Most tax and accounting firm websites explain what the firm does. Very few explain what it is actually like to become a client.
That is a bigger gap than it sounds.
A prospect can usually find your tax services, advisory work, industries served, credentials, and office locations. But those pages often leave the most practical buying questions unanswered. What happens after I reach out? How do fees work? Who will I work with? How difficult will it be to switch from my current accountant? What happens during onboarding? Will I hear from the firm throughout the year, or only when a deadline is approaching?
Those are not administrative details. They are part of the buying decision.
A How We Work page gives prospects a clear picture of the relationship before they commit to it. It reduces uncertainty, makes switching feel less risky, sets expectations earlier, and gives your firm something most accounting websites still lack: a clear explanation of the experience behind the services.
That is why we included it in [The 3 Website Pages AI Needs to Understand Your Accounting Firm — INTERNAL LINK TO ARTICLE 2]. The Bio page helps establish who the client may trust. The Who We Help page establishes fit. A How We Work page explains what happens next.
Prospects Aren’t Just Choosing Expertise
Tax and accounting professionals naturally lead with technical expertise. The work is complicated, the consequences matter, and clients need qualified professionals.
The challenge is that expertise can be difficult for a prospective client to evaluate before the relationship begins. A business owner may not be able to determine whether one CPA understands a particular tax issue better than another. They can tell whether the firm explains itself clearly, whether the process looks organized, and whether becoming a client seems straightforward or painful.
That experience begins before the first tax return is prepared.
AICPA & CIMA has written about the importance of designing a more intentional client experience, including clearer expectations, better communication, and more consistent processes. A How We Work page brings part of that experience forward. Instead of asking prospects to trust that everything will become clear after they sign, you show them what working with your firm actually looks like.
We explore the broader idea in How to Build a Client Experience That Becomes a Competitive Advantage.
A Referral Gets Someone to Your Door. Uncertainty Can Still Stop Them.
Imagine someone has been referred to your firm. [INTERNAL LINK: A Referral Gets You Mentioned. Your Digital Reputation Gets You Chosen.]
They like what they see. Your expertise looks relevant. Your reviews are strong. They are unhappy enough with their current accountant to consider making a change.
And then they start thinking about what switching actually involves.
Will they have to track down years of records? Will the old accountant cooperate? Will something get missed mid-year? Will they have to explain their entire financial life from scratch? Who handles the transition? When does the new firm officially take over?
This is where inertia becomes powerful.
People often stay in relationships they have outgrown because changing feels more difficult or risky than staying put. The less clearly the next step is defined, the easier it is to postpone the decision.
A How We Work page can lower that perceived risk by showing the path before the prospect takes it.
What Should a How We Work Page Actually Include?
There is no universal template. The page should reflect the way your firm actually operates.
But a useful one should answer seven questions.
1. What Happens When Someone First Contacts You?
Start at the beginning.
Does the prospect schedule an introductory conversation? Complete a short intake? Speak first with someone on the client success team? Meet directly with a partner?
Explain enough that clicking the call to action does not feel like stepping into a black box.
Instead of simply saying Schedule a Consultation, you might say:
Start with a 20-minute conversation so we can understand what you need, determine whether our firm is a good fit, and explain what the next step would look like.
That removes uncertainty while communicating something else important: fit works both ways. Your firm has a process for deciding which relationships make sense.
2. How Do Fees and Engagements Work?
Pricing is one of the biggest questions prospects have and one of the subjects accounting websites most often avoid.
A How We Work page does not require you to publish a price list. It should explain how someone learns what the relationship will cost.
Do you use fixed-fee engagements? Monthly subscriptions? Annual engagements? Project pricing? Do you provide a proposal before work begins? How are out-of-scope projects handled?
Even a few sentences can remove substantial uncertainty:
Before work begins, we provide a written proposal outlining the services included in the engagement and the associated fees. If something comes up outside the agreed scope, we discuss it with you before additional work is performed.
That is much more reassuring than allowing the prospect to wonder whether every phone call starts a meter.
If your pricing model is part of what makes the client experience better, say so.
3. What Happens During Onboarding?
New clients may need to provide prior returns, entity documents, accounting access, payroll information, financial statements, identification, engagement agreements, and other records.
Your team may think of that as document collection. The client can experience it as chaos if nobody explains the process.
