Do You Really Need a CPA?

Here is a copy of a Facebook post to a discussion group run by my friend Jim Ingersoll.  People were talking about hiring CPA’s for up to $400/hour.  Some of those are sheep in wolves’ clothing (functioning purely as bookkeepers but with a CPA designation after their name).  This was my answer to one query:

John Groom: Hey Jim Ingersoll – appreciate the endorsement, but if you have QuickBooks®, and it is set up even reasonably well, you shouldn’t need a CPA for anything until tax time or unless it’s for advice on how to structure a particular deal, etc.  If you are dealing with the bank, then you may need expert help, but if not, books only have two purposes, 1. to do tax returns. 2. for immediate (anytime) access to help you (the boss, the Big Kahuna) make decisions.  In QB it takes about ten seconds to run a profit and loss, and after only one chat with your good bookkeeper (for a lot less than $400/hour) you should be able look at the numbers for each house project, etc. That should give you the information you need to make most business decisions. The big difference? Having the information in twenty seconds (when it could even be useful) rather than in twenty days.