A successful and well-established, Maine-based engineering company was working with one of the largest public accounting firms in the state, but the company’s management was dissatisfied with the quality of services they were receiving. They decided to make a change. Even though Royer Advisors and Accountants, is not as large a firm as the engineering company was accustomed to, our senior partner, Michael Royer, offered our services to them. After a thorough review of our culture and values, our experience with other companies, and the level of service we promised to deliver, they accepted our proposal. They understood that the value of a relationship with an accounting firm does not stem from its size, but from the quality and level of services it can deliver.
Immediately upon becoming our client, our talented tax team researched the company’s previous tax filings and made a significant discovery. The company’s primary business is in designing new products and seeking ways to improve existing processes. Therefore, it spends considerable resources, time, and effort on research and development. Thanks to our extensive experience working with other high-tech companies, we knew that our new client had the opportunity to take advantage of substantial research and development tax credits at both the federal and state levels. Unfortunately, their prior accounting firm hadn’t informed them of the credits, and the company failed to take advantage of the tax savings.
We quickly amended their three prior tax filings and were able to recoup those savings for them. At the end of the day, the company received a refund from those amended filings of over $240,000! As promised, we delivered a level of service beyond our competitors. We helped them find an immediate tax savings that will more than cover their accounting fees for the foreseeable future.
Now, it’s not likely that the bigger firm lacked the technical expertise to find these tax credits. Rather, it’s more likely that they simply lacked the time or interest to really think about how best to serve their client. In fact, clients of larger accounting firms often get lost among the thousands of other clients the firm has and, as a result, they don’t take the time to think seriously about you and your unique situation.
We take the time to ask the right questions and do thorough research. In fact, it is because we are smaller that we are able to attentively care for and serve your needs. At Royer, we deliver on our promises – we deliver value.