rofessional accounting firms are vital components of Alaska’s business environment, providing bookkeeping, auditing, tax preparation, financial advisory, and a host of other offerings.

The variety of beans in a bean-counting salad includes accounting solutions to help clients optimize operations, comply with regulatory standards, and thrive. Accounting and bookkeeping services range from general ledger and financial statement preparation to computerized payroll and business tax report preparation. Auditing ensures financial records are accurate and comply with regulatory standards, thereby enhancing transparency and trust among stakeholders. Tax preparation services help businesses navigate the complexities of tax legislation, optimizing tax liabilities, and ensuring timely filing to avoid penalties. And financial advisory services offer strategic insights and guidance in areas like investment opportunities, risk management, and long-term financial planning.

Full-service accounting firms in Alaska range from global entities such as BDO USA and KPMG to homegrown Alaska-based companies like Altman, Rogers & Co.; Thomas Head & Greisen; Swalling & Associates PC; and Namtvedt Northcut & Associates.

Altman, Rogers & Co. is Alaska’s largest locally owned certified professional accountant (CPA) firm, with about sixty employees in the state. The company provides comprehensive accounting, auditing, and consulting services, positioning itself as having the experience of a large accounting firm with the personal attention of a small firm.

The bread and butter of Altman, Rogers & Co. is audits of governments, Alaska Native corporations, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations, particularly single audits. A single audit includes two key components: an audit of an entity’s financial statements and an audit of its compliance with federal program requirements. “At one point in time, we were performing more single audits than most other firms in the United States just because of the extensive amount of the federal funding up here,” says Katie Stachow, a principal and shareholder at Altman, Rogers & Co. “Close to 80 percent of all of our audits involve a single audit.”

Altman, Rogers & Co.’s tax practice is also a key aspect of its solutions. The company primarily provides these services through its Anchorage and Juneau offices, where nonprofits comprise the bulk of its clientele. “We serve close to 100 nonprofits across the state and do 95 percent of their tax filings combined with the audit services,” Stachow says.

Part of the fifth-largest accounting firm in the world, employee-owned BDO USA has approximately seventy employees in Alaska. BDO serves clients of all types and sizes, including large Alaska Native corporations and government clients. Its list of capabilities itemizes roughly 250 different services.

In Alaska, some of BDO’s more common services include grant assistance, cost segregation studies, international tax, and mergers and acquisitions consulting. “I think our biggest strength is that we have a broad depth of knowledge here locally and the resources nationally and globally to bring to the Alaska market,” says Chad Estes, tax practice leader for BDO’s Anchorage office.

According to Joy Merriner, BDO’s assurance practice leader in Anchorage, the firm is proud that it has a very strong “local bench” in every industry. That local bench works with clients in Alaska to provide audit, tax, and advisory/consulting services to ensure its clients are well-served.

BDO connects businesses with specialists to address specific needs, whether it be valuation, cybersecurity assessments, AI development, or other services. For example, when BDO recently assisted an Alaska Native corporation with a federal grant, an industry specialist for its public sector group worked with the client to ensure proper compliance with the grant’s requirements.

“We want to make sure that whatever service we provide is relevant to the client,” Merriner says. “And if we’re bringing in somebody who’s a national technical resource, we ensure that person is meeting that technical need but still maintaining a local relationship.”

With older accountants retiring and looking to transition their clients elsewhere, companies must be proactive—and patient—when seeking accounting services providers. Whether their service provider is retiring, they’re not happy with their provider, or they have outgrown them and need more help, clients should act early. Estes explains, “They need to look sooner rather than later because all of us only have a limited amount of time to do the work that we have to do. So the more lead time we have, the more of a chance we would have to bring a new client into the fold and make sure they’re taken care of properly.”

Companies seeking accounting services should partner with a firm that will be a good fit for their specific needs. Doing business internationally, for example, can add a layer of complexity, so they may need to engage a large accounting and advisory firm. On the other hand, a company operating only locally might hire a small accounting practice to help with bookkeeping and other basic needs.

“You may get rejected multiple times or you may get passed along,” Estes says. “But I think the community of accountants up here do a pretty good job of supporting businesses. If there’s something they can’t help with, they know who to refer and will help get those people to the right places.”

Companies should also carefully contemplate their long-term vision when choosing an accounting provider, assessing factors like operational scope and growth plans. Merriner lists a variety of considerations: whether businesses want to manage with just themselves, their family, friends, and staff; whether they want to be a franchise; and whether they envision opening locations outside Alaska. “I think that’s where people need to be thinking about the bigger picture; working with somebody who can come alongside them and help them navigate the path forward,” she says.

According to Stachow, building a strong relationship with a reliable accountant who offers clear and confidential advice is essential for effective business planning and growth. “If you’re wanting to expand or take a different route, maybe that’s not something you generally want the public to know,” she explains. “Or maybe you haven’t told your spouse or business partners about it yet; you’re just exploring business ideas. So you want to have a good person there, someone you feel confident about and who gives you good, reliable, and timely advice. A good accountant is worth their weight in gold.”

Beyond the typical services, accounting firms also provide specialized solutions—either directly or through professional partners—to help clients navigate complex compliance and financial issues. Tax and accounting regulations are inherently complex, so clients need the right answers for their business. Doing so is especially important for new businesses, according to Estes. “It helps your business grow if you’re getting good, accurate information,” he says. “A trusted business advisor can be a make-it or break-it resource. You need somebody who’s willing to tell you the truth about what they see on your books and records.”

