Frazier & Deeter, a Top 50 Firm based in Atlanta, is absorbing three acquisitions it made last year while planning on future dealmaking.
Last November,
"Integration is a big part of our acquisition strategy," he said. "We've actually dedicated our former COO and former head of tax, the same person, who is now fully in charge of integration. His whole job is making sure that we get all the acquired firms onto the Frazier & Deeter platform, make sure that we are culturally aligned, and they get a tech stack, and they feel part of Frazier & Deeter very quickly after acquisition."
A cross-functional group of about 10 to 11 people also work on integrating the firm's culture, IT, marketing and services, making sure they're part of FD within the first six to nine months after an acquisition.
Frazier & Deeter's tech stack includes CCH Axcess for tax and accounting, Caseware's audit platform, along with AI software such as Thomson Reuters' CoCounsel and Blue J for tax research. "We're trying to make sure we utilize as much AI and innovation as we can on the tax side," said Jones.
The tax group at the firm has been working on responding to the various changes under last year's
"Our tax group has been very good with thought leadership and putting out information to clients early," said Jones. "We're being more proactive on it rather than reactive. We're still fielding a number of questions about changes in the law." The firm is similarly helping clients deal with the impact of tariffs on their businesses.
Like many other accounting firms, Frazier & Deeter has faced challenges in finding and recruiting new talent.
"The market has definitely gotten tighter, but we are finding high-performing talent," said Jones. "The starting salaries have increased over the last few years. It's competitive to get the highest tier of talent coming out of the universities, but we are able to pull our fair share. I think we're in good markets where it's easier to recruit than some other markets."
The firm has five full-time recruiters working on campus. "We have a lot of partners and managers on campus meeting with the students," said Jones. "We have very robust internship programs trying to give them full skills and experience while they're here. They're out on audits and doing tax returns, working with partners all the way down with real experience here. That makes them want to come back as full-time employees. In our markets, we have to compete with the Big Four and the next-tier firms on starting salaries and benefits. We are paying the same thing and giving the same benefits, if not better, than bigger firms."
Various benefits have proven to be attractive to candidates of different ages. That includes health insurance with low premiums as well as a student loan assistance program that has proven to be popular. In some markets, Frazier & Deeter offers a childcare stipend, which appeals to working parents, both men and women. "A lot of people take advantage of that," said Jones. "We found that's a good retention tool for employees."
Like many other accounting firms in recent years, Frazier & Deeter has received
"We went through a long process of picking our private equity partner," said Jones. "It was a year and a half process, and we got to know General Atlanta very well before we closed the transaction with them. We are very culturally aligned on how we view our profession and people-based businesses and how we want to take care of our people. So far, it's been fantastic with General Atlantic, and we do not expect it to change moving forward with them."
Frazier & Deeter set up an alternative practice structure with the help of its attorneys to split the attest from the non-attest side of the firm. The extra funding will help finance any future acquisitions.
"Our acquisition strategy is to find well-run firms in good markets," said Jones. "We would like to find firms that have a special industry niche or service niche where we can cross-sell across all of our offices. We're typically looking for firms that have a younger partner group. We want to make sure our partners coming in are around 50 or younger on an average partner age, but we want to make sure that the firms we're buying are culturally aligned to Frazier & Deeter. We're not looking to just buy every firm we get an opportunity to look at. We are very selective about who we're choosing to deal with."
Frazier & Deeter currently has about 100 partners and 700 other employees in 14 offices, including three offices abroad in Hyderabad, India, and London and Cambridge in the U.K. Jones hopes to double the firm's annual revenue of $200 million in the next couple of years. One of its strategic initiatives is investing heavily in IT and innovation.
"We're making sure we're on the front end of any new technologies coming out, like AI or automations," said Jones. "Then we are looking at our global comprehensive people strategies, continuing to invest in our Indian office and investing in our people here in the States to make sure we have the right people in the right place to do the work."