A How We Work page does not need to publish the entire checklist. It needs to show that there is a checklist, a process, and a person guiding it.
For example:
Once we agree to work together, you will receive a secure onboarding workspace with the information, documents, and next steps we need from you. Our team reviews what you provide, follows up on anything missing, and lets you know when the transition is complete.
The exact process will vary, but the message is reassuring: you will know what happens next.
This is also why onboarding deserves more attention than many firms give it. In The Sale Creates Expectations. Onboarding Confirms the Decision, we look at how the first operational experience after a client says yes can either reinforce confidence or immediately create doubt.
4. What If I’m Switching From Another Accountant?
This deserves its own section because it addresses a different kind of prospect.
Someone hiring an accountant for the first time is starting fresh. Someone leaving an existing firm is worried about disruption.
If switching clients are important to your growth, tell them how the transition works. Explain what information you typically need, what your team handles, when the client may need to contact the previous firm, how you review prior-year work, and how you reduce the chance of something falling through the cracks.
For example:
If you are moving from another firm, we will help you understand exactly what we need for the transition. We review your prior returns and relevant financial information, identify anything missing, and establish responsibility for upcoming deadlines so you know where things stand. You will not be expected to figure out the transition on your own.
Do not promise a frictionless transfer if that is unrealistic.
The point is to make the process understandable.
For a prospect thinking, “I know I need a better accountant, but switching sounds miserable,” that section alone may be one of the most persuasive things on your website.
5. Who Will I Actually Work With?
A prospect may have been referred to a partner but have no idea whether that person will remain involved after the sale.
Explain the model.
Will the client have a primary relationship manager? Is a partner involved in planning? Does a client service person handle administrative questions? When are specialists brought into the relationship?
You do not need an organizational chart. You need enough clarity that the client understands who owns the relationship.
For example:
You will have a primary contact who knows your situation and coordinates the relationship across our team. When specialized expertise is needed, we bring the appropriate professional into the conversation rather than asking you to figure out whom to contact.
This is also where strong bios help. If your goal is to build confidence in the firm rather than one rainmaking partner, make the people clients will actually encounter visible. [INTERNAL LINK: Why Most Accountant Bio Pages Fail (and How to Fix Yours)]
6. How Do You Communicate and What Happens During the Year?
“Responsive” and “proactive” appear on thousands of accounting websites.
A How We Work page gives you the opportunity to explain what those words mean at your firm.
Where should clients send routine questions? Do you use a secure portal? Who responds? Are advisory clients scheduled for quarterly conversations? Does the firm reach out before estimated-tax dates or year-end planning decisions? How are urgent situations handled?
You do not need to publish an exhaustive communication policy. Give prospects a realistic picture.
For example:
Routine documents and communication stay in our secure client workspace so important information does not disappear into email threads. Depending on your engagement, we also schedule planning conversations throughout the year so decisions can be addressed while there is still time to act.
Now “proactive” has meaning.
7. What Do You Expect From the Client?
A good professional relationship has expectations on both sides.
If your team needs clients to respond to document requests, maintain accurate books, meet agreed-upon deadlines, use the secure portal, or tell you about significant transactions before they happen, say that respectfully.
This does not need to read like a rulebook.
It can sound like this:
Good planning requires good information. We ask clients to respond to requests promptly and tell us when something significant changes in their business or financial life. The earlier we know about a transaction or decision, the more opportunity we usually have to help.
That establishes something valuable before the relationship begins: proactive advice requires participation from both sides.
What a Weak How We Work Page Looks Like
This does not help much:
At Smith & Associates, we believe every client is unique. Our personalized approach begins by listening to your needs. We work closely with you to provide exceptional service and innovative solutions throughout every stage of your financial journey.
It sounds polished.
It could also belong to a wealth manager, attorney, insurance agency, consulting company, or dentist.
Now compare it with this:
Every new business client begins with a discovery meeting. If we agree there is a fit, we send a written proposal defining the services, fees, and responsibilities on both sides. Once you accept, your secure onboarding workspace guides you through prior returns, entity documents, accounting access, and the other information our team needs.
If you are switching from another accountant, we help coordinate the transition and identify upcoming deadlines so you know who is responsible for what. You will also know your primary contact before onboarding begins.
