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Free checklist · printable

Thirty questions to take into an outsourced accounting sales call.

Short answer

Judge a provider on ten things: what it owns, what stays with you, who closes the period, what evidence sits behind a figure, which systems hold your data and in whose name, how exceptions reach you, what survives a resignation, what needs your approval, what arrives without you asking, and what you get back if you leave.

Below is a checklist that turns those ten into thirty specific questions, each with what a strong answer sounds like and what a weak one sounds like. Tick what gets a straight answer, note what does not, and print it. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.

Talk it through Open the checklist
The checklist

Ten areas. Thirty questions.

Use it in the order it is written. The first two areas set the boundary of the engagement, and almost every later answer only means something once that boundary exists. Ask the exit questions in the same meeting as the pricing questions — that is the only time you have leverage over them.

Outsourced accounting provider checklist — 30 questions
Provider  ____________________________    Date  ____________________
getpar.ai/outsourced-accounting-provider-checklist · provider-neutral · not professional advice

Tick a question once you have an answer you would repeat to a colleague. Notes are typed on your device only — nothing here is sent anywhere, saved, or stored, and reloading the page clears it. Print it before the call, or fill it in during and print it after.

0 of 30 answered

What you own

0 / 3

Establish which finance outcomes are finished by the provider.

Strong Goes through them individually and names a side for each, including the ones it does not take.
Weak “We handle all your accounting.” A single sentence covering six different jobs is not a scope.
Strong Names a real exclusion without being pushed, and explains where it goes instead.
Weak Claims there is nothing. Every provider has a boundary; one that will not name it has not thought about it.
Strong A specific act with a date attached — a reconciliation agreed, a checklist signed, a pack issued.
Weak “We review everything.” Review is not an event and cannot be missed or met.

What stays with us

0 / 3

Find the line between preparation and authority before it is tested.

Strong A short specific list — payments to release, credit notes, unusual transactions — with a realistic frequency.
Weak “You will not need to worry about anything.” That is a promise to make your decisions for you.
Strong An unambiguous answer either way, with the access level named and the limits described.
Weak Vagueness about access levels, or treating read access and payment authority as the same conversation.
Strong Distinguishes preparing a message from sending one, and treats sending as requiring authorisation.
Weak Treats outbound contact as automatically included. Anything leaving in your name is your reputation.

Close responsibility

0 / 3

A close is a dated event with an owner, or it is not a close.

Strong A named working day and a named person who makes the call.
Weak “Usually around the middle of the month.” Usually is not a commitment.
Strong You hear before the date, with the reason and a revised date.
Weak You hear after, if you ask. Silence is the default failure mode in outsourced finance.
Strong A defined correction route that leaves a visible record of what changed and why.
Weak “We just fix it.” Figures that change quietly cannot be relied on by anyone downstream.

Evidence

0 / 3

Every figure should be able to explain where it came from, later, without you.

Strong Names the document type and where it will be held, without hedging.
Weak “It is all in the system.” The system holds the entry; the question is about the proof behind it.
Strong A named location inside your own systems that you can reach without the provider.
Weak The provider’s inbox, a shared drive in their name, or a subscription you do not control.
Strong It is flagged, left open, and surfaced to you with a reason.
Weak It gets posted to a catch-all so the reconciliation ties. That is a tidy report over an unfinished question.

Systems

0 / 3

Ownership of the file matters more than which software it is.

Strong Your subscription, your ownership, their access as a user. Volunteered rather than extracted.
Weak Their subscription, “included in the fee”. It is included until the day you leave.
Strong A short named list — document storage, payroll, a chasing tool — with roles against each.
Weak Cannot list them. Data spreads further than anyone remembers unless someone has written it down.
Strong Nothing, because you already have it.
Weak A project. Access you have to request is access that can be delayed at the worst possible moment.

Exceptions

0 / 3

The residue is where providers actually differ. Anyone can do the clean 90%.

Strong A real place with a real list, demonstrated rather than described.
Weak “We email you if there is a problem.” That makes visibility depend on someone remembering.
Strong A number, with a shrug. Real finance work always has residue.
Weak “None.” A provider with no exceptions is a provider you cannot see into.
Strong A named owner and a stated cadence, including what happens when the chase fails.
Weak “As needed.” Blocked items are exactly the ones that stop being chased.

Continuity

0 / 3

Test what survives a resignation, an illness, or a holiday.

Strong A named primary and a named cover who has actually worked on the account.
Weak “The team.” Teams are how single points of failure are described.
Strong A maintained file of decisions, treatments and quirks that survives a departure.
Weak It lives with the person. That is the same risk you were outsourcing to avoid.
Strong A specific handover routine that has been used before, with a timeframe.
Weak Reassurance. “It would be fine” is not a plan.

