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Compare accounting firms by matching the work you need to the right expertise, independence requirements, assigned team, written scope, and total expected cost—not by firm name or quoted fee alone. Start by separating tax preparation or planning, audit or other assurance, and advisory services. A firm offering all three may be convenient, but its other work for an audit client can be restricted by the rules that apply to that audit.
The guidance below is U.S.-focused. Which licensing, audit, and independence requirements apply depends on your location, entity, engagement, and who will rely on the report.
1. Define the engagement before requesting proposals
Give each firm the same short description of your needs. Include the entity type, locations, industry, accounting system, reporting deadlines, intended report users, prior-year issues, and the specific services requested. This helps prevent a low quote from appearing comparable when it covers less work.
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- Objectives, services, deliverables, and work specifically excluded.
- Assumptions behind the proposal and records or other information you must provide.
- Your management responsibilities and the firm’s responsibilities.
- Expected schedule, key deadlines, communication cadence, and escalation process.
- How scope changes, additional work, and delays will be handled.
For nonattest services provided to an audit client, PCAOB ET Section 101 guidance calls for agreement on objectives, services, responsibilities, and limitations, preferably in an engagement letter. Management decisions must remain with the client. See the PCAOB’s ET Section 101 guidance.
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2. Check credentials and experience for the specific work
Tax preparation and planning
Ask who will prepare, review, and sign the tax work, and whether that person has handled comparable entities, jurisdictions, and tax issues. Verify current credentials with the relevant licensing body. The IRS explains that CPAs are licensed by state boards and that some specialize in tax preparation or planning. It also notes that a PTIN holder is authorized to prepare federal tax returns; that authorization is not the same as a CPA license or evidence of experience with your particular matter. Review the IRS guide to tax return preparer credentials and qualifications.
Audits and other assurance
Identify the reporting framework, the type of assurance engagement, and who will use the report before evaluating firms. For audits of public companies, other issuers, and broker-dealers, confirm that the firm is registered with the PCAOB and clarify its role. Do not assume that this registration requirement applies identically to every private-company audit or other assurance engagement. For those engagements, ask which professional standards, requirements, and oversight apply. The PCAOB’s information for auditors describes its firm guidance.
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3. Resolve independence and conflicts before combining services
If a firm may audit your organization, ask it to identify current and proposed tax, bookkeeping, systems, valuation, internal-control, and advisory work for the audit client and relevant affiliates. Request a clear explanation of who evaluates independence, which prohibitions or safeguards apply, and whether audit committee or board approval is required.
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4. Compare the team that will do the work
A firm’s reputation does not tell you who will handle your engagement or how closely the work will be supervised. Request the engagement partner and manager’s names, relevant experience, expected involvement or hours, access to specialists, likely staff continuity, and review layers. Ask how issues will be escalated and what happens if key people leave or deadlines shift.
These questions matter because PCAOB quality-control material identifies staff proficiency, supervision, competence, experience, integrity, and objectivity as quality-related considerations. See PCAOB QC Section 20.
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5. Compare proposals on consistent criteria
Once every proposal describes the work, use the same criteria to compare them. The scorecard below is a decision framework, not a universal pricing formula.
| Comparison area | What to check |
|---|---|
| Service fit | Experience with your industry, entity complexity, requested work, and relevant technical issues. |
| Credentials and oversight | Credentials of the people doing the work and the standards or regulatory oversight applicable to the engagement. |
| Independence | Whether the proposed service combination is permitted for the audit, if applicable, and who has evaluated it. |
| Team and quality | Named partner and manager, specialist access, supervision, staff continuity, and review process. |
| Scope and accountability | Deliverables, exclusions, assumptions, management responsibilities, timing, and issue resolution. |
| Economics and workload | Expected total fee, pricing assumptions, additional-service rates, pass-through costs, and time required from your staff. |
| Working relationship | Accessibility, communication cadence, technology fit, and continuity around deadlines. |
Ask how a fixed fee was calculated and what would trigger extra charges. For hourly proposals, clarify whether the estimate is a cap or only an estimate, which rates apply to additional work, and which costs are passed through. Compare expected client workload as well as the invoice: a proposal that shifts record preparation or coordination onto your staff may have a different real cost.
6. Use directories and peer-review information carefully
Professional-directory and peer-review information can inform diligence, but it does not establish that a particular proposed team is right for your engagement. The AICPA peer-review public directory exposes some firm participation information. Check what the entry actually says, then ask the firm how it relates to the services and people in your proposal. See the AICPA Peer Review Public Website.
7. Make the decision based on fit, not firm size
There is no universally best firm type or size. Choose the proposal that meets the engagement’s requirements, clearly allocates responsibilities, provides a capable team, addresses applicable independence rules, and makes its costs and assumptions understandable. If the proposals do not describe comparable work, ask for revisions before choosing; otherwise, differences in price or schedule may reflect differences in scope rather than better value.
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