Routine communication stays in our secure client workspace so documents and conversations do not disappear into email threads. For advisory relationships, we establish the planning meetings and check-ins included in the engagement from the beginning.
Our goal is simple: you should know what we need from you, who is responsible, what it will cost, and what happens next.
That page is doing actual work.
Read: A Referral Gets You Mentioned. Your Digital Reputation Gets You Chosen.
AI Gives the Page a Second Job
A How We Work page is primarily for prospects, but AI search gives it another purpose.
People can increasingly ask questions that once required a phone call or a lengthy search:
How does this accounting firm onboard new clients?
Do they work proactively throughout the year?
What happens if I switch from my current CPA?
Will I work directly with a partner?
How do their fees work?
AI assistants may encounter answers in reviews, directories, articles, social profiles, and other third-party sources. No single webpage guarantees how an AI system will describe or recommend a firm.
But your website is the source you control.
If you never explain your onboarding, communication model, pricing process, transition experience, or client relationship publicly, there is less first-party information available to answer those questions accurately.
The answer is not to write a page “for AI.”
Write a genuinely useful page for prospective clients. Clear, specific information is useful to machines precisely because it is useful to people.
Your Reviews Should Confirm the Story
Your website tells prospects what working with the firm is supposed to feel like. Reviews provide outside evidence of what clients actually experienced.
If the How We Work page says the firm communicates clearly, do reviews mention communication? If you describe onboarding as organized, do new clients say the transition felt easy? If you claim to explain complicated issues in plain English, does that show up in client feedback?
When those signals line up, the story becomes considerably more credible.
Our article How to Use Reviews to Improve AI and Search Visibility looks more closely at how client feedback can reinforce the expertise and experience a firm describes on its own website.
Show the Client Experience, Not the Internal Machinery
The prospect does not need your internal workflow diagram.
They do not need to know which status a project enters after preparer review, what software triggers the next task, or how your team routes an internal approval.
Focus on what the client experiences.
A useful How We Work page should show the journey clearly enough that someone can picture going through it without documenting every step behind the scenes.
That distinction matters. Firms live inside task lists and workflows. Clients experience communication, document requests, onboarding, follow-up, and whether they understand what happens next.
Describe the Firm You Actually Run
This may be the most important rule in the article.
Do not publish an aspirational How We Work page describing a client experience your firm cannot consistently deliver.
If the website promises year-round planning, the engagement and workflows need to support year-round planning. If you say clients always know who their primary contact is, make sure they do. If you promise pricing will be agreed upon before additional work begins, your team needs to follow that rule.
A How We Work page is not simply marketing copy.
It is an expectation-setting document.
And the moment a prospect becomes a client, they start comparing the experience you promised with the experience you deliver.
A Simple Structure You Can Use
You do not need to overcomplicate the page. For many firms, this structure is enough:
Start Here
What happens when someone first contacts the firm and how you determine fit.
Your Proposal and Pricing
How scope, services, fees, and approval work before the engagement begins.
Getting You Onboarded
What information you need and how you collect it.
Switching From Another Firm
How you handle prior records, open items, deadlines, and the transition of the relationship.
Meet Your Team
Who owns the relationship and how other professionals become involved.
How We Communicate
Where conversations happen, what clients can expect, and how ongoing planning works.
What We Ask From You
The client’s role in making the relationship successful.
Ready to Talk?
One clear next step.
The exact language should sound like your firm. The structure simply makes sure the questions a prospective client actually cares about get answered.
This May Become One of the Most Important Pages on Your Site
For years, accounting firm websites were organized primarily around information the firm wanted to publish: services, credentials, history, locations, and contact details.
A How We Work page begins somewhere different.
It starts with the question the prospective client is asking:
What will happen if I hire you?
For someone who has never hired an accountant before, that reduces uncertainty. For someone unhappy with an existing accountant, it can make switching feel manageable instead of risky. For someone comparing several firms, it turns vague promises about responsiveness, proactive advice, and personalized service into something they can actually evaluate.
It also forces the firm to articulate something competitors cannot copy simply by listing the same services: the experience of being your client.
A prospect should finish the page thinking:
“I understand how this works. I know what to expect. Switching doesn’t feel overwhelming. I can see myself working with this firm.”
That is a powerful place to begin a client relationship.
Read Next: The 3 Website Pages AI Needs to Understand Your Accounting Firm
