Accountants: how to find new clients among new businesses
Auspector ·
For an accountant looking for new clients, the most concrete starting point is the businesses that have just opened nearby: in the weeks around an opening, the owner also decides who keeps the books, runs payroll and files the first returns. Between September 27 and October 27, 2026, 337,207 U.S. and 59,187 UK business records entered our newly opened businesses section; 73.7% and 74.9% of them, respectively, carry a phone number.
New company or new business?
A new client reaches an accountant by one of two routes, and each is recorded in a different place.
- A new company. In the United States, LLCs and corporations are formed by filing with a state, usually the Secretary of State; the Census Bureau’s monthly business formation statistics count applications for an Employer Identification Number, not businesses that open (Census business applications vs. openings). In the United Kingdom, limited companies are incorporated at Companies House (UK company incorporations vs real openings). A small company’s registered address is often an accountant’s office, a lawyer or a home — and when it is an accountant’s office, the accountant was chosen before the company existed.
- A new sole proprietor, sole trader or partnership. A sole proprietor trading under their own name may not appear in any state registry, and in the UK sole traders and ordinary partnerships can open premises without ever appearing on the companies register. They become visible when the premises open: a salon, a café or a garage, with a category, an address and often a phone number.
This guide is about the second route: places that open. For a list of newly formed companies, the source is the registry itself; what each list holds, and who needs which, is in newly registered vs newly opened.
Where are they opening?
CPAs are licensed state by state, so for a U.S. firm the state is the natural first cut. The ten states with the most new records in the last 30 days:
| State | New records | All records | New per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 29,850 | 2,511,092 | 11.9 |
| Texas | 22,403 | 1,909,420 | 11.7 |
| Florida | 20,803 | 1,905,037 | 10.9 |
| New York | 12,413 | 1,270,209 | 9.8 |
| Illinois | 8,040 | 775,268 | 10.4 |
| Ohio | 7,678 | 704,761 | 10.9 |
| New Jersey | 7,630 | 617,383 | 12.4 |
| Georgia | 7,023 | 743,641 | 9.4 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,518 | 828,933 | 7.9 |
| North Carolina | 5,617 | 764,571 | 7.3 |
California leads on volume, with 29,850 new records. Measured against the records already there, New Jersey adds the most of these ten: 12.4 new records per 1,000. Inside a state, the working unit for a practice that meets clients in person is the county or city it can actually reach; each state page lists its largest cities.
In the United Kingdom, the four largest cities:
| City | New records | All records | New per 1,000 | New records with a phone number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 4,973 | 455,907 | 10.9 | 67.8% |
| Manchester | 588 | 39,235 | 15.0 | 68.5% |
| Birmingham | 550 | 64,773 | 8.5 | 65.5% |
| Glasgow | 314 | 40,541 | 7.7 | 69.1% |
County figures, with the towns inside each county, are on the pages for Greater London, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow City.
Which sectors?
Many practices specialise, and the sector changes the work. Restaurants and cafés bring daily takings, tips, stock and payroll; construction brings subcontractor payments and job costing; real estate agencies bring commission income and, where they hold it, client money; dental practices bring equipment finance and associates’ pay. If you have a specialism, narrow the list to it. The 14 sectors we break down:
| Sector | New, U.S. | New per 1,000, U.S. | New, UK | New per 1,000, UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction companies | 13,026 | 24.2 | 2,318 | 21.3 |
| Real estate agencies | 8,004 | 10.9 | 226 | 7.7 |
| Hair and beauty salons | 6,247 | 10.2 | 2,218 | 13.2 |
| Restaurants | 6,101 | 8.8 | 997 | 10.1 |
| Auto repair shops | 5,364 | 13.9 | 1,399 | 22.4 |
| Dentists and dental clinics | 3,738 | 12.5 | 73 | 3.4 |
| Bakeries and pastry shops | 2,154 | 22.8 | 369 | 19.3 |
| Cafés | 1,863 | 16.6 | 672 | 13.7 |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | 1,530 | 8.6 | 385 | 6.0 |
| Clothing stores | 1,488 | 7.8 | 201 | 7.6 |
| Bars and pubs | 1,003 | 13.8 | 304 | 7.5 |
| Car dealers | 991 | 9.5 | 351 | 16.9 |
| Gyms and fitness studios | 949 | 10.7 | 338 | 12.7 |
| Pharmacies | 230 | 2.8 | 85 | 5.7 |
In the United States, the most new records are among construction companies (13,026); in the United Kingdom, among construction companies (2,318). Relative to the records already in each sector, construction companies add the most in the U.S. and auto repair shops in the UK.
Building the list: area, last 30 days, category, phone
- Area: the counties, cities or districts your practice can genuinely serve. If you meet clients in person, distance is a criterion too.
- Time: arrived in the last 30 days; for a weekly routine, the last seven. The date is when the record reached us, not when the business opened.
- Category: every category, or only your specialisms. Each record keeps its own category, so “dentist” and “orthodontist” are picked separately.
- Channel: records with a phone number; the address and coordinates for a letter or a visit.
- Watch: save the search, and new matches arrive by email every day.
Take out new branches of chains first: a record is a location, and a chain’s books are usually kept centrally — you will recognise them by name. Searching and counting are free on every plan; a credit is used only when you open a record’s details for the first time (pricing). The full workflow is in building a lead list from new businesses.
Professional rules come first
Accountancy has its own rules about how practitioners win work. In the United States, CPA firms answer to their state board of accountancy and, where they are members, to a professional body’s code of conduct; in the United Kingdom, members of bodies such as ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS or AAT follow their body’s code of ethics. Those rules can cover advertising and the solicitation of clients.
This guide does not interpret them. Before you plan any contact with a new business, check what your board and your professional body allow, and take legal advice if in doubt. Rules for unsolicited calls and emails also differ between countries, and the obligation sits with you as the sender (FAQ).
UK: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
GOV.UK’s guidance, last updated on 26 March 2026, sets out the timetable: sole traders and landlords registered for Self Assessment whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year should have started using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026; the threshold is £30,000 for 2025 to 2026, from 6 April 2027, and £20,000 for 2026 to 2027, from 6 April 2028 (GOV.UK · Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax). When it applies to a sole trader who has just opened depends on their income — a question for you and your client, not for a list. It is one of the questions a new sole trader may bring to a first meeting.
What to do with the list
- Know your patch. How many businesses open where, and in which sectors: the numbers to weigh a new office, a second location or a specialism. None of this involves contacting anyone.
- Contact, once the rules are clear. If you plan to contact new businesses, settle the form, frequency and content with your professional body first. The list only shows who opened, and where.
- Your existing clients. A client next door to a new business, on the same street or in the same trade, is a natural bridge for an introduction.
- The rest of the set-up. New owners choose their till, booking and bookkeeping software in the same weeks; how software vendors work the same list is in selling software to small businesses.