view: the security plan, the signer and the written scope matter more than a software badge or a low monthly number. Price is the last filter, not the first.
Questions to ask every candidate
What to look for in a bookkeeper, question by question
| Ask | A good answer | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work, and who reviews it? | Named people, and a named signer for any return. | "The team", with no names. |
| Do you have a written information security plan? | Yes, written down, with one person in charge of it. | "The software is secure." |
| How will you get into my accounts? | Their own login on each system, with multi-factor authentication. | A request for your password. |
| How do documents move? | An encrypted portal or shared drive. | Statements and ID copies sent as email attachments. |
| Who signs my return, and can I look them up? | A name you can find in DOPL's lookup or the IRS directory. | A credential with no name or number behind it. |
| What does the monthly fee cover? | A written list: accounts reconciled, payroll entries, the year-end close, questions answered. | "Everything." |
| What happens if I leave? | The ledger stays in your name, and the letter says how files come back. | A ledger held in the provider's own subscription. |
Ask for the written security plan
IRS Publication 4557 puts it plainly: under the FTC Safeguards Rule, tax return preparers must create and enact security plans to protect client data. The rule asks for more than a promise. It wants an information security program written in one or more readily accessible parts, encryption of customer information in transit and at rest, and multi-factor authentication for anyone accessing customer information.
A small practice is not excused from the plan. The rule waives four of its elements, among them the written risk assessment and the written incident response plan, for a firm holding information on fewer than 5,000 consumers; the written program is not one of them.
A bookkeeper who never touches a return may sit outside the rule. Ask anyway: the same bank logins and payroll records are at stake, and a practice that has a plan can show it in a minute.
How to choose a virtual bookkeeper
An online bookkeeper works from your bank feeds, your ledger and a document portal, so the security questions are most of the interview. Three answers settle it: each person gets their own login with multi-factor authentication; files move through an encrypted channel, not email; and the provider chooses, contracts with and checks the vendors that hold your data. How online bookkeeping works covers the mechanics.
Software: whose file is it?
Whether the books run in QuickBooks Online or another ledger, the subscription should be in the business's name, with the bookkeeper invited as a user. Then leaving a provider means removing a login, not negotiating for your own records. The payroll system and the bank work the same way: user access for them, ownership for you.
Choosing a provider because it sells one brand of software is choosing the tool before the person. Ask which ledgers they work in, then judge them on the questions above.
How do I check who signs my return?
Start with the IRS. Anyone who prepares or helps prepare federal returns for pay must have a valid PTIN, so a PTIN proves registration, not skill. The IRS directory of preparers lists those who currently hold IRS-recognized credentials or an Annual Filing Season Program record.
Then check the state. Search the signer's name in Utah DOPL's Licensee Lookup & Verification System, which searches by name and profession or by licence number. DOPL describes its name search this way:
Search results BEGINNING with "name" (Examples: "Mary Smith" or "M Smith" or "Smith")
In practice: type the last name, or a first initial and the last name, and narrow the profession to the Accountancy group. Open the record that matches, confirm it names the person who will sign, and read what it says about status and expiry before you sign an engagement. Then run the same name through DOPL's Disciplinary Actions and Citations search.
Excite Tax applies the same test to itself: each reviewer's name and DOPL licence number goes on credentials, with a link to the lookup, once confirmed.
TBD CPA LLC's Utah DOPL firm licence number are pending confirmation and will appear here, with a reviewed date, once confirmed.
What goes in a bookkeeping engagement letter?
An engagement letter is the contract that says what the monthly fee buys. Read it before anyone gets access to an account. A good one covers:
- Scope: which accounts are reconciled, how often, and whether payroll entries, sales-tax data and year-end adjustments are in or out.
- Deadlines on both sides: when you send statements, and when the month is closed.
- Fees: the monthly amount, what counts as extra, and how a catch-up month is priced. A Circular 230 practitioner who publishes fees may not charge more than them for at least 30 calendar days.
- Access and security: named users, multi-factor authentication, and how documents are exchanged.
- Consent: if the provider prepares or helps prepare your return, your written consent before your return information goes to anyone else, signed and dated by you.
- Ownership and exit: the ledger stays in your name, and the letter says how files are returned when the engagement ends.
- The signer: the name of the person who signs any return, so you can check them.
Why the consent clause matters
IRC §7216 makes it a misdemeanor for a preparer to knowingly or recklessly disclose your return information, or use it for anything but your return, with a fine of up to $1,000, up to 1 year in prison, or both. The regulations add the paperwork: consent must be written, knowing and voluntary, and signed and dated by the taxpayer.
Two details are worth reading for. A consent that names no end date lasts one year from the day you sign it. And a preparer generally cannot make the service conditional on your consent; a letter that does should prompt a question before you sign.
What to expect once you hire
- A first meeting to walk through the business, the accounts and the documents below.
- The engagement letter, signed before access is granted.
- Access set up user by user: ledger, bank feeds, payroll, and a portal for documents.
