Bookkeeper interview questions

What this hire must get done

Write the scorecard before you interview, then hire against it. Set the bracketed targets from your own numbers.

What to tell candidates before the interview

Say the hard parts plainly. People who wouldn't stay drop out early, and the ones who stay knew what they signed up for.

• Say how much they'll handle: how many bank and card accounts, companies and bills a week, and whether payroll, sales tax and collection calls are theirs or your accountant's.
• Tell them the schedule from your posting: weekdays, with longer days around [month-end close and payroll].
• Explain the checks you'll keep on their work, such as [the owner approving new vendors and reading the bank statements]. Good bookkeepers welcome them.
• If you run a credit or background check for this job, say so, say when (for example, after a conditional offer), and that you'll ask for written permission first. Some states and cities limit credit checks, and many hold questions about criminal records until later in hiring.

How to run the interview

1. Same questions, same order. Ask every candidate the questions below and the same follow-ups. It is the only way to compare people fairly.
2. Two interviewers. An owner or manager and someone who does the work. Take notes on what the candidate says, not on how you feel about them.
3. Score right after each answer. 5 sounds like the strong answer, 3 like the mixed one, 1 like the weak one. Use 2 and 4 for answers in between.
4. Rate alone, then compare. Compare candidates question by question, and talk only after everyone has scored. Big gaps are worth a conversation.

1. Technical · Reconciliation

   At month-end your books and the bank statement are off, and last month reconciled cleanly. Walk me through how you find the difference.

   It shows whether they hunt down the real cause or make the numbers match with an adjustment.

   Follow-ups

   • What do you check if the opening balance no longer matches last month's closing balance?
   • When, if ever, would you post an adjustment to make it tie?
   • What do you do about a check that's been outstanding for months?

   5Strong

   Checks that the opening balance matches last month's ending balance (an edited cleared entry breaks it), then matches items and searches for the exact amount. Rules of thumb: half the difference may be a wrong-side entry; a difference divisible by nine often means transposed digits. Never plugs it.

   3Mixed

   Matches items line by line and gets there, but slowly and without a method, and doesn't think to check whether last month's reconciled entries were changed.

   1Weak

   Posts an adjustment to make it balance, or leaves it for the accountant to sort out at year-end.

2. Technical · Job costing

   A water heater swap took a plumber [five] hours. The tank came on a supply house bill that also covers two other jobs, and the permit went on the company card. Walk me through how each cost gets onto the job.

   Splitting a shared bill and costing labor correctly are where job costing usually goes wrong.

   Follow-ups

   • What hourly cost do you put on the plumber's time, and why not just the wage?
   • Where do the truck, fuel and drive time go?
   • What would you show the owner if the job lost money?

   5Strong

   Splits the supply bill line by line to each job or purchase order, codes the permit to the job, and costs labor at a burdened rate: wage plus the employer's payroll taxes, workers' comp and benefits. Then compares actual cost and margin with the estimate.

   3Mixed

   Gets materials and the permit onto the job but costs labor at the bare wage, or isn't sure how to split a bill that covers several jobs.

   1Weak

   Codes everything to general expense accounts and has never broken costs out by job.

3. Behavioral · Job costing

   Describe a job cost report you worked on that showed a job, a crew or a kind of work losing money. What did you find when you dug in?

   Running the report is the easy part. Owners need someone who checks it's right and finds out why.

   Follow-ups

   • How did you rule out a coding error first?
   • What did you bring the owner, and in what form?
   • What changed afterward, and how did you know?

   5Strong

   Names the report and the work, first checked for miscoded bills or missing labor, then found a real cause such as underpriced work, extra trips or material overruns. Brought it to the owner with numbers and can say what changed.

   3Mixed

   Ran the report and passed it on, but didn't check the coding or look into the cause.

   1Weak

   Has never used job costing beyond tagging bills with a customer's name.

4. Situational · Payables and collections

   This week's bills come to more than what's in the bank, and a large customer payment you counted on hasn't arrived. The supply house, a subcontractor, the truck lease and the company card are due, and payroll runs next week. What do you do?

