When choosing a CPA firm, one should try to find out what attributes the firm possesses. What are the specific characteristics that best describe how the firm interacts with its clients? How do its members approach their relationships with clients? How do they conduct their business? How do they categorize their clients? We have listed below the attributes that we consider to represent the way our firm conducts it business and relates to its clients, together with specifics relative to how those attributes are delivered by the staff. Read on and you will find out what makes us unique under the captions:

(click any title for details) WE RELATE WE PROVIDE SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE WE LEARN WE TEACH WE PLAN STRATEGY WE PARTICIPATE IN OUR PROFESSION WE GET INVOLVED

WE RELATE. We believe we can relate to the concerns of our clients and their perspective on accounting and tax issues because many of our team have held full-time positions outside public accounting during their careers. Our clients are largely small businesses and non-profit organizations who must balance many factors in their struggle to grow and succeed. Our clients look for relationships with advisers that can relate not only to their needs but to the pressures and responsibilities they face every day, and we believe that is one of the reasons they have chosen us to provide them with our services. We believe the following types of experiences outside of public accounting help us to view and respond to the auditing, accounting and tax needs of our clients in a manner that provides them with practical advice and solutions.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, took a leave of absence on two separate occasions in recent years in order to fill responsible positions in other business ventures in which he is a primary shareholder. These management and controllership experiences outside of public accounting totaling nearly three years, and the experience of managing his own practice for over thirty years, help him relate to our clients through the management problems of their every day lives, while keeping their accounting and tax compliance issues in perspective.

Our Of Counsel Partners, Lee Matchett and Leslie Frusco, both had extensive experience outside public accounting before becoming CPAs, enabling them to shape the response of their accounting and tax practices from the client’s perspective.

Our Senior Accountant, Tom Hudson, had prior experience before beginning a fifteen year career in public accounting, and again during a six year break to return to industry. Those experiences, totaling fourteen years in accounting, marketing and management, have been of great benefit to him after his return to public accounting.

Too often public accountants become so consumed with the increasingly complex world of accounting and tax regulations that they lose touch with the every day realities of their client’s struggles to run their businesses and non-profit organizations. We believe that by walking in shoes similar to those of our clients we have gained the ability to aid them in the practical interpretation of those regulatory issues for which they seek our assistance. We train our entire staff that way. WE RELATE.

WE PROVIDE SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE. We believe there is no substitute for experience, and our extensive public accounting experience working with small businesses and non-profit organizations helps us gain perspective relative to the needs of such entities. We apply our prior experience with those entities to assist with the present needs of similar clients. We value public accounting experience, and the background of our staff reveals that.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, has over thirty years of public accounting experience in meeting the needs of small businesses and non-profit organizations. He also served as the Audit Committee Chairman of the First National Bank of Herminie while a member of the Board of Directors of that financial institution.

Our Of Counsel Partners, Lee Matchett and Leslie Frusco, collectively have nearly forty years of experience in public accounting between them.

Our Audit and Accounting Managers, Elizabeth Boyle and Cynthia Boniecki, each have nearly twenty years of public accounting experience in working with small businesses and non-profit organizations.

Our remaining staff collectively has over forty years of public accounting experience in total.

There are many alternative firms available to small businesses and non-profit organizations seeking auditing, accounting and tax professionals to assist them with their reporting and compliance needs. We think our years of experience with similar small businesses and non-profit organizations differentiates us from larger firms who cater to larger clients and from smaller firms who do not bring the same level of expert experience relative to this segment of the business community. We do not try to be what we are not. We are small entity specialists, with extensive experience in dealing with the situations that such entities face daily. When we provide services to our clients, WE PROVIDE SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE.

WE LEARN. We believe that by educating ourselves we can better serve our clients. We have learned the tools of our trade not only through initial qualifying education, but through constant attention to the ever-changing accounting and tax regulations of today. This training and vigilant pursuit of the tenets of our profession is demonstrated by the following attributes of our staff.

