ESTEVAN -
Siever, Fonstad and Erdman remains one of the long-standing accounting firms in the Estevan area.
Located in the 1100-block of Fourth Street, they have 11 employees, including the three partners. “The staff does a lot of the legwork, and then things run through the partners,” said Ryan Siever, who is one of the partners.
The company opened in 1978 and at one time was known as Advanced Accounting. Siever’s father Mel bought into the firm in 1995. Then Jim Vermeersch joined as a partner in 2001, and Donna Fonstad joined a short time later. Ryan Siever became a partner in 2007.
When Vermeersch retired a few years ago, Michelle Erdman became a partner.
“She was one of our employees who came through (the ranks). She started through a co-op program and all the way through a CPA program,” Ryan Siever said.
The company provides bookkeeping, payroll compilation files, personal tax returns, corporate tax, farm books and farm services. The only things they can’t provide are audits and reviews.
A compilation, which involves putting together the financial statements, has a new set of regulations for year-ends that occur on or after Dec. 14, 2021. It marks the first change in compilation standards in more than 30 years.
“It’s a bit more of a formalized process with a bit more of additional work that we need to do … getting a more robust getting to know your client’s information and more disclosures on the financial statements themselves,” said Siever.
It’s a transition year, which means more work for the company. The change will also drive home who needs the financial statements.
“Is it required by a lending institution or other shareholders or a bunch of different things?” said Siever.
He is optimistic that once the first year is complete and people have made adjustments, the amount of work associated with a compilation will be reduced.
Clients are typically very satisfied with the work of the accounting firm.
“For the most part, we don’t see a lot of turnover, on the corporate side of things,” Siever said. “On the personal side, you always see a transitory group.”
People can start filing personal tax returns this week, which will keep the staff busy, but their focus right now is preliminary tax returns for people to help them with their RRSP contributions.
“A lot of their investors will send them this way and say ‘Talk to your accountant, get an estimate of what you’ve got for tax,’ and people can plan better on what they can do for an RRSP contribution to help save some tax and help make sure they’re putting some money away for the future for retirement,” said Siever.
Being part of the community is also a big part of Siever, Fonstad and Erdman, and they take pride in their involvement with different causes.