- A clean-up of any months that were never reconciled, priced on its own; fixing messy books shows what that involves.
- A monthly rhythm: statements in, accounts reconciled, questions asked, the month closed. The month-end close checklist is the standard to hold a bookkeeper to.
- A year-end close that hands the return preparer finished numbers.
Expect questions early. A bookkeeper who asks nothing in the first month is guessing at categories you will pay to have corrected later.
What should I bring to a first bookkeeping meeting?
- The EIN confirmation: the CP575 notice that confirms the business's Employer Identification Number, which the IRS says to keep in your permanent records.
- Formation papers: articles, the operating or partnership agreement, and any IRS letter accepting an S corporation election.
- Last year's business return, with the list of equipment and vehicles being depreciated.
- Statements for every bank, card and loan account, from the last month the books were reconciled. If business and personal money share an account, say so; the IRS advises you to open a business checking account and keep it separate from your personal account.
- Payroll provider reports, and your Utah withholding account number, applied for through Taxpayer Access Point (TC-69).
- Your Utah sales-tax account number and the last TC-62S or TC-62M return, if you collect sales tax.
- A contractor list with each one's taxpayer ID and the year's totals, plus copies of the Forms 1099-NEC you filed.
- Loan agreements, leases and invoices for large purchases.
- A list of the software and logins in use, but not the passwords: the bookkeeper should get their own access.
How far back? Bring what covers the open years. The IRS says to keep records 3 years in general and 4 years for employment tax records, so that window is a sensible stack for a first meeting. What records the IRS requires has the full list.
How do I check a bookkeeper's reviews?
Read reviews on a platform the provider does not control, and read them for detail. A useful review names the work: a catch-up, a payroll mess, a missed deadline caught in time. Five-star lines with no detail tell you little.
- Sort by newest. Staff and ownership change, and an old review may describe a different practice.
- Read the complaints and the replies. How a provider answers someone else's missed deadline is the best preview of how it will answer yours.
- Watch for bursts: many short reviews in a few days suggest a campaign, not a pattern of satisfied clients.
- Discount testimonials on the provider's own site. The FTC's rule forbids fake reviews, paying for reviews that express a particular sentiment and hiding negative reviews while implying the rest are all of them, but a page the provider curates still shows its best.
- Check the signer as well as the storefront: DOPL's discipline search covers the person whose name goes on the return.
In Utah
Utah's lookup checks the signer, not the bookkeeper: DOPL's profession list has an Accountancy group and no bookkeeping entry. A Utah bookkeeper is judged on the letter, the security plan and the references, and a bookkeeping designation, where a candidate holds one, comes from a private association, not the state.
The state filings are where experience shows. An employer files withholding returns quarterly on TC-941E, and a seller files TC-62S or TC-62M sales-tax returns through Taxpayer Access Point. Ask a candidate which of these they prepare the numbers for and which they leave to you; a bookkeeper who has never seen either form will learn on your account.
Bookkeeper, accountant, or both?
Choosing a small business accountant usually means choosing who signs the return; choosing a bookkeeper means choosing who keeps the ledger that return is built from. Many owners need both, and the hand-off between them is where errors hide. Bookkeeping vs. accounting draws the line, and do I need a bookkeeper? helps decide whether you need one yet.
When to hand this to a preparer
Hand the books over when keeping them costs more hours than the business can spare, or when they stop agreeing with the bank.
Excite Tax keeps these books; the return they feed is reviewed and signed by a licensed CPA at TBD CPA LLC.
Sources
- IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data (Rev. 6-2024) · retrieved September 2026
- Utah Division of Professional Licensing, Licensee Lookup & Verification System · retrieved September 2026
- IRS, Choosing a tax professional · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 26 CFR § 301.7216-3, Disclosure or use permitted only with the taxpayer's consent · retrieved September 2026
- IRS, Understanding your CP575 notice (updated 16-Jun-2026) · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR § 314.4, Elements · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR § 314.3, Standards for safeguarding customer information · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR § 314.6, Exceptions · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR § 314.4, Elements · retrieved September 2026
- IRS, PTIN requirements for tax return preparers · retrieved September 2026
- Utah Division of Professional Licensing, Disciplinary Actions and Citations · retrieved September 2026
- 31 CFR § 10.30 (Circular 230), Solicitation · retrieved September 2026
- 26 U.S. Code § 7216, Disclosure or use of information by preparers of returns (LII) · retrieved September 2026
- IRS Publication 583 (12/2024), Starting a Business and Keeping Records · retrieved September 2026
- Utah State Tax Commission, Withholding Tax · retrieved September 2026
- Utah State Tax Commission, Sales and Use Tax · retrieved September 2026
- IRS, Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (12/2026) · retrieved September 2026
- IRS, How long should I keep records? · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials · retrieved September 2026
- eCFR, 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials · retrieved September 2026
Ranked and explained on the sources page.