diff --git a/zfs-prune-snapshots b/zfs-prune-snapshots
index 1b582e0..2d29e41 100755
--- a/zfs-prune-snapshots
+++ b/zfs-prune-snapshots
@@ -165,11 +165,6 @@ human-size() {
 	echo '0 B'
 }
 
-if ! command -v zfs &>/dev/null; then
-	echo "Error! zfs command not found. Are you on the right machine?" >&2
-	exit 1
-fi
-
 recursive=false
 dryrun=false
 listonly=false
@@ -240,6 +235,11 @@ if ! now=$(get-epoch); then
 	exit 1
 fi
 
+if ! command -v zfs &>/dev/null; then
+	echo "Error! zfs command not found. Are you on the right machine?" >&2
+	exit 1
+fi
+
 # first pass of the pools (to calculate totals and filter unwanted datasets
 lines=()
 while read -r line; do