Before you hire your next CPA, ask these questions

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The Optometry Success Podcast 22 min not yet transcribed

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Recorded09 Sep 2026

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The wrong CPA may file your tax return perfectly—and still be the wrong CPA for your practice. This week on The Optometry Success Podcast, we're answering a listener question from a new 50% practice owner whose longtime CPA may soon be retiring: What should I be looking for when interviewing a new CPA, and what questions should I ask? Before you start interviewing firms, though, there's an important distinction to make: What do you actually expect your CPA to do? Do you need someone to prepare tax returns and make sure everything is filed correctly? Do you expect proactive tax planning throughout the year? Are they handling bookkeeping and financial reporting? Do you want them advising you on business decisions? And how does the CPA fit alongside the other professionals already sitting at your proverbial advisory roundtable? We discuss why practice owners sometimes overestimate how much their CPA understands about the actual business of optometry. Knowing how to read a P&L and prepare a tax return isn't the same as understanding what healthy margins should look like inside an optometry practice or how an owner should operate the business. From there, we get tactical with questions you can use when interviewing your next CPA. How many healthcare and optometry practices do they serve? What does their service model actually look like? How proactive is their tax planning? Do they have experience with the tax laws in your state? What technology do they use, and how accessible is your financial data? What mistakes do they commonly find when taking over optometry practices from other accounting firms? We also discuss why your CPA probably shouldn't be the only person advising you on how to run your business. A strong practice owner builds a roundtable of professionals with different areas of expertise rather than expecting one advisor to know everything. NBS (Next Best Step): Before interviewing another CPA, define the role you need them to fill. Then build your interview questions around that expectation. You're not simply looking for someone capable of filing a tax return—you're looking for the right person to occupy the CPA seat at your advisory roundtable. Have a question for us to address in a future episode? Submit it here! Resources: Learn more about Partners in Profit Download the Practice Owner's Financial Toolkit 20/20 Money Ultimate Financial Success Masterclass OD Mastermind Interest Form Check out Adam's new book: How to Buy an Optometry Practice Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/Fq1Ro Subscribe on Spotify: https://shorturl.at/jCtsk

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