The bank wants audited statements.
A lender, bonding company or grantor has asked for an audit or a review, and the firm that does your taxes cannot sign one, or took five months last time.
01Columbus, Ohio. Business tax and audit.
The Columbus CPA firm that puts a partner on every engagement.
For owner-led companies that need audit-grade rigor without big-firm anonymity. You know who is accountable, and you know the fee before the work starts.
- Named partner
- On every engagement letter, every opinion, every planning memo.
- Fixed fee
- Agreed in writing before fieldwork or filing begins.
- Dates you can hold us to
- Fieldwork, draft and signature dates set in the letter.
02Why owners call
You are usually here because someone else is asking.
A notice arrived, or a bill did.
An IRS or Ohio Department of Taxation letter, a missed CAT or municipal filing, or a tax bill nobody warned you about in October.
Something is about to change.
An acquisition, a sale, a second entity, a new state. The decisions have tax and reporting consequences and you want them priced before they are made.
03What we put in writing
Three commitments, in the engagement letter, before any work starts.
Most firms describe their values. We would rather describe what you can hold us to. Each of these appears in the letter you sign, with a name and a date next to it.
| Number | Commitment | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | A partner, by name, from kickoff to signature | Catherine or Marcus leads your engagement personally. The senior manager on your account is named too. Nobody is handed down a chain. |
| 02 | The fee, fixed, before the work | Scope and fee are agreed in the engagement letter. If something outside the scope comes up, it is priced and approved before it is done, not discovered on an invoice. |
| 03 | The October conversation | Every business tax client meets with their partner in the fourth quarter, with projections, while there is still time to act. Nobody learns their number in March. |
| 04 | A timeline, tracked where you can see it | Audit fieldwork, draft and signed-opinion dates are in the letter and tracked in the client portal. You should never have to call to ask where things stand. |
2009Founded in Columbus by two partners who still sign the work.
38People across audit, tax and client accounting, all in one office.
48hrsMaximum time before a partner replies to a new enquiry.
2Practices under one roof: audit and tax, with independence respected.
04What we do
Three service lines. One standard.
Each is led by a named partner or director, scoped in writing and run on dates you can see. Pick the one that matches what is being asked of you.
01
Business tax
A notice arrived, the bill surprised you, or a sale is on the horizon.
See the engagement →
02
Audit and assurance
Your lender, bonding company or grantor is asking for audited or reviewed statements.
See the engagement →
03
Outsourced accounting
The books close late, the bank wants reports, and a controller hire is a year away.
See the engagement →
05How an engagement runs
Scope first. Fee second. Then the work.
Scope and fee letter
A 30-minute call with a partner, then a written letter: what is included, what it costs, and the dates. You sign before anything is billed.
Kickoff with your partner
Your partner and senior manager meet your team, set the document list and open your portal. One list, one place, no email chains.
Fieldwork, and the October meeting
Audit fieldwork runs to the dates in the letter. Tax clients get the Q4 planning meeting with projections while there is time to act.
Signed, filed, explained
The opinion is signed or the return is filed on the agreed date, and the partner walks you through what it says and what to do next year.
Illustrative example
An engagement, as it ran
Our bank gave us ninety days to produce audited statements. The letter from Mapleton & Reyes gave us the fieldwork week, the draft date and the signing date before we had paid a dollar. They hit all three.
Owner, a Columbus metal fabricator with 60 employees
- Trigger
- Line of credit renewal required a first-year audit
- Engagement
- Financial statement audit, led by Catherine Mapleton
- Timeline
- Letter signed week 1, fieldwork weeks 4 to 5, opinion week 9
- Fee
- Fixed in the letter; no change orders
This story is an illustration of how an engagement runs. Mapleton & Reyes is a fictional firm; no real client is described.
06Industries
Five sectors we know from the inside.
07The people
Names you will actually deal with.
Every engagement names its partner and senior manager. These are the five people whose names appear most often on our letters.
FAQBefore you call
Questions owners ask before they call.
01Who will actually do the work on our account?
A partner (Catherine Mapleton for audit, Marcus Reyes for tax) leads every engagement and signs it. A named senior manager runs the day to day. Both names are in your engagement letter, and they do not rotate between years unless you ask.
02How are fees set, and can they change during the engagement?
The fee is fixed in the engagement letter before work starts. If something outside the agreed scope comes up, such as a new entity or a change in the audit requirement, we price it in writing and you approve it before we do it. There is no hourly billing on standard engagements.
03Can you represent us if the IRS or the Ohio Department of Taxation has questions?
Yes. Both partners are licensed CPAs and represent clients in examinations and notices at the federal, state and municipal level. Representation on a matter we did not prepare is scoped and priced separately.
04Can the same firm do our audit and our tax work?
For most closely held companies, yes. The audit and tax teams are separate, independence is assessed and documented at acceptance, and Catherine will tell you plainly if a service would compromise the audit. Where it would, we recommend a second firm for that piece.
05How quickly can an audit be done?
It depends on the state of the books and the size of the company. A first-year audit for a company with clean monthly closes typically runs eight to ten weeks from signed letter to signed opinion. Whatever the answer is for you, it goes in the letter as dates, not as an estimate.
→Next step
Tell us what your lender, your buyer or the IRS is asking for.
You will hear from a partner within 48 hours with a scope, a fee and a date.