Atlanta CPA Firm IT Checklist Before Tax Season: 10 Questions to Ask Your MSP

For CPA firms in Atlanta, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Alpharetta, and the surrounding metro, tax season magnifies every weak spot in your technology stack. A flaky remote-access setup, weak email security, or a backup that has never been tested can turn a busy week into a client-facing outage.

That is why this is not just an "IT support for accountants" conversation. It is a risk-management conversation. The IRS says tax professionals are required by law to create, implement, and maintain a Written Information Security Plan (WISP), and the FTC Safeguards Rule requires covered firms to maintain a written security program appropriate to their size and the sensitivity of the customer information they handle.

Why Atlanta CPA Firms Need a Higher Standard Before Filing Deadlines

During filing season, firms typically deal with:

• Temporary or seasonal staff who need access quickly
• Large volumes of tax returns, workpapers, and supporting documents moving through email and portals
• Partners and staff working from client sites, home offices, or after hours
• Third-party software, hosting vendors, and e-file workflows that create extra points of risk

CISA's small-business guidance is useful here because it focuses on the basics that actually stop common attacks: phishing awareness, strong passwords, MFA, patching, logging, backups, and encryption. If your MSP cannot clearly explain how those controls are being handled in your environment, that is a problem.

10 Questions to Ask Your IT Provider Before Tax Season

1. Who owns and updates our WISP?

If the answer is vague, your firm is exposed. Your provider should be able to map its work to your WISP, identify the person responsible for maintaining it, and show when the plan was last reviewed.

2. Is MFA enforced for email, remote access, and tax applications?

The IRS and CISA both emphasize multi-factor authentication because stolen passwords remain one of the easiest ways into a firm. Ask whether MFA is mandatory across Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, VPNs, remote desktop tools, and tax prep platforms.

3. How are we protecting EFIN, PTIN, and firm admin credentials?

Those accounts need tighter controls than ordinary user accounts. A qualified MSP should have a documented process for privileged access, password vaulting, and immediate lockout if suspicious activity appears.

4. What is our plan for phishing and business email compromise?

Ask what tools are filtering mail, who reviews suspicious messages, how quickly malicious inbox rules are caught, and whether your team receives recurring awareness training.

5. How do you handle vendor risk?

The FTC's vendor security guidance is direct: put security requirements in writing, verify compliance, and make changes as needed. Your MSP should be comfortable reviewing your tax software vendors, cloud storage providers, shredding vendors, and outsourced payroll or bookkeeping tools through that lens.

6. What are our recovery time and recovery point objectives?

"We have backups" is not an answer. You want to know how long it would take to restore your line-of-business applications, where clean backups live, how often they are tested, and who owns the recovery runbook.

7. How do you onboard and offboard seasonal staff?

Tax season often means rapid hiring. That requires role-based access, expiration dates for temporary accounts, device standards, and same-day deprovisioning when someone leaves.

8. Can you show evidence of patching, encryption, and endpoint protection?

Ask for reporting, not assurances. You should be able to see patch status, device coverage, encryption status, and whether endpoints are being monitored for suspicious behavior.

9. What is the breach-response path if we suspect client data was exposed?

The IRS tells tax professionals that speed is critical after data theft. Your provider should be able to explain who is called first, what gets isolated, how evidence is preserved, and how legal, cyber-insurance, and client communications are coordinated.

10. What do we review with you each month?

A mature MSP relationship includes regular reviews of open risks, aging hardware, backup health, user access changes, failed login trends, phishing results, and compliance work that still needs attention.

What Good Answers Sound Like

• Specific: "MFA is enforced for all staff, admins, and remote tools," not "we usually recommend MFA."
• Documented: "Here is your latest backup test and WISP review date."
• Measured: "Critical patches are deployed on this schedule and exceptions are tracked."
• Shared: "You receive monthly security and operations reporting, plus a quarterly strategy review."

Red Flags CPA Firms Should Take Seriously

• Your provider cannot explain your WISP responsibilities in plain English
• MFA is optional for partners or administrators
• Backups are in place but have never been restored in a test
• No one can tell you which vendors can access taxpayer data
• You do not receive regular reporting on patching, endpoint coverage, and account changes

A Practical Hiring Standard for Atlanta Accounting Firms

If you are comparing IT companies in the Atlanta metro, ask each one to walk through this checklist against your actual environment. The right provider will not dodge the details. They will talk about controls, evidence, timelines, and accountability.

That is especially important for firms handling tax returns, payroll records, and financial statements for closely held businesses. A qualified MSP should be able to support your compliance obligations while also keeping your team productive during the busiest weeks of the year.

Sources

• IRS Tax Tip 2024-93: Tax professional tips for creating a data security plan
• IRS Publication 5708: Creating a Written Information Security Plan for your Tax & Accounting Practice
• IRS: Protect your clients; protect yourself
• FTC Safeguards Rule: What Your Business Needs to Know
• FTC Vendor Security guidance
• CISA: Secure Your Business