Clients often hire CPAs on a contract basis for quarterly, monthly, or periodic assistance with complex transactions. This can enable the company to receive the benefit of independent reviews, which can ensure proper operations and identify potential issues. Professional accountants can detect discrepancies that business owners might miss, such as inadvertent or intentional errors in financial records.

Staffing is one of the most common challenges Alaska businesses face with managing their financial records. From Merriner’s perspective, turnover is a major issue, particularly the retirement of experienced staff. “The number of years of experience that our clients have has decreased significantly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” she says. “Maybe they still have the same staffing level, but the amount of experience in that staffing level is far reduced since COVID.”

Estes has noticed the same issue. Recently, he had a large client mention having dozens of finance accounting positions that were unfilled. And the challenge is not only for public accounting firms but across the board. Estes says, “We know folks in the market that are looking to make a change. But there’s not enough accountants anywhere, let alone in Alaska.”

With a high number of Baby Boomers in accounting, more people are retiring than are entering the industry, Stachow says. This exacerbates the staffing shortage, especially for smaller organizations without a CPA in house. “The challenge is finding competent help for either filling your full-time employee positions or finding a contractor to help with higher-level accounting duties,” she says.

Technology is transforming the way accounting firms operate. Accounting software, automation, and, more recently, AI-driven tools are simplifying data processing and other routine tasks.

Automation enables BDO to optimize its audit and tax work, significantly improving outcomes. At the same time, AI is enhancing the effectiveness of audits and data analysis. Instead of sampling a small percentage of data sets to detect potential inconsistencies, BDO can use automation tools to evaluate 100 percent of the data and find outliers. It can provide clients with a summarized version of their data as well as a graphic depiction of exactly how it is processed. Merriner explains, “I think it helps our clients identify ways they can be better or more efficient and see their business data in a new lens.”

On the tax side, BDO employs optical character recognition technology to convert printed documents into digital image files. It automatically transforms scanned documents into machine-readable PDFs that can be edited and shared. The software continually updates to read common IRS forms and inputs information directly into clients’ tax returns. “This eliminates keying errors and the human element of taking ten pages of information and typing it in,” Estes says.

Besides reducing human mistakes, automation speeds up internal processes—a huge benefit, given the shortage of accounting professionals. “As we struggle for human help, we have to find ways to help streamline the process,” Estes says. “AI, automation, and tax technology all help bridge the gap. We still need people, but technology helps.”

Stachow agrees. Although automation and AI can significantly enhance data processing, there will always be a need for human involvement in accounting, she says.

For example, AI can conduct legal research, but it cannot interpret the meaning of the information the way a human being can. AI cannot effectively advise a business about a property purchase and its potential impact on their bottom line. And AI does not possess the necessary judgement to audit a financial statement or fully process payroll. Stachow explains, “You’ll still need a person to check it and make sure it’s correct because the output is only as good as the input. And there still needs to be controls on that input: someone who knows what they’re doing to make sure that input is correct and who knows enough information to determine if the output is correct.”

Accounting firms are adamant about staying up to date with the latest technology, federal regulations, tax laws, and industry requirements to help clients remain in compliance. Staff members at BDO complete training and continuing professional education (CPE) requirements on an ongoing basis. Internally, there are also constant updates on the latest company-related and industry information. “We have specific groups of people inside of BDO who are tasked with nothing but keeping us informed, whether it’s tax law changes or new audit updates that have to be followed,” Estes says. “So we all have more than enough opportunities to stay current on the latest and greatest things.”

At Altman, Rogers & Co., professional staff complete at least forty hours of CPE each year. Staff members who are not required to have CPE are involved in ongoing professional development. The firm also applies information from the American Institute of CPAs, professional conferences, and its various partners to stay on top of the latest industry standards.

How do accounting firms envision their profession evolving? In the next decade, technology will increasingly permeate the field, eliminating low-level tasks and transforming entry-level roles. Stachow predicts the use of even more automation, reducing full-time positions dedicated to bookkeeping. “I can definitely see some of the low-level accounting going away or at least being a lot more automated than it is right now, to where you may have had two or three full-time employees doing bookkeeping work, and you might be able to cut it down to one.”

In addition, perceptions about the accounting work environment are shifting. Accounting professionals are starting to realize that it’s not just the big firms that can provide valuable experience, Stachow says. “It used to be a big thing where, out of school, you would go work for one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms because that’s where the opportunity was, and that’s just not true anymore,” she says. “A small- to medium-size firm is where you learn so much more because you’re exposed to a larger variety of accounting tasks, and I think that also makes accounting more exciting.”

Stachow emphasizes that accounting is fun and interesting in Alaska. “There are new things all the time and sort of adventurous work that makes accounting, specifically auditing (due to the travel), pretty exciting in the state,” she says. “AI won’t be able to understand the context and culture of doing business in say, Kodiak or Bethel, but we will because we’ve been there and understand it.”

Merriner also emphasizes the dynamic and rewarding nature of accounting, particularly in Alaska, with opportunities for solid pay, job security, and valuable foundational business knowledge. It’s a profession that she thinks many people should consider.

Plus, it’s the language of business. Merriner says, “We’ve had people who’ve come here, worked for us for several years, and then gone out and started their own businesses—and those businesses don’t fail. They know what a good business means, and they know how to do it correctly when they leave here. And I think that’s really important for somebody thinking about a profession or thinking about starting a new business.”