A business owner signs up to whatever appeared first in a search, uses it for eighteen months, and then appoints an accountant who does not support it.
He now faces a migration, a year of data to move and a conversation nobody had at the start because the software felt like his decision alone.
What buyers should ask
These are the questions that determine how the relationship will actually work day to day.
1. Which systems the firm supports
Named, and whether support means fully, partially or reluctantly. A firm working around unfamiliar software is slower and more expensive.
2. Whether the firm requires a particular system
And what happens if the client already uses something else. Say it before engagement rather than in the first month.
3. What the software costs
Subscription, by tier, and whether the firm provides it, resells it or the client buys it directly. It is a recurring cost and it belongs in the comparison.
4. Which tier is actually needed
Businesses buy more than they need, or less, and an accountant recommending the right level saves real money and looks generous.
5. What the client is expected to do in it
Raising invoices, categorising transactions, uploading receipts or nothing at all. Expectations here are the main source of friction.
6. What the firm does in it
So the boundary is visible, which is the same clarity as bookkeeping included or extra and why it matters.
7. Whether bank feeds are included
And how they are set up, which is the practical work of the first fortnight.
8. What the client can see
Reporting, live figures, and whether they can produce what they need themselves. Owners value visibility more than they say.
9. Whether it suits the business
Stock, projects, multiple currencies, subscriptions or a trade with specific needs. General recommendations fail specific businesses.
10. What migration would involve
If they already use something else. Effort, cost, what transfers and what does not, which is the ground in software migration questions when changing bookkeeper.
11. Who owns the data
And what happens if the relationship ends. Clients should know they retain access to their own records.
12. What training is provided
An hour at the start, written guidance or nothing. Clients abandon software they were never shown how to use.
Say what happens when the software changes
Providers alter pricing, retire features and occasionally change direction entirely, and clients want to know whether they would be told or left to discover it. Committing to flag changes that affect them, and to advise on whether anything needs doing, turns a subscription into part of the service rather than a thing the client owns alone.
Explain the access arrangement
Clients want to know who at the firm can see their records, whether access can be limited and how it is removed when somebody leaves. It is the same worry that stalls bank feed connections, and answering it in the software conversation removes it before it becomes a delay.
Publish your own position
Which systems, why, what you provide and what migration involves. It is a practical page and firms almost never write it.
Explain the fee relationship
That clean records in a supported system cost less to work with, which is the arithmetic behind fixed fee questions every accountancy practice hears.
Answer it before engagement
Because clients research at night and want to know whether they would have to change everything, which is the availability described in how accountants survive busy season with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish which systems you support, what the client does in them and what migration involves, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for accountants answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.