Most disappointment in an accountant relationship traces back to one simple problem: expectations were never clearly set at the beginning. A business owner assumes monthly contact will happen automatically; the accountant assumes annual filing is all that was agreed. Neither side is necessarily wrong, but the mismatch causes real frustration that could have been avoided entirely with a short, honest conversation right at the start of the relationship, before assumptions quietly harden into unspoken expectations.
Define What "Included" Actually Means
Before signing any engagement letter, get absolute clarity on what is included in the quoted fee and what falls outside it. Does the price cover phone calls and emails, or are these billed separately as extras? Are quarterly reviews part of the package, or purely optional add-ons priced by the hour? Ambiguity here is one of the most common sources of billing disputes later, and it is entirely preventable with a direct question asked upfront.
Ask for this in writing wherever possible. A short summary email confirming what was discussed gives both sides something concrete to refer back to if there is ever confusion later about what was actually agreed at the outset.
It also pays to ask specifically about scope creep: what happens if your business grows during the year and your needs genuinely expand beyond what was originally quoted? A firm with a clear, fair process for handling this is far easier to work with than one that leaves the question unanswered until an unexpectedly large invoice arrives.
Many firms are genuinely happy to discuss this openly, since it protects them just as much as it protects you. A written note on how additional work is scoped and priced, agreed calmly at the outset, prevents an awkward conversation later when a genuine change in circumstances has already made the original quote outdated.
Agree on Communication Frequency Explicitly
Rather than assuming a certain level of contact, agree it directly with your accountant. Will there be quarterly check-ins, monthly management accounts, or only annual filing with reminders around deadlines? Different businesses genuinely need different levels of contact, and there is no universally correct answer, but there absolutely should be a clear, mutually understood answer for your specific arrangement going forward.
- How often will scheduled reviews or check-ins happen?
- What counts as urgent enough to warrant an immediate response?
- Who is the primary contact, and is there a backup if they are unavailable?
- How will deadlines and required actions be communicated in advance?
Clarify Response Times Before You Need Them
It is far better to agree realistic response times at the start of a relationship than to discover, mid-crisis, that nobody is available to help. Ask directly what response time you can expect for routine queries versus genuinely urgent ones, and get a sense of whether this is a firm commitment or simply a vague aspiration. Firms confident in their service will generally be happy to put specific numbers on this from the outset.
This conversation also opens the door to discussing what happens if response times are not met, which is a far more comfortable conversation to have proactively than reactively once frustration has already set in and trust has taken a knock.
It is also sensible to agree how urgency itself will be signalled. A simple shared understanding, such as marking a genuinely time-sensitive email clearly in the subject line, helps both sides prioritise correctly without every message defaulting to "urgent" out of habit or anxiety.
Some firms formalise this with a simple service commitment written into the engagement letter itself, spelling out response times in black and white rather than leaving them as an informal understanding that can quietly drift over time as workloads change and new clients are taken on.
Establish Who You Are Actually Working With
Clarify from day one whether you will have a consistent, named point of contact, or whether queries will be distributed among available staff as they come in. If continuity matters to you, and for most small businesses it genuinely does, make this an explicit requirement rather than an assumption. This is precisely the kind of clarity that structured offerings like virtual finance director services are designed to provide, with a named senior contact built into the service from the very outset.
Ask also what happens if your primary contact leaves the firm or is unavailable for an extended period. A good firm will have a clear answer ready rather than treating the question as an inconvenience or a hypothetical they have not considered.
This is a more common scenario than many owners realise, and it is far better to know the contingency plan in advance than to discover, during a genuinely urgent moment, that your usual contact is on leave and nobody else has the full picture of your business.
A well-organised firm will typically keep detailed notes on every client precisely for this reason, ensuring continuity even during unplanned absences. Asking how this is handled in practice, rather than assuming it will simply work out, is a small question that can save considerable stress later on, particularly during a period when you can least afford further disruption.
A firm's answer to this question often reveals more about its internal organisation than any glossy brochure ever could, so treat it as a genuinely useful diagnostic rather than a routine formality to tick off quickly.
Set Expectations Around Proactive Advice
Decide together whether the relationship will be purely reactive, answering questions as they come up, or proactive, with your accountant flagging relevant changes, deadlines and opportunities unprompted. Many business owners assume proactive advice is included by default; many accountants assume it is a premium add-on. This gap is worth closing explicitly rather than discovering it the hard way when an important deadline is missed entirely.
Put a Name to the Proactive Items
Where possible, agree a short list of things your accountant will flag automatically, such as changes to relevant tax rates, approaching thresholds, or new reliefs that apply to your sector. Naming these items specifically, rather than leaving "proactive advice" as a vague promise, makes it far easier to hold the relationship to a clear, agreed standard over time.
Revisit Expectations as the Business Changes
Expectations set in the first month of a relationship may no longer fit a business that has grown, hired staff, or expanded into new areas since then. Build in a habit of revisiting the arrangement periodically, perhaps annually, to check whether the level of service still matches the business's current needs. This is also a natural moment to discuss upgrading to more senior-level support, such as outsourced finance director services, as complexity grows over time.
The Bottom Line
Most accountant frustrations are preventable with a clear, honest conversation right at the start of the relationship. Define what is included, agree communication frequency and response times, clarify who you are actually working with, and revisit these expectations as your business evolves and grows. London owners who take this step early save themselves significant frustration, and often money, further down the line, while also building a far more productive, genuinely trusting working relationship right from the very start of the engagement itself, rather than months or even years later.
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