How Do You Hire Someone Who Knows Accounting When You Don’t?

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As a business owner, you know your company. You know your customers, your team, your operations, and what keeps things moving.

But hiring someone to manage the financial side of the business can be harder.

How do you evaluate an accountant if accounting is not your area of expertise? How do you know whether someone understands more than basic bookkeeping? And how do you know whether one person can actually handle everything your business needs?

For many business owners, those questions come up when deciding whether to hire in-house or work with an outsourced accounting firm.

Both can work. The better fit depends on your business, your budget, and how much accounting support you actually need.

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The Hard Part: Knowing Who to Hire

Hiring for a role outside your own area of expertise is difficult.

You may know you need help with bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, month-end close, or financial reporting. What is harder is knowing whether a candidate can handle those responsibilities well.

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A strong resume does not always tell you whether someone can:

• Keep the books accurate and up to date

• Reconcile accounts and catch discrepancies

• Manage a reliable month-end close

• Prepare accurate financial statements

• Understand accrual accounting and more complex accounting issues

• Improve accounting processes and controls

• Work with the accounting systems your business uses

• Explain financial information clearly

• Know when an issue needs a more experienced accountant

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It also helps to understand the difference between bookkeeping and accounting.

Bookkeeping generally focuses on recording and organizing financial transactions. That includes categorizing activity, maintaining records, and reconciling accounts.

Accounting goes further. It determines the policies and rules that guide how those transactions should be recorded in the first place. It also includes reviewing and interpreting financial activity, preparing financial statements, managing the close process, applying accounting principles, and helping leadership understand what the numbers are actually saying.

Accrual accounting is a good example. It is not just a matter of whether a company is on an accrual basis. Accounting also determines the appropriate level of accrual for that company based on the nature, size, and complexity of the business.

Some businesses need bookkeeping support. Others need a higher level of accounting oversight. Many need both.

That is where hiring one person to cover everything can get tricky.

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What Does an In-House Accounting Team Look Like?

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In-house accounting means hiring employees within your business to manage your financial operations.

Depending on the size of the company, that might mean a bookkeeper, staff accountant, accounting manager, controller, CFO, or some combination of those roles.

An internal team may handle bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, financial reporting, budgeting, cash flow management, and other accounting responsibilities.

Because they work inside the business, in-house employees can become very familiar with your operations and day-to-day processes.

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Benefits of In-House Accounting

• Direct access to your accounting team

• Strong knowledge of your company's operations

• More control over day-to-day financial activities

• Easy access for internal meetings and questions

• Employees who are focused on your business full time

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Potential Challenges

The hard part is often knowing what level of person you actually need.

A growing business may think it needs a bookkeeper when it really needs an experienced accountant or controller overseeing the work.

On the other hand, hiring a controller to spend a large portion of their time doing routine bookkeeping may not make sense either.

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Building an internal accounting team can also mean:

• Salaries, benefits, recruiting, and training costs

• Accounting software and technology expenses

• Difficulty finding and keeping qualified accounting professionals

• Too much responsibility sitting with one or two people

• Limited review or oversight

• Disruption when a key employee leaves

If you do not have an accounting background yourself, it can also be difficult to know whether the work is being done correctly until something goes wrong.

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What Is Outsourced Accounting?

‍Outsourced accounting means working with an outside firm to handle some or all of your company's financial operations.

Instead of hiring one person and expecting them to cover every area, you can have access to people with different levels of experience and different specialties.

That can include bookkeeping and transaction processing, staff-level accounting, financial reporting, accounting management, controller support, advisory work, and outsourced CFO services.

One of the biggest advantages is that you can get the appropriate level of support from each role instead of asking one person to do everything. Routine work can stay with the right level of staff, while an accounting manager, controller, or CFO steps in where higher-level review, decision-making, or strategy is needed.

In practice, this creates a fractional accounting team built around the needs of the business.

The point is not moving accounting outside the company. It is giving the business the right mix of support without having to hire every role internally.

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Benefits of Outsourced Accounting

• Access to professionals with different levels of accounting experience

• The right level of support from bookkeeping through CFO-level work

• Review and oversight of bookkeeping and accounting work

• Lower overhead than building a full internal department

• Support that can grow with the business

• Access to accounting technology and established processes

• Less dependence on one employee

• Less recruiting, training, and management for leadership

• Better separation of duties across the accounting function

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That last point is especially important for internal control.

When one person is responsible for entering transactions, reconciling accounts, approving payments, and reviewing the financials, there is very little separation of duties. An outsourced fractional team can divide those responsibilities across different people, which creates stronger checks and balances and supports more effective internal controls.

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Potential Challenges

• Less day-to-day physical presence within your organization

• Communication needs to be consistent

• Roles and expectations need to be clear

• The experience depends heavily on choosing the right firm

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Outsourcing still requires a good hiring decision. You are just evaluating a firm instead of an individual employee.

That means looking at the people who will actually work on your account, how the firm communicates, how work is reviewed, what systems they use, and whether they can support the business as it grows.

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How Do You Evaluate Accounting Expertise If You Are Not an Accountant?

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You do not need to become an accountant to hire one.

But it helps to ask questions that go beyond, "Can you do the books?"

