Hiring guide
How to Hire an Accountant
How to hire an accountant: CPA, ACCA or CA qualifications, where to source, a reconciliation work sample, red flags, evaluation and onboarding tips.
The short answer
Hiring an Accountant comes down to verifying double-entry bookkeeping, journal entries and the month-end close, bank, balance sheet and intercompany reconciliations and accruals, prepayments, depreciation and revenue recognition before you commit interview time. The process below runs 5 stages, screens on evidence rather than résumé claims, and scores every candidate against the same criteria.
- Watch for: Cannot explain the difference between cash and accrual accounting in plain terms
- Watch for: Forces a reconciliation to balance with an unexplained plug figure
- Score on: Accuracy of the reconciliation and whether every difference is explained
- Score on: Correctness of the proposed journal entries
Paste your Accountant job description; Cohesyve finds, contacts and tests candidates on the real work and ranks them. Ten candidates free, no card.
Applying for a role like this? Practise the assessment free →When you hire an accountant, decide first whether you need someone in-house to keep the books and close each month, or an external firm for tax and year-end work. For an in-house hire, test the core work directly: reconciliations, journal entries, accruals and the judgement to spot what does not look right. This guide covers the qualifications that matter, where to find accountants, a practical work sample and onboarding.
Why this role matters
Accurate accounts underpin every financial decision, tax filing, audit, loan application and investor conversation. A good accountant keeps records clean and timely, catches errors and unusual transactions early, and gives managers numbers they can trust. A weak hire produces late closes, audit adjustments, tax penalties and decisions made on wrong figures, problems that often surface months later.
Where to find candidates
- Professional bodies and their job boards, such as AICPA and state CPA societies in the US, ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA in the UK, and ICAI in India
- Accounting-focused recruiters and staffing firms such as Robert Half
- Accounting firms' alumni, as many accountants move in-house after training in practice
- University accounting programmes and graduate schemes for trainee roles
- AAT-qualified technicians ready to step up, for bookkeeping-heavy roles
- LinkedIn and general job boards, filtering for the accounting software you use
Skills to look for
Red flags
- Cannot explain the difference between cash and accrual accounting in plain terms
- Forces a reconciliation to balance with an unexplained plug figure
- Claims a qualification that cannot be verified with the issuing body
- Has only processed transactions and never owned a reconciliation or close task
- Shows little interest in controls such as segregation of duties or approval limits
The interview process
- 1
Screening call
Confirm qualifications and their status (qualified, part-qualified or studying), software experience, the size of ledgers they have managed and the close tasks they have owned.
- 2
Technical interview
Ask them to talk through a recent month-end close, how they handled a difficult reconciliation and how they would record specific transactions such as a prepaid annual subscription or an unpaid supplier invoice at period end.
- 3
Reconciliation work sample
Give a bank statement and a ledger extract with planted issues: a timing difference, a duplicate payment, an unrecorded bank fee and a mis-posted receipt. Ask for a completed reconciliation and the journal entries needed. A job simulation of this real close work is one option if you want every candidate to face the same task.
- 4
Interview with the finance lead
Discuss how they communicate with budget holders, meet deadlines and escalate issues, and how they keep up with changes in tax and standards.
- 5
Qualification and reference checks
Verify membership or licence status with the relevant body and ask former managers about accuracy, reliability at month end and integrity.
Cohesyve
Start the Accountant interviews from a ranked shortlist
Cohesyve takes your Accountant job description, finds and contacts candidates and tests each one on an AI job simulation of the job, so the stages above start with people who have already done the work. Ten candidates free, no card.
How to evaluate
- Accuracy of the reconciliation and whether every difference is explained
- Correctness of the proposed journal entries
- Clarity of their working papers so another person could review them
- Judgement about what to escalate and what to resolve themselves
- Appropriate technical knowledge for your framework and tax position
- Reliability and integrity confirmed by references
Onboarding
- 1Give them the chart of accounts, close checklist and last few months' working papers in week one
- 2Have them shadow one full month-end close before owning sections of it
- 3Set up system access with approval limits and segregation of duties from the start
- 4Introduce them to budget holders, the external accountant or auditor and the bank contact
- 5Agree which reconciliations and reports they own and the deadlines for each
Common questions
Do I need a CPA or chartered accountant?
For in-house bookkeeping and month-end work, a qualified or part-qualified accountant is often enough. You need a licensed CPA, a chartered accountant or an Enrolled Agent for certain work such as signing audit reports or representing you before tax authorities, depending on your country.
Should I hire an accountant or use an accounting firm?
Small businesses often outsource bookkeeping and tax to a firm. Once transaction volume, reporting needs or the number of entities grows, an in-house accountant usually gives faster, more reliable numbers, with a firm still handling tax and audit.
What is the difference between an accountant and a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper records transactions and keeps ledgers up to date. An accountant also handles adjustments, reconciliations, reporting and analysis, and applies accounting standards and tax rules.
How do I test an accountant's skills?
Use a practical exercise drawn from your own work, such as a bank reconciliation with planted errors and a few period-end journals. It shows accuracy and judgement far better than questions about definitions.
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