The members of our professional staff are all graduates of prestigious colleges and universities. Both of our Of Counsel Partners have Masters degrees.

Our firm’s Managers, Vance Roy and Elizabeth Boyle, have received both the Certificate of Educational Achievement in Estate Planning from the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Certified Specialist in Estate Planning designation from the National Institute for Excellence in Professional Education, LLC, a designation that must be maintained by continual renewal of educational criteria on a bi-annual basis.

We pride ourselves on constantly maintaining and improving our technical qualifications through frequent and ongoing continuing professional education. All members of the professional staff regularly attend seminars and conferences sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA).

Our Managing Partner is a past committee member of the PICPA Continuing Education Committee and a past committee chair of the PICPA Southwestern Chapter, helping to formulate the criteria by which CPAs in Pennsylvania are able to maintain and update their knowledge.

Members of our staff have distinguished themselves among their peers in the PICPA. Manager Elizabeth Boyle was a recipient of the Silver Certificate from the PICPA as special recognition of achievement of the second highest Pennsylvania score on 1994 CPA exam.

We also participate in the Quality Review Program of the AICPA which provides us with a critical look at our audit and accounting practice by Quality Review Managers from outside our firm.

We subscribe to auditing, accounting and tax reference materials and publications so as to maintain a current perspective on application of the regulatory issues facing our clients, and to be able to benefit from the interpretation of experts and prior relevant case law concerning those issues.

Our Senior Accountants participate in the QuickBooks Pro Advisor program in order to offer a broader understanding of the capability of QuickBooks accounting software to our clients.

The business world of today is fraught with many technical complexities for all industries. Non-profit organizations find themselves subject to these same complexities, as well. We believe we can be an asset to those small businesses and non-profit organizations that utilize our services because we assure our staff has the basic knowledge necessary to service such entities and we build on those attributes by continually updating and improving upon that knowledge. WE LEARN.

WE TEACH. We believe that when we educate our clients on the underlying accounting and tax rules with which they must comply, they are better able to function than if they simply record their daily transactions and rely on us to convert their data into necessary compliance documents. Naturally, different levels of understanding apply to each client, based upon the nature of the industry, size of the client, size of the internal staff, education of the internal staff, and available time of the internal staff to deal with such matters. Sometimes that education is limited to initial training. Sometimes it is training in incremental steps over a period of years. Sometimes it is ongoing education to keep up with industry requirements. Each situation is different, depending on the limitations each client places on our services, but our approach is to try to teach our clients and their staff to the extent they desire to have a better personal or internal understanding of accounting and tax regulations that affect their reporting and compliance. We are aided in this teaching approach, not only by the overall experience of our staff, but by the following personal experiences of various members of the staff.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, has served in the past as an undergraduate accounting instructor at Seton Hill University, limited to introductory courses in accounting, and at the Westmoreland County Community College, limited to overview instruction within the adult education area. He has trained new staff members in firm procedures, as well as accounting and tax matters for over thirty years.  These experiences are of great benefit in being able to communicate basic accounting concepts to those without accounting experience. 

Of Counsel Partner, Lee Matchett, was a teacher before beginning his career in public accounting.

Of Counsel Partner, Leslie Frusco has many years of experience teaching accounting, tax, management and marketing classes at the Westmoreland County Community College.

Our Audit and Accounting Manager, Elizabeth Boyle, has over twenty five years of experience teaching both finance and accounting at Seton Hill University and the Westmoreland County Community College, as well as auditing at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

One of our Senior Accountants, Thomas Hudson, has extensive experience teaching QuickBooks accounting software to clients and client staffs.

Whenever we have the opportunity to help our clients through education, WE TEACH.