Approvals

0 / 3

Approval routes decide who is accountable when something goes wrong.

Strong A short definite list, offered without hesitation.
Weak “We will check with you on anything important.” Important to whom, judged when?
Strong A defined route, and a record of who approved what and when that outlives the conversation.
Weak An informal message thread. Approvals that live in chat cannot be reconstructed six months later.
Strong It waits, visibly, and gets chased.
Weak They proceed on assumed consent. Silence is not authorisation.

Reporting

0 / 3

A pack is an output. Judge what it lets you do.

Strong Named outputs on a stated date, delivered whether or not you chase.
Weak “Whenever you need something.” Reporting on request is reporting you have to remember to want.
Strong Commentary, variance against a prior period or a plan, and the reasons behind movements.
Weak Statements only. Three statements with no narrative is data, not reporting.
Strong A route they can demonstrate live, in the system, in under a minute.
Weak “Ask us.” That makes every question a ticket.

Exit

0 / 3

Ask this before you sign. Nobody negotiates well while leaving.

Strong A specific list in native, usable formats, with a stated timeframe.
Weak “We would sort something out.” Exit terms invented under notice favour the party not leaving.
Strong A stated retention position with a reason behind it.
Weak Never considered it. Data you cannot account for is data you cannot answer for.
Strong An honest answer — usually working papers, reasoning and internal notes.
Weak “Nothing.” There is always something. A provider who says otherwise has not looked.

Blanks are the point. A column of unanswered questions after an hour is a finding, not a failure to ask.

Running the call

How to ask so you get an answer.

These questions are designed to be awkward, and a good provider will not mind. The failure mode is not a provider refusing to answer; it is a buyer accepting a warm sentence and moving on because the meeting is running long.

  • Write the answer, not your impression of it. The note line matters. Three days later you will remember tone and not content, and tone is what a sales call is optimised to leave you with.
  • Ask for a demonstration, not a description. “Show me where an unresolved item appears” produces a different answer to “how do you handle exceptions”. Anything that exists can be shown.
  • Follow every adjective with a noun. If the answer is “robust”, ask what the thing is. If it is “proactive”, ask on what day.
  • Ask the same question twice, differently, an hour apart. Scope answers drift under pressure more than any other kind.
  • Let silence sit. The most useful information in a diligence call arrives in the four seconds after you stop talking.
  • Ask what a bad month looks like. A provider who has never had one is a provider who has not been running long, or is not telling you.
Bring one question that has an inconvenient answer for you, not for them — the state of your own records, for instance. A provider that responds to that honestly, rather than by softening it into a sale, is showing you how it will behave in month four.
Hard stops

Five answers that should end the conversation.

Not warning signs. Answers that, on their own, are enough to stop.

  • “You will not need to approve anything.” Removing you from every decision is not convenience. It is a provider taking authority it should not have and cannot carry.
  • The accounting subscription stays in their name, with no route to your own copy. The file is your record. An arrangement where leaving means losing it is not a service arrangement.
  • “We never have exceptions.” Either untrue, or true because unmatched items are being posted somewhere convenient. Both are worse than a list of open questions.
  • Submission and preparation used interchangeably. A provider that will not distinguish preparing a filing from submitting one, or preparing a payment from releasing it, has not thought about where its authority ends — and that is exactly where liability begins.
  • No answer at all on exit. A provider that has never been asked what happens when a client leaves is a provider whose clients have not left, or who does not intend to make it easy.

Everything else on the checklist is a judgement call. These five are not, and they are quick to test.

The counterweight

When the checklist tells you not to outsource.

A diligence list is only credible if it can return the answer that nobody selling it wants. Several patterns show up in these thirty questions where outsourcing is the wrong move, and they are worth naming plainly.

  • Most of your finance work is negotiation. If the hard part is talking to customers about money rather than recording it, you are buying the wrong capacity. That is a commercial job and it stays inside.
  • You need someone in the room. Cash handling, in-person signing, paper collected on site — these are not scope questions, they are physics.
  • You already have a finance person who is under-equipped rather than over-loaded. Better systems and a defined close will cost less than a second arrangement layered on top.
  • Your records are in a state you have not looked at. Outsourcing a mess without acknowledging it produces a first quarter of surprises on both sides. Deal with the backlog as a separate, scoped piece of work first.
  • A contract or regulator ties finance data to named employees. That is a constraint, not a preference, and no provider answer changes it.