   It tests whether they know which bills can never slip, and whether they bring the owner a plan instead of a surprise.

   Follow-ups

   • Which payment would you never push back, and why?
   • What would you pull from the receivables to close the gap?
   • What would you say to the vendor you pay late?

   5Strong

   Protects next week's payroll and the taxes withheld from it, since that money belongs to employees and the IRS. Chases the biggest collectible balances, calls vendors before the due date to agree on a new one, and brings the owner a short cash plan with options.

   3Mixed

   Pays payroll first and chooses sensibly among the rest, but decides alone without telling the owner, or doesn't think to speed up collections.

   1Weak

   Pays bills in the order they arrived, or holds back withheld payroll taxes to cover other bills.

5. Technical · Payables and collections

   Walk me through how you work an accounts receivable aging report with balances in every column, from current to well past due.

   Old balances are often posting errors or disputes, not slow payers, and a good bookkeeper sorts them out before anyone calls a customer.

   Follow-ups

   • What do you check before you call anyone?
   • Which balances do you work first?
   • When does a balance go to the owner or the office manager instead of you?

   5Strong

   First clears unapplied payments, credits and duplicate invoices so the report is true. Then works the biggest and oldest balances, sends disputes to whoever handled the job, follows a set schedule of calls and notices for slow payers, and logs every contact.

   3Mixed

   Calls the oldest balances in order and keeps notes, but doesn't clean up unapplied payments or credits first, so some calls go to customers who already paid.

   1Weak

   Mails statements and waits, or has never worked an aging report.

6. Situational · Payment controls

   Entering bills, you notice a vendor added two months ago with no W-9 on file, round-number invoices every two weeks, and the same street address as one of your dispatchers. What do you do?

   This is how a fake-vendor scheme looks from the inside, and the bookkeeper's first moves decide whether the evidence survives.

   Follow-ups

   • Who do you tell, and who don't you tell yet?
   • What records do you pull before you talk to anyone?
   • What control would have kept this vendor out of the system?

   5Strong

   Holds the next payment for the owner's decision, quietly pulls the vendor's setup record, who approved each payment, and the invoices and backup, changes nothing, and takes it privately to the owner. Doesn't question the dispatcher, and allows for an innocent explanation until it's checked.

   3Mixed

   Spots the problem and tells the owner, but first asks the dispatcher about it, or keeps paying the vendor until someone decides.

   1Weak

   Pays it because someone approved it, or doesn't see why the address matters.

7. Behavioral · Payment controls

   Describe a control you put in place or tightened to protect a company's money, such as who can add vendors, approve payments or sign checks. How did it work with a small staff?

   Small offices can't split every duty, so you want someone who knows which checks matter and makes them work with few people.

   Follow-ups

   • What did you still do alone that someone else should have checked?
   • How did the owner check your work?
   • What did it cost in time, and was it worth it?

   5Strong

   Names the risk and the fix: one person adds vendors and another pays them, dual approval or positive pay at the bank, the owner reads statements, and bank-detail changes get a call to a number from the vendor file. Explains how it fit a small team and what it caught.

   3Mixed

   Describes sound controls, but ones someone else set up, or talks about them in general without a real example.

   1Weak

   Says controls slow things down or that trust is enough, or has run every step alone and sees no problem.

8. Behavioral · Accuracy and ownership

   Tell me about the adjusting entries your outside accountant made the last time they reviewed books you kept. What were they, and what did you change?

   The accountant's fixes are an honest record of a bookkeeper's accuracy, and the answer shows whether they learn from them.

   Follow-ups

   • Which one surprised you?
   • What did you change in your monthly close because of them?
   • How did you explain them to the owner?

   5Strong

   Names specific entries, such as depreciation, a loan payment booked all as expense, or owner draws coded as wages. Separates the normal year-end entries from their own errors, and describes a change to their close that stopped the error coming back.

   3Mixed

   Knows roughly what the accountant changed but treats it all as the accountant's job, with no change to their own process.

   1Weak

   Doesn't know what the accountant changed, or says nothing ever needs fixing.