WE PLAN STRATEGY. We believe all entities must plan and strategize to secure their future. We have done this at many levels and are available to assist our clients in this way. From annual budgets, to long-range planning, to business continuation and exit strategies, we can be of assistance. Too often successful small businesses fail when they start to grow, or when their founders retire. Budgets, projections, buy-sell agreements, business valuations, and understanding what drives the value of the business in its valuation, are all effective tools to strategizing how to successfully perpetuate small business entities. Our team has experience in this area, not only with our clients, but with many other organizations with which we have been involved.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, has served on the governing body of Promistar Bank, First National Bank of Herminie, Bally Design, Inc., ROAM Investments, Inc., ROAM Dynamic Media, Inc., Conti, Stewart, Roy and Associates, PC, Stewart & Roy Investments, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Southwestern Chapter of the PICPA.

Of Counsel Partner, Leslie Frusco, has served on the governing body of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Southwestern Chapter of the PICPA, as well, in addition to the Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity and the First Presbyterian Church In Greensburg.

Of Counsel Partner, Lee Matchett, has been active in the Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity, the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce, and the Redstone Highlands.

Our Audit and Accounting Manager, Elizabeth Boyle, has served on the governing body of the Southwestern Chapter of the PICPA and the Investment/Finance Committee of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.

One of our Staff Accountants, Jeremy Reesey, is on the governing body of the Jeannette Soccer League.

Strategic planning is important to all entities, but is often overlooked by the small business or non-profit organization. Just letting things happen is a manner of planning in itself, but not one that we recommend. We can help with long-range planning because WE PLAN STRATEGY.

WE PARTICIPATE IN OUR PROFESSION. We believe that by participation in our profession, we can help formulate policy, interact with our peers, and form professional relationships to help our clients. Accordingly, we participate in local and state-wide positions of responsibility in the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) and its Southwestern Chapter, which is made up of over 600 PICPA members located in southwestern counties of Pennsylvania.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, is a past President of the Southwestern Chapter, past member of the Executive Committee of the Southwestern Chapter, and past committee chair for the Continuing Education Committee of the Southwestern Chapter. These positions provided him the opportunity to participate in the PICPA Council and the PICPA Continuing Education Committee, as well.

Our Of Counsel Partner, Leslie Frusco, is a two time past President of the Southwestern Chapter, a multiple past member of the Executive Committee of the Southwestern Chapter, and she has held multiple committee chair positions for the Southwestern Chapter. She also served terms in the offices of Treasurer and Vice-President. These positions provided her multiple opportunities to participate in the PICPA Council and PICPA committee activities as well.

Our Audit and Accounting Manager, Elizabeth Boyle, is a past member of the Executive Committee of the Southwestern Chapter.

We encourage our staff to participate in the Southwester Chapter and several other members of our staff have served in the past as members of the Executive Committee and chaired other committees of the Southwestern Chapter.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, is also a founding member of the East Suburban Practice Management Group of CPAs in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Cambria and Indiana Counties.

These activities have allowed us to have a voice in shaping the direction in which our profession has gone over the past twenty years. We think it benefits our clients that we know and interact with the leaders of our profession because WE PARTICIPATE IN OUR PROFESSION.

Our Managing Partner, Vance Roy, has coached little league baseball, served as a YMCA swimming official and served as President for US Swimming and high school swimming associations.

Of Counsel Partner, Leslie Frusco, is a Past Treasurer and Board Member of the Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity, has served as a Deacon at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensburg, is a past Treasurer of the Skating Club of Mt. Lebanon, and has served as a regional accountant for the United States Figure Skating Association.

Of Counsel Partner, Lee Matchett, has been active in the Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity, the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce, and the RedstoneHighlands.

Our Audit and Accounting Manager, Elizabeth Boyle, serves on the Investment/Finance Committee of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.

One of our Senior Accountants, Thomas Hudson, serves as a PIAA basketball official and is Treasurer at the New Derry United Methodist Church.

One of our Staff Accountants, Jeremy Reesey coaches youth soccer, is a board member and Treasurer of the Jeannette Soccer Club and is a volunteer for the Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity.

We have a long history of providing audit, accounting and tax services at a discount to both non-profit organizations in our community as a firm, and of our staff participating as volunteers and officers in community activities such as those mentioned above because WE GET INVOLVED.