What to ask a CA before you hire

1. Who will actually do this work, and who reviews it?

Good answer: a specific description of the team, who prepares, who reviews, who signs. Bad answer: an assurance that you will always be dealing with them personally, from someone who clearly has a practice of thirty clients. It is fine for juniors to do the work. It is not fine to find out in month four.

2. Have you handled a business like mine?

Give them the specifics: sector, structure, transaction volume, whether you sell across states or overseas. Good answer: two concrete examples and what was involved. Bad answer: a general claim of experience with everything.

3. What is outside this fee?

The most valuable question on this page. Notices, assessments, amended returns, cleaning up a prior year, registration changes and additional certificates are commonly extra. Good answer: a clear list. Bad answer: everything is included, which is never true and means the boundary will be drawn later, in an invoice.

4. What do you need from me, and by when?

Good answer: a specific list with dates working backwards from each deadline. Bad answer: send everything you have. A vague request produces a vague file, and the delay is then attributed to you.

5. What happens if I am late giving you something?

You will be late at some point. Find out now whether that means a phone call or a silent missed deadline.

6. How will I know a filing has been done?

Good answer: the acknowledgement is sent to you, unprompted, every time. Bad answer: you can ask any time. You should not have to ask whether your own returns were filed.

7. What is your normal response time, and what about in filing season?

Two different numbers, and the second is the honest one. An accountant who says the same thing about both has either a very small client list or has not thought about it.

8. Who do I contact if something is wrong?

Good answer: a named person and a route that is not one individual's personal phone. Bad answer: a single mobile number belonging to someone who travels.

9. What software will my books be kept in, and can I see them?

Good answer: named software, with access for you. Bad answer: their own spreadsheets, shared as an export when asked. Books you cannot see are books you cannot take with you.

10. What is your ICAI membership number?

Good answer: given immediately. Then check it yourself in the ICAI directory. Bad answer: anything other than the number.

11. Do you hold a current Certificate of Practice?

Relevant whenever anything will be signed or certified. Membership alone does not permit practice, and this is explained in How to check whether a CA is genuine.

12. If this is a firm, what is the firm registration number?

Ask for the FRN and for the membership number of the partner who will sign. They are different, and you want both.

These two feel awkward and are the most protective questions on the page. Ask them cheerfully, at the end, and watch the reaction rather than only listening to the answer.

13. If I move to someone else, what do I get back and how quickly?

Good answer: your books, your filings, your documents, in a usable format, on request. Bad answer: hesitation, or a suggestion that records stay with the practice. Getting records back is the single most common way this relationship goes badly wrong, and it is described in Signs you should change your accountant.

14. Whose logins are these?

Your GST, income tax and MCA credentials belong to your business, not to whoever registered them. Confirm that now. Businesses have discovered years later that they cannot access their own portals.

• A guaranteed refund amount, or a promise about how an assessment will go. Nobody can promise a department's decision.
• A suggestion that something can be handled informally with someone in a department.
• A refusal to put scope and price in writing before work begins.
• A request for your portal passwords rather than proper authorised access.
• An offer to sign an audit or certificate for work they will not actually perform.
• Irritation at being asked for a membership number.

The platform is built so that most of this happens before anything is committed. You accept an introduction, you scope the work in chat, and only then does a written proposal with one price arrive. Accepting an introduction and discussing the work commit you to nothing.

Questions 10 to 12 are already answered on the profile: a Verified CA badge means that person passed an ICAI membership check against official records. That leaves your conversation free for the questions that actually decide the hire.

The chat history stays attached to the engagement, so what was agreed in it does not depend on anyone's memory. Browse the network to start, or read how hiring works.