87% of accountant websites show no price: eight numbers from 158 practices

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These are eight numbers from The State of Independent Accountant Websites 2026, our read of 158 websites belonging to small CPA firms, bookkeepers, tax preparers and fractional CFO practices across the US. Each site was checked against nine questions a new client asks, each with a written rule for what counts as an answer. The median site answers three of the nine. The detail follows, itemised.

87%: what will it cost?#

87% of the sites show no price, package or fee anywhere: no starting price for a return, no monthly bookkeeping package, no hourly rate. It is the least-answered of the nine questions. A profession that bills for exactness leaves the one figure every prospect wants as "contact us for a quote". The scan cannot say what the prospect does next. It can say the question went unanswered on the page, on 138 of 158 sites.

3%: does a small CPA firm say what it charges?#

Split by kind of practice, the gap is uneven. Bookkeeping firms show a price on 21% of their sites and advisory firms on 18%, which is where monthly packages tend to appear. Tax preparers show one on 5%. Small CPA firms show one on 3%: one site out of 30. The firms that write the most engagement letters publish the fewest numbers in advance. The sample of CPA firms is the smallest of the four, so treat the exact figure with the usual reserve. The direction does not need it.

80% and 19%: is someone qualified doing my books?#

80% of small CPA firm sites name a person with a credential: a CPA licence, an enrolled agent, a certified bookkeeper. Among bookkeeping firms the figure is 19%. That is not a finding about anyone's qualifications. The scan reads what the page says, not what hangs on the office wall. It means a careful client who checks before handing over a year of bank statements finds the answer on four in five CPA sites and on fewer than one in five bookkeeping sites.

53% and 7%: how do I send my documents safely?#

53% of small CPA firms link a working secure client portal, which in this study means the link leads to a real portal or upload service for that practice, not to a template vendor's home page or a page that only mentions one. Bookkeeping firms manage it on 7% of their sites, and advisory and fractional CFO firms on 7%. Those are the two kinds of practice that handle a client's documents every month rather than once a year. Without a portal on the site, the route the site leaves open for a bank statement is an email attachment.

7% and 44%: do other clients vouch for you?#

Here the CPA firms trail. 7% of their sites show, quote or mark up a client review. Bookkeeping firms do it on 44% of their sites and advisory firms on 43%. So the practices most likely to name their credentials are the least likely to let a client speak for them, and the reverse holds for bookkeepers. Both halves of the trust question appear in this study. They rarely appear on the same kind of site.

15%: can I book a first call without phoning?#

15% of the sites let a prospect book a first consultation online, through a working scheduler rather than a contact form that promises a reply. Advisory and fractional CFO firms lead at 25%, which suits a business that sells through discovery calls. Small CPA firms sit at 10%, and bookkeeping firms at 9%. Every other site asks the prospect to phone during office hours or fill in a form and wait for someone to get back to them.

46%: where are you, and how do I reach you?#

46% of the sites pair a phone number a visitor can tap with a street address. The other 54% miss one or the other: a number set as plain text that a phone will not dial, or an office with no address on the site. Bookkeeping firms pass on 28%, the lowest of the four kinds of practice; tax preparers do best at 59%. The rule asks for both because a client choosing a local accountant wants to call from the page and to know the office exists.

5%: does the home page load in time?#

5% of the sites load their main content in under 2.5 seconds on a phone, the Core Web Vitals threshold. Among the 43 bookkeeping firms the count is zero. This is the one number in the report on which the whole profession agrees. It is also the one an agency can fix without asking the client for anything: image sizes and scripts are the agency's department, and the firm never has to supply a figure, write a bio or choose a portal vendor.

Each of the eight is a line in a scope. The one-page scope turns them into the proposal a small firm can approve after a first call, and the auto repair talk track covers the same price conversation in a trade that is just as reluctant. The rules, the sample and every segment are in the report.

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