Pilot vs Acuity: bookkeeping, controller, and CFO scope

Pilot publishes bookkeeping, tax, and CFO offerings. Acuity publishes bookkeeping, controller, tax, and CFO services. A useful comparison identifies the level of preparation, review, and advice your company needs in each area.

An accounting basis, account count, and reporting deadline provide a better starting brief than a generic request for finance help. Add the transactions that need judgment, such as inventory, prepayments, loans, or customer credits. Ask which role handles them in each proposal.

Request a responsibility map for reconciliations, adjustments, policies, and final report approval. If a service includes bookkeeping but not controller-level review, identify who makes the remaining accounting decisions. Do not infer review depth from a job title alone.

Use a customer deposit as a test. Ask how the team identifies the obligation, supports the balance, and changes treatment when the underlying work is completed. The answer should refer to the actual facts and reporting requirements rather than automatically classify every receipt as revenue.

For tax preparation, specify the return list and the handoff of approved balances. For CFO work, specify models, assumptions, meeting cadence, and follow-up. A tax or advisory engagement may use information prepared by a different team.

Ask how corrections move through all affected outputs. A changed balance may alter a tax schedule, management metric, or forecast. The engagement should identify who coordinates that change and how management learns which version is approved.

Price cleanup, onboarding, ongoing accounting, controller support, tax, CFO services, and software. Check the process for additional work and the responsibilities retained by your staff. Quote the required combination rather than comparing unrelated entry offers.

Before signing, review a sample close and a deliverable from any advisory scope. Agree the records you retain when leaving, including schedules, definitions, assumptions, and open questions. Choose the proposal that makes the required review and communication practical month after month.