Tewksbury CPA firm in top 25
It relies on teamwork to serve its 500 clients
Twenty-five appears to be a magic number for the Tewksbury public accounting firm now known as Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico. Formed in 1982 in North Andover by Bruce Moody, who retired three years ago, the firm is one of the 25 largest accounting firms in the state, according to the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants.
It also recently was named one of the nation's 25 best small companies (50 to 250 employees) to work for by a human resources trade organization.
Massachusetts has about 1,500 public accounting firms, most of them sole proprietorships, said Theodore J. Flynn, executive director of the Boston-based society. The largest, he said, is PricewaterhouseCoopers, with some 2,000 employees.
The catalyst for these firms' growth, Flynn noted, has been the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act, enacted in 2002, following the financial reporting scandals of
"This law has resulted in firms at every level picking up some good business," Flynn said.
That has been the case at Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, said Carl J. Famiglietti, 49, who joined the firm in 1988 and is now managing partner. The other partner in the firm's name is Will Andronico, 39, of North Reading.
In 1990, the firm had a small number of clients and fewer than 20 employees, Famiglietti said. Today, there are about 500 clients in various industries and 90 employees, including 11 partners, he said, with most of the clients Massachusetts-based companies.
The firm's revenues have been growing by double-digit percentages each of the past four years, and this year, they are expected to be under $20 million, he said during an interview last week in the firm's newly leased, 31,000-square-foot office in Tewksbury, just off Interstate 495.
While the Sarbanes-Oxley law has been a generator of new business, a revamping several years ago of the firm's policies and priorities has prompted a team-oriented approach, one that enables a faster, more knowledgeable response to clients' needs, said Famiglietti.
One offshoot of this revamping is recognition by the Society for Human Resource Management, which two months ago named the firm one of the 25 "Best Small Companies to Work For In America." There were no other Massachusetts companies in this category.
"Open, clear communication with employees is the common denominator among these companies," Susan R. Meisinger, chief executive of the Alexandria, Va.-based trade group, said in a statement.
Famiglietti, who lives in Andover, said that being an employee-oriented firm "is part of our core values."
"We want everyone here to feel safe, to be energized, to be a qualitative part of the business," he said.
The team approach means that employees and managers are able to work more effectively, he said, on traditional auditing and tax matters as well as on consulting assignments, such as those for divestitures and for mergers and acquisitions. "We involve everyone in debriefings after important client meetings," he said.
Developed in conjunction with the firm's human resources department, headed by Donna DeRoche, 44, of Boxford, and partners and managers, employee programs feature mentoring, learning sessions tailored to an employee's job requirements, a breakfast club in which partners meet with employees every month, and social events geared to the season.
There are 13 paid holidays a year, and from Memorial Day to Labor Day, offices close Fridays at 1 p.m.
These programs undoubtedly are responsible, in large part, for the firm's low turnover rate of employees, Famiglietti said.
And one of a CPA firms' biggest challenges these days is recruiting and retaining people, said Flynn of the state CPA society. "There are not a lot of young people coming into the profession and then staying."
Kirsten Arnold, 33, joined the Tewksbury firm 16 months ago as a senior auditor, after working for a larger CPA firm she declined to name.
"The culture here, which promotes work-life balance, is unlike anything I've ever experienced," said Arnold, a Haverhill resident.
She said she has benefited particularly from the mentoring sessions, "which ensures that I'm on the right paths," and the learning regimen, which provides assistance in getting credits for important accounting profession designations.
Events sponsored by the firm are also dividends, Arnold said. "I've enjoyed taking golf lessons and going to the Patriots training camp in Foxborough."
Competing with larger, national CPA firms is a given, Famiglietti acknowledged. "But firms always have to change the way they do business for the better. And we have done that," he contended, "and are still doing that, namely, bringing everyone in the firm together to benefit the firm and clients." 