Equally, a small local firm sometimes beats a larger provider on exactly the terms this checklist tests: one named person who knows your business, a real close date, and an exit that means handing back a file you already own. Size is not the variable that matters here. Whether the answers are specific is.

If you are not yet sure that outsourcing is the shape at all, the finance capacity diagnostic is the question before this one.

Where we fit

Where At Par fits — and the limits.

This checklist is provider-neutral, and At Par is one of the providers it is designed to test. Take it into a conversation with us and ask all thirty. The reasoning behind the standard is set out separately in what an outsourced accounting provider should own.

In scope for owner-led service businesses: bookkeeping and month-end close, catch-up work, receivables and invoice follow-up, payroll, and management reporting, with a qualified accountant (ACCA) accountable for the work. If you run QuickBooks or Xero, the subscription and the file stay in your name. How records and evidence are protected is set out separately.

At Par prepares payments; it does not move, release or execute client money — the client does that, and At Par records settlement on evidence. It prepares filings and does not submit them on a client’s behalf. Anything leaving a business in the client’s name remains subject to that client’s authorisation. At Par does not provide audit or assurance services, is not a debt-collection agency, offers no legal debt recovery, and makes no commercial concessions or write-offs on a client’s behalf.

Already chose a provider and need to move your records across? That is a different job: the bookkeeping handover checklist.

Questions

Asked by buyers running a provider selection.

What questions should I ask an outsourced accounting provider before signing? +

Cover ten areas: which finance outcomes the provider finishes, which decisions stay with the business, the date each period is closed and who declares it met, what evidence sits behind a figure and where it is held, which systems hold the data and in whose name the subscriptions are, how unresolved items become visible, who covers the work in an absence, what requires approval before it happens, what arrives without being requested, and what is handed back on exit and how fast.

How do I compare two outsourced accounting proposals that look identical? +

Ignore the service lists, which are almost always the same, and compare four things: the date each provider commits to closing a period, what each says it does not do, what each requires approval for, and what each hands back within thirty days of notice. Proposals converge on activity and diverge sharply on completion, boundary and exit. Those three are where the actual difference in what is being sold lives.

What should an outsourced bookkeeping engagement letter specify? +

At minimum: the finance outcomes the provider owns to completion and the ones the client retains; the close date and who declares it met; the reporting outputs and their delivery dates; which systems hold the records and in whose name the subscriptions sit; what requires client approval before it happens; how corrections to a closed period are made and recorded; continuity cover; and exit terms naming what is returned, in which format, and within how many days.

Should the accounting software subscription be in my name or the provider’s? +

In the client’s name, with the provider added as a user. The accounting file is the business’s record, and a subscription held by a provider makes access to that record conditional on the relationship continuing. Providers often hold subscriptions because it is administratively easier and sometimes cheaper, which is a fair reason to discuss it but not a reason to accept it. Where a provider holds it, agree in writing how ownership transfers on exit.

What are the warning signs when choosing an outsourced accounting firm? +

Five stand out. A promise that nothing will need approval. An accounting subscription held in the provider’s name with no route to a client-owned copy. A claim that exceptions never arise. Preparation and submission, or preparing and releasing a payment, used interchangeably. And no answer at all to what happens on exit. Each is quick to test and each points at a boundary the provider has not thought through.

How long should onboarding an outsourced accounting provider take? +

Ask for a date rather than a duration. The useful commitment is which period the provider will be the first to close, and what has to be true before that date — access granted, opening balances agreed, backlog scoped. Onboarding times vary enormously with the state of the existing records, so a provider quoting a fixed number of weeks before seeing them is guessing. A provider naming conditions is describing something real.

What should an exit clause in an outsourced accounting contract cover? +

Four things: exactly what is returned, in which formats, within how many days of notice, and what the provider retains afterwards and for how long. Native file formats matter more than the list — a report is not the same as the underlying data. Also worth agreeing is who pays for exit work and whether the provider will speak to an incoming provider, because a handover that depends on goodwill tends to arrive when the goodwill has gone.

Is it a problem if my outsourced accounting provider is in another country? +

Not inherently, and for many owner-led service businesses it is normal. What matters is jurisdictional competence rather than geography: whether the provider states plainly which jurisdictions it prepares work for, what it does not do in each, and who is accountable for the technical position. Time-zone difference is usually a scheduling problem rather than a service problem. Data location and access rules are worth checking separately against any client or regulatory obligations.

Ask us all thirty

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Reviewed by an ACCA on the At Par team · Last updated 29 July 2026 · This checklist is provider-neutral, runs entirely in your browser, and is not professional advice. See what we actually do.

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