8 Key Questions to Ask Potential Bookkeeping Clients
Once you’ve figured out how many clients you need to earn the income you desire, it’s time to get out there and find those clients! But just what should you ask potential clients in interviews? Is there an effective system you can use to snag new leads and gain traction in your business?
When you are booking new bookkeeping clients, I recommend an initial half-hour interview where you can get to know each other. Some of the things I ask potential clients about is their business size, payroll, financial systems, communication style, and current bookkeeping systems.
If you follow the system I’m sharing about today, it will help you communicate effectively with your potential client so you can see if you’d be a good fit to do their bookkeeping for them.
RELATED: New Client Questionaire Download
Watch the video here or keep reading!
What is their current bookkeeping software?
One of the first questions I ask potential clients is what software they are currently using for bookkeeping purposes. Are they using QuickBooks currently or do they need a subscription to QuickBooks? Do they have a preference for using QuickBooks Online or desktop, or if they use a program other than QuickBooks.
Personally, if they use something other than QuickBooks, I probably wouldn’t take them on as a client because I want to specialize in one program and get to know that program really well.
If they have no idea what system they should be using because they’ve used an excel spreadsheet up until now, you’ll want to inquire more about their business size.
RELATED: How Does My Client’s Info Get into QuickBooks
How do they organize receipts and financial documents?
I try not to take anyone’s receipts, and I don’t want to be working with a ton of paper, so if they required more paperwork, I would charge extra for my time.
Many times you can work out a system of online receipt share, or they can upload receipts into QuickBooks Online or an external app (such as HubDoc).
RELATED: Help Your Clients Get Rid of Paper
How many employees do they have?
If your potential client has employees, you’ll want to also ask what type of payroll service they use. This will give you an idea of how big their business is, but also, depending on how many employees they have and the type of payroll they use, your working time may increase. Payroll adds quite a bit of extra energy to the mix.
If they have employees and payroll, you will definitely want to add on extra time and an extra charge to the client. You want to ask if they have any employees, how many they have, if they use a payroll service, or what they utilize for that. Do they use 1099s for contractors?
Take the time to get a broad view of how their business is set up when it comes to who is doing what.
Is there anything unique about how they do banking?
When it comes to banking, you’ll want to know all the systems they use for payment and tracking. For example, do they use PayPal, Stripe, Square, or other merchant services? Do they use credit cards, and, if so, how many? How many bank accounts do they keep for business?
Many times business owners don’t even realize bookkeepers need to know all this type of information because they’re just going about their work. However, for bookkeepers, you need to know exactly where money is coming in and out of so you can track it accurately in the books and reconcile the transactions.
Try to glean all the information you can about where their finances are.
Is there anything unique about how they’d like their documents organized?
An important question to ask your potential client is if they have certain categories they want to see in their profit and loss statement. Do they want to break out two different types of income? Do they care if all their utilities are combined, or do they want them separated in any way?
Most business owners won’t have particular preferences about these categories, as I’ve found that much of the time they just don’t want to deal with their bookkeeping at all. Sometimes they’ll ask you what you recommend, which is perfectly fine too. If they have any particularities, those are what you’ll want to note, and it’s helpful to know them from the beginning because it will save you quite a bit of effort in the long run.
Another good question to ask is if they want to have anything tracked by jobs. If they’re a contractor, for example, maybe they want to keep track of each job that they do and if it was profitable for them. If your client has rental properties, maybe he wants it broken up by classes so they can see how each rental property is doing.
How do they prefer you communicate with them?
Get a feel for how they communicate best and what works for them. Maybe they’ll want a monthly phone call, or maybe they prefer texts from you here and there, or they may prefer an email once a week with updates. What will the cadence of your working communication be?
This might vary depending on if you’re working with a client who is local versus one who is out of state.
What is the monthly price range they are looking for?
Do not forget to talk about pricing with your potential client. You don’t want them to be surprised about your fees, and you want to ensure they will be a good fit for you. It is a waste of time and energy continuing the pursuit of the client if he or she can’t afford it or isn’t willing to pay what you’re charging. It’s definitely better to know that upfront for both you and your potential client.
RELATED: How Much to Charge as a Bookkeeper
Sometimes clients will want to know how many hours their books will take you, and that is often hard to determine. I will ask to take a look at their accounts and books first, and then I can give them an estimate if that’s important to them. If you’re cleaning up a mess in QuickBooks or catching up on previous years, that will also take a large chunk of time rather than starting with the present and moving forward.
Anything you can do ahead of time to look at their books and give them a quote is beneficial for both of you. Another thing you can do is give different price ranges to the client, and they can pick and choose the services they want from you.
What is the biggest challenge in their business right now & what else do they need from me?
It’s great to get a feel for what the pain points are in their business and see if you can help. Bookkeeping is a great way to alleviate the financial and organizational stress for business owners and frees them up to focus on the content of their business.
One of the last questions I ask is if there is anything else that they are looking for from me that we haven’t discussed already in the initial interview.
Final thoughts on the initial interview
This initial interview is done in a conversational way. You don’t have to have your clipboard out to take notes or anything like that. I don’t always use all of the questions or go through them in a specific order. I want the conversation to flow, be a way to get to know my client and them to get to know me, and really gauge if we would be a good fit to work together. That is the main purpose of this initial interview.
Occasionally, I will send the questionnaire to potential clients ahead of time, and they’ve filled it out for me before we meet. Otherwise I’ll send it and let them know to think about these questions and come prepared with answers for our meeting.
It is important to let them know that if they decide to hire you, you will need their bank information and any additional information required. Typically, a business owner can create a separate login for their bank account so you’re not using their personal password.
You may also want an introduction through email to their accountant so you can make sure to send your QuickBook files as the accountant desires. It’s normal to send quarterly reports to their accountant so they can estimate the quarterly taxes.
RELATED: How Many Bookkeeping Clients Do I Need to Earn $100K Per Year
What will clients ask you?
How much time will this take? Usually they’re concerned about the financial part of it. How much will they need to invest in a bookkeeper?
Will clients ask you about your credentials and schooling? From my personal experience, that question rarely comes up in my conversations with potential clients. They may ask me where I learned to use QuickBooks, and I’ll tell them I took the online certification to become a ProAdvisor for QuickBooks Online.
Bookkeeper credentials are not regulated like other fields such as lawyers or accountants where they need to obtain certain credentials and continued education credits.
What questions do you ask potential clients in your initial interviews? Which of these questions helps you feel more comfortable in your initial meetings?
Resources for finding bookkeeping clients:
(Free!) Bookkeeper Marketing Masterclass
Marketing Course: Bookkeeper Marketing Coach