9. Situational · Integrity and discretion

   The owner asks you to book a family vacation, paid on the company card, as business travel. What do you do?

   Small-business bookkeepers get this request, and the answer shows whether your books stay clean when the pressure comes from the top.

   Follow-ups

   • What would you say to the owner, word for word?
   • How would you record it?
   • What would you do if the owner insisted?

   5Strong

   Explains plainly and respectfully that it's a personal expense, and records it as an owner's draw, distribution or loan, however the CPA has set those up. If pressed, still won't book it as a business expense, and asks to bring in the CPA.

   3Mixed

   Records it correctly as personal, but doesn't tell the owner, who goes on thinking it was booked as business travel.

   1Weak

   Books it as business travel because the owner asked.

10. Situational · Integrity and discretion

    A technician stops by your desk, sure that the newest technician is paid more, and asks you what the new hire makes. How do you answer?

    Your bookkeeper sees everyone's pay, and one careless answer can cost you trust across the company.

    Follow-ups

    • What exactly do you say?
    • Where do you send the technician's concern?
    • What would you be careful not to say about discussing pay?

    5Strong

    Says kindly that they can't share anyone's pay from the payroll records, and takes the concern to the owner or the technician's manager. Never suggests the technician can't discuss their own pay with coworkers; federal labor law protects that for most employees.

    3Mixed

    Keeps the number private but brushes the technician off, so the concern never reaches anyone who can answer it.

    1Weak

    Shares the number or hints at it, tells the technician that talking about pay is against the rules, or repeats the conversation around the office.

Work exercise: reconcile a made-up month

Hand finalists a made-up bank statement, the same month from a practice set of books, a short vendor list and a staff list, in a spreadsheet or a sample company in [your accounting software]. Plant [four] problems: a bill paid twice, a mid-month customer deposit in the books that never reached the bank, an unrecorded bank fee, and a new vendor at an employee's home address. Give them [30] minutes to reconcile, list each difference and explain how they'd handle it. Never use your real books.

Use made-up materials, never real customer work, and keep it to the time shown. Follow your own safety rules for anything hands-on.

Reference check questions

Tell finalists you'll call a former manager, and get their permission first. Ask about what they did, not whether they were nice.

• When your outside accountant reviewed the books they kept, how much needed fixing, and what kind of things?
• How did they handle private information, like payroll and the owner's own spending? Did you ever worry about what they shared?
• Tell me about a time they found something wrong, like a missing deposit or a bill that didn't look right. What did they do?
• What did they hand you each month, and how soon after month-end? Would you trust them with your books again?

Questions to skip, and what to ask instead

Ask only what the job needs. Questions that touch age, health, family or pay history can break federal, state or local law, even when you mean well.

• SkipDo you have a lot of debt, or have you had money problems?

  AskIf a credit report matters for this job, tell finalists you'll run one, get written permission on a separate form first, and check your state and city rules, since some limit or ban these checks. In the interview, ask about the work: who checked your books at your last job, and how?

• SkipHave you ever been charged with a crime?

  AskIf you run a background check, run it the same way for every finalist, with written permission, and only once your state and city rules allow it, which in some places means after a conditional offer. Don't reject anyone for an arrest alone, and weigh any conviction against this job, how serious it was and how much time has passed.

• SkipYou've been at this a long time. Are you comfortable with newer software?

  AskWhich accounting and payroll programs have you used, and how would you get up to speed on [your accounting software] in your first weeks?

Common mistakes when hiring a bookkeeper

• Trusting instead of testing

  It's tempting to skip the test for someone a friend recommends, or who has kept books for years. Years of experience can also mean years of plugging differences. Half an hour on a made-up month shows you how they really work.

• Hiring a bookkeeper who has never job-costed

  Someone from a medical office or a store may be strong on bills and deposits and never have posted labor to a job. If you want job profit reports, ask to see one they built, with the numbers changed.

• Mistaking software skill for bookkeeping

  Knowing where the buttons are in [your accounting software] isn't the same as knowing why the books don't tie. A software certificate shows the first. The reconciliation test shows the second.

Bookkeeper interview FAQ