Accounting firms merge into Abacus CPAs

The start of 2011 brought a merger of two Springfield-based accounting firms, resulting in what is shaping up to be the third-largest local accounting firm based on overall staff.

Dunton & Associates LLC and Perryman & Associates Inc., joined forces Jan. 1 as Abacus CPAs LLC. The firm operates from Dunton’s offices at 1835 E. Republic Road, Ste. 200.

The merged firm, which also has offices in Bolivar and Branson, has 42 total staff and 14 certified public accountants. According to Springfield Business Journal’s annual listing of the area’s largest CPA firms – last published in October – only two firms, BKD LLP and Kirkpatrick, Phillips & Miller CPAs PC – report more total staff, though the list is ranked by the number of CPAs.

Bill Dunton, who founded his firm in 1998, said he and Steven Perryman, whose firm opened in 2000, were referred to each other by a mutual banker who recognized that both firms wanted to grow and add services.

Dunton said no money changed hands as a result of the merger, which he said signifies a true coming together of two smaller firms with shared business philosophies.

Chief among them, Dunton said, is the belief that accounting is a people business.

“We believe that our clients and our employees deserve to interact in an environment that fosters growth, trust and confidence,” Dunton said, noting that the company offers industry-specific continuing education for staff, and weekly lunch-and-learn sessions to bolster soft skills and leadership.

That culture is what drew Perryman to Dunton, and Perryman thinks it will help attract younger employees who want to buck the stereotype of accountants only being interested in the numbers.

“A lot of the younger groups that are coming out of business school today are not going to be your typical accountants,” Perryman said.

Susan Ince, a CPA with Abacus, joined Dunton’s team five years ago because of professional growth opportunities, and she’s excited about what the merger means for the company.

“It just doubles our opportunities and allows us to grow personally and professionally with other people in different areas, and it allows us to share what we’ve learned at Dunton with another firm,” she said.

Each firm brings different strengths to the larger firm, said partners Perryman and Dunton.

Perryman, who said his niche is almost exclusively in trucking and transportation, said the merger allows him to diversify his practice. Conversely, Dunton’s firm had some business in the trucking sector but was interested in growing within that industry, Dunton said, noting that both firms had relationships in place with Springfield-based Prime Inc. Director of Leasing Darrel Hopkins did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Even before merger talks began, Dunton said he planned to change his firm’s name to Abacus, because his firm logo has always been an abacus – a frame with beads for counting – and because it takes his name out of the equation.

“We wanted a name that represented something bigger than just me, as well as provided flexibility down the road for other opportunities to provide other services for our clients,” Dunton said.

The goal is to grow the company to a family office concept within five years, Dunton said.

“At that time, we’d probably be called Abacus Group, and then Abacus CPAs would be part of the group with Abacus Consulting and whatever else might fall in there,” he said. “It could be technology, legal, estate planning, investments. You could almost make a laundry list of possibilities.”

The company also would like to double its number of offices to six in the next five to 10 years, with new locations in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas, Dunton said.

For now, the firm is getting the Springfield team settled into one office and dealing with the demands of the busy tax season.

“This year’s going to be a challenge because of the tax laws passed in December, which is going to create some problems with processing,” Perryman said, pointing to the Tax Relief Act of 2010, which comes with a $858 billion price tag and extends Bush-era tax cuts for two years and reduces payroll tax by two percentage points.[[In-content Ad]]