PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Know Who You’re Hiring: Why Verifying Credentials Protects Your Business and Your Taxes
Every year, thousands of small business owners and individual taxpayers across Canada hand over their financial records, banking details and personal information to someone they met through a referral, a search engine or a sign on a storefront window. Few ever ask to see proof that the person is qualified to do the work.
That gap between trust and verification is where real financial risk begins.
Consider a small manufacturer looking to expand. The owner approaches the bank for additional financing, only to discover that the company’s books do not reconcile, sales-tax filings are inconsistent with the general ledger, and customer payments have been misapplied for months. The financing request stalls, and the owner realizes that the same flawed records have been quietly shaping pricing, purchasing and growth decisions all along.
This scenario is common, and it is preventable. The problem is rarely a lack of effort on the practitioner’s part. More often, it is a lack of verification on the client’s part. A polished website, a warm referral and years of self-described experience are not the same as documented education, professional standing and accountability.
What Should You Actually Verify?
Before engaging an accountant or tax preparer, a business owner or individual should confirm several things directly with the practitioner, and independently with the relevant professional body:
First, confirm the practitioner’s education and whether they hold a recognized professional designation like CPA or RPA. Second, verify that their membership is current and in good standing, not simply that they once earned a credential. Third, where the practitioner serves the public directly, ask whether a separate practice certification is required, and confirm it is active. Membership in a professional body and authorization to operate a public-facing practice are not always the same thing and conflating them is one of the most common mistakes clients make.
Beyond credentials, ask about continuing professional development, adherence to an enforceable code of ethics, errors-and-omissions insurance, and whether the practitioner is subject to periodic practice review. None of these safeguards guarantees flawless work. Together, though, they provide evidence of ongoing competence, ethical accountability and a path to recourse if something goes wrong.
The Canada Revenue Agency reinforces this point directly, advising taxpayers to check a preparer’s qualifications, remain wary of anyone who encourages inflated claims or false deductions, and review a return carefully before it is filed. Hiring a preparer does not transfer legal responsibility for what is submitted to the CRA. That responsibility remains with the taxpayer.
Why Standards Matter in Practice
Accounting and tax work involve constant professional judgment: how a transaction should be classified, what documentation is required to support a filing, when an account needs reconciliation, and when a matter exceeds the practitioner’s expertise and should be referred elsewhere. Formal education and structured continuing development are what equip a practitioner to make those judgment calls competently and to recognize the limits of their own competence.
At RPA Canada, we have built our Professional Practice Certification program around exactly this principle. Holding the Registered Professional Accountant designation reflects core competency in financial accounting, management accounting, taxation and data analytics. But an RPA who wants to serve the public directly must go further, completing dedicated training in compilation engagements, ethics, engagement documentation, cybersecurity and professional communication, and maintaining a Certified Accounting Practitioner credential that must be renewed every five years through current technical instruction and case-study assessment. You can always verify online if the accountant is designated as an RPA and is in good standing and holds a valid accounting practice certification.
That distinction matters for clients. Confirming that someone holds the RPA designation is a good first step. Confirming that they also hold current, active practice authorization is the step too many clients skip.
A Basic Business Control
Verification will not catch every error, and it does not replace clear engagement terms about who is responsible for what. But it converts trust from an assumption into something supported by evidence. For any business owner or individual whose financial decisions depend on the accuracy of their books and the integrity of their tax filings, that verification is not a bureaucratic formality.
It is risk management. And it belongs at the very beginning of any engagement, not after the bank, the CRA, or an audit forces the question.