Reference check questions for accountants

An accountant’s work is reviewed constantly, which makes their references unusually well informed. A controller who reviewed the candidate’s reconciliations each month knows how often they tied out the first time, how errors came to light and whether deadlines held at quarter end. An auditor knows whether the support for a balance was ready and complete or had to be chased.

Integrity is the hardest part of the job to judge in an interview and the most important. Ask references for situations, not adjectives: a time the candidate was asked to book something they disagreed with, or found an error that would have been easier to leave alone.

Who to ask

• The controller or accounting manager who reviewed their work, for accuracy, deadlines and how they took corrections.
• For a candidate from public accounting, the senior or manager on their engagements, who reviewed their workpapers and saw them with clients.
• An auditor who tested their areas, internal or external, for the quality of their reconciliations and support.
• A budget owner outside finance who relied on the candidate’s reports and asked them to explain the numbers.

Questions to ask, by competency

Choose the competencies that matter most for the position and two or three questions from each. Ask every reference the same set, and when an answer is a rating, ask for the example behind it.

Accuracy

Small errors compound across a ledger and tend to surface at the worst moment, often in the middle of an audit.

1. When you reviewed the candidate’s reconciliations or journal entries, what kinds of corrections did you usually make?
2. Tell me about an error the candidate found, in their own work or someone else’s. How did they find it, and what did they do about it?
3. From 1 to 5, how accurate was the candidate’s work when they first handed it to you for review, and what is that rating based on? (rating)

Close and deadlines

Month-end close, audits and tax filings run on fixed dates, and one late schedule holds up everyone downstream.

1. How did the candidate do against the close calendar, and what did they do when they saw a task would run late?
2. Describe the candidate’s busiest close or year-end with you. What did they own, and how did it go?
3. When the auditors asked for support for the candidate’s areas, how ready was it?

Controls and integrity

Controls only work if the people inside them decline to work around them, including when someone senior asks.

1. Have you seen the candidate push back on an entry, an approval or a deadline that would have bent a control? What happened?
2. How did the candidate handle duties that should have been kept apart, such as approving and paying the same invoice?
3. If the candidate found an entry or a payment that looked wrong, who would they have told, and do you know of a time they did?

Explaining the numbers

Managers outside finance make decisions based on what accountants tell them. A correct number explained badly still leads to a bad decision.

1. Tell me about a variance the candidate explained to someone outside finance. Did that person understand what to do next?
2. How did the candidate respond when a department head disputed a charge or a figure in their report?

Close the reference

End every reference the same way: ask whether they would hire or work with the candidate again and why, what support would help the candidate do their best work, and whether there is anything else you should know. The general question bank explains why the first of these matters most.

Checks a reference does not replace

• The CPA license, if the candidate holds one or the role requires it. Confirm its status and any public discipline with the state board of accountancy that issued it, in each state where the candidate says they are licensed.
• Other credentials the role asks for, such as a management accounting or internal audit certification, with the body that awarded them.
• A background or credit check, if your policy calls for one. When a third party runs it, the FTC’s guidance for employers explains what the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires of you. Check your state’s rules before you use credit history in a hiring decision.

Warning signs to follow up

• Reconciliations or schedules that a reviewer regularly had to finish or redo.
• A reference mentions a restatement, a late filing or an audit finding in the candidate’s area without saying what the candidate’s part in it was.
• Praise for how quickly the candidate "got things through", with no mention of approvals or review.
• No reference who reviewed the candidate’s work: only peers, clients or people outside finance.
• Vague or shifting accounts of why the candidate left in the middle of a close or an audit.

One warning sign is a reason to ask another question, not a verdict. Reference check red flags covers how to check a concern fairly.

Questions to leave out

Ask only about the work. Before an offer, the EEOC’s guidance says an employer may not ask a third party, such as a former employer, any question it could not ask the candidate directly. Leave out health, medical leave, age, family plans and other protected characteristics. What to leave out has the full list.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the requirements that apply to your organization, and in your state, with your counsel or HR policy office.