Choosing a crypto accountant: questions that reveal the working method
Published 01/12/2025 · Updated 08/09/2026 · Houssen Issouf Aly, French chartered accountant
Crypto-assets · Companies · Directors
Practical guidance for companies and directors. Revised on 7 September 2026.
Assess the process behind the promise
A business receiving crypto, managing treasury or using protocols needs more than a ranking or partner-logo list. Ask how transactions will be collected, explained, checked and integrated into its accounts.
Prepare a sample invoice, receipt, internal transfer, conversion and closing balance. Use it to assess understanding without granting control of funds. Establish what the firm, company and software each do.
Confirm identity and engagement scope
Consult HODL Consulting’s professional-directory entry. Match the professional identity and contact details with your engagement documentation. Media appearances provide background, not a substitute for this check.
Clarify whether the work covers bookkeeping, review, returns, payroll, reporting or management support. Do not confuse accounting with asset custody, investment selection or legal work outside the agreed engagement.
Ask eight practical questions
- How is completeness checked across accounts, wallets and networks?
- How are bank, platform, blockchain and supporting records reconciled?
- How are sales, payments, transfers, rewards and refunds distinguished?
- Which valuation sources and dates are used, including when data is missing?
- Who confirms closing balances and investigates differences?
- Who supplies evidence, answers questions and approves corrections?
- How often is work performed and when are documents due?
- Which files and evidence are available when the engagement ends?
A useful answer may identify a limitation or require a test. Complete automatic classification is not proof that every transaction has been understood.
Compare fees on a common basis
Identify what the quote includes and what creates additional work: historical reconstruction, multiple networks, protocols, missing records or special reporting. Compare communication and review arrangements too.
Fictional example: two companies each have 1,000 movements. One makes straightforward purchases on one platform; the other needs cross-network transfers reconstructed. Transaction count alone may not reflect the work.
Record assumptions and how scope changes are handled. Different files do not justify a universal fee promise.
Create a workable relationship
Assign someone to coordinate documents, report new wallets and raise unusual transactions early. Keep ownership and contractual evidence separately from technical secrets.
Start with an exception list and timetable. Revisit the sample checks when tools or activities change. An engagement can evolve while remaining clear to the business.
Explore HODL’s approach
Read our crypto expertise and accounting pages. The software assessment guide helps prepare a test; the press review gathers accessible interviews.
What should we send initially?
Describe your business, entity, tools, approximate volumes and main difficulties. Do not send private keys or recovery phrases.
Can a firm guarantee no tax inspection?
No accounting engagement should be presented as preventing an inspection. The work aims to produce coherent, documented records.