Ask how they handle the month-end close. Ask who reviews reconciliations and financial statements. Ask what they do when they find an error. Ask how they explain financial results to someone who is not an accountant.

It is also worth asking how they think about accounting policies. Who determines how transactions should be recorded? How do they decide which expenses should be accrued? How do they determine the right level of accrual for your business?

Those questions can help you understand whether someone is simply recording transactions or actually providing accounting oversight.

It is also worth asking what happens as things become more complicated.

Who handles technical accounting questions? Who reviews the work? What happens if you add another entity, change accounting systems, go through an audit, or need more detailed financial reporting?

And if more than one person is involved, how are responsibilities divided? Who prepares the work, who reviews it, and who has approval authority?

Those answers can tell you a lot about whether you are hiring someone to complete a list of tasks or building an accounting function that can keep up with the business.

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Why Many Growing Businesses Choose Outsourced Accounting

For many small and midsize businesses, outsourced accounting is a way to get different levels of accounting experience without building an entire department.

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Use the Right Level of Experience for the Work

A strong accounting department usually is not one person doing everything.

Routine bookkeeping and transaction processing do not require the same level of experience as financial statement review, month-end close oversight, internal controls, or CFO-level planning.

With an outsourced team, different responsibilities can be handled by people with the appropriate level of experience.

That might mean a bookkeeper or staff accountant handles transaction processing and reconciliations, an accounting manager oversees the close, a controller reviews financial reporting and controls, and a CFO provides higher-level financial guidance.

Instead of trying to find one person who can do everything, the business gets a fractional team built around the work that actually needs to be done.

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Avoid Hiring the Wrong Level

This is one of the hardest parts of hiring accounting staff when you are not an accountant yourself.

Someone may be great at bookkeeping but have limited experience with financial reporting or accounting management.

Someone else may have senior-level experience but be far more expensive than you need for routine work.

An outsourced team can divide those responsibilities appropriately, so you are not paying senior-level rates for every task or expecting a junior employee to handle work beyond their experience.

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Build Stronger Internal Controls

Internal controls work best when key financial responsibilities are not all concentrated with one person.

For example, the person entering a bill should not necessarily be the same person approving the payment and reconciling the account afterward.

For a small business, creating that level of separation internally can be difficult because there simply may not be enough people on the finance team.

A fractional outsourced team makes it easier to separate responsibilities across different roles. That creates better oversight, reduces the risk of errors going unnoticed, and gives the company a stronger control environment without requiring a large internal accounting department.

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Get Better Processes and Technology

Accounting is increasingly tied to technology.

Cloud accounting platforms, automation, integrated systems, and standardized workflows can make a big difference in how quickly and accurately the work gets done.

At TL2, we regularly look at the systems and processes we use with clients to find ways to make the accounting more efficient and easier to understand.

The goal is not to add technology just because it exists. It is to make the accounting process work better.

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Reduce the Risk of One Person Knowing Everything

When one employee handles most of the accounting, a lot of knowledge can live with that one person.

If they leave, the business can suddenly be left trying to understand the books, the systems, the deadlines, and the processes while also searching for a replacement.

With an outsourced team, the work is spread across a broader group and documented in a more structured way.

That gives the business more continuity and less dependence on one person.

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Spend More Time Running the Business

Business owners already have enough to manage.

You should not also have to become an expert in bookkeeping, accounting systems, financial reporting, and accounting hiring just to feel confident that the financial side of the business is being handled correctly.

Outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting responsibilities can take some of that burden off leadership and leave more time for employees, customers, operations, and growth.

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Accounting Should Give You More Than Accurate Books

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Accurate bookkeeping matters. But it is the starting point, not the end result.

Good accounting should establish the policies behind the books and help you understand what is happening in the business.

Are transactions being recorded consistently? Are the right expenses being accrued? Are margins improving? Is cash getting tighter? Are expenses increasing faster than revenue? Are you getting financial reports quickly enough to make decisions? Are your current processes going to work as the business grows?

Your accounting team should be able to help answer those questions.

At TL2, we work as an extension of our clients' teams. We provide bookkeeping and accounting support, financial reporting, accounting management, and higher-level financial guidance based on what each client actually needs.

The goal is simple: make sure the accounting is being handled correctly and make the financial information useful to the people running the business.

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How TL2 Supports Growing Businesses

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At TL2, we believe accounting should be more than a transaction; it should be a partnership.

We work closely with a select group of clients to provide customized accounting, advisory, and financial management services that evolve alongside their businesses. Whether you need bookkeeping support, financial reporting, strategic planning, or outsourced CFO services, our team is committed to helping you gain clarity, confidence, and control over your financial future.

Most importantly, we're always available when questions arise. Our clients know they have a trusted advisor just a phone call or email away.

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Which Option Is Right for You?

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There's no one-size-fits-all answer.

In-house accounting may make sense for larger organizations that require dedicated internal resources and have the budget to support a full accounting department.

For many small and midsize businesses, however, outsourced accounting offers a cost-effective way to access specialized expertise, advanced technology, and strategic financial guidance without the overhead of a full-time team.

If you're evaluating your options, TL2 can help you determine the best approach for your business's current needs and future goals.

Contact us today to learn how outsourced accounting can help your business operate more efficiently and grow with confidence.

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